Disk Drill is a professional yet easy to use Mac data recovery software that makes recovery process simple with clear hints in every step. Moreover, Disk Drill comes with a built-in tutorial which explains data recovery with samples and references to the product’s user interface. Recover lost data on Mac Disk Drill makes data recovery in Mac OS X super easy. With just one click of a button, it will run through all of its scanning functions and display a list of files that can be potentially recovered. You can even preview these files so that you can determine which ones can be successfully recovered.

Positives

• Deep and effective scan
• Support for a very long list of file types
• Excellent filtering options
• Future data loss protection
• iOS scan and recovery, even via Wi-Fi
• Affordable pricing

Negatives

• Can't recover files from SSD
• Clean-up utility is confusing

If you have ever experienced the moment when your Time Machine drive failed, then you already know what it means to lose the work of a lifetime or important files. No one wants that, and it’s an issue that CleverFiles’ Disk Drill Pro addresses. Thanks to its support for a continuously growing variety of file types and signatures, the data recovery software is very effective on hard drives and can even narrow down the scan results using its neat filters. The company behind the Atlanta, U.S.-based 508 Software takes a clever approach to customers looking for data recovery software: Disk Drill can be downloaded for macOS and Windows for free to check whether the files you are searching for are recoverable. It’s only if this is the case that you are then invited to upgrade to a lifetime license for $89.

Features

Disk Drill’s user interface is simple and easy to understand, with all major features only one click away. The main window displays all the disks that the software recognizes, with immediate options to recover data or continue within the software. A handful of additional tools are bundled in with the software, too, such as a disk health checker, duplicate finder, and data backup – making Disk Drill a complete package.

macOS System Integrity Protection

But when it comes to just data recovery, Disk Drill for Mac isn’t short on options either, with a host of functions open to users dependent on availability: Guitar pro app.

• Undelete Protected Data.
• Rebuild HFS+ Catalog File.
• Universal Partition Search Scan for Lost HFS+ Partition.
• Quick Scan.
• Deep Scan.

Most interesting of all is the software’s ability to protect against future data loss with its additional data protection feature. Activating this will allow users to restore files sent to the Trash or a specified folder for up to a year after their deletion. This is dependent on various settings at the time, but a massive boon for those worried about losing important files.

Scanning

Running the recovery scan requires users to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) on machines running macOS Sierra or later. Although this sounds like a no-no for security-conscious users, it's important to know that Disk Drill does not affect any of the files in the system and that if SIP is enabled, then Disk Drill is unable to scan the disk. This is because with this protection active macOS enables the file system to not only protect files but also to protect the integrity of the drive itself.

Scanning an External Drive

Weak Results

Save Scan Results

We deleted the test files that included the most common file types (such as JPG, XLS, AVI, DOC, PDF) days before we ran the tests on both the internal SSD of the MacBook Pro and an HFS+ formatted 500GB external drive. Despite being able to identify more than 300 different file types, Disk Drill wasn't able to recover any data from our SSD drive. A test with a handful of recently deleted items returned results mostly showing ‘plist’ files.

This was quite the opposite when testing the HDD, however. While the results were quite limited with the quick scan option, we were able to recover most of our data by running the lengthy deep scan. For some reason, though, Disk Drill wasn't able to identify the MP3 files that we had deleted for this test, nor the AVI file. The scan took more than 10 hours, so we chose to pause and then resume the scan as time allowed without any issues. We also saved the session for later reuse, which turned out to be useful since it saved us 17 hours of our time.

Data Recovery

However, with the data protection feature enabled, everything changed. This neat feature of Disk Drill always delivers successful data recovery results, although the major problem with it is that consumers usually turn to data recovery software after they have experienced data loss and want their files back, not before. In other words, while it is very handy and highly useful with 100% recovery results – again, depending on your data protection settings and the time between the data loss and running the recovery scan – it only works if the user already has Disk Drill installed and guaranteed recovery enabled.

