You emptied the Trash, or a memory card asked to be formatted, and now the photos you cared about are gone. Backups are the best fix, but if you don't have one, you need a way to scan the drive and get the pictures back. That is the job of Picture Recovery on Mac, which the vendor's site presents as Photo Recovery Mac.
Quick facts
- Platform: Mac OS X, with separate builds for Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6), and for Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8) and Mavericks
- Volumes supported: HFS, HFS+, FAT32 and FAT16
- Trial: a demo version lets you preview recovered pictures before you save them
- Support: free technical support
Key features
Get back deleted photos from any drive your Mac can read
The tool scans storage drives that a Macintosh computer can access. These include the Mac hard drive, external hard drives, USB and flash drives, memory sticks and iPods.
Recover RAW camera files as well as ordinary images
Supported formats include JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PSD and RAW types such as CRW, CR2, NEF, ARW, ORF, DNG, RAF and PEF. The vendor lists camera brands such as Sony, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, Fujifilm, Pentax, Samsung and Leica.
Rescue pictures from SD, xD, CF and MMC cards
The software handles the common memory card types used in digital cameras. It also recovers photos from iPhoto on Mac OS versions.
Preview before you restore
A file preview shows recovered photos before you restore them. You can then save them to any drive your Mac can access.
Recover more than photos
The vendor also says it restores videos, text documents, spreadsheets, zip and RAR archives and PDF files.
How recovery works
- Install the tool and open its main screen.
- Pick the drive to scan from the list of logical drives.
- Review the list of retrieved photos.
Who it's for
It suits you if you deleted photos by accident, lost them to a failed card or drive format, or hit file system corruption. It also suits you if you have no backup. It targets Mac users with camera cards and external drives.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Wide RAW and camera format coverage
- Preview before saving
- Simple three-step process
- Free demo and technical support
Cons
- Separate downloads depending on your Mac OS X version
- The vendor's pages target older Mac OS X releases, up to Mavericks
- The full version is paid, so you only get previews from the demo
FAQs
Can it recover photos from a camera memory card?
Yes. SD, xD, CF and MMC cards are supported.
Can I see photos before paying?
Yes. The demo lets you view recovered images before you buy the full version.
Which file systems does it read?
HFS, HFS+, FAT32 and FAT16 volumes.
Does it recover RAW files?
Yes, including CR2, NEF, ARW, ORF and DNG.
System requirements
A Mac running Mac OS X. The vendor offers one build for Leopard and Snow Leopard, and another for Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks.