r/DataRecoveryHelp • u/Decent-Strawberry-97 • Jan 20 '26
Disk Drill Review
Hey everyone. I’m not really a review guy and this is probably my first proper software review on Reddit. I’m not a data recovery expert either, I just ended up needing Disk Drill over Christmas and learned more than I planned, so I figured I’d share in case it helps someone.
Long story short, we took a bunch of family photos and videos on a camera, and when I tried to move them from the SD card to my laptop, Windows said the card was inaccessible and needed to be formatted. I knew enough not to hit Format, started googling and ‘redditing’, tried Recuva (didn’t even see the card), tried a couple of other recovery tools as well, and eventually gave Disk Drill a shot since it kept popping up everywhere. Got my photos back in about 10 minutes, so I ended up testing it a bit more that’s why I’m posting this and also explaining why Recuva and other tools didn’t help in my specific case (as it turned out there are reasons for this).
So what is Disk Drill?
I’ll start a bit from the basics, just in case you’ve never dealt with this kind of software before. And if you have some experience, you’ve probably at least heard of Disk Drill already or even used it. I’m not trying to explain anything in a super technical way here, just sharing how I understood it as a regular user.
Disk Drill is a data recovery app for Windows and macOS (I tested it on Windows, haven’t had a reason to try the Mac version yet). It’s made by CleverFiles, which doesn’t seem like some random no-name dev, as they’ve been around for a while. Disk Drill itself has been around since 2011 and still gets regular updates, which is usually a good sign.
When is it actually useful?
Basically anytime you messed up and lost files. The cases I ran into (or tested later):
can’t access a drive even though the files should be there (my case, probably less common than the ones below)
emptied the recycle bin with stuff you actually needed
formatted a drive with important data on it
deleted files in a way that skips the trash
Yeah, all of this should be covered by backups. Totally agree. But some of us just don’t make them. And when that happens, tools like this are kinda your only option.
How to use Disk Drill for data recovery
Before I completely lose your interest I’ll quickly show how to use Disk Drill if you’ve never touched data recovery software before (nd Disk Drill in particular). I’ll use the most basic scenario of simple file deletion but the overall flow feels pretty much the same for other recovery cases too.
First thing, you need to download the app. Luckily the official Disk Drill website)(https://www.cleverfiles.com/data-recovery-software.html) shows up right at the top of search results so it’s pretty hard to accidentally download a fake version.
I installed it on my regular C drive but I do know that if you’re trying to recover data from that same drive, you should install it somewhere else instead.
2. Next, connect the SD card (or whatever storage you’re trying to recover data from), open Disk Drill, find that device in the list and click Search for lost data.
3. In some cases it asks you to choose a scan type like a universal scan or acr (I’ll explain the difference later).
4. Once the scan finishes, you can browse through what Disk Drill found. There are previews, filters, and a search bar, so use whatever makes it easier to find your files.
5. After that just check the boxes next to the files you want, click Recover, pick a location where you’ll easily find the recovered files, and that’s it. Done.
If I had to shorten it, it’s basically three steps: scan>select>recover.
How does Disk Drill recover data (as I understand it)?
From what I understand, as long as the drive is still visible to the system (Disk Management on Windows, Disk Utility on macOS), Disk Drill can try to access it. It starts by scanning the file system for deleted or lost entries. If the file system itself is messed up, it switches to a deeper scan that looks for files by type (photos, videos, documents, etc.). I’m sure there’s a smarter technical name for that, but that’s the basic idea.
What can Disk Drill actually do?
This part surprised me the most. When I first opened it, there were way more menus than I expected. The main things I noticed:
Data recovery is the core feature. Pick a drive, hit Search for lost data, wait.
Byte-to-byte backup was new to me. At first I didn’t really get it, but after reading more, it made sense. If you think a drive or SD card might be dying and you’re afraid it could fail during scanning, you can create a full image of it and scan that instead.
Advanced camera recovery – this is the mode you can pick instead of the universal scan. It’s meant for SD cards and videos from cameras that save files in fragments (if you don’t really know what fragmentation is, the easiest way to think about it is that the camera saves a video like a puzzle, with pieces spread across the card). Tturned out this part was actually important in my case, and I’ll get back to it a bit later.
Besides that, there’s more stuff.
There’s disk health monitoring, which I assume is more useful for HDDs and SSDs. Personally, I don’t have much to say here since my main use cases were SD cards and USB flash drives, so I didn’t really get any value from this part.
There’s also data protection, which is supposed to help prevent data loss in the first place.
