Top 20 Photo Recovery for Mac and Windows

2# Disk Drill Pro

The Basic version of Disk Drill is free and the Pro version is paid. This software can scan all sorts of devices, from iPads and iPods to Kindle readers. The interface may be a little tricky, but the attached tutorials should be a huge help. It doesn't aid much in video or music recovery, but has a 99 percent success rate at recovering lost files and formatted disks.

Price: $89.00

3# Data Rescue 4

Winner of the Gold Award on Top Ten Reviews, Data Rescue assists in recovering videos and pictures from a Mac hard disk. It is fully featured and works just as well on external drives and storage devices as it does on your computer. It is able to recover almost any file type and is noted for striking a balance between efficiency and effectiveness. The Clone feature backs your drive up prior to scanning and recovering in case any problems are encountered. Without paying, you can’t access the unlimited data recovery feature, and the interface isn’t as user-friendly as, say, that of iSkysoft.

Price: $99.00

4# Stellar Phoenix

This software can recover deleted files via their original file names, recover lost and deleted HFS, HFS+, FAT, ExFAT and NTFS volumes, plus files from corrupted hard drives. You can pause and resume scan progress, and akin to iSkysoft, it is incredibly user friendly. There is also a full hard disk scan option in case the initial scan overlooked some files. It is possible for you to be fazed by the various supported file types, but there should be no questions the help option cannot answer. Beware though; the software may put a bit of a dent in your pocket.

5# Cisdem Data Recovery

One of the cheapest recovery software out there, Cisdem is an excellent choice for SD data recovery. It can handle 200 plus file formats so don't hesitate to use it when you’re looking for virtually any file type. It is quite easy to use – it takes just three simple steps to retrieve that missing data! It has very high HDD and SSD scan speeds, outperforming its peers. However, it is recommended to use Cisdem for light scans and recoveries. Its success rate is not appreciable.

6# Test Disk

This is an incredibly powerful tool that can recover lost or corrupted partitions and even allows making non-bootable disks bootable again. You can rebuild the NTFS boot sector, fix or recover a partition, undelete files, and copy files from erased partitions. If your Mac was exposed to crashing issues, viruses or human errors, Test Disk is the best option. Amateurs beware: this software is for the more hardcore computer users out there.

7# Mac Data Recovery Guru

When it comes to recovering photographs, this 99 percent success rate software should be given significant weightage. It is amazingly easy to use with a preview of all the files that can be recovered. It should be noted that although it recovers photos excellently, its performance is lacking in retrieving videos and music files. It also can’t retain original file names, and is a bit pricey.

8# Apple XSoft File Recovery

Again, if you're looking to recover photographs, this software should be one of your priorities. It manages to outperform fellow data recovery software in photo recovery, but falls behind in getting back lost documents or other file types. Therefore, if your focus is only photographs, go for Apple XSoft.

9# R-Studio

The recovery success rate is quite high with R Studio. With high scan speeds and quick customer feedback, its interface may daunt a few users. This means you may have to go through quite a few user guides before deciding to use this software. Otherwise, it is reliable and will get the job done.

10# MiniTool Power Data Recovery

With a 1 GB limit for free usage, or $79 for no-barred retrieval, MiniTool is not one of the cheapest products on the market. It does have super-fast scan speeds though. It has a few snags, such as not being very efficient in recovering videos and music. Use this for documents and photographs. The interface is very user friendly as well.

2# Ontrack EasyRecovery

Kroll's Ontrack software is especially designed to recover Microsoft Office files. It is a quick and easy tool that is easily one of the best data recovery software out there. It has the best SSD and HDD scan speeds. It recovers a high percentage of photos, documents, videos and music files, and managed to retrieve almost all data from reformatted drives. It doesn't support Windows 10 though and may fail to identify some file formats.

Price: $79.00

3# Wondershare Data Recovery

Supporting over 550 file formats, Wondershare is user-friendly and fast. It has a great recovery percentage and offers deep scanning. You can also recover data from other drivers and devices, and there is the preview option of course. To narrow down the choices, you can scan by file type.

Price: $39.95

4# Wise Data Recovery

The files that are scanned and shown here are shown in a folder structure that is unique to Windows Explorer, which is great news for frequent Windows users. Files may be recovered internally and externally. The install is quick and clean and you can recover many files simultaneously. It also comes with a portable version. However, files might not remain in their initial folder structure.

5# Paragon Rescue Kit

Finding data recovery software is easy enough, but what about software that can recover data to get an unbootable PC up and running again? There is no need to install Paragon, you just execute it. You are presented with various recovery options, and in case you’ve misplaced your password, the Password Cleaner shall reset it. You can also back up your system or restore it via a virtual disk. Beware: this is for advanced users.

6# Seagate File Recovery

Seagate has been made especially for recovering files from a Windows disk or a USB memory stick. It has two modes: file search mode (analyses tables in discovered partitions), and disk scan mode (scans whole or part of a disk). It is an above average software that performs well, especially when it comes to lost files from HDD and SSD. It also holds an edge in recovering data from micro SD cards. Despite this, you can't connect to or recover files from other computers on the network.

7# BitRecover

This is a do-it-yourself software that caters to Windows users especially. You can recover data from hard drives, USB drives, etc. It is a wizard-based process that is able to retrieve data from drives of sizes up to 3 terabytes. Recovery rates are strong; however, it is not good with complex data recovery tasks. Filters allow you to track files by their types.

8# Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery

Like the mythical creature it is named after, the Stellar Phoenix software brings your files back to life from their ashes. It is incredibly powerful with one of the best preview facilities out there. The advanced features may be daunting for less-than-advanced users. The interface is even said to be baffling for some, causing interface glitches. It also lags behind in some features that are present in fellow recovery software. It also takes long to scan drives.

9# 9. Recuva

Created by Piriform, this software is highly agreeable when it comes to interface. If there is still something you don’t understand, the built-in wizard can help you out. Just answer the questions posed by the wizard and get your hands on that precious data in a bit. You can recover all sorts of files, from photos to videos, and documents to emails. It is best for scanning cameras, MP3 players and flash drives. It does take a long time to scan and retrieve files though.

10# GetDataBack

Though highly advanced, GetDataBack should be given credit for trying to make its interface more user friendly. It provides options like ‘I don’t know, use default settings’. It is a very thorough software which explains the steep price. It has a good success rate and restore files with the directory structure. The deep scan option allows you to recover other lost partitions or files that may have been overlooked initially. Users may be disappointed by the messy look of the interface.