iBoysoft Data Recovery vs partrevive

iBoysoft Data Recovery is a Windows and Mac utility for scanning storage devices for lost files and previewing files before purchase. Supported sources include internal and external hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, SD and CF cards, memory cards, digital cameras, and other disk-based devices. The free trial can scan and preview, but free recovery is limited to one; paid editions advertise unlimited data recovery. Paid Windows editions also list recovery from BitLocker drives and partitions. The software says it uses read-only access to the drive containing lost data. RAID recovery is not supported, and WinPE bootable media requires Professional or Technician edition. Windows support includes consumer releases from XP through 11 and Windows Server releases from 2003 through 2019; Mac editions list macOS versions from 10.11 through 27. Windows Basic is listed at $59.95 a month, while Mac Professional 1-month is $89.95 a month; prices exclude VAT where specified. Other listed Mac options include $99.95 a year and $169.95, paid once payment. Purchases have a 14-day money-back policy, and lifetime technical support is provided by email.

partrevive is a free, MIT-licensed utility for finding and recovering lost or deleted partition tables. It scans disks for filesystem signatures, then checks candidate filesystems through read-only loop devices and mounts to distinguish live data from ghosts. Commands cover scanning, verification, planning, file rescue, table restoration, automatic recovery, undo and disk imaging; a Tkinter interface guides users through scanning, verification, planning and restoration. The project lists NTFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, ext2/3/4, btrfs, XFS, F2FS and Linux swap as detected formats. It reports LVM2 and LUKS but does not rebuild them. GPT is the default restore format; MBR is available with `--mbr` and is limited to four primary partitions. Imaging uses ddrescue in two passes with a mapfile, and recovery can use a disk image. Before writing, restore and auto save the current table and check SMART health; restore prompts by default and refuses a mounted target. The single-file Python 3 program requires root and Linux system tools on PATH. The project is described as early, and fragmented or overwritten filesystems may mount incompletely.