Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill

Looking for data recovery software? Check out our comparison of Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill as they are some of the best ones you can get.

Data recovery is important for many professionals on computers. If you accidentally delete something or lose files due to system error, or hacks, then you will need data recovery software to restore the files.

Choosing a good data recovery software can be a tough task because of the number of options that are available. However, you can look for reviews before you choose one.

Stellar Data Recovery and Disk Drill are some popular data recovery software. So we are comparing them both in this Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill article for interested buyers.

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Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill

Stellar Data Recovery

Numerous real-world reviews that praise and criticise Stellar Data Recovery's creators are frequently found on the first page of Google for data recovery. Although it is somewhat pricey (but still more reasonable than many similar apps), it is renowned as user-friendly and effective data recovery software.

Big promises are made by Stellar, but do they live up to the hype?

Disk Drill

Cleverfiles, Inc.'s Disk Drill is a highly regarded piece of data recovery software. Since its initial release more than ten years ago, Disk Drill has received frequent updates from its creators and has always been among the first to support the advent of new operating systems. This has led to extensive publicity on tech websites.

But how does it function in actual use? Does it live up to the marketing claims? Find out by reading on.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill Pros and Cons

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill	Pros	Cons
Stellar Data Recovery	Customer service is helpful and eager to use TeamViewer to resolve problems. Photos and videos that would ordinarily be impossible to open even after being recovered can be fixed by the software. S.M.A.R.T. Internal storage device S.M.A.R.T. data can be read by Stellar Data Recovery.	Updates in the free version. Updates are not checked for in Stellar Data Recovery's free edition. With each update, the previously entered licence information is lost and needs to be entered again. The preview tool is sluggish, and it takes a while to generate each preview of a file that can be recovered.
Disk Drill	Disk Drill for Mac is unlocked when you purchase Disk Drill for Windows. The scanning process is shown in real time, and it is possible to quickly see how many files have been scanned and how much time is left. Install the outcomes as a virtual disc. All scan findings are accessible as a virtual drive that can be mounted and explored in File Explorer.	Phone assistance. There is no support phone number listed. Apple and Linux file systems Support for Apple and Linux filesystems is extremely constrained. Only the signature scan mode operates frequently. Limited support for RAID.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill - Pricing

Both Disk Drill and Stellar Data Recovery are freemium tools that give users access to "partial service" for nothing. For instance, Disk Drill gives users 500 MB of free data recovery whereas Stellar Data Recovery gives them 1 GB. When you reach the limit, paying to continue is required.

For $89, Disk Drill provides a perpetual licence. It's a good time to get this software if you've been considering it because, as of the time of this writing, that price gets you both the Windows and macOS editions. Meanwhile, Stellar largely promotes its $69.99 yearly subscription but also provides a permanent licence for $129 per year.

Overall, Disk Drill is less expensive than Stellar Data Recovery (particularly with its running 2-for-1 sale). But the differences don't stop there.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill - Data Recovery Performance

Recovery performance is the primary criterion for selecting a data recovery programme. The distinction between Disk Drill and Stellar Data Recovery is evident. For more information, keep reading.

In-Depth Scan of File Systems

A deep scan makes an effort to recover data as well as the drive's root folder hierarchy and original file names. Although most data recovery programmes include this function, not all of them perform it properly.

One of the few apps that reliably delivers good results is Disk Drill. Our Windows-based FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS partitions' organisational architecture and file names could all be restored, and the majority of our files were as well.

Unfortunately, Stellar Data Recovery can't be considered to be the same. In reality, because it kept crashing, we were unable to get reliable data. It was able to restore some files when it didn't crash, but we can't evaluate it fairly because the outcomes were so erratic. This held true for all of the partitions we tested, including those that weren't Windows-based. Stellar has concluded this part.

Disk Drill's Windows version does not support the EXT4, HFS+, and APFS file systems, but that is unimportant for this evaluation. Be aware that as of the time of writing, Disk Drill is giving away licences for the cost of one for both the Windows and Mac versions.

Quick Scan of File Systems

We wish to assess how quickly the highlighted software apps can recover recently erased data for the quick scan portion. The more time that passes after an accidental deletion, the greater data loss there is likely to be.

When tested on the FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS file systems, Disk Drill once more delivered excellent results, recovering nearly all of our data from each partition. Even some files from our Linux-based EXT4 partition might be restored by it. Similar to deep scan, HFS+ and APFS formats are not supported by Disk Drill for Windows' rapid scan capability. For that, you ought to purchase the Mac edition, which is covered by Disk Drill's ongoing 2-for-1 licencing promotion.

Stellar Data Recovery performed dreadfully in this test as it did in the previous one. When tested for the following file types: FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and EXT4, it crashed. Although a crash is not always the result of partition scanning, it frequently occurs. HFS+ and APFS formats are not supported by the Windows version of this application.

Other Scan Types

Many contemporary data recovery programmes offer additional file restoration options in addition to the standard scan types that address various data loss scenarios.

Both Disk Drill and Stellar Data Recovery offer a scan by file type feature, with Disk Drill being able to identify up to 100 more file signatures than Stellar. We'll explain this in more detail in the section below about a real-world recovery problem.

Both of them provide great BitLocker functionality, enabling users to utilise their passwords to decrypt their devices from within the programme. Users with failing drives don't need to actively scan their devices because both apps can scan and restore disc images as well as restore partial files by format.

Both programmes can scan lost partitions and label recovered files, but Disk Drill typically yields superior results. Users who need to look for Windows shadow copies should try another site.