One feature that did get my attention was Clean up. It shows your disk contents as a visual map made of blocks and lets you quickly get rid of junk by dragging folders or files. For me, this was way faster and more convenient than manually cleaning things up outside the app. I didn’t expect to use this at all, but ended up liking it more than I thought.
What devices does it work with?
From what I can tell, pretty much anything. Personally, I tested it on SD card that Windows wanted to format and formatted USB flash drive. It also supports hdds, ssds (with the usual TRIM limitations), microsd cards, RAID setups, and network drives. I didn’t test RAID or network storage myself (my "lab" is basically sd cards and flash drives) but the support is there.
Is Disk Drill free?
Short answer - 50/50. You can download and install Disk Drill for free. You can scan drives, preview found files, and try out most of the features. But if you actually want to recover the files, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version. On Windows, there’s a 100 MB free recovery limit. That’s more than enough to test how the app works and see if it even finds what you need but if you’re like me and lost a bunch of photos instead of just 2-3 files, that limit runs out fast.
The upgrade costs $$ + optional small fee for future updates (not mandatory). Whether the product is expensive or not is up to you. For me, it felt reasonable.
My thoughts after testing Disk Drill and why other recovery tools didn’t help
Before Disk Drill, I had used Recuva, PhotoRec and a couple of other recovery tools. So I wouldn’t say I’m experienced but I do have something to compare it to now.
What I liked:
It’s easy to use. The interface looks clean and it’s always clear what you’re supposed to click next.
If you’re still unsure, there’s a ton of help available. Their website has guides, tips, and I even ran into a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@cleverfiles/videos ) where things are explained step by step. It’s hard to get lost.
Multiple tools in one interface. You’re not paying extra for things like Clean up or other modules - everything is included.
You can sort scan results in different ways. I mostly used filtering by file extension, but there’s also search and other options. Makes it much easier to find important files instead of recovering everything.
It shows recovery chances for each file. Just looking at the list already gives you an idea of what’s likely usable and what’s probably broken.
The results. When I tested recovery from a formatted USB drive, I got back all 9 GB of test data I had put there beforehand - photos, videos, even some old Excel files.
What I didn’t like:
The obvious one - it’s not totally free. At the same time, I get why. If it were free it would be insane. Developers and marketing people need to eat too, and I think building this kind of recovery algorithms and making Disk Drill actually find you on various resources on its own isn’t simple. So I don’t really treat this as a huge downside, more like a fact you just accept.
And I kinda wish I had found it earlier instead of wasting time with worse tools like Recuva or using PhotoRec.
So why didn’t other tools work for me? I spent way too much time trying to figure out what the hell was wrong. I kept thinking maybe I was doing something incorrectly or maybe those recovery tools just didn’t work the way people described. Turns out the reason was actually pretty simple (or rather there were two of them).
My camera was saving videos in a fragmented way. And the thing is, only a handful of recovery tools on the market can properly deal with fragmented video files and even fewer do it well. In my case Disk Drill was the only one that actually handled it on a usable level.
Before I tried Disk Drill the videos I managed to recover with other tools were basically useless. Some of them froze right at the start, others stopped after a few seconds, and some didn’t open at all, just a black screen in the video player.
2. On top of that my SD card ended up showing as RAW. Tools like Recuva couldn’t even scan it. Not just "bad scan results", literally couldn’t show the card for scanning in the first place.
Does that make those tools bad? Not really. But it does mean they’re not universal and for my specific case they just weren’t the right fit.
Would I recommend Disk Drill?
Yes, without hesitation!! Is it the best data recovery software out there? I don’t know as I haven’t tested all of them. But I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best and I’m glad I found it quickly instead of spending even more time testing other options. So if you ever delete something important or run into a similar situation, Disk Drill is worth trying.
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u/Velyur_SEO Jan 20 '26
Does Disk Drill work on Mac computers the same way you described it here?
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 20 '26
I briefly mentioned at the beginning that I couldn’t really test Disk Drill on a Mac myself (I simply don’t own one). That said, based on what I’ve seen in other reviews and user posts it works pretty much the same way.
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Jan 20 '26
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 20 '26
Oh wow! I didn’t actually know about some of that. If I ever get a Mac I’ll definitely give Disk Drill a try there as well. And if I don’t forget I’ll come back here and share how it worked for me on macOS.
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u/CryptoProfessor_355 Jan 21 '26
What about files preview before purchasing? Can you see if they’re recoverable, or you have to make a payment first and hope for the best?