Disk Drill Guaranteed Recovery

Big Thumbnail Preview

All data recovery has its limitations because its success depends on multiple variables, particularly functions like secure erase on hard drives and TRIM on solid-state drives (SSDs). As such the software developer admits that SSD data recovery is due in the future as the current abilities of Disk Drill (and its peers) aren't enough, which is something that our tests confirmed.

Utilities

Browsing through results would be a hassle without Disk Drill's advanced filtering options. Alongside the file type, the software lets you select data by size and the approximate time frame of when it was deleted. If this still doesn't uncover what you’re looking for, the search field is of great help. Combine that with the big thumbnail preview and you have a great user experience.

Besides data recovery, Disk Drill for Mac includes utilities such as a duplicate finder, which does a pretty good job – delivering decent results in our testing – and the clean-up feature. We tested it using the startup disk of test MacBook Pro, but the results weren't as easy to understand as they would be with Mac optimization software.

iOS Data Recovery Details

Disk Drill Trash Protection

Clean Up Findings

An interesting and noteworthy addition is the iOS and Android device recovery. Disk Drill recognizes mobile devices connected via Wi-Fi and lets you scan them for lost data. It is limited in its capabilities, however, and so for speed and security purposes it's better to connect the device via cable.

Disk Drill for Mac also includes a neat feature called “Disk Health”, a S.M.A.R.T. monitoring service that visualizes the health of the targeted drive.

Pricing

Disk Drill for macOS comes in three flavors, Basic, Pro, and Enterprise, all serving different types of users. The free version, Basic, is essentially software that only serves the purpose of checking whether is possible to save the data of a failing startup disk or external drive. If a scan shows positive results in this regard, then users become ‘eligible’ to upgrade to the Pro version, which costs $89 per lifetime license for a single user on up to three Macs. Add $29 more and you'll instead get a lifetime upgrade.

Those using Disk Drill at a professional level by offering data recovery services can opt for the Enterprise version at $399. This provides an unlimited number of users, activated Macs, free lifetime upgrades, and a forensic data export.

• Personal
• Data protection: recovery vault, guaranteed recovery
• Backup failing disks into DMG
• Preview all recovery methods
• —
• —

• 1 user, up to 3 Macs
• Data recovery for home users
• Quick & deep scan
• Rebuild HFS+
• Lost partition search
• All media types and file systems
• Lifetime upgrades +$29

• Unlimited users, unlimited Macs
• Full-featured commercial data recovery package
• —
• —

However, it’s possible to save money on Disk Drill by moving over from a competing service, allowing you to get a license for half price. There's no need to worry about payment methods, either, since the company accepts all major credit and debit cards as well as PayPal, PayNearMe, wire transfer, checks, and purchase order.

Customer Support

When it comes to recovering lost data, it's good to have answers quickly. Disk Drill's extensive help section seeks to address that need by providing various options. Users can search through the knowledge base using the search field or, if they need assistance in getting started, can browse the same section by categories such as basics, data protection, data recovery, and more. The live chat connects users with a real person who can assist them both with their purchase and technical questions.

Disk Drill Contact Form

If chat is not your preferred way of getting an answer, then the tutorials will help in the troubleshooting process. 508 Software even has its own YouTube channel where it briefly explains the software's features. But most surprising is how promptly the company answers emails sent to support, with our email being answered within a few hours. The web form, however, didn't really work.

Bottom Line

Disk Drill for Mac is one of the best options that customers have for data recovery. The free version first checks whether the data is even recoverable, and it’s only when needing to recover that data that the Pro version for $89 is necessary. Don't expect it to work on an SSD, though – that's currently still impossible unless you enable the neat data protection feature, which is to protect against future data loss not recover data already lost. Depending on your settings, you may have up to one year to recover deleted data, though the amount of storage is also a factor since the software needs to store a copy of the files you send to the Trash or a specified folder.

