The Best Data Recovery Software for Macintosh - Review 2021
- Disk Drill Reviews Macbook Pro
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- Disk Drill Pro 2 is one such Mac utility for scanning, recovering, restoring, and protecting OS X files and volume partitions. Also available in free Basic and commercial Enterprise editions, the.
- I tested Disk Drill alongside four other recovery utilities using two Macs: an early-2015 MacBook Pro and a late-2014 Mac Mini. Both systems run the same version of macOS Sierra. The MacBook Pro features a 120GB solid-state drive (SSD), whereas the Mac Mini uses a 500GB hard disk drive (HDD).
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- Disk Drill For Mac free download - Disk Inventory X, OmniDiskSweeper, CleanMyPC, and many more programs.
Disk Drill for Mac
Disk Drill for Mac is one of the data recovery software on Mac, which especially remedies accidental deletion. Disk Drill for Mac supports NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and other disk models, supports hard disk and USB disk and provides the deep scan and quick scan functions.
Developer Website: https://www.cleverfiles.com
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
Overall Product Rating: 5.0
A program with a very good wizard interface, a decent file system set, and a good set of recovery features. Its strong points include direct access to a SIP-protected system disk and a special agent to constantly monitor S.M.A.R.T. disk attributes. Its demo mode restrictions are quite user-friendly: it recovers files up to 500 MB. It showed the second score in file recovery and the best results for formatted HFS+ and APFS partitions. It has only one weak point: an English-only interface.
Interface and Features
Disk imaging and copying: 5.0Compare
The program can directly attach .dmg images even when the system cannot do that itself, but cannot process disk images attached by the system.
Support for the SIP system protection : 6.0Compare
A small, special driver can be installed that provides access for the program to all protected files. Disabling SIP is not required.
File systems supported for file recovery: 5.5Compare
HFS/HFS+, APFS, FAT/exFAT, NTFS, EXT3/EXT4
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 5.5Compare
Supports raw file recovery with a large pre-defined file signature set. File types to search for can be selected.
S.M.A.R.T. : 5.5Compare
S.M.A.R.T. attributes can be shown in a pop-up window. If bad S.M.A.R.T. data is present, the program shows a warning sign.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 4.0Compare
Individual file and file mask search. File sorting by file extension, time, size, and path by clicking column names. Files can be shown as a file list, icons, or details.
File recovery parameters: 5.0Compare
Recovers filenames and the folder structure.
: 5.0Compare
A good wizard interface that guides the user through the file recovery process but gives the user some control over it.
: 5.0Compare
English Only
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
: 5.0Compare
Recovers files up to 500 MB. No time limit for the demo mode.
: 5.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show Microsoft/Open Office and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents, txt, graphic and video files.
File recovery performance
Apple RAID0: 6.0Compare
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The Apple RAID0 was immediately reconstructed. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Apple Encrypted Volume: 6.0Compare
It was necessary to enable 'Show hidden items' in the view menu to find the Apple Encrypted Volume. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Mac APFS Fusion Drive: 3.5Compare
The program could not recognize the Mac APFS Fusion Drive. Separate scan of the SSD disk revealed the original file and folder structure, but none of the files could be recovered.Deep scan finds some raw files that can be recovered.
Emptied Trash (FAT32 file system): 5.0Compare
The program found all files and folders n the .Trashes/502 folder after a 10-minute scan. All found files were recovered successfully, although some file and folder names had the _ character instead of their first letter. The program also found a lot of garbage files which made searching for the original files quite difficult.
Emptied Trash (exFAT file system): 5.0Compare
The program immediately found all files from the root folder without any disk scan, and two sub-folders with their correct names and content (Show in Finder). All the found files were successfully recovered with fully correct filenames.
After disk scan: It also found several LostXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with one exception: the large mkv file. Some of the LostXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level with correct files. All found files were successfully recovered. The mkv file was found in the Reconstructed section in the mkv folder. It appeared broken.
