Stellar Data Recovery Free Edition for Mac. It is one of the best free Mac data recovery software that people mostly pick. “Old wine tastes better with age.”. And Stellar Data Recovery fulfills this adage by serving the world from the past 26 years with complete customer satisfaction. 10 of the Best Free Data Recovery Software for Mac Users in 2020. If your Mac device is on the fritz, PhotoRec by CG Security can prove to be a powerful free Mac data recovery tool that has the advantage of being open-source. That is, anyone can make changes to the source code of PhotoRec. In fact, it can recover most common file.
Today, we almost save everything on our digital device, such as laptops and PCs. That makes accessing information much easier than ever before. However, every coin has two sides. Digital files are vulnerable and easy to be damaged or deleted. Is it possible to recover lost files from our hard drives? What we can do if a file is corrupted or removed?
A free data recovery tool is able to get back files lost due to various reasons. Considering it is difficult to discover the best free data recovery software, we will share the top 10 list to recover lost data without paying a penny.
Data Recovery Software
Part 1: Top 5 free data recovery software for Windows
Top 1: Recuva
Advantages:
1. Recover crashed or deleted files from internal hard drives, external drives, optical discs or memory cards.
2. Undelete data and files from iPod.
3. Offer a portable version and not reqire installtion.
4. Available to Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and older versions.
5. Pack a lot of advacned options and preview lost files before recovery.
Disadvantages:
1. The free data recovery software, Recuva, is not available to Mac OS X.
2. It may contain virus or malware if you download from unsafe sources.
Top 2: Puran File Recovery
Advantages:
1. Able to identify more files than other free data recovery software.
2. Recover lost partitions if they are not working anymore.
3. Provide a portable form for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
4. Work with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Disadvantages:
1. This free data recovery tool is only free for home use but not commercial.
2. Developers have stopped updating since 2016.
Top 3: Glary Undelete
Advantages:
1. Pack a user-friendly interface and pretty easy to use.
2. Provide multiple modes to view lost files, like Folders, Explorer and more.
3. Display the state of each file to increase the chances of file recovery.
4. Compatible with Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP.
Disadvantages:
1. The free data recovery software has not updated in a long time.
2. It tries to download extra software when installing and setup.
Top 4: FreeUndelete
Advantages:
1. Restore lost files from a variety of storage devices.
2. Integrate an intuitive interface and easy to find what you want.
3. Show all files recoverable separately to increase success of file recovery.
4. Recover entire folders at one time or get back selective files.
5. Work on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Disadvantages:
1. Some custom options are not available in the free version of the data recovery software.
2. You cannot preview lost files before recovery.
Top 5: Wise Data Recovery
Advantages:
1. Scan the entire computer and look for lost files.
2. Work for internal hard disks, USB devices, memory cards and other removal devices.
3. Find deleted files quickly with the instant search function.
4. Tell you the likelihood of file recovery by rating Good, Poor, Very Poor or Lost.
Disadvantages:
1. This free data recovery tool will destroy the original folder structure.
2. It does not work on Mac or Linux.
Part 2: Top 5 free data recovery software for Mac
Top 1: Disk Drill for Mac
Advantages:
1. Scan entire hard drives to look for lost and deleted files.
2. Available to both local hard disk and removal devices.
3. Offer a Quick Scan and a Deep Scan functionality.
4. Recover files from crashed disk, formatted drives, and more.
5. Support over 300 file types covering photos, videos, documents and more.
Disadvantages:
1. The free version of the data recovery software only lets you recover 500MB data.
2. It does not offer the preview functionality.
Top 2: EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free
Advantages:
1. Back up scan results for restoring lost files later.
2. EaseUS Data Recovery works well on Windows and Mac OS X.
3. Manage recoverable files by file type, data and name.
4. Preview files after scanning for selective restoration.
Disadvantages:
1. This free data recovery program only recovers 500MB data.
2. If you want to restore unlimited data, you have to purchase the paid version.
Top 3: Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery
Advantages:
1. Completely free of charge without any restrictions.
2. Recover unlimited amount of data without financial investment.
3. Support HFS/HFS+, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXFAT and other file systems.
4. Display all files recoverable after the scanning phase.
Disadvantages:
1. The free data recovery software is not available to the most current version of Mac.
2. It has not been updated for a long time.
Top 4: TestDisk for Mac
Advantages:
