Disk Drill

Disk Drill
Developer(s)	CleverFiles
Stable release	6.0 (Mac), 6.0 (Windows)
Operating system	macOS and Windows
Type	Data recovery
License	Free (up to 500MB)
Website	cleverfiles.com

Disk Drill is a data recovery utility for Windows and macOS developed by Cleverfiles. ^[1] It was introduced in 2010, ^[2] and is primarily designed to recover deleted or lost files from hard disk drives, USB flash drives and SSD drives with the help of Recovery Vault ^[3] technology. While Disk Drill was originally exclusive to the Mac, a Windows version was released in 2015. ^[4]

Recovery Vault

The core of Disk Drill is a Recovery Vault technology which allows to recover data from a medium that was secured by Recovery Vault beforehand. ^{[5] [6]} Recovery Vault runs as a background service and remembers all metadata and properties of the deleted data, making it possible to restore deleted files with their original file names and location.

Supported file systems

The macOS version of Disk Drill supports data recovery from a variety of file systems, including:

• HFS – Hierarchical File System, used by older versions of macOS.
• HFS+ - default file system up to macOS Sierra.
• FAT – File Allocation Table, commonly used on USB flash drives and external drives.
• APFS - Apple File System, default file system in macOS High Sierra and later. ^[7]

Data backup

Disk Drill can be also used as a backup utility for creating copies of the disk or partition in DMG images ^[8] format.

Version for Windows

In February 2015, CleverFiles launched a Windows version ^[9] of its data recovery software for macOS. While in beta, Disk Drill for Windows is licensed as freeware and allows to recover the deleted files from storage devices that can be accessed from Windows PC. Disk Drill for Windows also includes the Recovery Vault technology and works on any Windows XP system or newer (Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10). The software is compatible with FAT and NTFS, as well as HFS+ and EXT2/3/4 file systems.

In September 2016, CleverFiles announced the availability of Disk Drill 2 for Windows, ^[10] the new version of the expert-level data recovery app.

Release history

Version	Platform	Release date	Notes and significant changes
1.0.47 Beta	Macintosh	September 2010	First Beta.
1.0.52 Beta	Macintosh	September 2010	The first public release
1.0.62	Macintosh	November 2010	In-app navigation. New uninstaller. Better support of the disks used for Time Machine backups
1.1	Macintosh	February 2011	Totally new Deep Scan algorithm Recovery and scanning sessions management S.M.A.R.T. disk diagnostics added Portable Mode introduced Interactive scanning and recovery dialogs
1.4	Macintosh	August 2011	Guaranteed Recovery algorithm introduced
1.7	Macintosh	February 2012	Thunderbolt support Full support of new Growl's features
1.8	Macintosh	May 2012	New file signatures were added to Deep Scan's database The speed of Quick Scan was significantly improved Integration with OS X Mountain Lion Notification Center
2.0 [11]	Macintosh	May 2013	Completely Redesigned UI HFS+ Catalog file rebuild function Universal Partition Search function Scan for Lost HFS+ Partition method Mount Scanning Results As Disk function Better Deep Scan file naming
2.1	Macintosh	December 2013	updated Directory Rebuild recovery algorithm additional disk image formats can now be attached in Disk Drill: .raw, .dd and .img extended disk health monitoring for I/O errors new file signatures: EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile), LNK (MS Windows Link), DPX (Cineon image file) 64-bit ready internal daemon (responsible for Recovery Vault, S.M.A.R.T. stats and Guaranteed Recovery)
2.2	Macintosh	March 2014	More file type signatures added to Deep Scan Completely redesigned HFS+ Catalog File Rebuild recovery algorithm
2.3	Macintosh	August 2014	More file type signatures added to Deep Scan Disk Drill interface is retina-ready New drive blocks reading indication Support of EXFAT within Deep Scan
2.4	Macintosh	August 2014	New disk space visualization module Recoverable files can now be previewed with hex view Mounted disks and disk images can now be ejected right from Disk Drill “Allocate Existing File System Data” scan method is now available for free in Disk Drill Basic Support the recovery of stereo images in MPO format
2.4.437 [12]	Macintosh	December 2015	Deep Scan: DNG (Adobe Lightroom Raw images) recovery with Deep Scan Damaged drives: bad sectors management improvements File systems: Quick Scan internal procedures updated Internal: software protection and activation improved Fixed: occasional exceptions on Mac OS X 10.6.8
1.0 [13]	Windows	February 2015	Disk Drill version for Windows released [14]
1.0.188 [15]	Windows	June 2015	new: multi-format byte-to-byte disk backups (ISO, IMG) improved: search in found items after scanning for recoverable data improved: smoother scrolling in scanning results improved: disks and partitions visibility status in the main screen improved: FAT and NTFS systems low-level reading
2.0.253	Windows	August 2016	Completely free data recovery up to 2GB ExFAT, EXT4 support New file signature for Deep Scan Faster byte-to-byte disk backups Improved standard preview of found files UI improvements Fixes and improvements in Windows 10.x
3.0.756 [16]	Macintosh	September 2016	iOS data recovery for iPhone and iPad Android recovery Bootable disk creation for data recovery Improved preview Totally new UI Support of macOS Sierra 10.12 Extra features: duplicate file finder module, faster byte-to-byte disk backups and much more
4.0.0	Windows	August 2019	Improved data protection New image file formats File labeling added Expanded Disk Image support Bitlocker support New UI Improved file previewing module
4.0.123 [17]	macOS	October 2020	macOS Big Sur support iOS 14 support Updated FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, and APFS recovery algorithms Data extraction from devices with the T2 encryption chip RAW file formats recovery New UI with a Dark Mode supported Free Data Shredder feature
5.0.732 [18] [19]	Windows	November 2022	Cutting-edge smooth modular user interface Recover already found files even before completing your scans Up to 8x faster scanning for lost data RAID recovery – scan and undelete data from Windows and Linux software RAID arrays VHD and VHDX support Multiple new image formats can be reconstructed and properly labeled by Deep Scan. Deep Scan masters more video formats Google Pixel Motion Photos recovery A great variety of professional file formats added to Disk Drill’s Deep Scan and labeling algorithms New file generation rules in Deep Scan for multiple file signatures Disk Drill quick start added to the right-click menu of the Recycle Bin Introducing adaptive Dark Mode. Introducing more ways to manage, filter, group and sort through the found data Entire disk scans may now produce additional recoverable file trees under the new “Lost data structures” group in the scanning results More informative scanning progress indicator Better naming of located lost partitions with their original volume titles (when recoverable) Disk backup creation can now be paused and resumed Search history for scan results Scanning sessions are now cross-platform. S.M.A.R.T. module – keyboard navigation and clipboard integration
5.0.1043 [20] [21]	macOS	November 2022	Cutting-edge smooth modular user interface Fully compatible with macOS Ventura (version 13) Scan and recover lost data from iPhones and iPads running iOS 16/16.1, iOS backups and iPadOS included Predict recovery chances before the actual recovery Fully compatible with Apple computers powered by the new M2 chip RAID recovery – scan and undelete data from Windows and Linux software RAID arrays VHD and VHDX support Multiple new image formats can be reconstructed and properly labeled by Deep Scan Deep Scan masters more video formats Google Pixel Motion Photos recovery A great variety of professional file formats added to Disk Drill’s Deep Scan and labeling algorithms New file generation rules in Deep Scan for multiple file signatures Deep Scan in Disk Drill for Mac is catching up with its Windows sibling Introducing more ways to manage, filter, group and sort through the found data Entire disk scans may now produce additional recoverable file trees under the new “Lost data structures” group in the scanning results More informative scanning progress indicator Search history for scan results macOS Installer creation module now offers the downloading of older versions of macOS/Mac OS X Scanning sessions are now cross-platform. S.M.A.R.T. module – keyboard navigation and clipboard integration
6.0 [22] [23]	Windows, macOS	June 2025	Advanced Camera Recovery – reconstruct truly fragmented videos from GoPro, DJI, Canon, Panasonic, Insta360, Sony, Olympus and more Next-gen Byte-to-Byte Backups – 60% more successful backups with fault-tolerance and advanced damaged drive handling Faster scans – up to 25% speed increase and up to 20% more data recovered from corrupted partitions Expanded format support – NEV (Nikon N-RAW) plus 100+ updated signatures in Deep Scan ReFS lost partition recovery – enterprise-grade support for Microsoft’s Resilient File System BitLocker recovery on macOS – restore encrypted Windows partitions directly from Mac APFS recovery on Windows – cross-platform support for Apple-formatted drives

