Best Overall Hard Drive Repair Software: Disk Drill Choosing the best overall hard drive repair software was easy. Disk Drill is by far the most modern data recovery suite on the market, both in terms of its design and its features. If you're looking for the best data recovery software of the year 2018 which are free, you're at the right place. By using these top-rated tools for Windows, Mac, and Linux, you'll be able get.
If you are looking for the best Mac data recovery software to get back your accidentally deleted or lost files, here’s the place for you.
We understand how frustrating and desperate it can be when you couldn’t find some important files saved on your Mac computer or an external drive. Those files are so precious that you simply can’t afford to lose them for whatever reasons.
We tested more than 30 so-called data recovery apps on our Mac, and picked the best ones we thought are worth your time trying — though you probably know that your success rate may vary.
No one can guarantee 100% recovery rate, and there’s no such magic software. Some Mac data recovery software are better than others, we help you narrow down the apps that are worth your time or money.
If one of the Mac data recovery apps works for you, that’s great! If not, your last option might be opting for professional data recovery services which usually are very pricey.
Anyway, the best way to avoid data loss is to make backups on a regular basis. You are on a Mac, Time Machine should be your first option. We also recommend you keep multiple copies of these files by syncing them to the cloud or transferring to an external drive.
As they say, backup of backups! Trust us, it’s worth it.
Please note: the apps listed below are for recovering files from your Mac disk drive or an external storage media such as a hard drive or SD card. You can NOT use them to attempt retrieving data from a smartphone. Instead, read our best data recovery reviews for iPhones, iPads, or Android. If you use a PC, also check out our best Windows data recovery software.
Quick Summary
Without keeping you waiting, here’s a brief summary of our recommendations. You can click the links below to learn more about each Mac data recovery app, if you prefer to start right away.
Best Free Data Recovery Software for Mac:
Best Paid Data Recovery Software for Mac:
Other Alternatives to Consider:
Best Mac Data Recovery Software: What to Consider?
Here are the criteria we used to test and narrow down the options. In our opinion, the best Mac data recovery software should be free of virus/malware, easy to use, able to find and recover as many file types as possible, provides supportive tutorials or troubleshooting guides, and be compatible with the latest macOS version.
Security
We had an initial list of data recovery apps, mostly need to be downloaded from its official websites. We installed each app on our MacBook Pro (based on macOS Mojave). We then ran the app and see if macOS pops up any security warning. This helps tell whether the app contains any malicious processes. Also, we evaluate whether the software performs read-only procedures, which is important to protect the source drive.
Recovery Capability
![Best free disk recovery software for mac Best free disk recovery software for mac](https://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/Resources/diskwarriorscreen.png)
We tried to mimic each data loss scenario though it’s very unlikely that we can do so. We prepared a folder filled with common files such as images, videos, documents, etc. We first saved them to desktop, then deleted them and emptied Mac Trash. After that, we tested each Mac data recovery software to scan the disk and locate any recoverable files, followed by evaluating several things: time needed to finish a scan, percentage of files recovered, whether the files found are intact.
Ease of Use
Data recovery is complex, so can be a data recovery app. However, the majority of Mac users aren’t tech-savvy. We gave those well-designed apps more weight. If a piece of software is too complicated to navigate, we consider its usability to be low thus discount its score. We tend not to recommend this app unless it has other merits.
Tutorials/Support
We examine each software developer/provider to see if they offer up-to-date tutorials or troubleshooting guides for users, as this helps users better understand the app and increase the confidence to use it. Also, whether we can contact the developer/provider if we run into any issues/bugs during the data recovery process. This can be seen on the developer’s websites, e.g. whether they can be reached via email, live chat, or even phone calls.
macOS Compatibility
If a Mac data recovery app isn’t compatible with the latest macOS Mojave (soon macOS Catalina), we removed it from our list in the first step. This is pretty straightforward because the software probably hasn’t been updated for quite a while. It’s a waste of time to install the app only to find it doesn’t work, let alone the security risks associated with it.
The Best Data Recovery Apps for Mac in 2019: Our Picks
All the apps recommended below are all 100% safe to install, and they are compatible with macOS Mojave.
1. TestDisk (Free)
TestDisk is free Mac data recovery app designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again. It’s suitable for when these issues are caused by malware/virus, faulty software, etc. You can also use TestDisk to repair file system errors. Together with the sister app PhotoRec, which is mainly used to retrieve deleted files, the two apps developed by CGSecurity are probably the best free Mac data recovery software out there. Although one thing that may hold many people from using it is unlike normal GUI software, both TestDisk and PhotoRec are command line tool — you’ll have to learn how to navigate using your Mac keyboards instead of mouse/cursor.