Files that could not be recovered: one mkv file.
Overall: All but one file were successfully recovered with their correct names, but most of the original folder structure was lost.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 4.5Compare
After disk scan: The program found some remnants of the previous file system in the Deep Scan – APFS sections. Some files were found in these remnants and some in the Orphans folders, but all had correct filenames.
The rest of the files were found in the Reconstructed and Reconstructed labeled sections as raw files. They were successfully recovered, except for one mkv file that appeared broken after recovery.
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 4.0Compare
After disk scan: the program found the entire original folder structure in the Found files/Trashes/502 section, but only 15 original files; including all files from the device root folder. All of them were recovered successfully. The rest of the files were found in the HSF(Raw Files) section as raw files, that is, without their names and original folder structure. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mov, 4 mts, 1 m4v, 11 mp3, 3 pdf, 1 odt, 1 ods.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After disk scan: Most of the entire previous folder structure and files were found with correct names in LostXXXXX folders.
The other lost files were found among raw files and successfully recovered without their correct names.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv file.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The entire previous APFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to HFS+ (external HDD): 5.0Compare
After disk scan: All files were found as raw files (Reconstructed/Reconstructed labeled), that is, without the original folder structure or names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT (external HDD): 4.5Compare
After Search for Lost HFS+ partitions: Nothing was found.
After All Recovery Methods: Only raw files were found in the Reconstructed and Reconstructed labeled sections. They didn’t have the original folder structure or names. Most of them were successfully recovered. The mkv file appeared very slightly damaged in one place.
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Files that could not be recovered: 4 mts, 12 mp3, 1 doc, 1 odt, 1 ods.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to exFAT (external USB HDD): 4.5Compare
After disk scan:The program found many $LostXXXXX folders in the Deep Scan-EXFAT/Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exceptions: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The mkv, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the he Deep Scan-reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled sections (raw files), that is without their filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Files that could be recovered only partially: 1 mkv (it had the correct size, but appeared broken after 20% of its length).
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with the entire folder structure and all files. They were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found many $LostXXXXX folders in the Deep Scan-EXFAT/Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The avi, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the he Deep Scan-reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled sections (raw files), that is without their filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to APFS (external HDD): 5.0Compare
After All Recovery Methods: Only raw files (Reconstructed and Reconstructed labeled) were found. All of them were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from FAT32 to FAT32 (memory stick): 4.0Compare
After disk scan: The program found many LostXXXXX folders in the Orphan section. These folders contained the remnants of the previous file systems with all files, except those from the root folder, all with correct names. Files from the root folder, except the avi file, were found in the Deep Scan – labeled section (raw files). All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
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The program immediately found the lost HFS+ partition.
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 5.5Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
The damaged partition was immediately found.
After a partition scan: Some remnants of the previous file system was found. Almost all files were found in those remnants and successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder structure and all files on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
The program immediately, without disk scan, found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 5.5Compare
After a disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It appeared empty.
** After Partition Scan:** The program found the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
The program actually scanned the disk two times.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
After a very short scan (almost instantaneous), the program found the deleted FAT32 partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files and folders were successfully recovered.
Overall Product Rating: 4.9
The program has a good wizard interface, quite good set of recovery features, and the second score for recovery performance. It can recover files from a system disk with enabled SIP, supports Apple native images (dmg), Apple encrypted volumes, and RAID0. A special agent can be installed to constantly monitor S.M.A.R.T. disk attributes. The program showed the best performance in file recovery from emptied Bin and damaged partitions (together with R-Studio for Mac). The weak point of the program is the lack of support for file recovery from Apple APFS Fusion Drive. Overall, a very decent program.
Interface and Features
Support for the SIP system protection : 6.0Compare
A small special driver can be installed that provides access for the program to all protected files. Disabling SIP is not required.
