Data Recovery Digest

Do-It-Yourself Windows File Recovery Software: A Comparison

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The Best Pro Data Recovery Software - Review 2023

If you are a data recovery professional, you face much more challenging tasks than home users. As such, you have higher demands for the software you use. Professional data recovery software goes above and beyond the features and performance of the programs we evaluated in our article: “Do-It-Yourself Windows File Recovery Software: A Comparison.” These programs are intended to be used by technicians who have a deep knowledge of recovery methods, hard drive operation, and the various different file systems used by businesses and larger operations. A good professional data recovery program includes the features that allow you to fully utilize your knowledge while omitting extraneous features that may be more suitable for amateurs or home users.

Furthermore, the market for professional data recovery software is very dynamic. As new data storage and data recovery technologies are developed, new programs enter the market and established developers add functionality to their existing products. To stay abreast of the latest offerings, we update our professional data recovery software comparison on an annual basis. This year, our criteria remain the same, though we’ve added a few additional programs to our review.

A program that is suitable for professional data recovery must have the following features in addition to standard ones:

  • A wide variety of supported file systems, including those used in server environments.
  • RAID recovery, with support for rare and non-standard RAID layouts.
  • Advanced hexadecimal editor that is able to parse and interpret disk data.
  • Advanced disk imaging and copying.
  • Additional features that can expand the data recovery services you can offer. For example, network data recovery allows technicians to provide clients full-fledged remote data recovery service from anywhere in the world.

From a functionality standpoint, the above features are key. The end user license is equally important. The end user license should allow for performance of commercial data recovery on your client’s machines and systems. Many programs suitable for professional data recovery are offered in multiple versions, each with a different end user license. For our descriptions, we give the pricing that includes an end user license suitable for working on systems other than your own.

On the other hand, some features are less crucial for professionals. Many do-it-yourself data recovery programs include wizard-style interfaces that pre-select various parameters for applicability to the most common cases. Data recovery pros may find these features unhelpful, or even restrictive, and may prefer a more advanced interface that allows greater control and customization. For this comparison, we will be providing very limited focus on these basic features. However, we do address the demo mode restrictions for each professional data recovery program. Each of these data recovery utilities has its own strengths and weaknesses, and being able to estimate a particular program’s ability to recover files in a specific scenario without making the significant investment in a commercial license can be extremely useful.

And a final note: Although our discussion is dedicated to logical data recovery (i.e. data recovery from a problematic file system on an otherwise healthy hard drive) we should point out that some professional data recovery programs can work together with special disk imaging and recovery hardware. Such hardware and software integration can retrieve data even from severely damaged hard drives. This functionality, while not essential for all tasks, can greatly expand the level of service you can offer to your data recovery customers.

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Professional Data Recovery Software Tested and Evaluated in 2023

For the 2023 update of our professional data recovery software comparison, we added a new test: data recovery from a damaged XFS partition. Otherwise, we keep the rest of the scope of our tests the same as the tests of 2022.

We removed Stellar Windows Data Recovery because it showed the worst results in our previous (2022) review and replaced it with DMDE because its new version has been released.

We continue to test and evaluate the programs which were included in our 2022 review:

Recovery Explorer Professional (ver. 9.11)

Recovery Explorer Professional

Reviewed Version: 9.11

Prices: Professional Recovery: Personal: US$ 190.00, Commercial License: US$ 493.63, Corporate License: US$ 858.52.

Host operating systems: Starting from Windows XP Service Pack 3 Versions for Mac OS X and Linux with the same functionality are available.

Support for data recovery hardware: no

R-Studio (ver. 9.2 build 191115)

R-Studio

Reviewed Version: 9.2 build 191115

Prices: R-Studio FAT US$ 49.88, NTFS US59.99, Standalone US$ 79.99, Corporate US$ 179.99, T80+ US$ 79.99, Technician US$ 899.00

Host operating systems: Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP/2000, Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003 (32/64 bit)

Support for data recovery hardware: DeepSpar Disk Imager™ (http://ww.deepspar.com/products-ds-disk-imager.html), USB Stabilizer (https://www.deepspar.com/usb-stabilizer.html), RapidSpar (RapidSpar Data Recovery Equipment for IT Service Providers ) (Technician/T80+ licenses only)

ReclaiMe File Recovery (ver. 5293)

ReclaiMe File Recovery

Reviewed Version: 5293

Prices: Standard: US $89.95, Ultimate: US $199.95, ReclaiMe Pro: US $799.00 per year, other options available.