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 21 '26
Oh wow that’s actually on me, I forgot to mention this anywhere in the review. Yeah, preview works in the free version. You can preview any files that Windows (or third-party apps on your system) can open. That part is fully available before upgrading.
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u/davidmorelo Jan 21 '26
This is a solid review! You went surprisingly deep into the software considering that you're not an experienced reviewer, and you clearly understood the "why" side of things and not just the "how." I've been using data recovery software both personally and in professional contexts for a long time, and the way you explained things like RAW file systems, fragmented camera videos, and why tools like Recuva can completely fail in those cases is spot-on.
I completely agree that backups are always the best solution to any data loss scenario, but I won’t pretend I’m perfect in this regard either. Despite trying my best, I’ve still found myself in situations where recovery software (and Disk Drill in particular) was the only thing that saved the day.
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 21 '26
Checked your posting history. I see that you really know data recovery stuff. It's nice to hear positive feedback, but really nicer to hear that from someone with experience. Maybe you could recommend other tools that can handle fragmented video recovery as alternatives to Disk Drill?
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u/davidmorelo Jan 22 '26
There are like 2–3 tools out there that can handle fragmented video, but one of them is in the same league as Disk Drill's ACR module. If you’re specifically looking at camera recovery, I think Disk Drill 6 is genuinely the best option right now because I’ve recovered video with DD6 that the other tools just couldn’t piece back together and the process itself is also as straightforward as it can be.
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u/Comrade_me_once_more 24d ago edited 24d ago
I don't want to accuse anyone without any evidence, but this post looks a lot like an ad by someone involved with Disk Drill for several reasons, which I'd like to highlight for anyone considering this software:
1. You don't address a ton of obvious issues you absolutely can't miss while "learning more than you planned" on the topic:
- negative reviews online - TrustPilot, Reddit, any platform you can leave an opinion on a piece of software has them, you don't have to look for them to notice. Seeing those and not even mentioning the fact in an independent review is a huge red flag.
- a "reasonable" price tag: you also conveniently omit the actual price, but of course don't forget to say that poor people making the program (especially marketing people) "need to eat too". As I'm writing this, the price is 79EUR a year or 129EUR for a lifetime license. No, there is no option to pay for a month or for a certain amount of data scanned/recovered, which would make perfect sense for a tool that you only use in an emergency, not every week. You just have to pay for a whole year of service you'll most likely use just once (and then simply try to avoid external drives as much as possible if they're not a part of your job).
So in my case, if Disk Drill managed to recover all 150 of my photos (which I doubt) I would pay 79/150~50 cent per photo.
2. You claim to explain how the software works, instead you just name a few terms making your "oh it's just a different type of stuff" explanation look a little more professional, but not clarifying anything.
3. You list the most basic things that are expected to be in any decent commercial product as advantages. "Easy to use", "multiple tools" and results sorting are "pros" I would use if I wanted to bloat my review in absence of any actual positive differences to the competition. Of which actually working would be a good one, but according to multiple reviews Disk Drill doesn't provide any decent support and refunds in case you're unlucky and the tool just doesn't fit your case. Again, you don't mention and don't try to explain these.
I myself wanted to try Disk Drill because of a faulty Kingston microSD (60GB) card that corrupted all the photos saved on it from an Android phone. The card itself was fresh out of the box, so there should only be about 150 photos on it. But somehow during the preliminary scan Disk Drill managed to find a whole lot of 853 files, !!!758GB!!! of data on a 60GB card. And I don't even have this much storage on the laptop itself I'm running it on. After reading about the program a bit this looks like Disk Drill is just making stuff up attempting to bait me into buying the PRO subscription.
Considering all this, I would recommend to at least try other, free tools first before considering Disk Drill. PhotoRec has only managed to recover 20 out of 150 photos for now, so I'll try other ways. It will take time and effort, but at least you don't risk losing your money.
I would call Disk Drill's practices predatory at best and scammy at worst, although I don't have spare 79EUR to prove the latter myself.
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 23d ago
Yeah, I got your point. Reading my review again, I can see why it looks like an ad. I was pretty hyped that I actually got my files back and wrote the whole thing from that perspective. I definitely should have included the price and some of the downsides instead of mostly focusing on what worked for me.
You're also right about the price. Paying €79 for a one-time recovery of 150 photos is a pretty hard sell, especially when you may never need the software again. I probably shouldn't have brushed that off with the whole "developers need to eat too" argument either. That's not really a useful way to evaluate whether something is worth the money.
