. There is so much in the digital form that we actively use or treasure.
This Mac data recovery software is quite effective & safe to use for the purpose of data recovery from Mac based storage media. It helps in recovery of lost multimedia files, emails, documents, and others from your Mac’s internal HDD, external HDD, memory cards, USB flash drive etc.
Whether it is pictures from that one outing with your loved ones or a digital book you have been dying to read, it is no doubt that the data we store is invaluable to us. So when your Mac is damaged beyond regular use or your data is inexplicably deleted, it may seem like it is the worst day of your life. Fortunately, if such a nightmare unfolds itself, there is still hope to get back your data back. Many apps and software that recover data exist for the Mac. Below we list down some of the best apps, allowing you to choose one that suits your particular need and budget.
01) EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac EaseUS is software and one thing that stands out for it is that you may never need to even pay for its services. The software has a free version along with a pro version. The free version can allow you to recover data of size 2GB, which is more than any other software or app without paying. This makes the software an ideal choice if you do not have a lot to recover and if you have a tight budget, however, the pro version does have its upsides to consider. For a cost of $89.95, you are granted recovery for an unlimited amount of data, along with lifetime technical support.
Overall, both versions allow you to recover data from damaged or formatted hard drives easily. The app’s features work on phones, cameras, and memory cards. 02) Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery Professional The Stellar Phoenix Mac allows you to recover data from any file source which means you can recover data from any storage device. You are allowed to download the app for free for the Mac, where it will identify and preview recovered files. Should you proceed with the mac data recovery, you will have to make a payment of $99 to use your recovered data. In addition to being able to recover from any storage device, you can customize your scanning for data to a certain file location or specify the nature of your data to help narrow the search.
03) MiniTool Mac Data Recovery MiniTool Mac Data Recovery does let you recover data without paying, although in its case this is only 1MB. This means that on a practical scale you will have to purchase the app. However, it does give 30 days guaranteed a refund if it is not successful. It can scan your drive’s lost partition as well as well as many other options. 04) Disk Drill Much like other apps, you can download disk drill for free to find out and preview your recovered data.
To export data, perform deep scans, etc. You will need the pro version. It is not limited to recovering data from your Mac, it can recover data from any storage device attached to your Mac, including USB flash drives and memory cards, and is also able to recover data from iOS devices. 05) iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best, which recovers videos, documents, emails, images and music files on macOS Mojave and earlier.
Besides, it’s capable of recovering data from mainstream storage devices, even if the devices or partitions are corrupted, unmountable, or unreadable on Mac. Just like most of the programs here, it allows you to free recover 1GB files without any limitations. Beyond that, you can choose from Home edition (HFS+, FAT32, exFAT file systems supported) or Pro edition (plus APFS file system) accordingly. 06) Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is a free and easy way to recover data on the Mac. With it, you can recover deleted Mac OS files from any mountable media including internal/external hard disk, and memory cards.
Panic strikes. You deleted the wrong file. You formatted the wrong drive.
That important file that was there last week now isn’t. Your Mac computer died at the worst possible time If you relate, then this software roundup is for you. Let me introduce you to a genre of Mac data recovery apps that promises to rescue you and get your data back. We explore which recovers your data most effectively in 2019.
The one that consistently gives the best results is also the hardest to use. But if you’re serious about getting your data back, and you’re willing to read the manual, is the app you want. But for most users, I recommend. It’s the easiest app we cover, and in most areas boasts results that are pretty close to R-Studio. Quick Navigation // // // // // // //.
Why Trust Us? My name is Adrian Try and I’ve worked in IT for quite a while, and exclusively with Macs for the last ten years. With the jobs I’ve had, you’d imagine I have plenty of experience recovering lost data. From 1989-1995 I spent five years teaching software classes, managing training rooms, and supporting office staff. From 2004-2005 I spent two years doing similar work on a smaller scale.
From 2007-2010 I spent four years running my own computer support business, solving the IT problems of businesses and individuals. And for two years I was the IT manager of an organization, supporting up to 100 office staff and an internet cafe. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot of computer problems! But throughout all of those years, I’ve only had to run data recovery software four or five times when crucial data was lost in a disaster caused by computer failure or human error. I was successful about half of the time. That’s not a lot of experience, so I wanted access to the opinions of those with a significant amount of experience using these apps: those who specialize in data recovery. I hunted for test results of industry experts who ran the best Mac data recovery apps through their paces.
What You Need to Know Up-Front about Data Recovery How does data recovery work? If it’s gone, how can you get it back? The fact is, when you delete a file or format a drive, the data remains. It’s just that the computer’s file system no longer keeps track of it.
As you continue using your computer, the data will eventually be overwritten. Data recovery software can use this knowledge to help you get your files back, using strategies like these:. They quickly scan for remnants of information in your folder structure and may be able to recover files that have been recently deleted, including the filename and location. They can also check the leftover data on your drive sector-by-sector, and using pattern-recognition strategies, may be able to identify whether it’s from a Word file, a PDF, a JPG, or another common file type. But the app won’t know what the file was called, or where it was stored. Data recovery is your last line of defense Computers can lose information because of human error, hardware failure, apps crashing, viruses and other malware, evil hackers, natural disasters, or just bad luck.
Sounds ominous, doesn’t it! So we plan for the worst. If you’re wise, you’ll regularly back up your data to multiple locations (find out which software is best for you), and run anti-malware software as well as other security-related apps. You may even use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to give yourself enough time to save your work when the power goes out. So when disaster strikes, chances are you’re covered.
Check your backups. Check the trash on your Mac. You’ve planned for this.
It’s those rare times when all of your preparation fails that you turn to Mac data recovery software. It’s your last line of defense. Hopefully, you won’t need it often, but it’s good to know it’s there. Data recovery may cost you a lot of time and effort Mac data recovery apps can run quick scans (which may take just minutes or even seconds) to recover data that was lost in a number of ways.
These are handy, and worth trying, but can’t recover data from every situation. You may need to run a deep scan.
These can take many hours, or even days or weeks. Your entire drive needs to be examined carefully to locate as many recoverable files as possible. On a large drive, that may be thousands or even hundreds of thousands! That means finding the right file can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Most apps include a search feature, but that only helps if the filename was recovered. You may need to go file by file and preview each one until you find the file you are looking for. Data recovery is not guaranteed Your file may be irretrievably corrupt, or that sector of your hard drive may be damaged and unreadable.
However, Mac data recovery apps use a number of strategies to maximize your chance of success. And that begins before disaster strikes. Start running data recovery now, and it will take steps to protect your data, and warn you when drives are about to fail.
It’s possible to unintentionally write over your data while trying to recover it. So don’t save anything to that drive.
When trying to recover data from your Mac’s main drive, that means booting from an external drive while attempting recovery. Many of the apps we cover give you this option. If you fail to recover the data on your own, you can call an expert. That can be costly but is justified if your data is valuable. Just be aware that the steps you take on your own may actually make their job harder, so try to make this decision as early as possible.
Hard drives vs SSDs Solid state drives are now very common in Macs. Yet in certain situations, data can’t be recovered from an SSD. Explains: One failing that bothered us in all these apps—including our top picks—is that they didn’t even warn us that we couldn’t recover files from an SSD.
It’s easy for an app to tell whether a drive uses spinning-platter or SSD technology, and easy to tell whether TRIM technology is active in a drive. All of the software we reviewed, both on the Mac and PC, misleadingly told us that they were able to recover deleted files from SSDs—and then disappointed us by providing corrupt and unusable files instead of the ones we wanted.
TRIM technology increases SSD efficiency and service life by clearing disk sectors on that aren’t being used, so it’s often turned on by default. But this makes it impossible to recover files from the Trash after it has been emptied. I tested this with every app we cover in this review and failed with each one.
So it’s time to make a decision: TRIM or no TRIM. If data recovering files from an emptied Mac Trash is more important to you than the speed and efficiency of your drive, you can turn TRIM off. How-To Geek gives. Alternatively, become more careful and conservative about emptying the Trash—maybe check what’s in it first. Recovering Lost Data under macOS 10.13 High Sierra and Later As a security feature in recent versions of macOS, users are stopped from accessing the built-in system drive by any app.
This is called “System Integrity Protection”. Unfortunately, it stops Mac data recovery apps from being able to do their job.
This can be disabled from System Preferences, and most data recovery apps will explain this when they are first opened. For example, when first running Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, I was shown the following message. Steps to take before you attempt data recovery Once you realize you have lost data, you need to act fast. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that your data will be overwritten and lost forever. If necessary, turn off the computer until you can attempt recovery. The first thing you should do is create a disk image of your drive. This type of backup includes all of the lost data from the original drive and is a safeguard.
Many recovery apps include the ability to create disk images. From there, begin to run scans on the drive (or the image), starting with a quick scan, then a deep scan if it’s not successful. For more information, check out these.
