- 2020
- 2019
Overall Product Rating: 5.4
Being the Mac version of the well-known professional data recovery program R-Studio, it inherits all its strong and weak points. It has the richest set of supported file systems and recovery parameters, a very powerful file previewer, disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, disk imaging, support for various Apple logical disk managers, like APFS Fusion Drive, Apple RAID0, and alike, and many more. Moreover, it is able to access files on a system disk with SIP (System Integrity Protection) enabled. It also showed the best file recovery performance among all tested programs. Its weak points are a non-wizard interface which may be a little bit confusing for inexperienced users and lack of support for Apple native images (dmg).
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 search, mark for recovery, sorting: 6.0Compare
Sorting by names, paths, sizes, 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/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.
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 recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 6.0Compare
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. Parameters specified: compression rate, file split size, password, bad sector processing. The program can scan disks and save scan info while imaging. The program has also disk copying wizard.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 6.0Compare
Recovers file names 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.
User interface: 5.0Compare
A Windows Explorer-style interface. It gives the user much flexibility in data recovery operations, but requires significant understanding of file recovery process. Most suitable for advanced users, but 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. Image files can be shown as medium/large tiles, and video files as icons of the first frame.
File recovery performance
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.
Apple Encrypted Volume: 6.0Compare
The Apple Encrypted Volume was immediately recognized. All folders and files were found and successfully recovered.
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 file names.
After Disk Scan: The program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with two exceptions: one zip and one mkv file. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. The mkv and zip files were found in the Extra Found Files with the correct filename. Files from the root folder were found in the root folder and in another folder named Root. All found files were successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 5.0Compare
The program immediately found approximately half of the files and some remnants of the previous file system. All found files were successfully recovered.
After Disk Scan: The program found the remnants of the previous file system with all files with correct names.
Overall, all files were successfully recovered, but the entire folder structure was recovered partially.
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found all but one file, but only as raw file (Extra Found Files), that is, without their names and original folder structure. All of them were recovered successfully.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv
Emptied Trash (FAT32 file system): 5.5Compare
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.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS (external USB HDD): 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Half of the entire previous folder structure and files were found with correct names in $$$FolderXXX folders.
Some lost files were found among raw files (Known File Types) and successfully recovered, but without their correct names.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+ (external USB HDD): 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The 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 FAT32 to FAT32 (memory stick): 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: the program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct filenames, with the following exception: files from the root folder. 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 files from the root folder were found in the Extra Found Files without their original filenames. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to HFS+ (external HDD): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: All files were found as raw files (Extra Found Files) without the original folder structure or names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT (external HDD): 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The previous HFS+ partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and 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 were not 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 several $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 files from the root folder and the mkv file were found in the Extra Found Files as raw files without their original file names. All jpg files were successfully recovered, but the mkv file was recovered only partially.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS (external USB HDD): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. It contained several $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 files from the root folder and the mkv file were found in the Extra Found Files as raw files without their original filenames. All jpg files were successfully recovered, but the mkv file was recovered only partially.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv (only few minutes from the beginning).
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.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
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 (HFS+): 6.0Compare
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 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 (FAT32): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The entire file system with all files and folders was found and successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
The program immediately 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 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.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
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.
Overall Product Rating: 5.4
Being the Mac version of the well-known professional data recovery program R-Studio, it inherits all its strong and weak points. It has the richest set of supported file systems and recovery parameters, a very powerful file previewer, disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, disk imaging, support for Apple RAID0 and Apple Core Storage volumes, and many more. Moreover, it is able to access files on a system disk with SIP (System Integrity Protection) enabled. It also showed the best file recovery performance among all tested programs. Its weak points are a non-wizard interface which may be a little bit confusing for inexperienced users and lack of support for Apple native images (dmg) and direct file recovery from Apple Time Machine.
Interface and Features
File systems supported for file recovery: 6.0Compare
HFS/HFS+, APFS, FAT/exFAT, NTFS, ReFS, Ext2/3/4 FS, USF1/UFS2
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 recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 6.0Compare
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. 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.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 6.0Compare
Sorting by names, paths, sizes, 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, search/mark for recovery, file search for date, file search for size, file search for file ID, and search directions. Date/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.
File recovery parameters: 6.0Compare
Recovers file names 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.
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.
User interface: 5.0Compare
A Windows Explorer-style interface. It gives the user much flexibility in data recovery operations, but requires significant understanding of file recovery process. Most suitable for advanced users, but may be hard to understand for an ordinary computer user.
