• Data Recovery Time Machine

. Pros Recovered more original file names than competitors. Simple to use. Cons Repairing volumes requires the utility's Platinum edition. Would benefit from advanced filtering.

License transfer is onerous. Ineffective for recovering files on solid-state hard drives. Bottom Line While it doesn't provide the most sophisticated tools for filtering recovery results, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery offers an easy on-ramp to Mac data recovery. Whether you've lost data from an internal or external hard drive, a Windows Boot Camp partition, or an Apple Time Capsule, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery will help recover it.

With a host of scans and extensive file signature support, this scans disks, recovers lost partitions, and recoups documents, photos, and music. While it doesn't provide the most sophisticated tools for filtering recovery results, the $99 Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery offers an easy on-ramp to Mac data recovery. While Stellar Phoenix hits the sweet spot in terms of pricing, its approach to licensing leaves much to be desired. The single-user license is only accessible on one desktop at a time, meaning that if, like me, you want to install the utility on a second desktop, you will need to use the license transfer feature. You must export the license from the first desktop and import the license onto the second using lengthy registration ID and license keys. As Disk Drill, Data Rescue, and DiskWarrior demonstrate, it doesn't need to be this complicated.

The Ground Floor I tested Stellar Phoenix 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. The MacBook Pro features a 120GB solid-state drive (SSD), whereas the Mac Mini uses a 500GB hard disk drive (HDD).

Data Recovery Time Machine

To ensure uniform testing, I deleted the same files on both machines two weeks prior to testing. In the interest of testing real world usage, I selected six common file types (DOC, XLS, PDF, JPG, MP3, and MP4). I opted to test both an because of the challenges solid-state drives present for data recovery software.

The issue is a command called, which zeroes out the parts of the drive where deleted files are stored. By clearing sectors that are no longer in use, TRIM extends the lifespan of a SSD, but it also greatly reduces the efficacy of data recovery utilities. There is, however, a possibility that utilities can retrieve recently deleted files. While I will touch on unique features, this review focuses heavily on the utility's advanced scan recovery. Data Recovery The interface is fairly straightforward.

On the main screen, you can either initiate a new scan or resume a saved one. Selecting Start a New Scan reveals a second screen from which you can run three functions: scan a drive for lost or deleted volumes (Scan Lost/Deleted Volumes); recover photos or data from a severely corrupted device (Raw Recovery); or clone a drive for posterity (Create Image). I tested the first two functions on my SSD, but to little avail. Scanning for lost or deleted partitions returned no results. Next, I selected the most granular data recovery option (Raw Recovery/Recover Everything).

After about 12 minutes, Stellar Phoenix again returned with zero results. This isn't terribly surprising: data recovery software isn't well-suited for SSDs, and even and Disk Rescue were unable to retrieve my intentionally deleted files. I had more success on my HDD. To produce the greatest number of results, I ran Stellar Phoenix's advanced scan, which seeks as many files as possible, even if a drive has been initialized or formatted. The tradeoff is time: Running the scan required about two days. However, this HDD is heavily fragmented, and I ran the utility alongside three others.

To put that scan time in context, Stellar Phoenix took about as long as, but certainly longer than Seagate Premium File Recovery Suite. With support for 122 unique file signatures, Stellar Phoenix supports more file types than (which supports 60), but fewer than Disk Drill (357). The utility identified and retrieved approximately 66GB of files, comparable to that of Data Rescue (73GB).

Stellar Phoenix also returned more original file names than its peers, which helped to compensate for the utility's lackluster filtering. By default, the utility filters files by volume and file type. For example, when I opened the Document folder I found subfolders for.ppt,.pptx,.doc,.docx,.pdf, and several others.

The Photos folder, meanwhile, parsed eight different file types. The utility also includes a somewhat sluggish search feature and the ability to preview images without leaving the application (via OS X Quick Look). While I pined for Disk Drill's advanced filtering, I was able to successfully locate and recover four of my six intentionally deleted files.