1. Open source and be licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
2. Run on most operating systems, including the latest Mac OS X.
3. Diagnose drive problems for novices and average persons.
4. Offer online custom supports for free.
Disadvantages:
1. The advanced custom options are only suitable for expert users.
2. This free data recovery tool relies on command line UI.
Top 5: PhotoRec
Advantages:
1. Undelete files from Mac hard drives or portable devices.
2. Recover oceans of deleted files at one time.
3. Support Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 7/XP/Vista and older.
4. Available to a wide range of file types in addition to photos.
Disadvantages:
1. This free data recovery tool cannot selectively recover certain files.
2. It uses command line and not offer graphical interface.
Part 3: Best cross-platform data recovery software: Aiseesoft Data Recovery
Aiseesoft Data Recovery is a professional data recovery program with extensive features:
- Recover files from hard drives, memory cards, and USB flash drives with one click.
- Support photos, videos, documents, email and other data types.
- Perform deep scan if you cannot find lost files after a quick scan.
- Utilize hardware acceleration technology to offer the best user experiences.
- Let you preview recoverable data by types for selective restoration.
Actually, Aiseesoft also offers some other free data recovery software from iPhone and Android. Check it in details here to see best free iPhone messages recovery.
Conclusion
This post has shared top 10 free data recovery software to help you get back lost, deleted, corrupted files from Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Mac OS X. You can pick your favorite tool based on our reviews. On the other hand, if you are looking for a professional way to get back your data, Aiseesoft Data Recovery is the best option.
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April 11, 2019 17:00 / Posted by Andrew Miller to File Recovery
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Recover Mac Data
Summary - After we tried several data recovery software for Mac and took all things into consideration, we will show you the best data recovery software for Mac to recover lost or deleted files, regardless of what storage device they were on. Below is the quick navigation.
Lost Precious Data? What You Can Do
It’s really a great pain for us to lose important files from Mac or other storage devices due to many situations, but no one can avoid. Now, you’ve lost precious data, how to get it back?
If you always backup data, you can recover it from Time Machine or other backup locations. Otherwise, you’ll need a piece of Mac data recovery software that aims at recovering deleted or lost data from your storage device.
But why can data recovery software recover them? In fact, the files deleted from your computer are not permanently removed. They still remain on the hard drive as long as they are not overwritten with new data. So you still have chance to get them back.
There are many data recovery tools in the market, what is the best data recovery software for Mac users? So here, we’ll show you things you need to know before performing data recovery, how to select best data recovery software, and an in-depth review of the best data recovery software for Mac.
Before Using Data Recovery Software…
- After you lost files, don’t add any new data to the hard drive where you want to recover files. Further writing to the hard drive may overwrite the files you are trying to recover.
- Do not install the data recovery software on the drive and also be sure to save the recovered files someplace other than the drive.
- There is no guarantee that you can recover all files. There are many things like encryption, secure erase, file corruption, etc., can prevent data recovery software from successfully recovering the files. So it is possible that the deleted or lost files cannot be recovered.
- Results may vary. When attempting an advanced recovery, you will usually get files back with different names, formats.
- Beware of free data recovery software. Developing and distributing the data recovery software for free is in fact an easiest way to spread viruses, worms and Trojans. Usually these programs are used to access codes to bank accounts, email and other online services accounts, obtrusively advertise products and to illegally access your system's resources. Not every free service or software is bad. But it is always good to check the things twice in order to protect your data and sensitive information.
How to Choose Best Data Recovery Software for Mac
As a piece of best data recovery software for Mac, it should have capabilities as below:
- Security. Best data recovery software shouldn’t have adware or malware attached to it. And it should be downloaded from https protocol website.
- Easy of Use. It should be very user-friendly and can be handy for novices.
- Scan & Recovery Speed. It’s hard to find any correlation between speed and the percentage of successfully recovered files but in fact a high scanning speed simply means that you’ll recover your lost data faster.
- Recover All Types of Data. It should support the recovery of file types such as Photos, Videos, Documents, Audio, Emails, Archives and many more.
- Support Storage Devices. As data loss can always happen to external devices, so best data recovery software must be able to recover data from internal as well as external drives like pen drive, SSD, USB drive, SD card, etc.
- Support File Systems. No doubt that Mac data recovery should be compatible with file systems such as HFS and HFS+. And a better one can also support other file systems like NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ext4 and more.
