I was able to locate the file when performing the more advanced "Deleted File Recovery" option, but when I saved the file to my desktop or any other location it could not be opened by any program. On one attempt I was able to recover the file just fine using the Quick Recover routine, but upon reformatting the iPod and trying again with the same conditions, the program did not find the file with the Quick Recovery.
The file recovery options in Stellar Phoenix showed better results with the iPod however, they were inconsistent.
UNINSTALL STELLAR PHOENIX MAC DATA RECOVERY PDF
I relaunched it and tried again, and though successful in completing the scan, it could not recover the PDF file, and instead claimed no files were found. With my Flash drive and iPod ready, I tackled them one-by-one, and, unfortunately, the frustrations began almost immediately.įile Recovery The advanced scan will go block-by-block through the drive for file patterns (click for larger view).įor the flash drive, a simple delete was not recoverable with the Quick Recovery, so I ran the advanced "Deleted File Recovery" scan and after churning through every unused block on the drive, the program unexpectedly quit (no error report it just shut down). When one is selected, the program will list the available volumes on which you can run the recovery routines. When you launch Stellar Phoenix, you are presented with the four basic scan routines.
Though these scenarios do not directly mimic the corruption some people may see, I figured this was as basic of a set of data-loss scenarios as one could get. Removed the partition containing the file (if possible) using disk utility Moved the file to the trash and emptied it To simulate data-loss for each supported recovery option in Stellar Phoenix, I then did one of the following:
UNINSTALL STELLAR PHOENIX MAC DATA RECOVERY MANUAL
I initially formatted the drives by zeroing out all data on them, and then partitioned and formatted them to FAT and HFS+ (the most common formats used in OS X) and copied a single file to the drives (in this case I used a small 36KB PDF manual for my ToastMaster waffle iron). I used a 2GB USB Flash drive and a 10GB iPod 3G running in "Disk Mode" that were attached to my PowerMac G5 running OS X 10.5.8. The idea for testing this program was to go as simple as possible and use some nonstandard but commonly used storage options as the testing media. Nevertheless, for data recovery these details do not matter too much as long as files can be recovered. These options basically do not work the window stays relatively small in size, which causes file name lists to be truncated, requiring a decent amount of scrolling if the list is large. The interface for Stellar Phoenix is simple and Mac-like, but has a big drawback in that it cannot be resized despite having an active "Zoom" button and a resizing tab. Search Lost and Deleted Volumes: This option locates lost or unmountable partitions and tries to recover them. Quick Recovery: A fast scan that looks for files still referenced by the drive's index (mainly recently deleted files) that is useful for recovering a file you inadvertently deleted.ĭeleted File Recovery: A more in-depth scan for deleted files, which searches through the volume sector-by-sector for patterns of lost files and present them for recovery.įormatted Media: This routine attempts to locate files on a drive the index and directory of which do not contain any information about potential file locations on the disk. Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery ($99) is a simple utility that offers file recovery options for drives and iPods, and provides several routines by which to do so: The interface is Mac-like but cannot be resized (click for larger view). What is Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery for Mac? The overall verdict is the program is not as stellar as I would have liked. Recently I decided to run the program through some basic tests to see if it performs as expected. One I have mentioned in the past is Stellar Phoenix's Data Recovery for the Mac. There are a variety of file recovery utilities for the Mac these days, some of which target specific media and file types, and others that are for more general uses.