iBoysoft Data Recovery vs PhotoRec
iBoysoft Data Recovery
iboysoft.com
PhotoRec
cgsecurity.orgSide by side
| Figure | iBoysoft Data Recovery | PhotoRec |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data recovery software | 8.5 (#16) | 8.7 (#11) |
| Spec score · SD Card Recovery Software | 8.2 (#13) | 8.2 (#16) |
| Spec score · SD card recovery software | 8.2 (#20) | 8.6 (#8) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Memory card recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Operating systems | Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003; macOS 27/26/15/14/13/12/11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12/10.11 | Windows; Linux; macOS; DOS; FreeBSD; NetBSD; OpenBSD; Solaris; other Unix systems |
| RAID recovery | No | Yes |
| Recovery sources | Internal hard drives,external hard drives,SSDs,USB flash drives,SD cards,CF cards,memory cards,digital cameras and other disk-based storage devices | hard disks; CD-ROMs; memory cards; USB memory drives; DD raw images; EnCase E01 images |
Plans
iBoysoft Data Recovery
- Basic$59.95 a month
- Professional$159 a month
- Technician$299 a year
- Professional for Mac$89.95 a month
- Basic edition$59.95 a month
- Mac Professional 1-month$89.95 a month
- Mac Professional 1-year$99.95 a year
- Professional edition$159 a month
- Mac Professional Lifetime$169.95, paid once
- Technician edition$299 a year
In their own words
iBoysoft Data Recovery
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.
PhotoRec
PhotoRec is a free file recovery program for retrieving lost videos, documents, archives, and pictures from storage media and disk images. It searches the underlying data instead of relying on the file system, which can help after file-system damage or reformatting. It recognizes more than 480 file extensions across about 300 file families, and listed file systems include FAT, NTFS, exFAT, ext2/ext3/ext4, and HFS+.
Supported sources include hard disks, CD-ROMs, memory cards, USB drives, raw disk images, and EnCase E01 images. PhotoRec runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, DOS, several BSD systems, Solaris, and other Unix systems. It accesses the recovery drive or card in read-only mode; recovered files should go to a different partition. The portable download runs after extracting its archive, without an installer. QPhotoRec provides a graphical interface, while PhotoRec can also run from scripts or batch files with command-line options. The maker says it usually cannot recover original filenames and does not work well with ReiserFS.