Host operating systems: Windows

Support for data recovery hardware: no

WinHex (ver. 20.7)

WinHex

Reviewed Version: 20.7

Prices: Personal: US$ 41.90 (one year) + US$32.90 (28%) for two years. Professional: US$91.90 (one year) + US$ 77.90 (28%) for two years. Specialist: US$138.90 (one year) + US$126.90 (28%) for two years. Lab: US$174.90 (one year) + US$1151.90 (28%) for two years.

Host operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10, 11 32 Bit/64 Bit*, Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019

Support for data recovery hardware: no

DiskGenius (ver. 5.4.6.1441)

DiskGenius

Reviewed Version: 5.4.6.1441

Prices: From US$ 69.99 to US$ 699.99

Host operating systems: Windows

Support for data recovery hardware: no

Evaluation and Test Results

Overall product ratings

Overall product ratings were based on two main criteria:

  • Interface and features – We evaluated each software package’s capabilities and created a side-by-side comparison of the most crucial professional data recovery features.
  • File recovery performance – We put the identified features to the test to determine how effectively each program can recover data in various scenarios.

Since our last review, R-Studio keeps its first place in our tests, remaining the best professional data recovery software. Taking into account that it now works directly with several data extraction hardware devices (DeepSpar Disk Imager, USB Stabilizer, RapidSpar) and with its advanced imaging methods, this program becomes an essential part of a data recovery workstation. Recovery Explorer Professional took the second place. These two programs are considered the best data recovery software on the market. The new version of DMDE proved that this program has been deservedly included in almost all our reviews. It’s got back to its third place.

DiskGenius still showed very impressive results in data recovery for Windows file systems but DMDE moved it to the forth place. If not for the lack of support of other platforms (macOS and Linux), it may have been a decent rival to the two best programs.

ReclaiMe File Recovery remains on the last place. Its recovery performance must be greatly improved in order to be considered a professional data recovery program.

The following programs have received the most important new features:

R-Studio: Support for a new file system XFS. Forensic logs can be created directly from the Recovery dialog box. Recovery lists can be saved in various file formats. All S.M.A.R.T. attributes can be copied in one action. New file formats are added: VHD/VHDX and VDI.

Recovery Explorer Professional: Support for Btrfs-RAID, ZFS RAID-Z, Drobo BeyondRAID, and Synology Hybrid RAID. Includes a built-in signature editor. Additional features for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Support for Reworked RAID1E.

DMDE: Support for the APFS, ReFS, and btrfs file systems. New version added several new recovery options. Support for DVHD (Differencing VHDisks).

Interface and Features Ratings
Product Localization Support Demo version restrictions File preview Standard file recovery features Advanced file recovery features
R-Studio5.35.06.05.95.8
Recovery Explorer Professional5.05.05.04.85.2
DMDE5.85.52.54.34.4
DiskGenius6.04.54.53.13.6
WinHex5.54.04.53.93.0
ReclaiMe File Recovery3.54.04.04.33.4
File recovery performance Ratings
Product Deleted files Emptied Recycle Bin Disk re-format Damaged partition Deleted partition RAID recovery
R-Studio5.56.05.55.86.06.0
Recovery Explorer Professional5.35.35.55.65.14.8
DMDE5.05.55.45.46.01.9
DiskGenius4.35.35.44.85.53.6
ReclaiMe File Recovery4.85.03.94.86.04.0
WinHex5.25.04.34.46.01.9
Overall Rating
Product Rating Conclusions
R-Studio 5.6

The program with a good explorer-style interface, excellent previewer, and outstanding data recovery parameters and performance. It has all features and capabilities to perform professional data recovery. A must-have for any data recovery professional.