File systems supported for file recovery: 5.5Compare
HFS/HFS+, APFS, FAT/exFAT, NTFS, EXT3/EXT4
S.M.A.R.T. : 6.0Compare
Installs a special S.M.A.R.T. agent that constantly monitors S.M.A.R.T. states of the disks. It has also a special S.M.A.R.T. tab.
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 5.0Compare
Supports raw file recovery with a pre-defined file signature set. Individual files can be located through a built-in search, which can be selected in the program preferences.
Disk imaging and copying: 5.0Compare
The program can create Apple native images (.dmg) for disks and directly attach such images even when the system cannot do that itself.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 4.0Compare
Individual file and file mask search. File masks by most popular file types, deletion and modification time.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 5.0Compare
Recovers filenames and the folder structure.
User interface: 5.0Compare
A good wizard interface that guides the user through the file recovery process but gives the user some control over it.
: 5.0Compare
English Only
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
: 4.5Compare
Recovers files up to 500 MB. No time limit for the demo mode.
: 4.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents, txt, image and video files.
File recovery performance
Apple Encrypted Volume: 6.0Compare
The Apple Encrypted Volume was immediately recognized. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Apple RAID0: 6.0Compare
The Apple RAID0 was immediately reconstructed. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Mac APFS Fusion Drive: 3.5Compare
The program could not recognize the Mac APFS Fusion Drive. Separate scan of the SSD disk revealed the original file and folder structure, but none of the files could be recovered.Deep scan finds some raw files that can be recovered.
Emptied Trash (FAT32 file system): 5.5Compare
The program found all files and folders after a very brief scan. All found files were recovered successfully, although some file and folder names had the _ character instead of their first letter.
Emptied Trash (exFAT file system): 6.0Compare
The program immediately found the entire initial folder structure and all respective files with correct file and folder names. All the found files were successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found some remnants of the previous file system. Some files were found in these remnants, some in the Orphans/LostXXXXX folders, and all with correct file names.
Overall, all files were successfully recovered while the entire folder structure was recovered partially.
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found all but one file, but only as raw file, that is, without their names and original folder structure. All of them were recovered successfully.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv
Disk erased (formatted) from FAT32 to FAT32 (memory stick): 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: the program found many LostXXXXX folders. These folders contained the remnants of the previous file systems with all files, except those from the root folder, all with correct names, Files from the root folder, except the avi file, were found in the Deep Scan – labeled section (raw files). All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to HFS+ (external HDD): 4.5Compare
After Scan for lost HFS+ partitions: Nothing was found.
After Run All Recovery Methods: Most of the lost files were found, but as raw files, that is, without the original folder structure or names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 4 mts, 17 mp3, 1 doc.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Most of the entire previous folder structure and files were found with correct names in LostXXXXX folders.
The other lost files were found among raw files (Known File Types) and successfully recovered, but without their correct names.
Partially recovered files: 1 avi file from the device root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After Run All Recovery Methods: The previous APFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to APFS (external HDD): 5.0Compare
Scan for lost HFS+ partitions: Nothing was found.
Run all recovery methods: Only raw files (Deep Scan - reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled) were found after Deep Scan. All of them were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT (external HDD): 4.5Compare
After All recovery methods: Only raw files were found, that is, without the original folder structure or names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: 2 docx, 1 odt, 1 ods
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to exFAT (external USB HDD): 4.5Compare
**After Run All Recovery Methods: **The program found many $LostXXXXX folders in the Deep Scan-EXFAT/Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The mkv, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the he Deep Scan-reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled sections (raw files), that is without their filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Files that could be recovered only partially: 1 mkv (it had the correct size, but appeared broken after 20% of its length).
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After Run All Recovery Methods: The program found many $LostXXXXX folders in the Deep Scan-EXFAT/Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The mkv, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the he Deep Scan-reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled sections (raw files), that is without their filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.Partially recovered files: 1 mkv.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After Run All Recovery Methods: The program found many $LostXXXXX folders in the Deep Scan-EXFAT/Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The mkv, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the he Deep Scan-reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled sections (raw files), that is without their filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv (only few minutes from the beginning).
