Stellar Data Recovery for Mac review

Macworld

At a glanceExpert's Rating
ProsQuick, clean interfaceGood data recovery tools and modulesImpressive net-based data recovery moduleConsRepeated crashes for the Clean Up Junk Files moduleStrange macOS Recent Items and serial number activation bugsKeeps an upgrade to a higher-level account, even after a full account has been purchasedOur VerdictDespite the need for a bug hunt, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is a good program that is able to dig deep to help reconstruct and recover deleted data.

Let’s face it: There’s no suave or elegant way to lose your data. Picture your hard drive failing, or accidentally formatting over your critical work files, and you become no more graceful than a flailing Muppet running back and forth, screaming, waving your arms, and wondering exactly how you’re going to get everything back. This is where Stellar Data Recovery for Mac comes in, the app focusing on recovering data via standard scans, deep scans, drive image creation, and other recovery tools.

The software, which requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later to install and run, is available as a free trial. The Standard edition retails for $79.99/£79.99 (currently $69.66/£69.99) a year, or $129.99/£129.99 (currently $99.99/£99.99) for a lifetime license. The Professional version is $129.99/£129.99 (currently $99.99/£99.99) a year, or $199/£199 (currently $149/£149) for a lifetime license. The Premium edition is $209.99/£209.99 (currently £99.99/£99.99) a year, or $319/£319 (currently $199/£199) for a lifetime license. Each tier adds new features and data repair options.

Find out how Stellar Data Recovery for Mac compares to other data recovery tools in our round-up of the best data recovery apps for Mac.

Stellar Data Recovery supports both the HFS+ and APFS volume formats, which puts it in a good position on the Mac, installs easily, and once permissions have been assigned for it to have full access to your drive, you’re off to the races. There’s a version that can help you recover iPhone data, see our review of Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone.

Stellar Data Recovery’s chief strength is the breadth of its data recovery engine, and it does this well. The software offers support for hundreds of file formats, and a comprehensive set of filters allows you to search and recover by file type (such as documents, images, etc.) as well as file headers and attributes, which becomes useful for more complicated recoveries. A good scan management engine allows previous scans to be saved and worked from, and an image creation feature allows you to readily create a byte-for-byte image of a volume that can be restored from later, albeit you’ll need ample disk space for this, as the process encompasses the entire volume and not just the critical files you might be looking to work with later.




Sorting through file attributes for data recovery.



Sorting through file attributes for data recovery.Foundry

Sorting through file attributes for data recovery.Foundry


Foundry

One of the most interesting features to be found here is the Recover Non Booting Mac module, which allows you to log into your Mac’s recovery partition, load the Terminal program, and type in the following command to open a remote version of Stellar Data Recovery to work with in a pinch: sh