Stellar Knowledge Base

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac Is Taking a Long Time to Scan My Drive!

 Modified on: November 9, 2020 |    38020 views

If Stellar Data Recovery for Mac software is consuming a lot of time to scan your storage drive, either the drive size is enormous or it has bad sectors. For a large drive size, wait till the scan completes.

In case the storage drive has bad sectors, you should create an image of the drive. Then, scan the image file instead of the original drive to speed up the scan time. 

Also, it is not possible to pause the scanning; you can only stop it. Once you stop the scan, you can recover only the data listed in the tree.

Read more: What Are the Minimum System Requirements for Stellar Data Recovery for Mac?

For any further queries on Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software, please contact Stellar Data Recovery Support.

 

60 User Comments

Does this apply to switching to purchased software after using the demo software and stopping it to switch during the scan?

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Esta Evans



Hi Esta,

Yes it does apply to registered version. Once scan is stopped in between, it will recover only the data listed in the tree.

Hope it helps!!

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Amit Pandey

How long does it usually take to finish scanning an entire 1TB external drive? It has been 11 hours and it's still not done. :( Thanks

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Aika

Hi Aika,

There is no definite time set for the software to complete the scan. Scan time depend upon the size of the drive. In 1TB drive size, the software will take hours to scan the entire disk. The software may also take time due to presence of bad sectors on the disk.

We advise you to be patient and let the scan complete. If it doesn't then please image the drive using 'Create Image' feature of the software. Once the Image is created you can load the image through 'Resume Recovery' and run scan.

Hope this helps!!

Please let us know your further issues.

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Amit Pandet

So I have a 1TB external drive, and it's going through the sectors.... but it has taken 4 days to go through ONE of the rows of sectors shown. There are 25 rows. So according to that, it's going to take 100 days to get through the drive. That seems a little lengthy.

There was only one lost sector found so far, and that was the very first one. But I don't dare stop the scan, because it's suppose to restore only what has been scanned.

I can't take an image of the drive, because the drive won't mount. (Long story.)

Is there a chance it will speed up? Or am I just stuck?

Thanks,
Matt

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Matt

Hello.
Have a damdged hdd with raw partition.
Used realy a dozzen data recovery programs.
Finaly stellar is the only one hwo seems to be affective.
Its scanning now for 2 days continusly.

But how long will it thake?????????

There are 976773168 sectors on the hdd.
Its yet just at 1234944 sectors.

Zo it looks like it will take weeks to read all the sectors.
is that correct???

Is it possible to pause ore stop the scanning?
If I stop scanning, can I resume from the part where i stoped?

Like to here from you.

Thanks Marc

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Marc

Hi Matt,

We advise you to image your entire 1 TB hard drive using 'Create Image' option. Since 1 TB is large drive, you can image first half and second half of the drive separately. Later, you can use Resume Scan to launch recovery for these image files.

Hope this helps!!

Let us know for further query.

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Amit Pandey

Hi Marc,

Is it damaged logically or physically? Scan time stretches when the drive has bad sectors or corrupt file structure. Use 'Create Image' option to image the entire damaged hard drive. If your drive is large then you can create 2 images of your hard drive. For Instance, if your hard drive has 100 sectors, then image first 0-50 then create second image from 51-100. Now use 'Resume Scan' option to scan these image files. This will reduce your time and effort.

Do let us know your further query.

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Amit Pandey

If you start a scan and then stop it after a minute with nothing showing, can you rescan the disk again properly from the beginning or will the first interrupted scan "results" be all you can recover?

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Joe

Hi Joe,

Yes, you can restart the scan from the beginning but you have to wait for the scan to complete. Once it gets completed, you can preview and recover files.

Hope this helps.

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Amit Pandey

Hi, I ran the software and half way through it stopped and my computer restarted. I re ran the scan but it doesn't seem to have recovered anything. What should I do?

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Imi

Hi Imi,

Please follow below steps:

1) Uninstall the Stellar Mac data recovery software by dragging it to trash.
2) Reinstall the software again on Mac OS X.
3) Select your Mac hard drive and launch the scan.

Try the above solution and if problem exists, do let us know.

Thanks

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Amit Pandey

I'm scanning my Time Machine drive since I accidentally deleted some important backups. The drive is 2TB and I chose "Quick Recovery"...
It's running for three days now. It's nit stuck, it progresses slowly and for over two days now it says:
"Performing Quick Recovery...
Updating directory entries(1847476), Please wait..."
The number changes and the bar is progressing and starting anew, progressing and starting anew, the number gets bigger.
What does this mean? How many days will this take?
It surely can't be healthy for the drive to run days and days and days. Anything I can do to speed it up? Am I supposed to check "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" in the system preferences?
Thanks for the help ...