Damaged partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
The damaged partition was immediately found.
After a partition scan: The entire file system with all files and folders was found and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 5.5Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 5.5Compare
After Run all recovery methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 4.5Compare
After a disk scan: The program found some parts of the previous FAT32 partition in the Orphan/LostXXX folders. They contain all files with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Overall, all files were successfully recovered, but the program was able to recover the previous folder structure only partially.
Overall Product Rating: 4.9
The program has a good wizard interface, quite good set of recovery features, and good recovery performance. It can recover files from a system disk with enabled SIP, supports Apple native images (dmg), and Apple RAID0. A special agent can be installed to constantly monitor S.M.A.R.T. disk attributes. The program showed the best performance in file recovery from deleted partitions. The weak point of the program is the lack of support for file recovery from Apple Time Machine. Overall, a very decent program.
Interface and Features
S.M.A.R.T. : 6.0Compare
Installs a special S.M.A.R.T. agent that constantly monitors S.M.A.R.T. states of the disks. It has also a special S.M.A.R.T. tab
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 5.5Compare
Supports raw file recovery with a pre-defined file signature set. File types to search for can be selected in the program preferences.
Disk imaging and copying: 5.0Compare
The program can create Apple native images (.dmg) for disks and directly attach such images even when the system cannot do that itself.
File recovery parameters: 5.0Compare
Recovers file names and the folder structure.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 4.0Compare
Individual file and file mask search. File masks by most popular file types, deletion and modification time.
File systems supported for file recovery: 5.5Compare
HFS/HFS+, APFS, FAT/exFAT, NTFS, EXT3/EXT4
Support for the SIP system protection : 6.0Compare
A small special driver can be installed that provides access for the program to all protected files. Disabling SIP is not required.
User interface: 5.0Compare
A good wizard interface that guides the user through the file recovery process but gives the user some control over it.
: 5.0Compare
Languages supported: English Only
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
: 4.5Compare
Recovers files up to 500 MB. No time limit for the demo mode.
: 4.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents, txt, graphic and video files.
File recovery performance
Apple Time Machine Backup Volume: 0.0Compare
The program doesn’t support file recovery directly from an Apple Time Machine backup volume.
Apple Core Storage Volume: 0.0Compare
The program could not automatically reconstruct the Apple Core Storage Volume.
Apple RAID0: 6.0Compare
The Apple RAID0 was immediately reconstructed. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (FAT32 file system): 5.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Although the overall scan continued for app. 12 min, the program immediately found the correct folder structure and all files in their correct places. But they can be previewed and their recovery could start only then the scan had finished. All files were recovered successfully, although some file and folder names had the _ character instead of their first letter.
Some garbage files appeared in the folder with recovered files.
Emptied Trash (exFAT file system): 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found two folders (Test_Photos and Test_Videos) from the root folder with sub-folders. They contained correct files with correct file names. Also some sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files were found in another section. The rest of the files (including the zip file) were found among raw files, that is without their correct file names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 4.5Compare
The program did not recognized the mounted volume. The entire external hard disk had to be scanned.
After Deep Scan: The program found most of the original folder structure and files in their original places and with correct names. The rest of the files were found as orphaned, but with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Video files and files from the device root folder were found among raw files (reconstructed and labeled) with incorrect names.
Overall, all files, except one mkv file, successfully recovered, video files without their correct names. The entire folder structure was partially recovered. The mkv file was also recovered partially.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 3.5Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found approximately half of the original files, but only as raw file , that is, without their names and original folder structure. All of them were recovered successfully.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkvFiles that could not be recovered: 34 mp3, 1 zip, 28 png, 24 jpg, 1 flv, 4 mts.