Who Should (& Should Not) Get This? If you like to play it safe and perform regular backups (as you should), you may like to run data recovery software as well.
Running it before you encounter data may well make it easier to get your data back. In addition, it will monitor the health of your hard drive, and prompt you to act before your drive dies. But maybe you haven’t been playing it safe, and you just lost some important or sentimental files from your computer. Then these apps are for you. And in most cases, if you run a trial version of the software, you’ll find out whether your data can be recovered before you spend any money. How We Tested and Picked Mac data recovery apps are not all the same. They vary in their usability and features offered, and may employ different recovery strategies, so often differ in the number of recoverable files they can locate.
As we compare the competition, we’ll try to help you make the best decision about which one will suit you best. Here’s what we looked at when evaluating: How easy is it to use the software? Data recovery is tricky, so some apps focus on ease of use.
They minimize what you need to know and the number of choices you need to make to recover files. These suit most people. Other apps are a little more difficult to use but may deliver better results. They’re more suitable for data recovery specialists and power users. Which recovery features are included? Most scanning apps let you do quick and deep scans for lost files. Some apps offer a list of more specific scans that may save you time by not scanning for everything.
Besides scanning for lost files, here are some key features we looked for:. Disk imaging: Create a backup of your files and recoverable data.
Pause and resume scans: Scans can be slow, so it’s handy to be able to save the state of a scan so you can continue from where you left off in the future. Preview files: Gives you a quick way to identify any recovered files if the file name has been lost. Bootable recovery disk: When trying to restore your Mac’s main drive, it’s best practice to boot from a recovery drive so you don’t overwrite your data. SMART reporting: “Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology” gives early warning of drive failure.
Apple’s new APFS file system is relatively new. Even recently, not all recovery apps supported it.
Thankfully, most Mac recovery apps now do. How effective is the software? Apps use various strategies to discover lost files on your drive. As a result, some apps may be more effective than others at finding files that can be recovered. How do you determine which are most effective?
Lots of testing. In this review, I took three categories of tests into account:. Informal tests performed when we reviewed a number of.
They’re not absolutely thorough or consistent across each app, but demonstrate the success or failure of our scans. A number of recent tests done by industry experts. Unfortunately, no single test covers all of our apps, and they often test the Windows version.
They demonstrate that some apps are significantly more effective than others. I’ll include links to each test below. To supplement the experts’ tests, I conducted a few of my own.
I got a second opinion on the apps’ effectiveness while becoming more familiar with each app and its interface. In general, my test results agree with those of industry experts.
Here is the list of industry tests I refer to:. ‘s Best Pro Data Recovery Software Review tested the Windows versions of R-Studio and Data Rescue 5 among others. ‘s Testing 7 Best Free Data Recovery Tools tested the free Windows versions of Disk Drill, EaseUS, MiniTool, and others. ‘s Data Recovery Software Review and Comparative Analysis Report reviews the Windows version of Prosoft Data Rescue PC3, R-Studio 7.7, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Professional 6.0 and more. (Note: this is published on the website of R-Tools Technology, one of our winners.). ‘ Best Data Recovery Software for Windows & Mac summarized their experience using Stellar Data Recovery, EaseUS, and others. ‘s Data Recovery Software Comparison tested EaseUS, R-Studio, Stellar Phoenix, and others.
While all apps performed about equally with quick scans, deep scans split up the field. Some apps I’d shortlisted as winners—Prosoft Data Rescue and CleverFiles Disk Drill—found significantly fewer files to recover than our winners. More on that later. For my own test, I copied a folder of 10 files (PDFs, Word Doc, MP3s) to a 4GB USB stick, then deleted it. Each app—except Prosoft Data Rescue—was successful.
I also noted the total number of recoverable files found by each app on the drive:. MiniTool: 6056 files, 4 minutes. Stellar: 3225 files, 8 minutes. EaseUS: 3055 files, 4 minutes. R-Studio: 2336 files, 4 minutes.
Data Rescue: 1878 files, 5 minutes. Disk Drill: 1621 files, 4 minutes. Wondershare: 1541 files, 9 minutes. Remo: 322 files, 10 minutes MindTool’s huge 6056 files include 3044 documents and media files (which is what the other apps are listing), and 2995 “other” files. This brings the result down close to the other top runners.
How fast are the scans? I’d rather have a successful slow scan than an unsuccessful fast scan, but deep scans are time-consuming, so any time saved is a bonus. I didn’t look for a clear winner here, and slower scans don’t guarantee better results, but you’ll find some observations about scanning speeds below.