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Marc

Hi Marc,

Kindly unchecked this option in the System Preferences << Energy Saver << “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”
If the sectors are increasing that means the scan is in progress and should not be stopped, This will not impact the drive in any way. Please let the scanning continue , for any further queries contact our support team using below details.

support@stellarinfo.com and +1-877-778-6087

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Amit Pandey

I tried using Stellar Data recovery but it's stopping from time to time. Is it transferring files already to my laptop because I don't have space anymore :( I thought I could transfer it to my new hard drive.

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Cath

Hi Cath,

Could you let us know the version of the Stellar Mac data recovery software and your OS X?
Uninstall and re-install Stellar Mac Data Recovery software. Also, it doesn’t transfer or save files in the demo version. To save the recovered files, registration is required.

Hope this helps!!

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Amit Pandey

Hi my laptop has finally stopped scanning my hard drive and now is putting the files back on the laptop can I pause it and carry on tomorrow because I can't leave laptop on over night thanks

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Bill

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Amit Pandey

Hi Bill,

You mean to say that software is saving all recovered files to another drive and you want to pause the process? Unfortunately, you cannot pause the saving process once it has begun. You can only stop it but cannot pause the same. It is advised to let the software complete the process.

However, before saving the files (through Recover button), you can use 'Save Scan Information' feature which allows saving the scan information to resume recovery process at a later stage.

Thanks

Is there a quicker way of recovering the photos which have been found because it's taking so long to put them back on my laptop, can you not just click save a whole lot in bulk instead of 1 pic at a time thanks for replying

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Bill

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Amit Pandey

Hello Bill,

You can minimize the scan time and recovery of your lost photos by selecting the "Advance Scan" option. You can select your specific file types or a particular range to perform selective recovery of your lost files.

I've been scanning my drive for around 5 hours now and its been stuck on the same sector for 4 hours out of the 5. So far out of my terabyte I've gotten 2700 files back from the scan which is great, but its still at 0% which I do understand since its a large drive, but is being on the same sector for this long normal? The program is still responding it seems since I can move the scroll bar around, but my CPU memory is heavily bogged down, so I figure its still scanning. Just want to make sure this is normal for it to take this long on the same sector since i don't know if I should restart it or not to save time already spent.

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Chase sykes

I've been scanning my drive for around 5 hours now and its been stuck on the same sector for 4 hours out of the 5. So far out of my terabyte I've gotten 2700 files back from the scan which is great, but its still at 0% which I do understand since its a large drive, but is being on the same sector for this long normal? The program is still responding it seems since I can move the scroll bar around, but my CPU memory is heavily bogged down, so I figure its still scanning. Just want to make sure this is normal for it to take this long on the same sector since i don't know if I should restart it or not to save time already spent.

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Chase sykes

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Support

Hi,

Kindly let us know the below points in order to analyze your issue properly:

1. The reason of data loss.
2. Scanning option (name) performed in our software.

As you have confirmed that your hard drive size in terabytes, hence our software will take the time to scan your hard drive completely. If our software stuck on a particular sector in order to scan, it means there are some bad sectors on your hard drive.

Hence we recommend you to create an image of your hard drive from the "create image" option in our software.

Hi! I am in the process of scanning my Passport for Mac external drive, which as of today stopped being recognized by both my Mac Mini and my MacBook. The scan has been going for about 8 hours and is about two-thirds of the way through the first row. It was slowest for the first few boxes where a lost volume was found, and seems to be moving more quickly now, although it will still take weeks to scan at this rate...

I am wondering if I can click "stop scan" at this point since it did find a lost volume, and that is probably what was causing the problem. Will the program be able to recover files from that lost volume if I stop the scan in the middle? Are there any risks to stopping the scan?

Also, is it OK to use the computer on which the scan is taking place to do other things - work in Google Docs? watch videos online? watch DVDs?

Finally, assuming the program can recover my files, will they be in their original folders/formats (for example, my Photos library)? Will they be ready to put onto a new drive and use as usual?

Thank you!

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Nancy

Hi,

You can stop the scan if you have found the volume in the software.

Software is a read only application and it will not make any changes to your drive even if you stop the scan.

Kindly do not use the external hard drive on which you are performing the scan. You may use google docs, play videos online as they are using your internal drive and not the external drive.