However, the advanced filtering options contribute to the long life of millions of neurons, helping to eliminate any guesswork and help users whittle down thousands of results to just a few. If you are looking for a decently priced data recovery software that has the added benefit of future protection, then Disk Drill is a service worth considering.

Feb 22, 2021 • Filed to: Windows Computer Solutions • Proven solutions

Is Disk Drill a free data recovery program? What does Disk Drill do? How to use disk drill recover deleted files? There are many questions like these about Disk Drill when you are hoping to restore your precious files with the program. This post will explain all the questions aboutDisk Drill free data recovery softwarefor Windows and Mac.

Part 1. What's Disk Drill？

Disk Drill is a freeware fordata recoverythat possesses a clean and easy to understand user interface, coupled with an efficient data recovery algorithm. This provides an easy way for users to scan the PC for lost, damaged, or corrupted files and preview them before undergoing the recovery process.

• It helpsretrieve lost files from partitionsthat have been formatted or have failed to mount.
• It can scanhard drives,partitionsthat have been deleted or lost. External memory devices such as flash drives and SD cards can also be run through the Disk Drill for scanning and data recovery.
• Disk Drill is also able to pull out data from hard drives that have crashed.
• There are different scan options and scan capabilities that Disk Drill can do. For scan options,quick and deep scanscan be made to look for lost, deleted, corrupted, or damaged files.
• Sorting and scanning by file type are also possible with Disk Drill.

Disk Drill is offered in 2 versions: Mac and Windows. These 2 versions are slightly different in data recovery.

Disk Drill for Windows

Like Disk Drill for Mac, the Windows version supports data scanning from various file systems, including NTFS/NTFS5, HFS/HFS+/HFSX, FAT/FAT32/exFAT, EXT3/EXT4 and more. It can recover data from formatted drive, too. However, Forensic features are missing in Disk Drill for Windows. Moreover, Disk Drill 4 for Windows allows users to recover up to 500MB data for free.

Disk Drill for Mac

Disk Drill for Mac can preview and recover protected data with all recovery methods. The deleted files can be labeled by metadata and previewed by thumbnails. iOS & Android Data Recovery are also supported in the Mac versions. However, in Deep Scan, only 300 file signatures can be scanned out, while 400 file signatures can be scanned in the Windows version.

Part 2. Is Disk Drill Safe?

So many features are listed to show what Disk Drill Data Recovery is. But the most important question should be 'Is it a safe program to use?' Yes, Disk Drill can be used torecover deleted or lost files on computer safely. We tested the Disk Drill on 3 computers, respectively Windows 10, Windows 7, and MacBook Pro. When running the software on the computers, it works normally without causing any harm to them and hard drive data.

During the test, we also checked the computer condition, especially in the virus and malware infection. And the anti-virus software told that everything went normally.

Aside from this, the software has a Recovery Fault feature that protects partitions and consequently the files saved from within these parts. This feature makes it easier to recover data should they become corrupted or deleted.

Part 3. Is Disk Drill Really Free

Disk Drill Free Data Recovery claims that it is free for all the users to get data back. However, is it free? The answer is no. Both available for Mac and Windows, Disk Drill Data Recovery has 3 pricing plans, namely basic, pro, and enterprise.

Disk Drill Basic

Usually, Disk Drill Basic is regarded as Disk Drill Free Data Recovery. It has different recovery limitations for Windows and Mac users. Disk Drill Free Data Recovery only supports Mac users toscan and preview files for free. What if you want to recover data on a Mac computer? You have no other choice but to purchase Disk Drill Pro for Mac.

However, Windows users of Disk Drill Basic can not only free scan and preview files but recover up to 500 MB data for free on a Windows computer.

Disk Drill Recovery Software

Disk Drill Pro

Disk Drill Pro is the paid version of Disk Drill Basic. By purchasing the Pro version, you can remove the limits of data recovery in the free version and unlock more features, such as rebuilding HFS+, searching lost partitions.

