Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a data recovery application developed by CleverFiles, originally built for macOS and later extended to Windows. The software restores files that have been deleted, lost through formatting, or made inaccessible by corruption on internal and external hard drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, cameras and mobile devices. It addresses the common and often stressful scenario of losing important documents, photos or projects through accidental deletion, failed updates, damaged partitions or hardware problems. Disk Drill approaches recovery with a combination of scanning algorithms that analyse file system structures and search for file signatures, allowing it to reconstruct data even when directory records have been lost. Its interface is designed to make this technical process approachable, guiding users through selecting a device, running a scan and recovering results.

Key features include quick and deep scan modes, support for file systems such as APFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT, recognition of hundreds of file formats, and previews that let users verify files before recovery. Scans can be paused and resumed, and results can be filtered by type, size and date. Beyond recovery, Disk Drill includes free tools that help prevent future data loss: Recovery Vault tracks deleted files for easier retrieval, drive backup creates byte-level images of failing disks so recovery can be performed without further stressing the hardware, and S.M.A.R.T. monitoring warns of drive health issues. Additional utilities cover duplicate file finding, disk space analysis and bootable recovery drive creation for Macs that will not start. The software supports recovery from iOS and Android devices in certain scenarios and handles RAID and virtual disk images. Disk Drill is used by home users, photographers, creative professionals, students and IT support teams, with enterprise and technician licensing available for businesses and service providers. Pricing starts from around USD 89 for a Pro licence with a free trial that allows scanning and preview; there is no permanently free version listed.