Stellar Data Recovery has recently launched the sixth version of its photo recovery software, namely Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0 for both Mac and Windows computers. The product has come along with a speedy scan engine, enhanced support for file formats of photos and videos, including the HD MOV video files. Talking about the product price, both Windows and Mac versions of the software are available at a fair price of $39 for lifetime, which means you can bring the lost memories back to life without paying much to the sellers.
Pros
Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery 6.0 has gained a robust and more efficient scan engine in its sixth version. Highlighting its prime features enlightens the following points:
- Using this software, one can recover lost photos, audio and video files from computer hard drives, USB flash drives, and SD cards
- The software scan engine is enhanced to support HD MOV files
- A separate list, namely ‘Deleted List’ is added to the scanned result pane
- The software supports latest Windows 8 operating system
- Support for scanning the large hard drives (up to 2TB) is added
- The recovered files are saved with their original file names, given to them at the time they were created
- Added support for more file types in Photos and Videos
Cons
Well, since being the best does not mean to be the perfect, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0 also has some cons that are listed below:
- In spite of having a user-friendly interface, Selecting All and Unselecting All option in the Advanced Scan tool is a bit confusing.
- The software involves photo and other media files recovery tasks, so do not expect it to repair them in case they are corrupt.
Bottom Line
Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0 comes along with many enhancements in its overall performance. It also gets its scan engine speedy apart from the added support for new files types of photos and videos. Thus, from the performance point of view, the product is faster, efficient, and more reliable.
Testing Environment ‘1’: System Configuration
- Operating System: Windows 7
- Primary Memory (RAM): 2 GB
- Processor: Intel Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU 2.50 GHz
- Free Disk Space: 82.3 GB
Testing Environment ‘2’: System Configuration
- Operating System: Windows 8
- Primary Memory (RAM): 4 GB
- Processor: Intel Core i5
- Free Disk Space: 91.7 GB
Using the Software
What all you want in a commercial photo recovery software? Do you want it to recover a slew of photo types in a less time span? Well, this time Stellar brings exactly how you need the tool to perform for a variety of file types (along with several newly added ones) in case of photos and videos, satisfying the primary requirements. Using this version of the software for all intended tasks requires having a full version copy at a price of $39 for lifetime license, where the intended operations include recovering lost photos, audio and video files from hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, and more. Launching the software opens its home screen window, having three embedded modules – ‘Recover Photo, Audio & Video’, ‘Create Image’, and ‘Resume Recovery’ to make help you perform the intended task in an efficient and reliable manner.
Image 1: Home Screen – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
Recover Photo, Audio & Video
Based upon the requirements, the primary module of the software – ‘Recover Photo, Audio & Video’ – features recovering lost and deleted photos, audio and video files from data storage medias, viz. computer hard drives as well as individual volumes, external or USB hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, and more. Thus, this multi-specialist software can be used to recover lost media files from a wide range of data storage devices.
Scan Now
The ‘Recover Photo, Audio & Video’ module of the software requires choosing the disk from which lost media files are to be recovered, and then click the Scan Now button to scan it thoroughly.
Image 2: Select Media for Recovery – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
Meanwhile, a tree of the folders located in the disk being scanned is created in the left pane of the preview window. Each folder in the tree contains media files that are reveled in the right pane upon clicking it.
What if you can take a look at each recovered media file before saving it? It would be great from my point of thinking, and it indeed is facilitated in Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery. Moreover, the software scan engine is made faster, which you would certainly realize while using it. In fact, the software scans the selected disk quickly, but the time it takes indeed depends upon the amount of data stored on the disk, which is quite obvious.
One more pretty interesting thing I noticed during disk scanning is that the software generates ‘on-the-fly’ preview of the media files it finds. Consequently, the scan and recover process become more acknowledged to the user. Finding data in the scanned result becomes easier than ever before, as the software generates a separate list, namely ‘Deleted List’, containing deleted items only.
Image 3: Scanned Result in Deleted list – Scan Now – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
However, switching between the lists – Classic List, File List, and Deleted List – is not feasible as long as disk scanning is running. So we have to wait until the scanning is finished successfully. Once the disk scan is finished, switching between the lists is doable, as shown below:
Image 4: Scan Result in Classic List – Scan Now – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
Each folder with a cross sign on it denotes that it had been deleted, and is now recovered, containing media files. Each of the recovered files can be previewed before it is saved.
In contrast, the File List of the tree contains only three folders – Video, Photos, and Audio – that contain media files, including both deleted ones and those are currently stored on the disk being scanned.
Image 5: Scan Result in File List – Scan Now – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
As already mentioned, the cross mark on each item denotes that it had been deleted. Preview each file one-by-one and then click the Recover button to save all recovered media files at once.
Advanced Scan
What if you can scan a particular disk for deleted media files of selected file types? Well, the scan process will become pretty much faster and efficient as compared to the way it has been during scanning the disk thoroughly for all specified file types. Stellar’s Photo Recovery v6.0 facilitates doing this for all three types of media files, i.e. Photo, Audio, and Video.
Image 6: Select Media for Recovery – Advanced scan – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
In the Advanced Scan menu, the software facilitates choosing desired file types for all Photo, Audio, and Video, in the selected as well as the entire region of the disk.
Image 7: Select File Format and Drive Region – Advanced scan – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
A number of different camera models are also listed with their respective extensions for all three Photo, Audio, and Video. Thus, in order to recover lost photos clicked with a camera model supported by the software eliminates the need for scanning the disk for all other file types. Consequently, the scan and recover process is fastened.
Create Image
Suppose you start scanning the disk for all or certain types of files, but you cannot save the recovered media files right after the scan is finished because you do not have required free space. Then what? Would you have to rescan the disk after making the free space available? Well, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery software does not ask you do that, as you can create image of the disk to be scanned and resume the recovery process at a later time.
Image 8: Select Region – Create Image – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
Besides, it is also feasible to image only a certain region of the disk, as shown above. However, saving a disk image requires equal amount of free space.
Resume Recovery
No matter if you do not have the required amount of free space available on the disk, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0 facilitates you resume recovery process with a Disk Image (*.img file) or a recently saved Scan Information (*.DAT file).
Image 9: Resume Recovery – Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery v6.0
Simply browse the required file and load it, and then proceed to recovery with selected or all file types for Photo, Audio, and Video.
As per the developer company, Stellar Data Recovery, the Photo Recovery v6.0 is a must have software and brings you lost memories back to life like they were never ever lost, and I make the consumers trust them with minimal complaints.