Running DiskDigger in Linux

This brief guide explains how to run DiskDigger under the most popular Linux distributions. Since DiskDigger is written for the .NET 4.0 framework, it can run in Linux if you have the Mono package installed.

To install Mono, follow the instructions on the Mono website for installing it on your Linux distribution. Make sure to install the mono-complete package.

DiskDigger running in UbuntuAfter Mono is successfully installed, you should be able to run DiskDigger. Simply download it, unzip it, and launch it with sudo:

$ wget https://diskdigger.org/diskdigger.zip
$ unzip diskdigger.zip
$
sudo mono DiskDigger.exe

If the above line gives an error, try explicitly specifying the runtime version:

$ sudo mono --runtime=v4.0 DiskDigger.exe

You must run DiskDigger as a superuser (sudo) because it requires low-level access to your disk(s). If you don't run it as a superuser, it will not be able to detect or read any of the disks in your system.

DiskDigger running in Debian

DiskDigger running in Linux Mint

    DiskDigger running in Fedora

DiskDigger running in OpenSUSE

 

 
 

Considerations

Here are a few things to keep in mind when running DiskDigger in Linux:

  • It tries to automatically detect the disks in your system by scanning for devices of the form "/dev/sdn", "/dev/hdn", and so on. If your disk has a different device mapping, or if you want to scan a particular partition (e.g. "/dev/sda1"), you'll need to manually enter it in the "Advanced" tab on the main screen of DiskDigger.
  • When you save any recoverable files, they are saved under the root (sudo) user's permissions. This means that you may need to chmod the permissions on the recovered files to make them accessible to non-sudo users.

What about macOS?

Yes and no. Please refer here for hints about running DiskDigger on macOS.

Have fun!

...and let me know if you have any issues!