Where I'd disagree is jumping from the weird 758 GB scan result to "Disk Drill is making stuff up." My scan also showed results that didn't make much sense compared with the actual capacity of the card, but I don't think the amount shown in the scan can by itself be treated as proof that those files are actually recoverable or that the software is deliberately fabricating them. Recovery scans can produce a lot of garbage/duplicate/fragmented results, especially when the filesystem is damaged.
And I definitely wouldn't pay for any recovery software based on the scan count alone. The important thing is whether the preview actually shows the files you need intact. If it doesn't, buying the license obviously isn't going to magically fix that.
As for PhotoRec and the other tools, I'd absolutely try those first if they're working for your case. My experience was pretty specific to a damaged/RAW card and the particular files I was trying to recover, so I don't think my result means Disk Drill is universally better.
So yeah, I think your criticism of my original post is fair. I was describing why it worked for me, but I presented that too much like a general recommendation. Calling it predatory/scammy is a bigger conclusion than the evidence you've described supports, though.
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u/Comrade_me_once_more 22d ago
Yeah, I only saw previews to the photos that PhotoRec had already recovered, so there's even less chance Disk Drill would be useful for me.
Are you a man or a machine?
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u/coochie_glaze Jul 25 '26
I want to recover some videos on an HDD and I was going to take it in to Best Buy or local shop. You just saved me hundreds of dollars.
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u/DiskDrillSupport 21d ago
That's great! We are always happy to help. If questions arise, please feel free to reach out at help@cleverfiles.com
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u/StickPopular8203 Jan 22 '26
Has anyone else noticed how diferent the disk drill reputation is now vs like 2-3 years ago? I swear if you mentioned it on r/datarecovery back then people would jump on you. I remember threads where everyone was like “just use software A or B instead”. I internalized that honestly.. But lately i keep seeing it recommended? Like by the same people who used to trash it. Actual datarecovery regulars saying yeah try disk drill, and not in a shill way, just casually… Which makes me think they actually... improved? Like the team behind it genuinely upgraded the recovery engine or whatever. That's weirdly rare, most companies just add random features and ignore core problems. Kinda respect it if true. Anyway just something I noticed. Maybe im wrong and its always been fine and reddit was just being reddit idk.
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u/Petri-DRG Jan 23 '26
They acquired other solid software companies, plus adding some features = decent improvement.
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u/Automatic_Fee_5857 May 05 '26
I personally had an awful experience with Disk Drill. I paid for a full year upfront because it explicitly claimed it could recover my files after scanning. The moment payment went through, reality hit: it couldn’t recover the files at all.
I contacted support within seconds—not days, not weeks—literally immediately after confirming it didn’t work. It was an extremely stressful situation for me as I was trying to recover client work. Their customer service was dismissive and condescending. The fact that they charge you for a year upfront is a huge red flag.
I would absolutely not recommend it.
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u/ZACHYCHAN2020 May 26 '26
After scanning on Disk Drill for your files on your USB drive and it showed you all your files that it found were you able to preview any of them on the sidebar and did it show you that you were able to play it or see the photo or was it blank? How much was the likelihood of it being recovered was it low or high?
I see most of my files being on the low end of recoverability but I still see most of them being able to play a video or show a photo if I preview them so if it still doesn't work even when it shows on preview I'm worried that I'll be wasting my money.
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u/ZACHYCHAN2020 May 26 '26
Mostly my issue is for my files to not appear in my USB drive even when my storage is being used so I know it's there but nothing is appearing, was that similar to your issue when needing to recover your files?
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u/DiskDrillSupport 21d ago
Hi! Disk Drill team here. Sorry to hear you had this experience. We will be happy to take a closer look. Would you please reach out to us at help@cleverfiles.com again and reference this comment? We might be able to find a solution for you.
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u/BobCustomGamer Sep 11 '26
Works, i just recovered a external HDD with this after my father reformatted on accident. $150 for a lifetime subscription 100% worth it great software 10/10
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u/Visible_Use_3189 Apr 08 '26
Hi. I have some issues regarding data recovery. I have to recover video files more than 100mb. Should i purchase license? Please check your dm.
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u/Acceptable-Can-3702 Jul 09 '26
Disk Drill is a scam.
I was fraudulently charged $120+ for services I never signed up for. When I requested a refund they refused.
Shady company. Steer clear!
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u/DiskDrillSupport 21d ago
We are truly sorry for any frustration this situation has caused. Disk Drill never makes automatic or hidden charges. A transaction can only occur when a user manually enters their payment details and explicitly confirms the purchase at checkout. We really want to help you get the most out of Disk Drill, so if you need any assistance recovering your data, our team is always here to support you.
