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Available for both Windows and Mac, Stellar Data Recovery is a powerful but easy to use feature-rich data recovery tool. It comes in a number of editions (six for Windows, three for Mac) with the feature count and data recovering capability rising with each edition.
The Stellar Data Recovery Professional Edition for Windows sits in the middle of the product line-up. It supports data recovery from the system's hard drive and external drives such as memory cards, USB based flash drives and external hard drives and even from partially burnt or scratched CDs and DVDs.
It supports file recovery from a huge range of file types (over 200) covering just about everything you might come across; office documents, PDF, emails, images, database, audio, video, archive and databases. It can also recover lost and deleted data from a Bitlocker encrypted hard drive (as long as you have the password) whether in the system or an external drive.
The software can also find missing partitions on a drive, which might have been lost due to corruption or accidental deletion so that they can be recovered. On top of all the data recovery options, the software also supports disc imaging with the option of imaging the whole drive or a selected region. It also has its own useful built-in disk monitoring utility.
When attempting to recover your missing data it comes in handy if the software you are using is easy and straightforward to use. Even though Stellar Data Recovery is a feature-rich data recovery tool, Stellar has, by the use of a series of icons and tick boxes made navigating through the basic job of data retrieval less painful than it might be. The preview window is useful to confirm that the files found are the ones wanted. There's also a very good online user manual for the software.
When dealing with something as sensitive as data recovery it's good to know that there is a decent level of support should things go awry. Stellar Data Recovery offers live chat, phone and online ticket support. You also get access to a comprehensive knowledge base and a decent sized FAQ section.
While the Quick Scan option is indeed quick, the Deep Scan does take some time to complete. The actual data recovery process takes a while as well but in this case, it's better to be safe than sorry. The recovery performance can be improved if you know what file types you are looking for as you can specify exactly what file extensions you are trying to recover in the Advanced Options.
Although in the specs for the software it mentions Intel Pentium processors as a system requirement, we used the software on an AMD based rig without any problem.
The free version allows for up to 1GB of data to be retrieved, anything above that and you have to buy one of the paid subscription editions, which are a little pricey. Pricing and features of the six different editions of the Windows version of Stellar Data Recovery are as follows (at the time of writing this review):
- Retrieve deleted files from PC or external hard drive.
- Recover up to 1 GB data absolutely free.
- Get back data from corrupt or malware-infected drive.
Standard Edition £37.99 (1 year, single system)
- Unlimited data recovery.
- Recovers Deleted Photos, Videos, and other Critical Files.
- Recovers from Formatted Systems.
- Recovers from Any Storage Media.
- Recovers Data from Encrypted Drive.
Professional Edition £59.99 (1 year, single system) £75 (Lifetime, single system)
as above plus
- Recovers Files from Lost Partitions.
- Supports Unbootable System Recovery.
- Data Recovery from CD/DVD.
Premium Edition £79 (1 year, single system) £115 (Lifetime, single system)
as above plus
- Repairs Corrupt or Distorted Photos.
- Repairs Corrupt or Distorted Videos.
Technician Edition £154 (1 year, 3 systems)
as above plus
- RAID 0, 5 & 6 Data Recovery.
- Recovers lost or formatted RAID logical volumes.
Toolkit Edition £229 (1 year, 3 systems)
as above plus
- Virtual Drive Recovery.
- Recovers Data from Linux and Mac Drives (HFS, HFS+, ext2, ext3, ext4).
You can read more, or purchase Stellar Data Recovery, directly from their website HERE.
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Pros
- Range of data recovery tools.
- Default scans are quick and efficient.
- Disk monitoring.
- Huge range of supported file types.
Cons
- Deep scans take some time.
- Subscriptions are a little pricey.
KitGuru says: Stellar Data Recovery is an easy to use, but powerful data recovery tool and offers retrieval options from the more basic for home use to advanced for business users.
