External hard drives are often used to store personal or business data. The biggest advantage of having an external hard drive is that it can carry a large amount of data from one place to the other. But data loss always happens during the process. Luckily, there are some external hard drive recovery tools that make it easier for you to recover data from external hard drives.
Here is an in-depth comparison between the 5 external hard drive data recovery tools mentioned below. This comparison chart may help you choose the right software, depending on your own needs and requirements.
| Recuva | Cisdem Data Recovery | IUWEshare External Drive Data Recovery | Wise Data Recovery | R-Studio Data Recovery | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows | macOS, Windows | Mac and Windows | Windows | Mac, Windows and Linux |
| File Types | Images, Videos, Audio, Documents, Emails, Archives | Images, Videos, Audio, Documents, Emails, Archives | Images, Videos, Audio, Documents, Emails, Archives | Images, Videos, Audio, Documents, Emails, Archives | Images, Videos, Audio, Documents, Emails |
| Devices | PC, USB Drive, Camera, Memory Card, Hard Drive, MP3 Player etc. | Mac, USB Drive, Camera, Memory Card, Hard Drive, MP3 Player etc. | Only for external devices | PC, Hard Drive, Memory Card, USB, etc | Internal and External Hard Drive, Memory Card, USB, etc |
| User Friendliness | Excellent | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Poor |
| Preview Files | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Deep Scan Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Cost | Free | $69.95 monthly | $39.99 for Windows, $49.99 for Mac | Free | $79.99 |
| Money Back Guarantee | N.A. | 30 Days | No | No | No |
Recuva is one of the free external hard drive recovery software that allows Windows users to recover deleted, lost, or formatted files from PC and external devices like external hard drives, SD cards, USB drives, etc. It is ideal for recovering all types of files including photos, documents, videos, audios and more.
Supported Platforms: It can be used on Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP, and older versions of Windows.
Price: Free and $19.95.
Pros: It offers a portable version that runs from a USB stick.
Cons: It only works on NTFS, FAT, and exFAT format drives. Recuva does not currently support macOS or Linux.
Cisdem Data Recovery is by far the best external hard drive data recovery for Mac and Windows users to recover files with original quality and fast speed. It recovers photos, documents, videos, music, archive, etc., from Mac internal and external hard drive, memory card, USB drives, MP3 player, etc.
It can recover data from external hard drive and other storage devices under different data loss issues like formatting, deletion, and virus attack. It also supports HFS+, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4 and NTFS file systems.
Supported Platforms: macOS 10.9+, Windows 11 or earlier
Price: Free trial and $149.95 for lifetime license.
Pros: It does pretty well in recovering deleted and lost images. It is a safe, reliable and easy-to-use external hard drive recovery tool.
IUWEshare External Drive Data Recovery is especially designed for recovering files from external hard drives. It is a powerful external hard drive data recovery app that recovers pictures, documents, videos, audio files, documents and important business information lost due to unintentionally deletion, accidental formatting, virus attack, system crash, raw, etc.
Supported Platforms: It offers Mac and Windows versions.
Price: $39.99 for Windows, $49.99 for Mac.
Pros: It is user friendly and easy to use.
Cons: Scanning process may take a long time especially if you have too many files on the external hard drive.
Wise Data Recovery is a free external hard drive recovery program to quickly get back deleted files including photos, documents, and videos, emails etc. It can recover lost files from hard drive, external hard drive, USB drive, Memory card, digital camera, mobile phone, MP3 player and other storage media.
Supported Platforms: Wise data recovery software can run on Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP, and older versions of Windows.
Price: Free.
Pros: It shows the recoverability of a file and easy to use.
Cons: Its recoverable files don't remain in their original folder structure and it only supports Windows.
R-Studio is a piece of powerful external hard drive recovery software that is available for Mac, Windows and Linux users. It recovers data from formatted or corrupted external hard drives and also recovers all sorts of file types from other storage devices including SD cards, digital cameras and memory cards, etc. This external hard drive data recovery tool has a feature that processes bad sectors and also offers benefits such as recovery disk imaging and backup.
Supported Platforms: Mac, Windows and Linux.
Price: $79.99.
Pros: It also offers network edition, which is capable of solving data recovery issues on network servers.
Cons: The interface is challenging to navigate and can be confusing to operate. So it is not a good option for novice users who are need of simple data recovery.
In all, get the suitable external hard drive recovery software can help you save yourself from a lot of trouble and protect yourself from data loss.
Jose specializes in reviews, how-to guides, top lists, etc. on PDF, data recovery and multi-media. On his spare time, he likes to travel or challenge some extreme sports.
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