- Help & Support. The best data recovery software should come with exceptional support like FAQs, manuals, and tutorials to make the recovery process as smooth as possible.
- Preview before Recovery. Good data recovery software should offer you the option to preview your files before initiating the recovery process. Thus you can directly know what can be recovered and which one you need to recover.
The Best Data Recovery Software for Mac
Based on the above 8 factors for selecting best Mac data recovery software, Cisdem Data Recovery would be your top pick. We have tried at least 8 pieces of data recovery software for Mac and compared them with each other to see which offers the best performance, specification and value for money.
And the result showed that Cisdem Data Recovery is the best data recovery tool for Mac users. This software allows you to scan and find the lost data on your drive, identify the types of files and help you recover them.
Is Cisdem Data Recovery safe and easy to use?
Yes. It is 100% clean without any virus or malware, provided that you download it from the official website. You can click below download button to download it safely or click the safe link to try it for free: https://download.cisdem.com/cisdem-datarecovery.dmg. And it only performs read-only procedures on your device, so it is secure as well and won’t do any damage to the device.
And it is very user-friendly. You can recover data in three steps. Firstly, choose a scan mode. Secondly, select the drive where you want to recover and tap “Scan”. Thirdly, preview each file and recover the files you need. It’s pretty easy to use.
| Specifications of Cisdem Data Recovery | |
|---|---|
| Supported Data Loss Situations | Recover data under many data loss situations like improper operation, power off, factory reset, accidental deletion, formation, virus attack, etc. |
| Supported File Types | Photos, videos, music, documents, archives, packages, and many other files. Also supports multiples formats of each type of file. |
| Supported Storage Devices | Internal Mac hard drives, external hard drives, SSD, digital cameras, iPods, USB flash drives, MP3 players, memory cards, pen drive and more. |
| Supported File Systems | HFS, HFS+, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4 and NTFS. |
Other powerful features of Cisdem Data Recovery
- 5 Recovery modes: Basic Data Recovery, Trash Recovery, Formatted Drive Recovery, External Drive Recovery and Advanced Data Recovery. Users can choose any mode according to different situations leading to lost files.
- Estimate Scanning Time. This app shows you how long the whole scanning process will take. During the scanning, you can do other things or have some tea.
- Preview before recovery. You can preview each file before you recover it.
- Fast scanning and recovery.
- Free for you to scan data. This app is totally free to find the files you want. No files recovered, no cost.
Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac Reviews
What we like about Cisdem Data Recovery is the interface. It is adequate for all levels of computer users and the recovery process is quite straightforward. You can make necessary changes on the specific data you prefer to recover in advanced settings. This can be very handy if you only need a few GBs of data than 100GB+!
We also exceptionally like the file preview option, so you can check if the files you have found are the ones you want to restore. Cisdem Data Recovery works with all recent versions of macOS including Sierra and High Sierra. It is definitely a good Mac data recovery tool worth considering if you’re dealing with recovering precious data.
Price: $49.99 for lifetime license
Platform: macOS 10.12 and later
Pros: Intuitive interface, free upgrade, easy to use, powerful and flexible, safe to use, read-only; preview before recovery; offer a trial version for scanning and data checking. Have exceptional performance on Mac. The cheapest data recovery software in the market.
Cons: It has no version for Windows users and some files couldn’t be previewed.
Review from Softpedia: Taking all things into consideration, Cisdem Data Recovery is an efficient and user-friendly application for the Mac that can help you deal with the awful situations when you have lost precious files, regardless of what storage device they were on.
Review from Business: Cisdem DataRecovery Mac hard drive recovery software is inexpensive and has fast scanning and recovery speeds. It does a great job recovering image files.
Other Mac Data Recovery Software You Can Consider
Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery
Price: $99
Platform: macOS 10.6 or later
Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery empowers you to recover deleted photos, documents, videos, audio, archives, messages and emails from a range of storage devices such as Internal/External Hard Drives, Memory Cards, and Flash Drives. This Mac data recovery software provides different scanning modes to scan your storage devices and offers advanced filter recovery options for you to choose before recovering your files. Additionally, it is equipped with 'Create image' features that help to recover data from hard drive that has bad blocks.
Advantages:
- Be capable of recovering deleted files.
- Support recovery of files from encrypted disk drives.
- Supply different data recovery options.
Disadvantages:
- The scanning and recovery speeds are much slower than Cisdem Data Recovery.