: 6.0Compare
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.
File recovery performance
Apple Time Machine Backup Volume: 0.0Compare
The program doesn’t support file recovery directly from an Apple Time Machine backup volume.
Apple Core Storage Volume: 6.0Compare
The Apple Core Storage Volume was immediately reconstructed. All folders and files 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): 4.0Compare
The program immediately found all files without any disk scan, but the folder structure was only partially correct. The content of several folders was found in folders ?NTITL~1 and .../.Trashes/501/. All files were recovered successfully, although some file and folder names had the ? character instead of their first letter. Scan didn't improve the result.
Emptied Trash (exFAT file system): 5.0Compare
The program immediately found all files from the root folder without any disk scan, and only two empty sub-folders. All the found files were successfully recovered with fully correct file names.
After Disk Scan: The program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct file names, with two exceptions: one zip and one mkv file. Some of the $ROOTXXXXX folders contained the sub-folders of the second level (Calc, Writer, and alike) with correct files. The mkv and zip files were found in the Extra Found Files with the correct file name. Files from the root folder were found in the root folder and in another folder named Root. All found files were successfully recovered.
Emptied Trash (APFS file system): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found all files and folders from the device root folder with correct names and folder structure. The only exception is that the Video folder contained only one subfolder and no files. The files from the device root folder appeared broken. The rest of found files were successfully recovered.
The video files were found in the Extra Found Files section (raw files), that is, without their correct names. All of them were recovered successfully.
Overall, all files, except one mkv file, were successfully recovered, video files without their correct names. The entire folder structure was partially recovered. The mkv file was also recovered partially.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv
Emptied Trash (HFS+ file system): 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found all but one files, but only as raw file (Extra Found Files), that is, without their names and original folder structure. All of them were recovered successfully.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to HFS+: 3.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Only raw files (Raw files) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv, 5 avi.
Files that were not recovered: 6 jpg, 1 avi, 1 flv, 2 mov, 2 mp4, 1 mp3, 5 pdf, 5 doc, 5 docx, 5 xls, 5 xlsx, 5 odt, 5ods, 1 zip.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to APFS: 3.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Only raw files (Raw files) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: 6 jpg, 1 mkv, 1 avi, 1 mp3, 5 pdf, 5 doc, 5 docx, 5 xls, 5 xlsx, 5 odt, 5 ods, 1 zip.
Disk erased (formatted) from FAT32 to FAT32: 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: the program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct file names, with the following exception: one zip file and files from the root folder. 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. Pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the Extra Found Files, that is without their original file names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder and the zip file.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to APFS: 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Almost the entire previous folder structure and files were found with correct names, with 2 following exceptions: files from the device root folder had zero size and could not be recovered, and one subfolder with pdf files was not found. All found files and folders were successfully recovered.
These files from the device root folder and the pdf subfolder were found among raw files (Known File Types) and successfully recovered, but without their correct names.
Partially recovered files: 1 avi file from the device root folder.
Disk erased (formatted) from APFS to HFS+: 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The 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+: 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: Only raw files (Extra Found Files) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: Files from the root folder, 13 avi, 1 m4v, 5 ods files, 2 odt, and the zip file.
Partially recovered files: 1 mkv file.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to APFS: 5.0Compare
After Disk Scan: Only raw files (Extra Found Files) were found, that is, without the original folder structure and names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from HFS+ to exFAT: 6.0Compare
After Disk Scan: The previous HFS+ partition was found. All files and folders were found in their original places with correct names and successfully recovered.
Disk erased (formatted) from exFAT to exFAT: 4.5Compare
After Disk Scan: The program found many $ROOTXXXXX folders. These folders contained all files with correct file names, with the following exception: one zip file and files from the root folder. 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. Pdf and jpg files from the root folder were found in the Extra Found Files, that is, without their original file names. All found files were successfully recovered.
Files that were not recovered: the avi file from the root folder and the zip file.
Damaged partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
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 (FAT32): 5.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program found several $ROOTXXXXX folders containing all files from the device root and all subfolders with corresponding files, all with correct names. All files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
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 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.
Deleted partition (APFS): 6.0Compare
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.
Deleted partition (HFS+): 5.5Compare
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.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After a disk scan: The program 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
After a disk scan: The program found the previous FAT32 partition with the entire folder and file structure on their original places with correct names. All files and folders were successfully recovered.
