Stellar Data Recovery Professional Review : Best Data Recovery Software for Mac

If you are looking to recover permanently deleted data from your Mac, then I have the perfect solution for you. In this review, we will be introducing our readers to Stellar Data Recovery Professional, which is a Mac data recovery software that allows the user to recover lost or deleted data.

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac Features

Let us have a look at the features offered by Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac.

• Recovers Mac files that have been permanently deleted from Trash.
• Recover files lost due to USB corruption, partition loss, unrecognized drive.
• Recover files from deleted partitions.
• Recover data easily from APFS, HFS, HFS+, ex-FAT & NTFS drive.
• Create Recovery Drive for non-bootable Mac computers.

Steps to recover deleted data with the help of Stellar Data Recovery Software

Step 1: Installing the software

The first step is to download and install the software. The software can be purchased and downloaded from here. Once the zip file is downloaded, unzip it an double click on the .dmg file. Then drag the Stellar Data Recovery application to the mounted folder to install the software. Once that is done, you can launch the software by going into the Applications folder.

Step 2: Selecting the Files to Recover

Stellar Data Recovery has a very simple User Interface. On the home page, you get the option to select the files that you want to recover. You can recover all types of deleted files such as documents, emails, videos, audio, and photos. If you wish to recover all of the files, then turn on the toggle for ‘Recover Everything’. If you wish to recover specific files, then you can customize your scan and select just the required file types. Once you have selected the files types that you want to recover, click on  ‘Next’.

Step 3: Selecting the Hard Drive to Recover the Files from

The third step is to select the storage drive from which you want to recover the deleted files. In my case, my Mac only has one partition so I will select the Macintosh HD drive. Next thing that you need to do is to enable Deep Scan by clicking on the toggle on the bottom left. I highly recommend turning on this option as it will do a comprehensive scan of your Mac. Once that is done, click on ‘Scan’.

The software will start scanning for deleted files. If Deep Scan is enabled, the scanning process will consume more time but it will also be able to recover more files.

Step 4: Previewing the Scanned Data.

After the scanning process is finished, a popup will appear showing how much data can be recovered from your Mac. For me, the software was able to recover 48.96GB of data.

Now there are three ways to preview the recovered data. Classic List shows the files as they are found in the hard drive. The File List shows the recovered files according to their data types such as Audio, Video, Photos, and Documents. Finally, the Deleted List shows you the Raw Data and Lost Folders. There is also a Search Bar on the top right which lets you search for any specific deleted file which is quite useful.

The demo version of Stellar Data Recovery lets you preview the scanned files for free. After confirming that the required files can be recovered by checking a preview image of the scanned file, the user can then go ahead and purchase the Professional version of the software.

Step 5: Recovering the Data

The easiest method to search for a specific file is to type the file name in the search bar. If you are looking to recover a specific file type such as .mp4 or .jpg, then the quickest method would be to click on File List and then click on your desired file format. To recover the data, select the files by clicking on the checkbox then click on ‘Recover’. A popup window will ask you to select the destination folder. Select the directory and click on ‘Save’. The recovery process will start and the recovered files will be saved in the selected directory.

Now that you have recovered your files, you can close the application. But I recommend saving a backup of the scan result through the popup that appears if you press the ‘back’ icon or while closing the application. This will save you some time since you won’t have to scan your computer again to recover any files that you forgot to back up the first time.

Other Recovery Options

Recovering Data from a CD/DVD: To recover data from a CD/DVD, follow Step 2 and select the files that you want to recover and click on Next. Then, select the connected CD/DVD drive and repeat the same steps mentioned above.

Recovering Data from a Lost Partition: To recover data from a lost partition, follow Step 2. In the Select Location window, click on ‘Can’t find Volume’ and click on ‘Next’.  Choose the hard drive from the search list to scan for lost volume and click on ‘Search’. The software will scan and list all the lost volumes that it finds. Select the volume and click on ‘Scan’ to start the recovery process.

Recovering Data from a Non-Bootable Mac: In the case where your Mac isn’t booting up and you still want to recover the files, you can do it by creating a Bootable Recovery Drive. For that, you will require a spare computer and a USB flash drive. Launch The software in the spare computer and on the bottom left of the application, there’s an option called ‘Create Recovery Drive’. Click on ‘Click here’ and then follow the steps to create a Recovery Drive.

Now connect the USB flash drive and turn on your Mac. When you hear the startup sound, hold down the ‘Option’ key to open Startup Manager. Then select your Bootable Recovery Drive to boot up the Mac from the USB drive. Then click on ‘macOS Utilities’ and then select Stellar Data Recovery. This will launch the software and then you can recover your files.

Check out this quick video on how to recover data from a crashed Mac system:

Verdict

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac is an amazing data recovery software that can help users recover lost or deleted data with ease. The software is very easy to use and by far has the best user interface in my opinion. The software is priced at $79.99 for the Professional version for a license period of 1-year and can be upgraded to a lifetime license for $99. The pricing is a bit high but if you are looking to recover important deleted files, then it is definitely worth the price. Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac gets a 4.5 Stars Editor’s Choice Badge and I ask our readers to give this software a try.