- 2020
Overall Product Rating: 4.4
A highly advanced hexadecimal editor tailored for data recovery for Windows and Linux file systems. Overall, it showed the forth results both 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. Good localization support. No demo mode limitations, except group file recovery. Very attractive pricing. Very good imaging capabilities. Good S.M.A.R.T attribute monitoring.
Weaknesses: Poor support for logical disk managers and no file previewer in the program.
Interface and Features
Supported interface languages: 6.0Compare
Languages supported: English, German, Spanish, Persian, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Portuguese. (9 languages) Language management: Languages can be changed only when the program finishes working with a device.
Localized file name recognition: 6.0Compare
Recognized all tested localized characters in file and folder names.
Demo version restrictions: 5.5Compare
No demo mode limitations, except group file recovery. Only 4,000 files can be recovered during one session.
File systems supported for file recovery: 5.0Compare
FAT12/16/32/exFAT, NTFS/NTFS5, ext2/3/4, HFS+/HFSX, ReFS v1/v3.
File recovery parameters: 4.5Compare
Recovers filenames and folder structure. Deleted files can be included or excluded. Recovers alternate data streams for NTFS. Large files can be split into file blocks. Recovery file masks can be specified.
File recovery using file signatures (raw file recovery): 5.0Compare
Supports raw file recovery. The users can turn this feature on/off and specify their own file signatures.
Logging: 4.0Compare
Standard logging. The log can be saved to a file. A list of recovered files can be saved separately.
Deep analysis of disks (disk scan): 5.0Compare
Supports scans for entire hard drives or logical disks, continually or jumping. Several scan parameters can be specified: scan range, calculate volumes during scan, calculate volumes using FS structures, and calculate volumes using RAW file signatures. Scan results may be stored to a file and loaded later.
Disk imaging and copying: 6.0Compare
Image types: byte-by-byte and compressed (bin, ima, img). Disks can be imaged from the end to the beginning. Images of object parts can be created. Disk objects can also be copied.
File search, mark for recovery, sorting: 5.0Compare
Search parameters: file masks; deleted/existing files; file size; modification time; only in marked files. Files can be searched in various disk areas: overall; focused item; current panel. Files can be sorted within a folder by clicking column names (name, size, data, etc.), similar to sorting in Windows Explorer. Sorting by name, by size, by write date, by ID, and mark/unmark command in the shortcut menu. Support for mass file recovery: file recovery lists.
Standard RAID level presets: 4.5Compare
JBOD (Volume Set), RAID0 (Stripe Set), RAID 1(Mirror), RAID4, RAID5, RAID6 (Double Xor), with all their variants. Parity delay support for all applicable levels.
Hexadecimal editor: 6.0Compare
The editor has all standard hex editing features, such as advanced search and custom patterns. Data may be represented in any coding or as hex values. Excellent navigation. Any visible object (real or virtual) can be edited. Numerous templates can be used to parse and interpret data. The user can also create customized templates.
RAID recovery features: 4.5Compare
Direct access to a virtual RAID. Only disks and images can be added to a virtual RAID.
Support for disk and volume managers: 3.0Compare
Support for Windows Dynamic Disks. (Windows software RAIDs)
User-defined RAID layouts: 5.0Compare
The user can use a pseudo-graphic RAID editor and create/load/save XML RAID description files.
File recovery performance
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (FAT32 file system): 4.5Compare
After Open Volume (opening the partition): All folders and files were found, mostly with correct names. Some files and folders were successfully recovered, some were recovered with incorrect names: they had an underscore as their first character. two xls, all doc, 25 mp3, one jpg, mpeg, and four mts files were not successfully recovered.
After Full Scan (scanning the partition): All unrecovered files were successfully recovered, except for 1 mts file. It could not be recovered even from raw files.
Files that could not be recovered: 1 mts file.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 5.0Compare
After Open Volume (opening the partition): All folders were found with correct names, but they appeared empty. Files in the root folder were also found. These files were successfully recovered, except the avi file from the root folder.
After Full Scan (scanning the partition): All files and folders with correct names were found in the initial folder. All files and folders were successfully recovered except the avi file from the root folder.
Files that could not be recovered: the avi file from the root folder.
Files Deleted without Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 5.0Compare
After Open Volume: Nothing was found.
After Full Scan: All files were found in their original locations with correct names, except for one avi and 2 jpg files from the root folder, and one mkv had zero size. All those files were successfully recovered. The avi and jpg files from the root folder were found in raw files with incorrect names and successfully recovered. The found mkv file had an incorrect file name and size lesser than original.
Files that were partially recovered: 1 mkv file.
Emptied Recycle Bin (NTFS file system): 3.5Compare
After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found
After Full Scan: 4 folders (of the $F00046 type) were found containing some orphan folders and files. Interesting that every found avi file had two auxiliary files (64 and 20 bytes) with AFP_AfpInfo and Mac_Metadata strings at their ends. Most of the files were recovered from raw files with incorrect names.