How much does Disk Drill Pro for Mac cost? It is $89 for 1 user up to 3 Macs according to the Disk Drill website. You can also further upgrade it to the lifetime license by paying an extra 29 dollars.

Disk Drill Enterprise

Disk Drill For Mac Review

The Enterprise version is the premium version of Disk Drill for business uses. It supports data recovery for up to 10 devices.

Part 4. Disk Drill Review After Test

After learning what Disk Drill is, let's have a snapshot of its advantages and disadvantages.

Keep your computer clean and fast with Total PC Cleaner. It lets you clean your PC's cache and big files. It has everything you need for a free computer cleaner. Here below are steps to clear the memory cache using disk cleanup. Step 1: At the first step, you have to click on the 'Start' button and type 'disk cleanup' in the search field and hit the 'Enter' button. Step 2: Now, Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box will appear. How to free up memory on laptop windows 8. Open Task Manager with Ctrl + Alt + Del keys. Go to Task Manager, open Processes tab and the list displaying all your running tasks. Here you see the usage according to CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network. Choose the tasks consuming high CPU percentage and click End Task. Open your 'Start' menu, go to your 'Control Panel,' and click on 'Add/Remove Programs.' Here will be a list of all the programs on your computer, and how much memory they are eating up. Go through the list and remove any programs you don't need, but make sure not to remove a vital program to your laptop's operating system.

What We Like

• Disk Drill has a concise user interface that allows even beginners to use the program without hassle.
• It supports data recovery on multiple platforms — this means that Disk Drill is compatible with devices that run with Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android operating systems.
• Support for multiple file types and file systems are available. Even obscure file types can be recognized by thisfile recovery software.
• Disk Drill has an impressive scanning speed. A partition with 500 GB can be run for only an hour using the deep scan function.
• Scans can be stopped, paused, and resumed at your convenience. The use of this software is flexible and easy because you take control of the scan time and schedule.
• The Recovery Vault, a very useful feature of Disk Drill, helps protect your data from total loss because it creates metadata that acts as an extended Recycle Bin for your device.
• It boasts more than file recovery — a full partition recovery is possible with Disk Drill.

What We Don't Like

• The file details aren’t effectively shown, so you do not get information about a file’s quality before recovery.
• Disk Drill only supports the preview and recovery of fewer than 400 types and formats of data, below the average.
• There is no portable version for Disk Drill. Installation of the software is required before you can run it and recover files. This increases the risk of file overwriting, thereby losing the data permanently.
• There is only a 500 MB of file limit for recovery in the free version. This means that you might not be able to retrieve all the files you need, especially if they come in a video format.
• Some users find bugs like difficulty startup of the software, and some incidences report app crashing.
• Some users also complained about staff support because it takes quite a while for them to respond to queries.

Part 5. How to Use Disk Drill Data Recovery?

To use Disk Drill, you would need to install the software first on your computer and run it accordingly, since there is no portable version of this. Here are the steps in recovering lost data using Disk Drill.

Step 1Download Disk Drill from their website and install the program by following the instructions.

Step 2Run Disk Drill once it finishes installing in your PC. This will show you all of the drives found in the computer system.

Step 3Choose the specific driver that contains the lost files and click the 'Recover' button.

Step 4After the scan is completed, the window will show all the recoverable files found in that drive.

Step 5Sort through them and review the files that you need to retrieve. You can also opt to recover all files by checking boxes to ensure that no lost or deleted file is missed.

Step 6Wait for the recovery task to finish!

There is no other way to see if Disk Drill works than to try it by yourself. To recover files and ensure that you don’t suffer from crippling data loss, avail of the services offered by Disk Drill. If you want another alternative software that does data recovery efficiently, you may also tryRecoverit Free Data Recovery, also available as a freeware and power-packed unlike most other data recovery software out there. What we most like is that Recoverit supports to recover more than 1000 types and formats of data from all devices.

Free Recover Data

Top Recovery Freeware

Top Recovery Solutions