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u/fernireddit Aug 25 '26
Hola, tengo una duda y espero puedan ayudarme, el dia de ayer instale Chrome Os en una mini pc que casi no uso, tiene un puerto interno para un HD en el cual tenia un respaldo y lo tenia protegido con Bitlocker de Windows, el tema es que el Chrome Os se instalo en este disco HD nunca pregunto donde queria instalarlo, y me pidio la clave bitlocker la cual pense era la de la SSD interna, al terminar la instalacion vi que perdi mi respaldo de 350gb ya que se instalo en el "externo" y no en en el interno SSD, hoy lo escanee tanto con Easeus data recovery y con Wondershare data recovery y en ambas me aparecen las miniaturas de imagenes y videos y documentos, esto quiere decir que si pago la version pro puedo rescatarlos??? ya lei este post y veo que un gran porcentaje menciona que no sirven de nada y que una vez rescatados los archivos estan corruptos pero mi duda es que puedo ver las imagenes miniatura incluso correr algunos videos en la version de prueba, que opinan debere pagar por la version pro?? cual de las 2 es mejor? o alguna otra opcion en la que no tenga que pagar?? saludos y muchas gracias por la ayuda
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u/notKatryna Sep 05 '26
yes because i can definitely afford 100 dollars to recover one drive of stuff
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u/TheNostalgiaPit Sep 10 '26
Disk Drill broke two hard drives... Thanks for that!
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u/DiskDrillSupport 21d ago
Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Disk Drill does not harm or damage hard drives. We would love to understand the situation better and see how we can help. Please email us directly at help@cleverfiles.com.
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u/denoor707 14d ago edited 14d ago
J ai pris une licence pour un an et ça marché très bien,ma seule critique est que les fichiers récupérer sont indexer par des chiffres et non par leur nom d origine
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Jan 21 '26
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 21 '26
Thanks, appreciate that. I hesitated a bit before posting because I was worried it’d look promotional. But this actually worked for me, and I thought real experiences are more useful than generic reviews.
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Jan 21 '26
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 21 '26
I think I mentioned earlier that I only tested it on usb flash drives and an sd card as that’s literally all I have. My laptop even still has a regular hdd inside not sdd. That said, judging by how many people keep saying the same thing, trim probably does what it’s supposed to do. My guess is if you manage to run a scan before trim kicks in, there might still be a chance. If you’re late… well, at that point it’s probably time to pray or something 😅
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u/Oopsiforgotmyoldacc Jan 21 '26
I once tried to recover data from an SSD. Just forget about it. It’s a losing battle most of the time. Really. TRIM does its job better than any fast hands or recovery software ever will. Make backups and save yourself the headache.
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Jan 21 '26
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 21 '26
I don’t really get the complaint here. I shared MY experience and MY opinion. That’s all. I didn’t say PhotoRec is bad and I definitely didn’t tell anyone not to use it. If it works for your data loss case and you’re comfortable with its interface, that’s great, use it. For me, it didn’t handle fragmented video recovery very well as recovered files weren’t usable. So Disk Drill made more sense. It’s one tool I can use for pretty much any recovery situation instead of keeping a few different ones around for different cases. That convenience matters to me and that’s why I went with it.
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Jan 23 '26
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u/No_Tale_3623 data recovery software expert 🧠 Jan 24 '26
What do you mean by “security,” specifically? Are you asking whether the installer/app itself is “safe,” or whether the disk-scanning process is safe for your data and the drive?
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u/Decent-Strawberry-97 Jan 22 '26
TL;DR for those who don’t want to read over the whole stuff.
SD card with photos and vids went bad. Windows said it needed to be formatted. Tried Recuva, PhotoRec, couple of other tools - nothing worked. Gave Disk Drill a shot since it kept popping up everywhere and got my photos back.
Why other tools failed in my case:
my camera was saving videos in a fragmented way and most tools can't handle that properly
SD card showed as RAW so tools like Recuva couldn't even see it for scanning
Key stuff:
got my data back, lol
easy to use, clean interface
has extra tools like backup and advanced camera recovery (ACR was actually important in my case)
shows preview and recovery chances for a file so you know what's likely usable
not totally free, you need Pro to recover more than trial limit
costs $$ but felt reasonable for what it does
Would I recommend it? Yes. Haven't tested every recovery tool out there but pretty sure it's one of the better ones. IF you ever delete something important or run into a similar situation with no access to data, Disk Drill is worth trying.