See also

• Data recovery
• Data remanence
• File deletion
• List of data recovery software
• Undeletion

References

1. Cody Fink (2010-12-15). "Disk Drill Is An Amazingly Simple Recovery App For HDDs".
2. "Disk Drill 1.0.52 Beta – first public release". 2010-10-05.
3. "Why is Recovery Vault important?". 2010-09-12.
4. "Mac recovery tool Disk Drill comes to Windows". 2015-03-10.
5. Steven Sande (2011-05-08). "Disk Drill protects your Mac disks, recovers files".
6. Simon Slangen (2010-09-10). "Disk Drill: Easily Protect and Recover Your Hard Drive Data".
7. "Disk Drill 3.5 for Mac – the Significant Release for macOS 10.13 High Sierra". 2021-06-03.
8. "Protect Your Mac Data And Recover Lost Data With Disk Drill". 2012-04-23.
9. Martin Brinkmann (2015-03-03). "Mac Data Recovery Software Disk Drill ported to Windows".
10. Tim Fisher (2016-09-01). "Disk Drill v2.0 Review". Archived from the original on 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
11. Erica Sadun (2013-05-23). "Disk Drill file recovery app moves to 2.0 release".
12. Iulia Ivan (2015-12-14). "Disk Drill for Mac 2.4.437".
13. Vamien McKalin (2015-03-09). "Recover accidentally deleted Files with Disk Drill for Windows".
14. Marina Dan (2015-03-03). "Disk Drill 1.0.0.186".
15. Mike Williams (2015-06-15). "Disk Drill 1.0.188".
16. Riccardo Meggiato (2015-06-15). "Disk Drill 3".
17. Filipe Espósito (2020-10-06). "Disk Drill 4 for Mac gets major update with T2 chip support, RAW photo recovery, more".
18. CleverFiles Team (2022-11-14). "Disk Drill 5 for Windows – Unparalleled Data Recovery Accuracy".
19. Christian Cawley (2023-05-29). "Disk Drill Review: Pros & Cons, Features, Ratings, Pricing and more".
20. CleverFiles Team (2022-11-14). "Disk Drill 5 for macOS Ventura – Unparalleled Data Recovery Accuracy".
21. Chris Barylick (2024-07-09). "Disk Drill Pro for Mac Review".
22. CleverFiles Team (2025-06-24). "Disk Drill 6 Released – An Essential App for macOS & Windows".
23. Mel Martin (2025-06-24). "Disk Drill 6 Has Learned Some Clever New Tricks".

External links

• Official website