It's also possible that Stellar Phoenix recovered other files, but finding them in a corpus of more than half a million is no small feat. Extra Features The utility supports recovery from encrypted disks, Time Machine backups (including Apple's Time Capsule), and Boot Camp partitions. Similar to Data Rescue, Stellar Phoenix emphasizes clone functionality, which lets you clone drives for further analysis.

It's not a quick process—it took several hours for me to export a 120GB copy of my SSD to an external drive—but it's a good best practice, particularly if a drive is malfunctioning. Also, like Disk Drill, Stellar Phoenix includes S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring, though the utility doesn't exactly advertise the feature. Whereas Disk Drill offers a menu bar item, Stellar Phoenix requires you to right-click on a drive, select Drive Information, and open a Smart Status tab. There are a couple of tricks I would like to see Stellar Phoenix learn from its competitors. Unlike Data Rescue and Disk Drill, Stellar Phoenix doesn't let you create a bootable drive in case of emergency.

(That said, the boxed version does include a bootable CD.) This isn't a deal-breaker—Seagate doesn't include it either—but it does offer some peace of mind. Furthermore, Stellar Phoenix lets you repair volumes, but it'll cost you; the feature is only included with a more expensive Platinum ($198) version of the software. Given the added cost, you would do well to purchase the Editors' Choice award-winning if they need to perform general drive maintenance on a Mac.

Every time when Apple release the newest Mac OS, most Mac users are willing to upgrade their Mac system. If you are one of them, and after you upgraded to the latest version, then you found that you can not get used to it, you downgrade it.

So that you may meet the problem that you lost the data in Mac, this time you need a helpful and reliable data recovery tools for Mac which supports various Mac OS X including the latest Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan to recover all your precious files. To save your time, we will list the top 5 data recovery tools for you. ISkysoft Data Recovery for Mac iSkysoft is reliable in performing data recovery. Whatever the cause of data loss; deletion, virus attack, software and hardware issues, this program is able to recover almost any type of files with its deep scan function.

Supports various Mac OS X such as the Mac OS X 10.12 (Sierra), 10. 11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.7, 10.6 and 10.5; this data recovery program works effortlessly; delivering superior ease of use to its users. Disk Drill for Mac Another good recovery program is the Disk Drill for Mac. Fully compatible with Mac OS x 10.11, 10.10, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9; this program is able to scan and recover data from any storage devices inclusive of the Mac drives, hard drives, iPods, Kindles and many more. Disk Drill can still work its magic on devices that might be experiencing failure, lost a partition or simply becoming unreadable. Its features are user friendly and intuitive; comes with a clear tutorial for the customers and the free basic version can be used by the users to determine if this program is suitable for them. Do Your Data Recovery for Mac Free A simple yet offers all functions that you need with a data recovery software; Do Your Data Recovery for Mac Free is able to recover lost data caused by accidental deletion, upgrading or downgrading of OS, system restoration, virus attacks and many more.

It comes with a preview function that lets users choose which file that they would like to recover and can access corrupted or damaged hard drives. Supporting Mac OS from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and above; its simple interfaces makes it very friendly to the users. It also guarantees safe and clean scanning and recovery processes as it performs read- only processes and will not cause any damage to your device or data.

Wondershare Data Recovery for Mac A great software that can do more than just recovering data; Wondershare Data Recovery for Mac can work on all Mac OS X inclusive of the Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Able to retrieve any files from a Mac- based drives and devices, its powerful algorithms enable it to recover files, raw files, deleted Mac volumes and data from NTFS Partitions within a short period of time. What makes it more attractive is that users are able to test the software first with a free trial prior to making any purchases. Tenorshare Any Data Recovery for Mac Like any other great performing data recovery software, Tenorshare Free Any Data Recovery for Mac will enable its users with the ability to retrieve their lost data due to accidental deletion, formatting and other reasons. Supporting Mac OS X 10.11, 10.10, 10.9 and below; customers are able to recover their media files, emails and other documents in just a few clicks. In addition to that, it can also work with any devices that are connected to the computer that it is installed in.

The software is user friendly and intuitive; it guides through the users along the recovery process with tips, advices and instructions.