Stellar Data Recovery Premium, a paid file restoration software for Windows, often appears on lists of the best options available. It also has a free version, which I reviewed to assess its effectiveness, customer service responsiveness, and the value of its subscription plans. The Windows version, however, falls short of some competitors in crucial areas.
Stellar Data Recovery offers three consumer subscription tiers: a free version limited to 1GB of file restoration, the $60 per year Standard plan for unlimited file restoration from various storage devices, and the $90 Professional plan for lost partition recovery and files from unbootable PCs. The Premium plan, priced at $100 annually, adds advanced photo and video repair capabilities.
Stellar’s user interface is intuitive. After installing the software, a browser tab automatically opened with a video tutorial and user guide. The app clearly lists data sources for recovery and allows users to select specific file types or choose the default option to restore all files. Next, users select the drive or folder to scan for lost files before initiating the scan process.
After a quick scan, Stellar Data Recovery Premium displays a file list with previews, splitting the window into three panes. The left pane shows the folder structure, similar to Windows File Explorer. The top-right pane displays a preview of the selected file from the list in the lower pane. For more comprehensive scanning, users can opt for a deep scan. When ready to recover files, a pop-up window prompts users to choose a restoration location and offers advanced options, such as saving files as compressed ZIP files to save storage space.
While the user interface is straightforward, the app window is not resizable, which can be limiting on larger monitors, especially for viewing files and previews.
I began testing Stellar Data Recovery Premium by deleting all files from an SSD partition and then attempting to restore them. The software’s quick scan detected the files and folders, but previews were unavailable. Even after a deep scan, previews were still absent, and the recovered files could not be opened. The advanced repair feature, designed to restore photos and videos when deep scans fail, also proved unsuccessful in this instance.
I repeated the SSD test using a method that some data recovery software can successfully restore. After copying files to the partition, I performed a quick format and instructed Stellar Data Recovery Premium to scan for lost files. However, the software failed to find any files from the SSD.
Moving on to HDD recovery, I quick-formatted a slow USB drive using File Explorer and scanned it with Stellar Data Recovery Premium. The scan, which took approximately an hour, displayed file previews during the process, indicating a successful outcome. Stellar Data Recovery Premium successfully recovered the files, albeit without their original names and folder structure. Instead of restoring the original folder organization, the software created separate folders for each file type.
For my second HDD test, I copied a batch of files to the drive and deleted them all. A quick scan immediately identified the files but lacked names or previews, necessitating a deep scan that took over an hour. During the scan, the software stalled for several minutes with 44 seconds remaining before finally completing. Despite the delay, Stellar Data Recovery Premium successfully recovered all files and folders.
The final test involved an old, damaged thumb drive that Windows couldn’t read. Stellar Data Recovery Premium detected lost partitions and provided a comprehensive list of files during the scan, more complete than any other file restoration software I have tested.
Stellar’s customer support is exceptional. The live chat feature is available 24 hours a day from Monday through Friday, surpassing the support offered by any other data recovery software I have reviewed. The support agent I spoke with was knowledgeable and efficient, providing answers to my questions within a minute.
Stellar Data Recovery does not upload data for processing, ensuring file security. The end user license agreement allows Stellar to use account data for promotions related to their products. In my testing, I did not encounter any excessive or intrusive marketing.
Stellar Data Recovery Premium successfully restored all my HDD files in both tests. However, it failed to restore any files from either SSD test and could not detect my damaged thumb drive. The advanced image recovery feature also did not help with the missing SSD files. This indicates that the added features of the Professional and Premium plans were ineffective in these scenarios, and the same results could have been achieved with the Standard plan, saving $40 per year.
In my review of the $25 Recuva Professional, a less expensive competitor, it successfully located my lost thumb drive partition and recovered almost all my HDD files. While Stellar Data Recovery’s customer support is excellent, live agents cannot make the software do anything beyond its capabilities. In my tests, Stellar Data Recovery Premium proved useful only for restoring files from my HDD.
Therefore, it is recommended to try the free version of Stellar Data Recovery before subscribing to ensure that the files you wish to restore can be recovered using this software. If the free version is successful but you reach the 1GB limit, a subscription may be worthwhile. However, if your drive is severely damaged, and file restoration software cannot assist, data recovery experts can sometimes salvage crucial information from your hard drive.
