- 2020
Overall Product Rating: 3.6
The program has a good wizard interface, poor localization support (only the English interface), worst demo mode restriction, and average file previewer. The list of supported file systems includes all Windows file systems except ReFS. It also supports raw file recovery. Program’s file search and mark capabilities are good, and it also supports logging and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. A week point is the lack of disk imaging. The program’s file recovery performance is very poor (ranking eighth, the last one). Its only test with some decent results is file recovery from deleted partitions. The rest is very unimpressive. Moreover, it could not perform file recovery from an emptied Recycle Bin on the NTFS file system. We do not recommend this program.
Interface and Features
Deep analysis of disks (disk scan): 4.5Compare
Drive objects to scan can be specified. Three scan types can be selected: Simple Scan, Advanced Scan, Smart Scan. Already found files can be shown during the scan process. Scan results are saved automatically. Scan can be stopped and then resumed.
S.M.A.R.T. : 5.5Compare
Two types of S.M.A.R.T. tests can be conducted, Short (Recommended) which is a fast S.M.A.R.T. test with most critical parameters, sampling the device and Extended – an extended version of the S.M.A.R.T. test that covers the entire device.
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 4.5Compare
We could not find this feature, but it looks like the program has it: quite often some files with modified names can be found in special folders after Advanced scan.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 4.0Compare
Search parameters: individual file search, file mask search, size search, files can be sorted by clicking column names, manual mark for recovery.
User interface: 4.5Compare
A good wizard interface. Actually, this is the interface of Seagate File Recovery, only the program name was changed.
: 3.5Compare
Languages supported : 7 languages: English (US/UK), German, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Chinese.
Recognized: English, French. The program recognized only folder names, filenames were changed to unrecognized characters: Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese.
: 4.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) documents, txt, graphic and video files. Only the beginning of files/documents can be shown/played back.
File recovery performance
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 5.0Compare
After Simple scan: All files, except 2 jpg and 1 avi files from the disk root folder, and the large mkv file, were found in their original locations with correct file and folder names. All found files were successfully recovered.
After Advanced scan: Those 2 jpg files from the disk root were found in raw files with incorrect names and successfully recovered. The avi file was also found, but with an incorrect file name and extension (wav). It was successfully recovered. The mkv file could not be recovered.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 3.5Compare
After Simple Scan: It was disabled.
After Advanced scan: Only raw files were found: 87 jpg, 42 png, 6 doc, 6 docx, 2 ods, 6 odt, 10 pdf, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 1 flv, 2 mov, 6 mp4 (initially one was m4v), 75 mp3 (2 were damaged), 21 wav (they were avi), zip. They were successfully recovered.
After Smart Scan: The same results were obtained.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 mkv, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (FAT32 file system): 4.5Compare
After Simple scan: All files and folders were found in the original places with correct names, except that many files and folders had the _ character instead of their first letters. All files, except, 1 mov, and 2 jpg, 1 avi, 1 pdf from the device root folder were successfully recovered.
After Advanced Scan: The same results were obtained.
The following files could not be recovered: 1 mov, and 2 jpg, 1 avi, 1 pdf .
Emptied Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 3.5Compare
Simple Scan was disabled and could not be performed.
After Advanced scan: Only some raw files were found and successfully recovered. Recovered files: 87 jpg, 42 png, 6 doc, 6 docx, 2 ods, 6 odt, 10 pdf, 2 xls, 2 xlsx, 1 flv, 2 mov, 6 mp4, 73 mp3, 22 avi (with the wav extension), zip. Files that could not be found and recovered: 1 mkv, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Smart Scan did not improve the results.
Emptied Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 1.0Compare
After Simple & Quick scan: Files from the device root folder were found in their original place with correct names. Three folders and files from the root folder were found with incorrect names in the Trash, the subfolders and files in them being with correct names. The _unknown section contained the rest of the files, except 1 avi and 1 mkv. The files could be viewed in the program.
For an unknown reason, the program, properly bought and registered, refused to write recovered files to any selected place showing the "Volume or Directory not available. Please choose other volume or directory error." But it reduced the number of remaining recovery attempts.
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32): 3.5Compare
After Simple scan: Nothing was found.
After Advanced scan: No initial folder structure was found. Only some raw files with incorrect names were found in the raw file section (.), they were recovered successfully.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 11 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS): 4.0Compare
After Simple Scan: Nothing was found.
After Advanced Scan: Some remnants of the previous file system were found in the Trash. All of them were successfully recovered.
Many raw files were found in the . section. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Most files were recovered as raw files, that is, without their names and other attributes.
Files that could not be recovered: 19 png, 11 mp3, 12 docx, 2 xlsx.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to exFAT): 3.5Compare
Simple scan was disabled
After Advanced scan: Only raw files were found. Most of them could be successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 mkv, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT): 4.0Compare
Simple Scan was disabled.
After Advanced scan: Only raw files were found, some having correct, some incorrect names. They were successfully recovered. No parts of the initial folder structure were found.
After Smart Scan: No new results were found.
Overall, all files were successfully recovered, but only as raw files. The initial folder structure was not recovered at all.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS): 3.5Compare
After Simple scan: Nothing was found.
After Advanced Scan: No initial folder structure was found. Only some raw files with incorrect names were found in the raw file section. They were recovered successfully.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 m4v, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 11 mp3, 6 docx, and 2 xlsx.
After Smart Scan: No new results was found.
Damaged partition (NTFS): 3.3Compare
After Advanced Scan and Smart Scan on the partition: Nothing was found. (No files were found, please try again.)
After Advanced scan on the entire hard drive: Only raw files were found. They were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 mp4, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Damaged partition (exFAT – memory card): 3.5Compare
After Advanced scan on the partition: Nothing was found. The program threw the message “No files were found, please try again”
After Advanced scan on the physical storage device: Only some raw files with incorrect names were found, they were recovered successfully.
After Smart Scan of the entire hard drive: No new results were found.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 3.5Compare
After Advanced Scan and Smart Scan of the partition: Nothing was found. (No files were found, please try again.)
After Advanced scan on the entire hard drive: Only some raw files with incorrect names were found, they were recovered successfully.
After Smart Scan of the entire hard drive: No new results were found.
Files that could not be recovered: mkv, 2 mov, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 11 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 4.0Compare
After Advanced scan on the partition: Nothing was found. (No files were found, please try again).
After Advanced Scan on the entire memory card: Only some raw files with incorrect names were found in the . section, they were recovered successfully.
After Smart Scan of the entire hard drive: No new results was found.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Deleted partition (NTFS): 6.0Compare
After Advanced scan: An NTFS partition was found. All folders and files were found with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Advanced scan: An NTFS partition was found. All folders and files were found with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT – memory card): 3.5Compare
After Advanced scan: Only raw files with incorrect names were found, they were recovered successfully.
After Smart Scan: No new results were found.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mkv, 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 3.5Compare
After Advanced scan: Only some raw files with incorrect names were found, they were recovered successfully. Files that could not be recovered: 1 mpeg, 4 mts, 13 mp3, 6 docx, 2 xlsx.
After Smart Scan: No new results were found.
