Tenorshare Data Recovery Professional Review

fair
key review info
application features
  • Straightforward UI
  • (6 more, see all...)

From developer Tenorshare comes a program dedicated to retrieving lost or deleted files under difficult circumstances, such as formatted or damaged drives.

Data Recovery Professional is able to look for data on hard drives and various mass storage devices like memory cards or pen drives. It offers six recovery methods wrapped up in a clear-cut UI.

The trial edition does not have an expiration date, so it can be used for unlimited time. However, it restricts data extraction to 500MB. The full version can be purchased for $39.95 / €33. Installing the app is done quickly and effortlessly.

The interface is pretty simple to work with, thanks to the wizard-like approach. The first panel shows useful information pertaining to supported devices and file types, along with the six recovery modes: "Deleted," "Formatted," "Partition," "Raw," "Resume" and "Wizard."

Deleted Recovery handles files that were lost or deleted by emptying Recycle Bin or using the Shift+Delete key combination, while Format Recovery deals with data eliminated by formatting drives.

If any of these two methods fails, RAW Recovery attempts deeper scans using a file signature search algorithm for all files or just deleted ones. The principle is the same in all three cases. After the target partition is selected from a list, the scanning procedure begins.

Identified files are broken down into types such as Internet and web-related, documents, videos, graphics, audio, miscellaneous and unknown extensions, and they can be also found in their original location. There are three viewing modes available: thumbnail, detailed, and detailed with thumbnails. File properties include name, size, date of creation and last modification. Specific items may be looked for using a search function, while images can be previewed.
In order to extract data, it is suffice to make a file/folder selection and establish the output destination, as long as it is different from the source drive. Tenorshare offers to open the files' directory when the task finishes. Instead of extracting files, it is possible to save the scan results for resuming the task at a later time via Resume Recovery, and return to the previous step.
Another data retrieval method in Tenorshare's application, Partition Recovery focuses on restoring corrupt or damaged partitions to their original state. It is able to perform normal or quick scans, as well as to back up and restore the partition table.

The physical drive is scanned, and a list shows the name, size, file system, type and status of each found partition. The remaining steps are the same as the ones previously described.

Wizard Recovery makes room for file type customization before scanning starts. Apart for looking for everything, Tenorshare can be instructed to find only images, audio, tracks, video clips, documents, or emails. This method makes it possible to choose other locations instead of drives, such as removable media, specific directories, the desktop, or "My Documents."

Quick scans imply that files are found and extracted with their original folder structure, while deep ones put the file signature search algorithm to use and leave original file names aside. Between the two, the last scan mode is slower but more thorough.

During our evaluation, we used a drive with 10.24GB occupied size spread across 184 files to test Tenorshare Data Recovery's efficiency, on an Intel Core i5-3470, CPU 3.20GHz, 12GB RAM, 500GB Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 7200RPM, on Windows 8.1 Pro.

After a Shift+Delete file deletion, the program was able to identify 10.03GB in 181 files, thus delivering very good results. However, it rapidly took a turn for the worse after quick format mode when only 7 files with 20.08MB in total were discovered. These exact results were the outcome after normal format too. We attempted to remedy the situation by running RAW recovery mode in deep scan (after normal format); however, Tenorshare came back empty-handed.


The Good

The application is cross-platform and compatible with all popular Windows versions, including 8 and 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit). It has a very intuitive interface and includes user documentation. Scan jobs are performed rapidly, while CPU and RAM are used within normal parameters.

Scan results can be saved to file to resume extraction jobs at a more convenient time, as well as to compare results in various scenarios. Tenorshare delivers very good results after Shift+Delete file elimination and supports media storage devices.

The Bad

The previewing feature worked in few cases during our evaluation. The app was not able to extract all files. Some were marked as damaged (although this was not indicated prior to extraction), while part of the remaining ones could not be accessed after extraction.

It is not possible to cancel extraction or view elapsed/remaining time, schedule the computer to automatically shut down on task completion, or customize file types by format in wizard recovery mode. Multiple languages are not implemented.

The Truth

Although Tenorshare Data Recovery strives to bring fast and effective solutions to recovering data in difficult conditions, it has a long way to go.

NOTE: For giveaway information, visit Tenorshare Data Recovery Profesional's giveaway page.

user interface 4
features 2
ease of use 5
pricing / value 2


final rating 2
Editor's review
fair
 
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