Disk erased (formatted) from FAT32 to FAT32: 3.0Compare
After disk scan (40 min): The program found enormous amount of data (several hundred gigabytes) in various folders. It was very hard to find the required files. App. half of the files had no correct file names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: all files from the device root.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS: 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Almost the entire previous folder structure and files were found with correct names, with the 3 following exceptions: files from the device root folder had zero size and could not be recovered, some mp3, jpg and Open Office files appeared in the Orphans section, and one subfolder with pdf files was not found. All found files and folders were successfully recovered.
These files from the device root folder and the pdf subfolder were found among raw files (reconstructed and labeled) and successfully recovered, but without their correct names.
Partially recovered files: 1 avi file from the device root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+: 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The previous APFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to HFS+: 3.5Compare
After All recovery methods: Only raw files (Deep Scan - reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: Files from the root folder, 1 mkv, 1 m4v, 4 mts, 1 mpeg , 27 mp3, and the zip file.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to APFS: 4.0Compare
After All recovery methods: Only raw files (Deep Scan - reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: 1 avi, 1 m4v, 4 mts, 17 mp3.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT: 4.0Compare
Scan for Lost HFS+ Partitions: Nothing was found.
After All recovery methods: Only raw files (Deep Scan - reconstructed and Deep Scan - labeled) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: 1 avi, 17 mp3.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to exFAT: 4.0Compare
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After Deep Scan: The program found many LostXXXX folders in the Orphans section. These folders contained all files with correct file names, with the following exception: one zip file and files from the root folder. Files from the root folder were not found in those folders--. Pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the raw files, that is without their file names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder and the zip file.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to HFS+: 4.5Compare
After All recovery methods: The program found many LostXXXX folders in the Orphans section. These folders contained all video, mp3, and graphic files, all with correct file names. They were successfully recovered.The program also found one pdf file among raw files. It was successfully recovered, too.
Files that were not recovered: 5 pdf, 5 doc, 5 docx, 5 xls, 5 xlsx, 5 odt, 5ods, 1 zip.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS: 4.5Compare
After All recovery methods: The program found many LostXXXX folders in the Orphans section. These folders contained all video, mp3, and graphic files, all with correct file names. They were successfully recovered.The program also found one pdf file among raw files. It was successfully recovered, too.
Files that were not recovered: 5 pdf, 5 doc, 5 docx, 5 xls, 5 xlsx, 5 odt, 5ods, 1 zip.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare Download alienware laptops & desktops driver.
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 5.0Compare
The previous partition Win95 FAT32 was immediately found, but it required scanning (All Recovery Methods).
After All Recovery Methods: The program found several LostXXX folders containing all files from the device root and all subfolders with corresponding files, all with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
After All Recovery Methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After All Recovery Methods: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
After Scan for lost HFS+ partitions: The program immediately found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
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After a disk scan: The program found the previous FAT32 partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files and folders were successfully recovered.
Comments
Disk Drill Review: The other week I was given a PRO license for Disk Drill Pro by my buddy Luke Coughey from https://www.recoveryforce.com/. Yes, this is legal, he was offered licenses to give away for promotional purposes. I have looked at Disk Drill in the past and it appears not much has changed since. Which isn’t a good thing.
UPDATE AUG 22, 2019
Clever Files released version 4 of the data recovery product Disk Drill.
It’s good to see they stepped up to 64 bits but they don’t seem to be benefiting from it. It’s just as sluggish as the previous version, their scan modes are confusing, it seems a tad faster but hardly significant and results are way below average.
Scenario: Windows 10, NTFS, 800.000+ files.
Something as simple as loading an existing directory tree on a healthy volume (called allocating existing data in Disk Drill) takes longer than for ReclaiMe or UFS Explorer to detect all data in a RAW state! The latter two parse the complete tree of a RAW volume within a matter of a few minutes while Disk Drill takes over 30 minutes (was then stopped) to parse a healthy file system.
Comments regarding version 4 are added to tests below.