2. Stellar Mac Data Recovery Professional ($79.99)
![Recovery Recovery](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125377231/868189913.png)
Boast itself as “the best data recovery software to recover deleted files”, Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac does offer a number of great features for you to maximize chances of file recovery. You can use it to recover deleted or lost files under a variety of scenarios, e.g. emptying Trash, deleted volumes and formatted drives, lost backup data from Time Machine drive. Besides Macintosh drives, it is able to scan a wide range of external storage devices such as USB, SSD, SD, CF, ex-HDDs, etc. The demo version allows you to scan and preview files found, a license code will be needed if you intend to save those files.
3. Exif Untrasher (Free)
Best Hard Disk Repair Tool For Mac
Exif Untrasher is more like a Mac photo recovery software rather than a data recovery app. Because you can only use it to retrieve JPEG photos — NOT other file types. Also, you can only run it to scan external storage devices as “Macintosh HD” is greyed out. The developer claims Exif Untrasher has been successfully used to get back erased photos from various cameras, smartphones and tablets from such as Apple, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, Fuji, Minolta, Panasonic, Pentax, Ricoh and others.
4. R-Studio Data Recovery for Mac ($79.99)
Built by R-tools Technology (an old software company dedicated to providing data security solutions since 2000), R-Studio is a sophisticated Mac data recovery tool aimed at recovering files from FAT/NTFS/ReFS, APFS/HFS+/HFS, UFS1/UFS2 and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS partitions. The raw file recovery can also be used for heavily damaged or unknown file systems. PCWorld and FinancesOnline reviewed the app and gave it 4 out of 5, 9.2 out of 10 ratings respectively.
5. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac (Free, 2GB)
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a different type of free Mac data recovery software, because the Free edition allows you to recover up to 2GB of data without any restrictions. Otherwise, you’ll need to upgrade to Professional version that costs $89.95 which allows you to recover any amount of data and comes with free lifetime technical support. CNET, PCWorld, and TechRadar all gave it this app a high rating.
6. Remo Recover Mac ($59.97+)
Remo Recover (Mac) is another Mac data recovery software worth exploring. The app has built-in a comprehensive scanning algorithm that helps find and recover deleted files or files lost due to missing volumes, and re-partitioned Mac drives. It has three editions: Basic, Media and Pro. While the Basic edition costs $59.97, Media edition $69.97, and Pro edition $179.97. We recommend you take the trial version first before making a decision to purchase any license.
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7. Prosoft Data Rescue ($99)
After newly two decades in business, Prosoft continues to offer one of the best Mac data recovery tools in the market — Data Rescue. It’s super simple to use, allowing you to recover lost and deleted files even from internal or external drives that no longer appear/respond. Supported file types include your precious photos, videos, important business or school documents, and more. What we like most about it is the “Clone” feature which you can use to duplicate a potentially failing drive onto a healthy drive.
8. RecoverIt for Mac ($89.95)
Formerly known as Wondershare Data Recovery, recoverit is the re-branded app that provides an all-around rescue solutions when you accidentally deleted, formatted or lost files and other data loss disasters on your Mac machine. We found some of the words used on their official website over-promised about delivering results, e.g. “Any data lost issues happened from Mac OS can be solved easily with Recoverit Mac data recovery”, this is simply not true. Nevertheless, recoverit is a well-designed app that’s very intuitive to use.
9. Mac Data Recovery Guru ($89.73)
The name of this app is pretty straightforward, which gave us quite some hope for its quality. After testing the app, we’d say Mac Data Recovery Guru is quite different from other apps listed here. First of all, we ran into a “bug” while launching the app because you’ll have to manually add it to Applications in order to open and use it. We do appreciate the simple text guidance given in the main interface, and all you have to do is select the drive on the left panel, click “Start Scan” button, then preview found files, and hit “Recover”, all are completed in one screen.
10. MiniTool Mac Data Recovery ($69)
Don’t be fooled by its original name “MiniTool Mac Data Recovery V3.0 Free”, this app isn’t actually free. When you download the free version (also called Demo version), it says at the bottom line that you can only recover 1 MB data which in our opinion means nothing because even a picture can take a few MBs. Four recovery modes: Undelete Recovery, Damaged Partition Recovery, Lost Partition Recovery, and Digital Media Recovery are clearly displayed on the main interface. MiniTool says it allows you to recover almost all types of files from internal Mac hard drive, USB disk, memory card, and other storage media.
Andreas is an Apple and Microsoft fanboy who works with his Mac and lives with a PC at home. While he is not reading technology journals, you’ll probably find him playing online games with friends or hiking in the wild.
Summary
You may need to perform hard drive recovery after accidentally deleting important files from your hard disk or formatting the device. To recover files from your hard drive, you can use the reliable HDD recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It will help you do hard disk recovery in various data loss situations easily.
About Hard Drive Recovery
'Last night, when I was planning to continue with my paper, I could not find it anywhere. Then I remembered that the day before yesterday I deleted some useless files and documents from the hard disk and then I emptied the recycle bin immediately. Is there any way to get my lost files back?'
