Losing access to one’s data is always painful; things get worse when it comes to losing your photos or videos reminiscent of your memories. Stellar Photo Recovery can help solve this issue.
Stellar Photo Recovery Software – Key Features
Specifically, Stellar Photo Recovery has some impressive features that make it an all-inclusive media recovery software for users. The software supports multiple file formats, restores images, videos, and audio files, and can be used on various devices.
Below is a list of some key features that Stellar Photo Recovery software offers.
Restores Deleted Media Files
The main feature of this software is to recover deleted files. Photo Recovery excels here as it restores deleted photo file formats from various popular cameras, including Fujifilm, Epson, Canon, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Sony, and more.
Also, the supported image files include other common image formats such as JPEG, TIFF, EPS, TGA, BMP, PNG, and more.
Other than image files, the Stellar Photo Recovery tool also recovers deleted video and audio files. Here again, it supports a wide range of audio/video formats that makes it recovers lost media files seamlessly. Some of the formats it supports include MOV, M4B, MQV, SVI, OGG, AIFF, RA, RM, WMA, along with the more common MP4, MPEG, AVI, MIDI, MP3, AVI, and others.
Retrieves Media from Encrypted Devices
While most recovery tools work against accessible devices, Stellar Photo Recovery steps ahead to offer retrieval from encrypted drives too. Specifically, Stellar’s tool retrieves audios, videos, and photos from BitLocker encrypted SSD, HDD, flash drives, or SD cards.
Recovers Data by Imaging Selected Drives
Recovering data from drives with bad sectors can be difficult. Thus, this tool supports creating a sector-by-sector image of the selected drive. This helps in better data recovery without fearing damages.
Repairs Damaged/Corrupt Files
Apart from file restoration, the Stellar Photo Recovery tool also helps in repairing corrupted media. Using this feature, you can repair damaged images, videos, and audio files. This feature also works for repairing multiple files.
Thorough Preview of Files While Scanning
If you need to extract only a few files from bulk, you don’t have to waste time scrolling through all recovered media. Nor do you have to save them. Using this tool, you can get a real-time preview of the recovered photos, videos, and audio files.
SMART Drive Monitoring Utility
Besides data recovery and repair, this software also monitors your drives using their SMART utility. This feature runs in the background to detect a drives’ health status and generates early alerts for any damages to allow one to backup data.
More Important Features
- Custom scan with an optional “deep scan” feature for thorough data recovery
- Generates a full-screen preview of files, including videos, before saving them
- Works with 4K drives too
- Recovers Unicode files
- Allows saving scan details to resume later
- Personalize the software for enhanced file format support by manually adding your desired formats in the headers
Stellar Photo Recovery Tool – Setup Guide
I used this tool on my Windows 10 PC for this review to see how it works. You can download the software from the Stellar website for free if you are hesitant to subscribe to it initially.
After the download completes, clicking on the setup executable will start the installation process.
At first, one must select the language for the software.
After that, you will see the prompt to run the installation wizard.
You will have to select a location to save the software files.
Then, clicking on the “Next” button will start the process.
It will take a few minutes to complete the installation. In my case, it took about 3 minutes.
Here, leaving the “launch” option checked will start the app right away.
How To Use The Tool
After the app installation completes, the following window appears on the screen.
You will now see all the drives connected to your system. Choose the one that you want to recover. If you want to restore data from an external drive, flash drive, or SD card, make sure to connect it to your system before running the application.
If you haven’t connected your device until this point, don’t worry. You can close the Stellar Photo Recovery window, connect your data storage device to the system, and relaunch the tool.
In my case, I wanted to recover some deleted files from my PC, so I selected Drive C and ran the scan.
The scan process will begin immediately after clicking on the “Scan” button. You can also enable the “Deep Scan” option at the bottom of the window for a thorough check.
When the scan runs, enabling the ‘Preview” feature lets you view your files being retrieved in real-time.
Once the scan completes, you can scroll through the files to save the ones that you need. You can also browse through different folders (shown at the sidebar) to find your desired photos, videos, and audio files.
Pros And Cons of Stellar Photo Recovery
During my testing, the Stellar Photo Recovery tool worked great to recover my files. I could even view the files that I deleted a long ago.
The biggest plus of this tool is that it doesn’t compel users for an upfront subscription. You can easily run the tool for free, and if you succeed in recovering your data, you can then subscribe to it to save the files.
The software bears a user-friendly and navigable interface. Hence, anyone can use this tool without needing any background technical knowledge.
The only problem with this tool was the lack of original file names in some instances. Nonetheless, the file preview option addresses this issue. In fact, it really helps in recovering lost media files when you don’t remember the original names.
Pricing And Subscription Plans
Stellar Photo Recovery tool comes with three different subscription plans offering different features.
Specifically, the “Standard” version is sufficient to recover photos, audio, and video files. However, if you subscribe to the “Professional” pricing plan, you can get the facility to repair damaged/corrupt image files.
Nonetheless, the most inclusive version comes with the “Premium” subscription plan that also supports recovering corrupt videos along with all the features offered in the other plans.
How To Recover Your Photos For Free?
Although, Stellar Photo Recovery tool offers a 30-day money-back guarantee across all subscription plans. That means you can test the tool without worrying about money.
But if you are hesitant to pay upfront or have only a few files to recover that make it costly to subscribe to a premium tool, Stellar has got you covered with Free Photo Recovery.
The free version is available as a standalone recovery software for Windows users. You can download the tool directly from the website and start recovering your files.
Using Free Stellar Photo Recovery, you can retrieve up to 10 files less than 250 MB (25 MB each) from any storage drive or SD card.
However, if you want to recover more data or repair damaged videos, photos, and audio files, you must subscribe to the premium versions.
Conclusion
Stellar Photo Recovery is an inclusive tool for recovering lost images, videos, and audio files. This extended media support makes this software a one-stop solution for restoring lost media.
Alongside tremendous data recovery functionality, the software also supports a wide range of storage devices, such as hard drives, flash drives, SD cards, and more.