Editor's Rating
Overall
Features
Price
Customer Service

Disk Drill 3 Mac Download
Disk Drill 3 Mac

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

Open Disk Drill and click “Search” to the right of the disk with deleted files. The utility can work with your Mac’s built-in drive, as well as with external drives. Using filters, you can also choose a certain type of files to be recovered, as well as determine their deletion date and estimated size. Data recovery software for Mac. Meet Disk Drill 3 data recovery for Mac new, all-better version of the data recovery solution f. By downloading Disk Drill you'll be able to get hold of one of the best file recovery tools available. Disk Drill guarantees the data of any Mac disk unit. Recovering files on a computer is usually a complex task, without any sort of guarantee. However, applications like Disk Drill can help you out in this process. Downloading Disk Drill. Once downloaded, double-click the disk image to mount, drag Disk Drill app to your Applications folder and follow the onboarding wizard.

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:

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.

Hidden Disk OptionsHDD ScanningSSD ScanningQuick ScanData RecoverySave Scan

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.

SSD Quick ScanGuaranteed RecoveryData RecoveryFile Preview

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 RecoveryiOS Data Recovery DetailsGuaranteed Recovery SettingsTrash ProtectionDuplicate FinderClean Up

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 f

Disk Drill 3 Mac