For most of us, Photo recovery means a simple process that involves recovering deleted or lost photos from any storage device, computer, camera, or a smartphone. However, this process requires extraordinary tools to remain “Simple.” Our photos hold memories, important information and other values, but they can be lost due to accidental deletion, storage drive corruption, or an OS issue.
Photo recovery software with advanced recovery algorithms scans storage devices to find and retrieve lost and missing photos. Those who ever used a photo recovery tool know how priceless they are if they work well. But with too many options around, it's easy to get confused about which works best for your needs.
While it’s not easy to compare each and every photo recovery tool available, we have narrowed down two popular and trusted options in the market - Disk Digger Photo Recovery and Stellar Photo Recovery for an in-depth comparison. Read on to what works best for your needs. .
Stellar Photo Recovery
This, photo recovery tool seamlessly restores not just deleted photos, but videos, and audio files also from any type of storage media, such as SD cards, USB drives, HDD, SSD, and camera storage. The tool can recover JPEG, PNG, RAW, and more photo file formats.
Features
- Easy four-step recovery: select location, scan, preview, and recover. No complex setup or tech knowledge required, and anyone can use it.
- Supports quick scan and deep scan. Quick scan helps recover files fast, while deep scan digs deeper for hard-to-find files.
- Offers preview of files before you recover, so you don’t waste time saving what you don’t need.
- Let's you recover from storage devices of up to 18TB, so you don’t have to worry about recovering from huge drives.
- Works on both Windows and Mac computers.
- Offers a SMART information panel for your storage drive, volume, or partition. Providing data on your hard disk’s health and temperature.
- Choose from Standard, Professional, or Premium versions (basic recovery features up to full repair of corrupt photos in higher plans).
Compatible Systems & File Types
- Runs smoothly on Windows (including Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7) and Mac OS Sequoia.
- Recovers files from SD cards, microSD, Compact Flash, hard drives, external drives, USB drives, eMMC Cards, and more.
- Handles all types of photo, video and audio files, including, JPG, TIFF, GIF, RAW, BMP, MP4, MOV, and even uncommon ones.
Pros:
- User-friendly design, simple and clean interface, great for both beginners and tech-savvy professionals.
- High success rate for recovering lost or deleted images and videos.
- Lossless recovery of photos, videos, and audio files in all formats.
- Premium version also comes with repair features to fix any corrupted photo or video file.
- Deep scan option for severe data loss or damaged drives.
Cons:
- Deep scans are slow, especially with large drives and lots of files.
- Sometimes, recovered files may lose their original names, making it difficult to sort.
Stellar Photo Recovery is a confident choice if you want a reliable and safe way to get your lost photos back or home videos back, especially from popular US and global brands & devices.
Disk Digger Photo Recovery
Disk Digger is another popular photo recovery tool trusted by users for recovering lost images and videos. The tool offers a basic and simple recovery menu and support across all platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Android.
Features
- Helps recover deleted photos and videos from memory cards, USB drives, computer hard drives and smartphones
- Works on a wide range of file types like JPG, PNG, TIFF, RAW, MP4, and others
- The pro version also claims to recover audio and video files as well in all popular formats
- Allows previewing files before recovery to ensure you select the right ones
Compatible Systems & File Types
- Compatible with Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Mac
- Limited support for macOS and Linux, compared to Windows and Android
Pros:
- Free version available with decent photo recovery on all devices
- Works on all platforms compared to competitors, including Linux and Android
- Can save scan results to continue recovery later
- Offers a simple and utilitarian user interface
Cons:
- Requires rooting the device (Android) for a full deep scan, which can be risky for users
- UI can be technical for beginners due to too many customization options
- Recovery speed can be slow on large or fragmented drives
- No specialized photo repair feature, unlike some competitors
- Limited customer support compared to other tools
Disk Digger is a decent choice if you want a free or low-cost recovery solution that offers photo recovery needs on your Windows or Linux device.
The Ideal Photo Recovery Tool For You
The decision between Disk Digger and Stellar Photo Recovery will largely depend on your requirements. Disk Digger Photo Recovery is ideal for low-budget users who want a basic recovery tool that works across all platforms. If you are using Android devices or Linux, and need a free or inexpensive method to recover photo files, Disk Digger works well. While we won’t recommend it for Android users as it requires rooting. Try other safe options where you can recover data on Android without root to avoid security threats.
Whereas, Stellar Photo Recovery is suitable for beginners, photographers, and professionals alike who want a refined, and trustworthy experience. If you use Windows or Mac and require complete recovery along with repair feature even on unusual file formats, go ahead with Stellar. The software offers an intuitive UI, with excellent pre-post sales customer support.