- The price is much more expensive compared to other brand data recovery tool with the same features.
- Can’t help you repair hard drives and its user interface looks dull.
Disk Drill
Price: $89 for one user, $399 for enterprise
Platforms: macOS 10.8.5+
Disk Drill is a piece of feature-rich data recovery software for Mac that allows you to recover deleted files from internal and external hard drives, USB flash drives and other storage devices including iOS and Android devices. It also can create boot drive, backup and protect data or even clean up your Mac hard drive. It is claimed to be free data recovery software, but you can only recover up to 500M of lost data for free.
Advantages:
- Fast scanning speed.
- Excel at recovering photos and documents.
- Offer Windows version as well.
Disadvantages:
- No ability to scan for specific file types.
- Lacks advanced settings.
- Not good at recovering videos.
Mac Data Recovery Guru
Price: $49 for a limited time
Platform: macOS 10.6 or later
Mac Data Recovery Guru promises the most advanced file recovery yet, and it is also designed to recover deleted files from hard disk drives, USB flash drives and optical media. What really makes Data Recovery Guru shine is how incredibly easy it is to use. Simply select the storage device you want to recover files on, and click the “Start Scan” button. You can even preview the results in retrieves while the program continues to run.
Advantages:
- Very simple to use.
- An effective solution for recovering lost files.
Data Recovery Software Mac Os
Disadvantages:
- Can’t retrieve the original names of the files it recovers.
- The preview panel is a bit small for viewing text files.
- Interface could be more developed and the price is a little high.
MiniTool Mac Data Recovery
Price: $79 for personal license
Platform: macOS 10.5 or later
MiniTool Mac Data Recovery can help you recover pictures, music, videos, emails, documents, and other types of file from Mac computer or other external storage devices. It offers four recovery functional modules. Modules like Damaged Partition Recovery and Lost Partition Recovery do a great job in scanning not just a drive’s current partition elements, but also digging up past partition elements that may have been lost or formatted.
Advantages:
- Offer multiple licenses and free updates.
- Do a good job restoring lost photos and documents.
- Clean and easy to use, recommended for small business.
Disadvantages:
- Not outstanding in restoring videos and music.
- Scan and recovery speed for SSDs is slow.
DiskWarrior
Price: $119.95
Best Data Recovery Software Mac Free Downloads
Platforms: macOS 10.5.8 or later
Developed by Alsoft, DiskWarrior not only recovers deleted files on Mac, but it also rebuilds directories of corrupted disks. Rebuilding a directory can make files and partitions reappear and even recoup disk space. It detects drives for SMART errors and offers preventive maintenance to keep your Mac hard drives healthy.
Advantages:
- Useful hardware and maintenance tool.
- Rebuild directories and monitor errors of drives.
- User friendly.
Disadvantages:
- The OS X Recovery partition complicates booting into the utility.
- The price is much higher compared to other data recovery software.
Wondershare Data Recovery
Price: $75.95/month, $79.95/year, and $89.95/lifetime
Platforms: macOS 10.6 or later
Like above Mac data recovery software, Wondershare Data Recovery also can recover almost all formats of data including photos, videos, documents, etc. It claims to recover over 550 file formats from almost any internal Mac hard drives and other mountable removable devices. The trial version of this data recovery software has a 100MB file size limit. If you want to recover more data, you need to buy the full version and the price is not cheap.
Advantages:
- User friendly.
- Offer Windows version as well.
- Can recover files from Android phones.
Disadvantages:
- It is not budget-friendly.
- The scan speed is low.
- Not all files can be found and previewed.
Best Freeware Mac Data Recovery Software
Where Software Fails, These Tips May Help
If you can't recover data from your Mac or other drives with a data recovery tool, then you can consider getting it back by an in-lab service. In-lab data recovery services are always at high price, but it worth a try when data recovery software fails. There are many professional data recovery service providers like Secure, Seagate, Kroll Ontrack, Data Rescue, etc.
Mac Data Recovery Tool
To recover your data by in-lab data recovery service, first you’d better contact with the provider to know how much it will cost. And you need to delivery your device to the provider if you can accept the price. At last, wait for the provider to recover your data and send back the device.
Free File Recovery For Mac
Last but not least, backup your important files regularly. There are many ways to backup your files. You can backup them to Time Machine drive or external drive. Cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive can also be used to backup important data online. Thus, you can always get lost files back without the help of data recovery software or services.