- 2021
Overall Product Rating: 5.5
This is the Mac version of the well-esteemed professional data recovery program R-Studio. The program has the richest set of supported file systems and recovery parameters, a very powerful file previewer, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, support for the most Apple logical disk managers, and a direct access to a SIP-protected system disk. It showed the best file recovery results.
Its weak points are a non-wizard interface, which may be a little bit confusing for inexperienced users, and the lack of support for Apple native images (dmg).
Since our last review: fast scan for lost partitions and instant detection of deleted partitions have been added.
Interface and Features
Support for the SIP system protection : 6.0Compare
A small, special driver can be installed that provides access for the program to all protected files. Disabling SIP is not required.
File systems supported for file recovery: 6.0Compare
HFS/HFS+, APFS, FAT/exFAT, NTFS, ReFS, Ext2/3/4 FS, USF1/UFS2
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 6.0Compare
It can be used alone on hard drives and partitions as an alternative file recovery method. Can be disabled if necessary. User-selectable file types and support for custom file signatures, which can be added or edited using the built-in file signature editor. User file signatures can be stored in and loaded from a file.
Disk imaging and copying: 5.5Compare
Image types: byte-by-byte and compressed, in its proprietary format. Parameters specified: compression rate, file split size, password, bad sector processing. The program can scan disks and save scan info while imaging. The program also has a disk-copying wizard. The program can process disk images attached by the system.
S.M.A.R.T. : 5.5Compare
S.M.A.R.T. attributes can be shown in a pop-up window. If bad S.M.A.R.T. data is present, the program shows a warning sign.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 6.0Compare
Sorting by names, paths, sizes, and dates. Time mask and Deleted only masks. Special tabs for most common and custom file types. Files can be sorted by clicking column names. Search for individual files and file masks. Files can be shown in List View, Tree View, and Tiles View (for pictures). Medium/large tiles for graphic files. Search parameters: show only deleted files, show only existing files, individual file search/mark for recovery, mass search/mark for recovery, file search for date, file search for size, file search for file ID, and search directions. Date and time search options can be specified simultaneously. File masks, including file mask presets. Option to find previous versions of files. The program can search/mark files depending of file recovery chances. Support for mass file recovery: file sorting by file extension, file sorting by file timestamp, file recovery lists.
Fast scan for lost partitions, instant detection of deleted partitions.
File recovery parameters: 6.0Compare
Recovers filenames and the folder structure. Recovers hidden and system attributes. Files with the same names can be overwritten/renamed/skipped according to their time stamps, file sizes, etc. Bad sector processing can be specified. Multiple copies of recovered files can be processed according to very advanced algorithms (File Already Exists – Extended options). Files may be recovered according to their recovery chances.
: 5.0Compare
A Windows Explorer-style interface. It gives the user a lot of flexibility in data recovery operations, but it requires significant understanding of file recovery process. Most suitable for advanced users and it may be hard to understand for an ordinary computer user.
: 5.8Compare
Languages supported: English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, traditional and simplified Chinese, and Japanese (9 languages). Language management: Languages can be changed on-the-fly.
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
: 3.5Compare
File preview (no file size limitations). Recovers files up to 256 KB. Some limitations in its built-in hex editor. No time limit for the demo version.
: 6.0Compare
The built-in previewer can show all graphic, audio, and video files. It can also show Microsoft and Open Office documents: doc, xls, ppt (Office 97-2003), docx, xlsx, pptx, ods, odt, Adobe pdf, and txt files without having those applications installed. Picture files can be shown as medium/large tiles, and video files as icons of the first frame. **Files can be marked for recovery or recovered directly from the previewer. **
File recovery performance
Apple Encrypted Volume: 6.0Compare
The Apple Encrypted Volume was immediately recognized. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Mac APFS Fusion Drive: 6.0Compare
The Mac APFS Fusion drive was immediately found and correctly reconstructed. All files and folders were found and successfully recovered.
Apple RAID0: 6.0Compare
The Apple RAID0 was immediately reconstructed. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (FAT32 file system): 6.0Compare
The program immediately found all files and folders without any disk scan. All found files were recovered successfully, although some file and folder names had the ? character instead of their first letter. That character was changed to $.
Emptied Trash (exFAT file system): 5.0Compare
The program immediately found all files from the root folder without any disk scan, and two sub-folders with their correct names and content. All the found files were successfully recovered with fully correct filenames.
After disk scan: The program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct file names, with one exception: the large mkv file. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level with correct files. All found files were successfully recovered. The mkv file was found in the Extra Found Files in the Matroska Video section. It appeared broken.
Files that could not be recovered: one mkv file.
Overall: All but one file were successfully recovered with their correct names, but most of the original folder structure was lost.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 5.5Compare
After disk scan: The original folder structure was found in the .Trashes/502 folder with all files except one mkv file. They all were recovered successfully, with correct names. The mkv file was found among raw files, but appeared broken.
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 5.0Compare
The program immediately found the entire original folder structure in the Extra Found Files/$$$Folderxxx/502 section, but only 20 original files; including all files from the device root folder. All of them were recovered successfully.
After disk scan: The rest of the files were found in the Extra Found Files section as raw files, that is, without their names and original folder structure. All of them were successfully recovered.
Overall, all files were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS (external USB HDD): 4.0Compare
After disk scan: All files were found, but only as raw files (Known File Types), that is, without their names. The previous folder structure was not found. All but one files were successfully recovered, but without their correct names.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv file.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After disk scan: The entire previous APFS partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to HFS+ (external HDD): 4.5Compare
After disk scan: All files were found as raw files (Extra Found Files), that is, without the original folder structure or names. All found files were successfully recovered, with one exception: the avi file from the root folder.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 avi.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to APFS (external HDD): 5.0Compare
After disk scan: Only raw files (Extra Found Files) were found, that is, without the original folder structure or names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to exFAT (external USB HDD): 4.5Compare
After disk scan: The program found many $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: one zip file, one mkv file, and files from the root folder. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The mkv, pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the Extra Found Files, that is, without their original filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Files that could be recovered only partially: 1 mkv (actually, only 20% of it).
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained many $ROOTXXXXX folders with all files with correct filenames, except files from the root folder and a large mkv file. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. Files from the root folder were not found among the remnants of the initial file systems. The jpg and avi files from the root folder as well as the mkv file were found in the Extra Found Files as raw files, that is without their original filenames. All jpg and avi files were successfully recovered, but the mkv file was recovered only partially.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After disk scan: The previous exFAT partition was found with the entire folder structure and all files. They were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from FAT32 to FAT32 (memory stick): 5.0Compare
After disk scan: The program found many $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, except the avi file from the device root. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level with correct files. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT (external HDD): 6.0Compare
After disk scan: The previous HFS+ partition was found in the exFAT(HFS+) section. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
After Fast Search for Lost Partitions: Nothing was found.
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Fast Search for Lost Partitions (a very fast scan): The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
After Search for Lost Partitions: The previous folder structure was found, but it appeared empty: no files at all were found in this structure.
After a disk scan: The entire file system with all files and folders was found and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
**After Fast Search for Partition: **The damaged APFS partition was found, but it cannot be opened.
After Partition Scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found the previous partition with the entire folder structure and all files on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
The program immediately, without disk scan, found the previous partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
The program immediately, without disk scan, found the previous exFAT partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
The program immediately found the deleted FAT32 partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files and folders were successfully recovered.