Update March 13, 2019
Some complaints in the comment section last couple of weeks about DiskDrill not working and refusal to give a refund. It is good to be aware of the CleverFiles non refund policy. In all fairness, it is in their EULA:
6. Refund Policy.6.1. No Refunds. Because of the nature of 508 Software’s Products, all purchases and sales are FINAL. However, 508 Software reserves the right to address each refund request on a case-by-case basis and in its sole discretion. If You are seeking a refund because of a Product malfunction, bug, or similar concern, please contact 508 Software as outlined at the end of this EULA or in the Terms of Service. |
But they know as well as I do 9 out of 10 will not read that. IMO, a non refund policy should be stated on their website. Refund policies are a ‘thing’ I am struggling with too I must admit. If people just buy and try rather than try and buy, it means I lose money without getting anything in return. At the same time the user has a working license key. So I feel you can’t throw this all on the plate of the software writer/seller. Seems like common sense to me that if the option is available, to first try, and if it works for you, then buy.
Disk Drill popularity
Disk Drill appears to be a popular tool. I do not have hard numbers to back up this claim, but I see people recommending it on a regular basis in various forums and other online communities. I can forgive an end user a positive review if he has nothing to compare against.
Also review sites often place Disk Drill in their top 10’s or even top 5’s. Fact that ‘professional’ review sites rate the program so high makes me wonder about their objectivity. However a fair amount of reviews covers the Mac version. Maybe it performs better than it’s Windows counter part. Or maybe it is due to the fact that there are not many data recovery tools for the Mac. In this post I will only cover the Windows version and I have no idea how the Mac and Windows versions compare.
Like many other data recovery software vendors, CleverFiles offers a free version of it’s product Disk Drill. Be sure to try that version because purchasing the Pro version is irreversible: all sales are considered final. FWIW I consider the latter reasonably fair with regards to recovery and repair type tools in general.
As with competitors offering free versions, the free part has to be taken with a grain of salt. Typically the amount of data that can be recovered is very limited, somewhere about 1 or 2 GB. Disk Drill free allows you to select and recover 500 MB. Granted, if you need to quickly undelete that one document you have been working on so hard then this may be enough, but in general I consider the free quota nothing but a cheap marketing trick. If the damage is more serious, like you accidentally formatted a whole volume, then the free part is as good at nothing.
It also helps if you indeed can quickly recover the deleted file but you will be disappointed when you hope to be able to achieve this using Disk Drill. Scanning your disk with this file recovery software is like watching grass grow.
Disk Drill review, scenarios
I will test Disk Drill against 3 typical and common scenarios:
- Recover an accidentally deleted file, or undelete.
- Unformat type recovery: After a volume turned RAW or was accidentally formatted.
- Photo Recovery: Recover photos from a corrupted SD Card (JPEG photos).
Quick undelete a file from the c: drive
If you need to undelete a file, specially from the Windows c: drive, speed is of the essence unless you’re able to ‘freeze’ the drive: Turn off PC > attach drive to different PC > scan and recover from the slaved drive. Reality is, 9 out of 10 people will run the software from their c: drive. So, you need to be quick before the deleted file is overwritten.
Scenario: Windows 10, NTFS, 800.000+ files.
I fire up Disk Drill > select the c: drive > change recovery mode to ‘Quick’.
| 10 minutes into scan | 30 minutes scanned | after 1 hour scan time |
After waiting 1.5 hours and only a few thousand files detected, and NO indication at all with regards to percentage scanned so far or an ETA, I break off the scan. A typical free undelete type tool like DiskTuna’s own undelete tool or Recuva will recover such files (if recoverable) within a few minutes.
Version 2. My conclusion is that Disk Drill is completely unfit for undelete type recovery.
Version 4. Quick undelete test was a lot quicker and found about the same amount of files as FileScavenger.
Unformat type recovery: recover data from formatted or RAW volume.