Software will recover the data in the same manner as shown in the preview. You need to save the recovered files in another external hard drive or on your internal drive. Software will not allow you to save the recovered files back to the same drive from which you are trying to recover them as it may cause overwritten activity on the drive.


Regards,
Stellar Support

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Stellar Support

Ok so i am trying to recover 930GB of data from a '1TB WD passport for mac external hardrive'

the drive shows up in 'disk utility' but DOES NOT MOUNT..

So far i have;

started an 'advanced scan' and waited patiently for 5-6 days until i got up in the morning to find that the program had closed with no trace of recovered files or even a warning or error message..

i then proceeded to perform a 'quick scan' which is now on its 3rd day of 'updating directory entries' and has reached (1893560) which i believe is only a small fraction of my total entries..

i have read through all of the FAQ's, and back & forth responses on this forum... one thing that no one has answered clearly is... IF you are stuck in the position that i am in, is it more beneficial to option 1: leave it for what seems like 100 days to do its thing (surely no program expects your computer to run for that long AND i cant afford to have a computer completely out of action for 100 days, let alone the fact that i need my hard drive data asap)
or option 2: stop the scan, 'image the drive' and began a new scan using the 'image'.

i am also under the impression that as the directory entries and updated they should be popping up one by one? on my program there is literally no sign of files or a file tree once the scan had begun, it is a blank page that says 'scanning in progress' can anyone confirm whether there is something im missing?

Thanks,
Joe

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Joe

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Stellar Support

Hi,

We recommend you to stop the scan and create the image of the drive. Now scan the image file and once the scanning is completed then you will be able to check the files which can be recovered.

Software will recover the files in the same manner as shown in the preview window.



Regards,
Stellar Data Recovery

I am new to Stellar WIndows Data Recovery. It is showing a size of 0 for all of the hard discs (4) I have removed from my (previously working) computer. I Two discs are 1 TB, one is 400nGB, and the other one is 250 GB. push Search and Deep Scan. It is giving no indication that it is doing anything. How do I know it is working or not? Can I get it to peer into these discs?

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Dan Lockhart

I am running the scan of Stellar Windows Data Recovery on 1TB disk and the executable failed after 3 hours. I have started the process again. Does the application remember the last run or does it start from the beginning? I read somewhere that I need to reinstall the application so the recovery process can recover without loosing anything from the previous run.
Thanks for your help in advance.

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V Kumar

I've been running raw recovery for several days. As with others, it looks like it will take weeks to complete the scan of my 1 TB drive (of which I only used ~300GB). I KNOW that you direct folks to create an image of the drive and scan the image, but if I stop the scan now to create an image, will I risk losing data or only recovering what has been recovered thus far? I don't want to jeopardize anything by stopping the scan now, but I also think its insane to have this run day and night for months!! Any help?

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Pete

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Stellar Data Recovery

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent you an email for assisting you further regarding the query on your email address.

Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

My 1TB external hard drive was saying format hard drive before use after it mistakenly ejected from the PC. I use windows 7.
I'm using Stellar to fix scan and fix it but its 38hrs now
It has read 447596544 out of 1953521664 sectors.

Evn though it has scanned for 38hrs, it shows it has scanned for 17hrs
It initially said scanning will take 15hrs, then it went to 30hrs later to 70hrs thn to 32hrs now it says 59hrs.

Its on phase 1 of 7.

No files found yet.

Whats the assurance its gonna find files and what will happen if I stop it? Will I lose files?

Panicking

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Jaga

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Stellar Data Recovery

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that the scanning time depends on a lot of factors like capacity of the drive, severity of corruption, type of files in the drive etc. Therefore we can’t give you an estimate about the scanning time.

As long as the software is not getting stuck during scan, we suggest you to kindly continue with the scan. The files will be get listed once the reading of sectors will be completed.

Our software works on “preview” basis. It means if you are able to see the preview in the software then recovery will be possible from software.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery

How long does it take to repair a 3TB LA Cie external HD via USB 3 on a Mac Pro High Sierra.

I can't find a place to enter my registration key? There is only an option for buying but I already have my key for Phoenix Data Revoery

I am writing a review for Open Photography forums on repair Utilities. Prosoft Engineering Data Rescue 5 got no files. Do your Data, rescued 2.9 TB of beautifully ordered properly named appropriate sizes files but all 100,000 files are corrupted and no image file will open except for 1 jpg! No PDF files either!

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Asher Kelman

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent an email to your email address regarding for the same.


Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

I have been trying to recover some lost files and now it says "updating file entries information" it has been like this for more than an hour and I'd like to know what that means. I can't keep running my computer for days to recover this. Can I stop the process without doing anything to impact the current process?

