Disk Drill 4.7.382

Overview

Disk Drill is a data recovery package for the Mac OS X system that can help Mac owners recover videos, photos, music, documents and other files that can no longer be accessed. Whether the partition has been accidentally deleted or maliciously removed, files have seemingly vanishes or are stored on a memory card or USB device, Disk Drill may have the answer.

The software can scan a multitude of storage systems such as iPods, Kindles, USB flash drives, internal Mac hard drives and more. Storage devices can be often read even if they are beginning to fail and the software can also detect data still stored on devices where the partition they were stored on is no longer there.

Recovery is performed with a one click approach. Scanning functions can be tailored to the needs of the user if they need more control.

There is also a Recovery Vault where once Disk Drill is installed, the software itself will track every file that was “deleted” from storage and remember both its file name and storage location. The Recovery Vault can also make a copy of each deleted file providing an "Undelete" option even after the trash bin has been emptied.

S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring is also used to check up on hard drives to see where there might be signs that they might be failing soon. There are also a few other miscellaneous disk tools included with DiskDrill as well.

Installation

The installation proceeded fine without any issues. There were no malicious software installations that came with the setup program.

Disk Drill requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later.

Interface

The interface for Disk Drill is elegant as one might expect from an Apple app. The muted light gray background is there, but interspersed with blue Recovery buttons and green Rebuild buttons.

The main command window lists the partitions and categories of storage that are present within a system. There are attractive logos indicating the type of connection (system, USB, etc), along with capacity and free space information.

Depending on the type of system, the user may be presented with the option to Recover or Rebuild. With system partitions, the user is initially advised about “not messing around with it.” which is perhaps some good advice there.

Detailed scans break down partitions to their individual folders and files with the ability to be selective on what to work with, recover, fix or rebuild.

Pros

• Effective recovery of HFS+, FAT, FAT32, and NTFS drives
• Locates and recovers files from deleted partitions
• Access many types of storage from hard drives to USB flash drives to memory cards
• Recovery Vault can keep a copy of every deleted file ready to return it back post-deletion
• Can check if a hard drive looks like it'll fail soon
• Attractive interface

Cons

• None.

Conclusion

Disk Drill is a good solution for Mac users who want a way to protect themselves from data loss. The inclusion of a Recovery Vault which can remember and replace already deleted files is ideal.