Real-Life Recovery Challenge

We calculate how much data our featured software can recover for the real-world recovery challenge based on the most frequent file types. The problem was separated into document, video, and RAW photo recovery categories. Here is the conclusion:

Disk Drill works better for recovering RAW photos. It only overlooked three file types out of 37; specifically, .crw, .exr, and .insp. And it restored the majority of our data for the file types that Disk Drill supported. Even though it had some issues with.x3i, the overall results are still very excellent.

In contrast, just 21 of the 37 types of RAW photo files we analysed were compatible with Stellar Data Recovery. Stellar's performance on those file types produced a range of outcomes. Users of popular brands including Kodak, Sony, Olympus, and Fujifilm can anticipate having most of their data restored.

Disk Drill once more delivered outstanding outcomes for the video recovery task. The majority of popular formats are supported; among these, Disk Drill retrieved the majority of our data. However, don't anticipate being able to restore files with the extension .ari, .arx, or .r3d.

This time around, Stellar Data Recovery did worse. Even though it identified roughly the same number of video formats as it did during the picture recovery challenge, such as.mov and.mp4, it only offered minimal support for them. Disk Drill is currently the clear winner because it supports all the formats that the former does not, making the latter difficult to use.

Both software programmes had to recover as many documents of various file formats as they could in the final round of the real-world recovery challenge. Disk Drill even restored a sizable amount of Apple and OpenOffice data while only missing one file type (.accdb).

On the other hand, Stellar demonstrated dependability for the majority of Microsoft Office file formats and even recovered some OpenOffice files. Disk Drill, however, is the undisputed champion of the overall challenge because of the disparity in the amount of data that was recovered.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill - Feature Comparison

This section provides a thorough explanation of the features that each piece of software has to offer. If you're unsure of what to look for in your programme, this part will be of great assistance to you. This is typically where you may find your deal-makers and deal-breakers.

Popular tools include Stellar Data Recovery and Disk Drill. But which is superior? Answers are provided below.

Updates and Support

Disk Drill is always one of the first programmes to support the most recent OS updates, as we briefly discussed at the beginning of this article. It is continually updated.

On the other hand, Stellar Data Recovery has occasionally gone more than six months without an update. Additionally, Stellar does not post changelogs on its website (Cleverfiles does).

Thanks to the marketing strategies employed by their creators, which include creating substantial knowledge bases of how-to articles and other resources, both software programmes enjoy a similar level of popularity. Disk Drill, however, now holds a larger market share.

In the event that something goes wrong, Stellar Data Recovery users can rely on live chat and phone support, albeit the helpdesk support should be improved. Although it does not currently offer phone assistance, Cleverfiles also offers live chat and help desk support.

Usability

Both technologies are renowned for having intuitive user interfaces. The user experience is notably different, though.

While "one-click recovery," the ability to sort and filter files, and file-by-file display are all features of Stellar Data Recovery that are essential for a data recovery application, they are not the only ones. Disk Drill only provides more.

Disk Drill's sophisticated session management is one of its most notable features. It does a great job of automatically picking up interrupted scans and detecting reconnections. This will prevent a lot of frustration for people who have faulty discs.

Disk Drill also made a few minor quality-of-life enhancements; for instance, it now automatically chooses the optimal scan type based on the state of your drive. On the other hand, the deep scan is an additional Stellar parameter that you must enable.

Device support

The situation somewhat evens out in terms of device support. The recovery of data from internal/external hard discs, solid-state drives, and other flash media, such as USB thumb drives, is supported by both applications. When it comes to RAID support, Disk Drill is somewhat superior to Stellar Data Recovery, while the latter is superior for unmountable devices.

Other notable recovery features

Many data recovery programmes have extra capabilities built into their apps that are beneficial to the user. These features often simplify user lives or deal with more complicated data loss issues.

Because it enables users to restore data from an image copy of their drive rather than the drive itself (and run the risk of additional damage and/or data loss), byte-to-byte backup is one of our most requested features. This helpful feature is provided by both Stellar Data Recovery and Disk Drill.

One of the simplest ways to recover data from a non-booting drive is to use the bootable recovery software that Stellar furthermore offers. This capability is missing from Disk Drill, which is a deal breaker for those who can't boot into Windows. Stellar earns a lot of points just for this characteristic.

Disk Drill, on the other hand, has more features in general that are aimed at boosting the user experience. Users can analyse their odds of recovery, check disc vitals, preview files without pausing the scan, and do much more.

Verdict: Use Stellar Data Recovery if your drive won't boot. Disk Drill will deliver a better experience in any other circumstance.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill - Extras

With more options than its rival, including disc cloning and disc surface testing, Stellar Data Recovery makes a respectable last fight. Additionally, Stellar provides tools for fixing damaged videos and photos, but these are only accessible with higher-tiered subscriptions.

Disk Drill at least provides S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, allowing users to check the health of their drives and back up their data in advance of failure.

Stellar Data Recovery vs Disk Drill - Wrapping Up

Stellar Data Recovery is attractive, excellent for RAID devices, and a respectable solution for fixing photos and videos. if it doesn't force you to exit the application.

However, Disk Drill is merely a superior data recovery programme. It works far more effectively and recovered the majority of our files, while Stellar is only recognised half the time.

Additionally, it never crashed on us, and its convenience features helped us avoid the annoyance and wasted time. The cost-effective perpetual licence for Disk Drill completes the package.

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