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Karen

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,
Support
Stellar Data Recovery.

Hi i have a saved scan information but dont know how to use it can you explain this to me please.

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SHEILA CLARK

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,
Support
Stellar Data Recovery.

It is taking a long time to initialize, I know the disk has problems, is this normal (not scanning or recovering, just initializing). Thanks

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Doug

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,
Support
Stellar Data Recovery.

I've been running raw recovery for several days. As with others, it looks like it will take weeks to complete the scan of my 1 TB drive (of which I only used ~50GB). I KNOW that you direct folks to create an image of the drive and scan the image, but if I stop the scan now to create an image, will I risk losing data or only recovering what has been recovered thus far? I don't want to jeopardize anything by stopping the scan now, but I also think its insane to have this run day and night for months!! Any help?

Also how do I create the image?

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Rex

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Stellar Data Recovery.

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery.

Hello i'm trying to recover files from a 32Gb Cf card that I think was corrupted during a Lightroom import. It says the scan will take another 24 hours to scan, I'm just using the free version so far but will upgrade If I'm able to recover files. My Question is can I stop the scan without further damaging the card or potentially losing the photo's on it?

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Joshua Laird

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Stellar Support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery.

After using Stellar, I've ejected my damaged hard drive, but the icon "Can't Find Volume", still shows. When I connect another drive, it crashes Stellar. How do I delete that icon if the drive has been ejected?
Thanks

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Jay

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Stellar Support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

We have sent you an email regarding the same.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery.

using Mac demo version the deep scan has stalled on phase 6 of 6 nothing is happening now after 24hrs of scanning?....

also when you recover files from an external HD can you put them back on the drive during recovery or do I need another drive to recover to?..TY

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Ben

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Support

Hi Ben,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

As per the chat conversation, we have provided the resolution for you.

Regards,
Stellar Data Recovery

I'm currently running the demo version on my Mac to recover a 6Tb drive that won't mount. It's taken about 15 hours to complete phase 1, and it's now reconstructing 3.2 million files in phase 2. So it looks like it's working and I will be purchasing the full version.

My question is, can I save the scan results from the demo version and load them into the full version? Or should I just cancel this scan and start again with the full version?

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Martin

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Stellar Support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent an email to your email address regarding for the same.


Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

I'm having an issue where it is stalling at 6% during phase 6. I have tried several times now with no luck. I have a Seagate 3TB external and really need to recover at least some of the photos and videos off of it.

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Josh

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent an email to your email address regarding for the same.


Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent an email to your email address regarding for the same.


Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

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Stellar support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

We would like to inform you that we have sent an email to your email address regarding for the same.


Regards

Stellar Data Recovery

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support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

As per your issue, we believe there is a bad sector available in the hard drive due to which the scan is getting stuck .

In order to provide you a solution we have sent an email to your email address.
Please reply to us so that we can assist you in a better way.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery

Hi there, I was trying to ask if i can have some help form another post, please allow me to ask it here too

I was using recovery for iPhone on a 128gb iphone7, which was being restored itself after crashing, may I ask if it is normal to have been scanning for 24hours + plus with the voice memo option selected?
Please help thank you very much

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Chris

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Stellar Support

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.

As per your issue, we believe there is a bad sector available in the hard drive due to which the scan is getting stuck .

In order to provide you a solution we have sent an email to your email address.
Please reply to us so that we can assist you in a better way.

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery

Is there a way to scan multiple disks at the same time with this software? Can I run multiple instances of this software?

Is creating an image and then scanning that image faster than just scanning the HDD directly? Why?

Can I select which sector to start scanning on a drive? In other words, if I wanted to stop a direct HDD scan and pick up from where I left off, could I select the starting sector on a new scan of the same drive so that the scan doesn't have to repeat what has already been scanned?

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Travis

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Kartik

Hi,

Please find the answers below:

1- Software can scan one drive at a time. Further, you may use Technician version of software in which you can run software on 3 different systems simultaneously and may scan 3 drives at a same time.

2- Yes, scanning on drive image bit faster than direct scanning on drive. (Drive image should be created by our software only)

3- No, if you stop the scan process before completion then it cannot be resume from same sector. We would suggest you to complete the scan process and then after you may save it by our software in order to recover data later.

For more information, you may submit ticket using below link:

https://www.stellarinfo.com/support/

Regards,

Stellar Data Recovery

 

User Comments

verfy04

 

 

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software is a DIY tool to recover critical documents, emails, photos and videos from any storage media based on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and older versions.

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