Actually, in addition to accidental deletion, there are many other situations in which you may need to perform hard drive recovery:
- You formatted the hard drive by accident or to solve problems like 'you need to format the disk in drive X before you can use it'
- You ran diskpart clean command on a hard disk and all the files and partitions were removed
- Your hard drive has a RAW file system and thus becomes inaccessible
- The hard disk is not showing files in Windows
- Your hard disk is crashed, damaged, corrupted, or dead
Generally, as long as your HDD is not physically damaged or broken like in the fifth situation, you can use disk recovery software to recover data from the hard drive. However, if your storage medium is dead or crashed, you are highly recommended to ask help from manual data recovery services.
The Tool You Need: Hard Drive Recovery Software
Why hard disk data can be recovered? Hard disk data recovery is possible with the data remanence feature, which means that data continues to exist on the hard disk drive even after it has been deleted or formatted. Although the lost files still exist on the disk, you have no entry to it. That why you need hard drive recovery software, like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, to access and retrieve your data.
- Recover all existing file types like photos, videos, audio files, emails, documents, Microsoft files, Adobe files..
- Recover data from after deletion, formatting, file system becoming RAW or inaccessible
- Recover data lost due to virus attack, OS crash, OS reinstallation, partition loss
This software fully supports these storage devices:
Supported storage media: Internal hard drive (HDD/SSD), External hard drive, Hybrid Hard Drive (SSDH), USB flash drive, SD card, CF Card, digital cameras, etc.
Supported hard disk brands: Seagate, SanDisk, Kingstone, Western Digital, Toshiba, Buffalo, LaCie, Samsung, Adata, G-Tech, etc.
How to Recover Files from Hard Drive
EaseUS data recovery software is widely popular for its usability. With it, you can perform hard drive data recovery with only a few simple clicks. Both video tutorial and detailed steps are provided below. Choose the one you prefer to learn how to perform hard drive recovery with ease.
How to start hard drive recovery with EaseUS hard drive recovery software:
Step 1. Choose a location to scan.
- Make sure that all hard drives were correctly connected and recognized by the software. Refresh an external hard disk if necessary.
- From which drive was data lost? Choose the relevant hard drive partition by left-clicking on it.
- Click the Scan button.
Step 2. Wait for the scanning results.
- It takes a while for EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to complete the scan, all depending on how much disk space is used on the selected hard drive.
- As you see, the 'Deleted files' result would come our first, later it's all lost data result.
- You can try to recover lost data as soon as it shows up even though the scanning process has not finished yet.
Step 3. Filter the result and recover data.
There are multiple ways for you to find the target files. Anyway, choose the quickest method.
- Lost Partition Files: more lost data are going to be found on your selected partition and put in this section if it was formatted or deleted in early time.
- Extra Files: a deep-scan result for raw files even though the file names and file paths have been lost.
- Filter: extremely useful when you're looking for a specific type of files such as pictures, documents, music, videos, etc.
Select files and click the Recover button. (You can always choose to preview files before purchasing a license code for a full hard drive data recovery. )
Top Questions About Hard Disk Data Recovery
There are two matters you may care about:
Question 1. How Much Does It Cost to Recover Hard Drive Data?
Do you think that data recovery will cost a lot?
In fact, the average hard drive recovery cost in 2019 is from zero to thousands of dollars. In such an information era with advanced technology, recovery of deleted or lost hard drive data has become so approachable.
In terms of the eventual cost of retrieving every bit of valuable data from a hard drive, you're strongly suggested to stay up to date with 'the latest came out hard drive recovery cost 2019' so that you can spend the least amount of money on recovering your disk data. Getting the best price on either data recovery service or online data recovery software to recover data from inaccessible, dead, damaged or corrupted hard disk.
Question 2. What Is the Best Hard Disk Data Recovery Software in 2019?
Speaking of hard disk data recovery software, you can Google it online, getting overwhelmed result of various tools provided by different producers. So how to effortlessly and quickly search a suitable one for your case becomes the next question.
And here is a list for you to check and quickly decide which tool to choose among the searching result:
- Is it fully compatible with your current system?
- Is it easy to use for hard disk recovery?
- Is it cheap? And does it have a complete refund policy? (This matters a lot, of course.)
- Is it easy to approach the tech support team, receiving immediately online tech support?
- How is the recovery quality? Is it easy to restore lost data from complex situations?
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard isn't the most expensive nor cheapest data recovery software. It is widely popular among users but it depends on you to check whether it's the most suitable choice for you. Honestly speaking, as long as your hard disk drive is not physically damaged and the lost data on the disk is not overwritten by new content, you can use it to recover data from your hard drive.
The Bottom Line
Data loss on hard drives and other storage devices occurs more frequently than you think. Although performing data recovery after data gets lost is useful, it's better to make a backup of your important files elsewhere. By doing so, you can recover data from the backup easily when data loss happens.