Don’t Lose Your Important Data! – A Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery Software Review

Whenever I post an article or review that deals with computer data recovery, I tend to think of the aphorism “if your data is important to you, keep it safe!”

Creating backups, using high quality computer components, and using safe internet browsing techniques are just a few ways of keeping your data safe from deletion, corruption, and/or theft. Using a secondary hard drive running in RAID 1 or just as a backup storage drive is an excellent first step towards having a reliable backup. You should also confirm that your computer is built using high quality components, as low quality units may cause data corruption. Lastly, safeguard your computer by using a recommended antivirus that will protect against any data corrupting, deleting or stealing malware.

Even though we take the time to make backups, use high quality components, and follow safe web browsing techniques, data deletion is all too common. Unfortunately, it’s an awful experience when you realize that your important files have vanished into thin air and panic sets in. Whether the deleted file was a picture, MP3, email, or document, to lose it can be devastating.

To recover a file, we must first understand what happens to it when we delete it. When a file is deleted it isn’t actually deleted from your hard drive. Instead, your system marks the file with a binary code of zero, indicating to the operating system that the space is now open real estate and can be written to. Even though the file appears to have gone and your operating system does not show the file, this does not mean it’s gone forever. Being open real estate on the hard drive, your operating system will wait until new data needs to be written, then the file structure of the old deleted file is overwritten. Many files can survive multiple rewrites before all of their contents are deleted, but they may suffer varying degrees of corruption.

The longer a file has been deleted, the harder it is to recover. Whereas a file that was recently deleted can typically be returned to original condition with little or no corruption.

Do a quick Google search for the term “data recovery program”, and the search giant will provide you with over 13 million websites containing many different recovery programs, some of which are free and some that require payment.

Free data recovery programs that actually work are hard to come by. Although there are some free programs that do work, their recovery process is designed for users who just recently lost a file and need a quick recovery. Some of these free recovery programs, however, lack the ability to recover photos or emails.

Even though there are some reputable free data recovery programs that do a decent job, a paid recovery program can certainly do better as more research and development is incorporated into the product. Being a person who has used a large collection of both free and paid data recovery programs, I have come to understand the methods of what makes a good data recovery program.

Welcome to my review of the Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery Software. Throughout this review I will be covering the following topics: The Installation, User Interface, Functionality, and My Overall Thoughts. I would like to thank Stellar for providing this software for the following review.

The Installation

The installation begins by visiting Stellar’s website, here, to download the trial edition of the software. Within a matter of minutes (depending on your internet speeds) the executable file will finish downloading and the installation process will begin.

After reading and accepting the terms and conditions, the installation process will require you to click the Next button a few times. Finally, the installation will finish with a thank you message and the software will launch.

As I mentioned above, you are downloading a trial edition of the recovery software. Take your time to evaluate the software, as to actually recover a file it will require you to pay the activation price. As you’re about to read, the program is filled with many useful features and is certainly a program that has the potential to help recover those missing files.

Once you’ve deemed the recovery software acceptable, make your way back to Stellar’s website to purchase your activation key. When the company provides the key, simply open the options tab near the top right, enter the activation key, and you’re all set!

User Interface

At first sight, I was not that impressed with the user interface of the recovery software. To me it felt outdated with the large buttons containing different sub menus. It would be nice to see a new user interface introduced to the software; something more intuitive and pleasing to the eye, rather than a lot of green and tan menus.

Moving on, the user interface is extremely easy to use and navigate through. At the top, users will find the three menus representing three different categories of the recovery software. The data recovery tab is where you will spend most of your time. Take a look at the first image and you will see that users will have the ability to perform a drive, CD, photo, and/or email recovery.

By clicking on the large rectangular buttons, a dropdown menu will appear representing the useful tasks of that option selected. Furthermore, a side options menu will appear to the right, listing even more options to advance your data recovery.

I enjoyed how different tasks were separated from one another instead of all being under one menu. If I happened to lose just one photo, I would not want the program to scan my entire drive for old and unwanted deleted Word document(s).

Underneath the Recovery from Image tab, users will find a blank menu unless a drive image was created from the Advanced Option tab. There, even more helpful tools appear for you to use as you need. Creating a drive image is a great precaution in case your operating software happens to crash. Clone drive is outstanding for a complete backup, and the drive status lets you know if your current hard drive is in the red zone. More on this below.

All-in-all, the user interface is well layered and is certainly easy to use, although, as I mentioned before, I think a redesign is needed if they want to maintain a market control over the many other data recovery programs available.

Functionality

Beginning with the drive recovery section, users will have many different options for file recovery. Supporting NTFS, FAT, and ExFAT drives, users should not have any issues with the program blocking hard drives. Stellar labels this software as “partition recovery software”, therefore it can recover entire partitions, right? By selecting the search for lost volumes text, users are brought to a scanning menu within which they can watch the ongoing process. Once finished, a list of entire missing partitions will be shown in a recovery menu. When taken through the process of saving deleted files, the program can perform a quick search for files then show them on an easy to read and navigate list. Select the file and press OK and the file is returned to a working state. However, some files may experience some corruption.

Next, we have the CD/DVD recovery. This is a feature that I have never seen before on a data recovery program, and something that is quite important! By producing a scan of a CD, the program can read rewritten disks and attempt to save deleted data. Although I did not have a CD with a large amount of data deleted on it, claims state that it can be hit or miss depending on how many times the CD has been written to. The software can read CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs, and even Blu-ray disks.

One of my favorite functions of the program, photo recovery can be a life saver if you happen to delete that one important photo. Similar to the CD recovery, the program scans for certain photo types like .PNG, .JPG, .GIF, and others. Then a list appears of all photos that are found. These can be spotty, as although most photos can be recovered, there may be a color shift or missing chunks of the photo. This is not the software’s fault, but rather the hard drive already using that space for new storage.

Finally, on the last sub menu you’ll find the email recovery feature. By supporting Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, the software covers the two major email clients, but many users have emails in Thunderbird and other programs that they may need emails recovered from. It would be nice to see these other email programs added to the list for email recovery. Regardless, the software will scan your Outlook PST or DBX file and attempt to find old emails. What’s nice is the button for Find PST… for users unaware of where the email file may be located.

Finally, we return to the Advanced Options tab. When selecting creation of a new image of your hard drive, the software goes to work and compiles a list of Windows files, loading files, and other important data that can be crucial when attempting to recover Windows. The cloning section takes a different approach and creates an entire drive clone to a secondary drive. If something were to happen to your primary drive, the secondary drive can be booted from and used in place of the primary. Then there is the drive status. With built in SMART technology, the software can provide general information about the current drive such as temperature, drive status, warnings of failure, and other SMART features.

My Final Thoughts

In the end, I believe that the Phoenix Partition Recovery software is well worth its $99 price. It’s full of useful features and provides a great way for getting those deleted files back. Once you buy it, it’s yours forever; meaning it can be installed on multiple PCs and can always be another safeguard for accidental file deletion. Apart from my suggestion for the user interface update, Stellar did an excellent job in making a reliable, affordable, and effective data recovery program that can serve you for many years to come.

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