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Data means different things to different people but there is a universal truth no one can deny– data is precious. This is why losing data either by accident or mistake can be a devastating experience. Thanks to data recovery software programs, there is always hope for accidentally deleted files and even formatted drives. For years, Stellar Data Recovery has been a trusted name to reckon with and the first time I had the chance to use the professional version of their popular data recovery solution for macOS was about two years ago and you read all about it here.
Data recovery for Mac does what it’s designed to do– which is to recover lost files — but there is more to this solution. The updated version 10 I now have come with a plethora of tools that actually protect you against data loss, and this is one thing lacking in most data recovery solutions I’ve come across.
I have to confess that the first time I used this software, the UI looked rather too simple. The UI was simplified and this hasn’t changed. I mean, come on, data loss is a serious situation and I was expecting a program with a complex user interface that has the potential to be difficult to use. I was wrong, absolutely wrong. Even if you’ve never used a data recovery software before, you should be able to effectively use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac. It’s as simple as using the default settings or customizing the scan settings to exclude data you don’t need to be recovered.
One thing to keep in mind is that the macOS requires you to key in your password the first time you run the software. This is to allow the program to make the necessary changes to allow the recovery of lost data.
After selecting your scan settings, you have to select the affected drive. Here you should see a list of your internal drives and connected external storage. In my case, I needed to recover some data on an external storage. The software didn’t detect it at first, but a restart fixed this:
Toggling on the Deep Scan option isn’t necessary, but it does help when there has been a severe corruption and you need the scan to go deeper than it normally should. This is much slower but gives your recovery session a much better chance.
After the scan has run, you should be able to see a list of recoverable files. You can preview them one after the other before selecting the ones you want recovered. However, you can only instantly preview files with size below 100 MB in the full version and 10 MB in the demo. If you’re trying to preview larger files, it takes a while before it is generated.
Getting back your files is as easy as hitting the Recover button and choosing your desired location. From my experience, this program works flawlessly and gets back lost files.
Other useful features
As mentioned earlier, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac doesn’t just recover lost files, it also comes with in-built features to prevent this.
Create drive image
With this feature, you can create the exact .dmg image of your drive sector by sector. It’s like having a replica of your drive as a native Apple Disk Image.
Drive monitor
This feature lets you monitor the health of your drive. It displays information like the temperature, overall health, bad sectors, and more. You can set a warning temperature and a temperature at which your system automatically shuts down to prevent an irreparable damage. Apart from this, you can also use this tool to clone your disk to another disk, sector by sector.
Create recovery drive
To prevent against data loss in case your Mac fails to boot up, Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac lets you create a recovery drive on a USB stick. Keep in mind that this process requires you to disable SIP but considering the benefit of having a recovery drive, it’s worth it. Learn more.
Conclusion
Although this version costs $79.99 which some might consider expensive, it’s worth every cent. Stellar Data Recovery Professional doesn’t just effectively recover lost data, it prevents data loss and also gets you prepared with the array of in-built tools you get along with the purchase.