Data Recovery Essential has a descriptive name: it may come in handy in case you need to rescue lost files. One of the main advantages of this tool is its great compatibility with all kinds of internal and mountable storage devices as well as formats and file systems.
In this respect, the tool supports practically every file format, including but not limited to pictures, audio, documents, video and archives. Likewise, it is excellent that it works with all file systems, like HFS+, NTFS, FAT32 and EXT4. Fortunately, it can retrieve data lost not only because of accidental deletion but also in more complex scenarios, such as disk formatting.
To recover lost data, you need to create a disk image with the contents of the intended storage device. Although this adds some complications to the process, it also guarantees that no additional data may be lost due to hardware failure. Then, you can import the newly created image and scan it. Fortunately, the tool supports two types of scans: Quick and Deep. Just like with other similar applications, the Deep scan takes considerably longer but it is also more effective in retrieving seriously damaged data.
After the scan has finished, you get a list of all the files you would possibly like to recover. Fortunately, it is not difficult to find specific files as sorting them by criteria and searching by filename is supported. Similarly, it is very convenient that you can preview file contents before actually saving them to another device.
All in all, Data Recovery Essential can do its job accurately most of the times. Regrettably, however, there are circumstances that prevent a successful recovery, and in such cases, file contents may appear corrupted. This product can be used to rescue up to 100 MB a day totally free, which is good for casual recoveries. Should you need more, it would be necessary to acquire a Pro license via in-app purchases.
v3.8 [Dec 8, 2019]
Overall improvements for macOS 10.15 Catalina
New: smart ExFAT recovery algorithms
New: file signatures added to Deep Scan - AU (Audacity audio files) and PCX (bitmap images)
LaCie devices recovery: critical improvements, disk disconnection prevention
FAT32: improved support of lost partition recovery
