You pulled a USB stick out of your Mac a little too fast, or deleted a folder to make room, and now the files you need are gone. Lost Flash Drive Data Recovery on Mac is built for that situation. It scans a flash drive connected to your Mac and brings back deleted or lost files.
Quick facts
- Version: 1.0.0.25
- Platform: Mac OS X (Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion are named on the vendor's page)
- File systems: FAT16, FAT32, HFS+ and HFSX
- Trial: a demo version lets you scan and preview. You need the full version to save recovered files.
Key features
Two recovery modes for two kinds of loss
After you pick Recover Files, you choose Recover Deleted Files or Recover Lost Files, depending on what happened to the drive. You then select the USB drive and let the scan run.
Preview files before you restore them
The Preview option shows recovered files before you save them. You can check that a photo or document is intact instead of restoring everything blindly.
Save a scan and come back to it later
The Save Recovery Session option stores the results of a scan. You can return to them without scanning the drive again.
Find one file by its attributes
The Find option searches the scan results by file attributes. This helps when a drive holds thousands of recovered items and you want one document.
Many file types and drive brands
It recovers photos, audio, video and documents such as PDF, HTML, DOC, DOCX, XLSX and PPT. The vendor lists Lexar, Samsung, Transcend and Kingston drives. It can also recover from a drive that shows as RAW after formatting.
How recovery works
- Install the tool and connect the flash drive to your Mac.
- Run it and choose Recover Files.
- Pick deleted or lost file recovery, then select the USB drive.
- Preview the results, choose the files you want and save them to a secure location.
Save recovered files to a different drive from the one you scanned.
Who it's for
It suits you if you use a Mac and have lost files from a USB stick, pen drive or similar flash drive. Typical causes are pulling the drive out mid-transfer, deleting files by hand, or a third-party tool removing them. It is a plain, step-by-step tool with three screens to get through.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Simple three-step workflow
- Preview before you pay for the full version
- Handles both Mac (HFS+) and Windows-style (FAT) file systems
- Session saving and a search option for large scan results
Cons
- The demo does not save recovered files
- The vendor's page names only older Mac versions: Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion
- It focuses on flash drives. Its pages do not describe other recovery jobs.
FAQs
Can it recover files after I formatted the drive?
The vendor says it can recover data from a RAW USB drive after formatting.
Can I try it first?
Yes. A demo version is available. You buy the full version when you want to save the recovered files.
Which file systems does it read?
FAT16, FAT32, HFS+ and HFSX.
Can I see files before restoring them?
Yes. The Preview option shows recovered files before you save them.
System requirements
- Mac OS X
- 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
- 50 MB free disk space