Files that could not be recovered: One jpg file. The recovered mkv file appeared damaged. The initial folder structure was recovered only partially.
Emptied Recycle Bin (exFAT file system): 5.5Compare
After Open Volume: The folders from the disk root were found, but they appeared empty. Also, the files from the root folder were found with correct names and successfully recovered.
After Full Scan: All files and folders were found on the exFAT partition in correct places and with correct names. All of them were successfully recovered.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to exFAT): 5.5Compare
After Open Volume: Nothing was found.
After Full Scan: An exFAT partition was found containing all the folders from the disk root folder. They had incorrect names like $Fxxxxx but contained all their respective folders and files with correct file names. They were successfully recovered. The files from the root folder (one pdf and two jpg files) were found with incorrect names among raw files and successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: one avi file from the disk root folder.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to NTFS): 4.0Compare
After Open Volume (opening the partition): Nothing was found.
After Full Scan (scanning the partition): Two folders were found containing some folders and files from the Photos folder ($F00017) and Video folder ($F00018). Some other files were found in the Raw files with incorrect names. Most of them were successfully recovered.
Files that could not be recovered: 17 mp3.
Reformatted disk (NTFS to exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: An NTFS partition of the correct size was found. It contained all files and folders in their correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Reformatted disk (exFAT to NTFS): 5.5Compare
After Open Volume: Nothing was found.
After Full Scan: The previous exFAT partition was found. Its $F00009 folder contained all files and folders in correct places with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Reformatted disk (FAT32 to FAT32): 5.5Compare
After Open Volume: Nothing was found.
After Full Scan: The $F00010 folder was found. They contained all files and folders with correct names. They were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
Immediately found an exFAT partition of the correct size.
After Open Volume: All folders and files with correct names were found and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
Immediately found a FAT32 partition of the correct size.
After Open Volume: All folders and files with correct file names were found and successfully recovered. The Error reading messages appeared while recovering 4 mp3 files, but those files were recovered successfully.
Damaged partition (NTFS): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: The program threw the “There is no valid MFT Start Cluster” message.
After Full Scan (scanning the partition): The previous NTFS partition was found with all files and folders with correct names. Also, some such as AFPAfpInfo files were found. All test files were successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (ext4fs): 6.0Compare
Immediately found an exFAT partition of the correct size.
After Open Volume: All folders and files with correct names were found and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (HFS+): 6.0Compare
An HFS partition was immediately found, but it cannot be explored.
After Partition scan: All files and folders were found with correct names and successfully recovered.
Damaged partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
Immediately found an exFAT partition of the correct size.
After Open Volume: All folders and files with correct file names were found and successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (NTFS): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: The previous NTFS partition was found without a disk scan. All files and folders with correct names were found in the $Root folder and successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: The previous exFAT partition (with an incorrect file size 34.4 GB) was found without a disk scan. All files and folders were found with correct names and correctly recovered.
Deleted partition (FAT32): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: Three FAT32 and one NTFS partitions were found without disk scan. One FAT32 partition contained all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Deleted partition (exFAT): 6.0Compare
After Open Volume: The exFAT partition was found without disk scan with all correct files and folders. All of them were successfully recovered.
Windows LDM RAID 5 Recovery: 0.0Compare
The program detected the RAID5 parents, but could not automatically detect and/or recognize the LDM RAID 5.
Windows LDM RAID 5 Recovery with One Unsynced Disk: 0.0Compare
The program detected the RAID5 parents, but could not automatically detect and/or recognize the LDM RAID 5.
Windows Storage Space (WSS) Recovery: 0.0Compare
The program doesn’t support Windows Storage Spaces, and there’s no way to create it directly or indirectly.
Windows Storage Space (WSS) Recovery with One Missing Disk: 0.0Compare
The program doesn’t support Windows Storage Spaces, and there’s no way to create it directly or indirectly.
Mac RAID 0 Recovery: 1.0Compare
The program could recognize the Mac RAID 0 after a long scan but reconstructed it incorrectly. Files were found but they appeared damaged after recovery.
Mac APFS Fusion Drive Recovery: 2.5Compare
The program could not recognize the Mac APFS Fusion Drive. Separate scans of the disks revealed some raw files, which were successfully recovered.
Linux MD RAID 5 Recovery: 0.0Compare
Could not automatically detect and recognize the Linux MD RAID 5.
Linux LVM2 RAID 0 Recovery: 1.0Compare
The Linux LVM2 RAID 0 was immediately found but with incorrect parameters. Additional scan didn’t find correct ones. No files or folders could be recovered.
Automatic RAID 5 Parameter Detection: 5.5Compare
The correct RAID parameters were found after a relatively long scan. All files and folders were found and successfully recovered.
Speed of SSD disk scan: 5.5Compare
7 min 48 sec (462 GB/h) – disk scan (Full Scan) and search for all file systems and raw files.
7 min 38 sec (472 GB/h) – disk scan (Full Scan) and search for NTFS/FAT and raw files.