Strengths: Works with specialized data recovery hardware: native support for DeepSpar devices (DeepSpar Disk Imager, USB Stabilizer, RapidSpar). The best performance in every file recovery case. Outstanding support for RAID and logical disk manager recovery, network data recovery, and good S.M.A.R.T attribute monitoring. It has a powerful file previewer, disk imager that supports very advanced imaging methods (real-time and multi-pass algorithms), disk copy module, and a built-in hexadecimal editor. In addition, excellent documentation includes online manuals and tutorials for almost all data recovery scenarios.

Weaknesses: Quite a moderate localization support, severe demo mode restrictions and the lack of support for less common file systems, such as ZFS, JFS, Novell NWFS/NSS, VMware VMFS, ReiserFS.

Added since our last review: Support for a new file system XFS. Forensic logs can be created directly from the Recovery dialog box. Recovery lists can be saved in various file formats. All S.M.A.R.T. attributes can be copied in one action. New file formats are added: VHD/VHDX and VDI.

Recovery Explorer Professional 4.9

The other exceptional professional data recovery program that showed the second-best results in our data recovery tests and feature evaluation. It has a very convenient user interface, a quite good file previewer, and excellent data recovery parameters and performance.

Strengths: The best set of supported file systems, the best support for standard RAID levels, and support for rather exotic volume managers: Btrfs-RAID, ZFS RAID-Z, Drobo BeyondRAID, and Synology Hybrid RAID. Excellent raw file recovery. A very good set of recovery features. Support for logical disk manager recovery and automatic RAID parameter recognition.

Weaknesses: Limited file search and mark capabilities. The program sometimes required a long disk scan when other programs didn't. Poor localization support. The program showed the worst score for data recovery from a memory card with a deleted exFAT file system.

Added since our last review: The Russian language has been dropped and French added. Support for Btrfs-RAID, ZFS RAID-Z, Drobo BeyondRAID, and Synology Hybrid RAID. A built-in signature editor. Additional features for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring. Support for Reworked RAID1E.

DMDE 4.7

A highly advanced hexadecimal editor tailored for data recovery for Windows, Mac, and Linux file systems. Overall, it showed the third-best results in our data recovery tests and feature estimations. Requires a very deep knowledge of disk and file system structures.

Strengths: Very advanced disk and file editing capabilities. Very good localization support. No demo mode limitations except group file recovery. Very attractive pricing. Good S.M.A.R.T. attribute monitoring. A good startup version equal in its features to its Windows version.

Weaknesses: Poor support for logical disk managers and a very limited built-in previewer. No data recovery over network.

Added since our last review: Support for the APFS, ReFS, and btrfs file systems. Several new recovery options. Support for DVHD (Differencing VHDisks).

DiskGenius 4.5

A very good data recovery program, especially for Windows file systems. It even rivals R-Studio and Recovery Explorer Professional in this field. Only the lack of support for Mac and Linux file systems and disk/logical volume managers degraded its overall data recovery score.

Strengths: The best localization support. A very good performance for Windows systems, especially for reformatted disks, and deleted partitions. A good startup version equal in its features to its Windows version.

Weaknesses: The lack of support for Mac and Linux file systems. Limited file search, preview, and recovery capabilities.

Added since our last review: 11 new interface languages. New options for the Recover files dialog box. Previously existing filter and file marking options have disappeared. Support for JBOD (Volume Set).

WinHex 4.3

A very advanced disk editor that requires very deep understanding of disk data structures. Ranked fifth in our data recovery tests and feature evaluation. Nevertheless, it showed good results in data recovery from deleted partitions.

Strengths: One of the best imaging capabilities. The second-best set of supported file systems, and a very advanced disk editor.

Weaknesses: Poor recovery feature set, relatively severe demo mode limitations, the lack of a file previewer, no S.M.A.R.T attribute monitoring, and no startup version.

Added since our last review: A preview in the Superior license type. Support for the QNX file system. Several file systems to scan for can be selected. Some commands in the shortcut menu.

ReclaiMe File Recovery 3.9

The program with a good wizard interface and relatively mediocre data recovery performance. Still, many automated recovery actions make up for these disadvantages.

Strengths: A very good set of supported file systems, automatic RAID parameter recognition, and good support for Windows and Linux software RAIDs.

Weaknesses: Quite mediocre data recovery performance, only one interface language (English), poor file preview capabilities, no S.M.A.R.T attribute monitoring, and no startup version.

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