A Versatile Mac Recovery Tool

very good
key review info
application features
  • Multiple recovery methods
  • (5 more, see all...)

Digital data is sometimes more important than material goods and losing it leads to some pretty stressful situations. Accidental file deletion can, fortunately, be dealt with almost entirely nowadays using the right file recovery tools.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery is one of those solutions that offer both basic and advanced file recovery methods. It comes as a free edition with limited features, as a full version ($99 / €74) for advanced file recovery and as a premium edition ($129 / €97) with remote assistance.



We’ve tested a full version and the installation went smoothly, as it consisted of a simple drag-and-drop to our Applications folder. Note that the system administrator password is required before opening the app.



As for the resource consumption, it occupied 20 MB of our Mac's disk space, about 3% CPU power and 80 MB RAM in standby, but reached 100% CPU power and over 100 MB RAM while scanning.



The Looks

Stellar Phoenix MDR features a basic and easy-to-use OS X-styled user interface. From the main window, you can access the recovery modes, create a new image (for backing-up entire drives, volumes or certain regions) or resume the last scan.



The utility also includes separate windows for each recovery mode and one for the Preferences window. Overall, the visual aspect is not impressive, but it almost feels like you're working with a native Apple application.



However, we've detected a possible glitch in the interface during our tests. When switching between recovery modes, the interface flashed for almost a second, which was a little bothering.



The Works

Stellar Phoenix MDR is designed to recover the lost / accidentally deleted files on your Mac's drive, CD / DVD or even from your iPod device. It offers enough recovery methods to suit everyone's needs.



The methods are "Quick Recovery" (a fast, but not so efficient option), "Deleted Recovery" (for restoring accidentally erased data), "Formatted Media / Lost File Recovery" (specialized on recovering files from formatted drives) and "Lost / Deleted Volumes."



Furthermore, Stellar Phoenix MDR also provides a "Photo Recovery" mode that restores images, video, and audio files as well. The "Raw Recovery" method can be used for damaged drives as it performs a deeper scan.

Another aspect of the utility, which makes it more accessible, is that Stellar Phoenix MDR automatically detects your drives and partitions. After selecting the location to be analyzed, simply press the "Scan" button to begin.

Stellar Phoenix MDR offers support for restoring quite a large number of file types that include video, audio, image, documents, archives, text, apps and others. What's more, the file types to be detected in each recovery mode can be specified from the Preferences window. 



For advanced users, the application provides an option to add headers, i.e. file signatures for recognizing additional file types when scanning.



Moreover, the Filter tab from the preferences allows you to exclude various file extensions when scanning data. For instance, you can choose to exclude document files (TXT, PDF, RTF, etc.) from the recovery process.

The "Quick Recovery" mode performs a superficial scan of the target location. In our tests, we could not recover data from an HFS partition using this option, although a few leftover files have been detected.



On the other hand, the "Deleted Recovery" method worked almost flawlessly. Scanning a 25 GB partition took about 30 minutes and roughly 10 minutes for recovering 3.27 GB of data. Out of approximately 600 files, during a recovery session, it restored over 90% of the data.



To test the application's ability to restore files from formatted partitions, we’ve performed a format using Disk Utility's fastest erase option and scanned it with the "Formatted Media / Lost File Recovery" mode. Surprisingly, the scan results showed no signs of our original files (of diverse types) and only a few hidden files were displayed.

However, the utility could eventually detect and recover files from our formatted partition through the "Photo Recovery" and "Deleted Recovery" modes. As expected, the "Raw Recovery" mode returned the same results.

In any case, Stellar Phoenix MDR detected and restored almost each and every file we've deleted. The scan / recovery speed was not extraordinary, but normal for such a job.



Furthermore, the deleted files were neatly displayed into folders and subfolders by category. This made searching for particular files much easier.



Once a scan was finished, we could preview each file using OS X’s QuickLook tool. This clearly pointed to the fact that our files could be safely recovered. The utility also did well when we applied various file filters. 



Keep in mind, though, that Stellar Phoenix MDR does not restore files on the same partition and it's not even recommended that you use the same drive. If you choose the same drive for storing the recovered files, there is a chance that some of them might not be rescued.


The Good


The application can be easily operated even by less computer-savvy users. The interface is straightforward and performing a scan is effortless.



We could recover a large percentage of our erased / lost files rather quickly. Moreover, Stellar Phoenix MDR offers plenty of filtering options for achieving the desired results.



The Bad


The "Formatted Media / Lost File Recovery" mode was not able to rescue important data from our formatted partition. In addition, we've spotted an interface glitch when switching between recovery methods.



The Truth

All in all, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery did not disappoint as far as restoring data on our Mac was concerned. Although not all files were undeleted, most of them were safely put back to a location on our drive.



Even though the application is not very polished, it can definitely help you recover accidentally erased files with a little patience.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 3
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 3


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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