Scenario: NTFS volume, approx 600 GB, 800.000+ files. I go with default recovery which includes the quick and the deep scan. Of course this will not increase speed compared to the quick scan. After over an hour of scanning Disk Drill suddenly offers some information on it’s progress! It claims it has been scanning for 3 minutes and remaining scan time is around 2+ hours (although fluctuating up to 3 hrs):
Disk Drill Free
In general, with this type of damage and recovery, the tool should be able to reconstruct a more or less complete directory tree + file names are recoverable too. Reference tools like ReclaiMe are able to reconstruct a directory tree of the same drive in less than 2 minutes.
ReclaiMe detects all files + complete directory structure in less than 2 minutes!
Finally done!
After 2+ hours of scanning Disk Drill presents it’s final result:
In total it detects 146989 ‘items’ (out of 800.000+ expected). Of those only 20407 are sorted in the directory tree and the majority, 126582 are detected by file signature. So the latter is without original file names or their original folders! This is an extremely poor result! Not only it failed to detect the majority of the files at all, it fails to reconstruct a directory structure spectacularly. Even Deep Scan, which I assume is a signature or RAW scan, fails. For example, the volume contains 100’s of intact Canon RAW photos (CR2) of which it manages to locate only 4!
There’s more totally weird behavior: If I search for ‘*.CR2’ no files are found. Using ‘CR2’ as search phrase lists the 4 CR2 files but also a folder full of JPEGs.
Disk Drill is slow, fails to detect the majority of the files on the volume and fails to reconstruct a directory tree. Totally unfit to recover data from a RAW or quick formatted NTFS volume.
Disk Drill For Mac Reviews
Version 2. I can only come t the conclusion that Disk Drill is not suited to recover data from a RAW or quick formatted NTFS volume.
Version 4. I got the same result with version 4, it just finished a tad quicker.
Scenario 3: Photo Recovery
For this I use a sector-by-sector disk image of a SD Card. Disk Drill allows you to ‘attach’ a disk image and then offers that as location to scan in the disk list. If I go with the default scan the program crashes reproducible.
Only after I switch to deep scan, which causes the program not to scan for lost partitions, I can get it to scan. The program finds 1000 files: actually double the amount but files under the directory tree (DCIM) and RAW files (deep scan) are the same. So for each file exactly one duplicate. This is the same amount of files as the ones on the reference recovery software. Free software such as PhotoRec can recover the files as well (Tested this already in the past).
Disk Drill: satisfactory results with photo recovery
Version 2. Conclusion: Disk Drill performs satisfactory when used for photo recovery once you work around the quirks.
Disk Drill Review Conclusion
I am under the impression Disk Drill is a popular tool among end users. After reviewing it I sincerely wonder why as it is far from the best solution available: Disk Drill is extremely slow compared to other tools, delivers poor results and is buggy at some points.
Losing data is often a significant interruption of whatever you were doing. Recovering data with as minimal fuzz as possible is then desired. The file recovery software should be easy to use, quick and preferably recovers the complete directory structure and file names. At too many points Disk Drill fails to meet these requirements. With all that in mind, the price of $89 for Disk Drill against $79.95 for ReclaiMe, the latter being far superior, is plain ridiculous!
My conclusion is that Disk Drill (Windows) 2.0 isn’t worth your time or money.
However, version 4 is slightly better! I still do not like it:
- I think it’s interface is confusing
- It is and feels sluggish from setup to using it
- Setup also wants a reboot which I think is very undesirable when you downloaded the tool to quickly undelete a file
- Unformat type recovery doesn’t cut it! I consider this a major part of a generic file recovery tool.
- If compared to other tools it certainly isn’t the best choice
Specially when you compare Disk Drill to competing tools, the difference is night and day. Confusing vs. simple and straight forward to use. Sluggish vs. snappy and responsive.
Disclosure
I am affiliated with some file recovery products, including Disk Drill, listed on this website. This means I earn a small commission when I refer someone to specific software and that someone decides to purchase that software. However, if I think a product is bad then I will say so. If I think a product is good, whether I am affiliated to it or not, I will say that too.