Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Review

Have you recently lost or deleted your data from your PC or any other storage devices? If yes, then you must have researched on the internet for a solution to come across a lot of data recovery software claiming that you can recover the lost data using their software.

Well, the internet is filled with such software and fake claims. But there are only a few data recovery software’s that actually work and keep their promise of recovering your lost data. One such software is the Stellar Windows Data Recovery that we are going to review in this article.

It is one of the highest-rated data recovery software on the internet and that’s what made us review it in order to test whether it is really worth the hype or it’s just a gimmick. So, without wasting any further time let’s test it out!

Note: Stellar Phoenix is now known as Stellar.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Professional Overview

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows is the one-stop solution to all your data loss related issues. It can recover your lost or deleted data from all your Windows PCs running on different Windows versions like Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10. Not just PC but you can also recover data from external devices connected to your Windows PC for example Pendrive, MicroSD cards, and External drives.

It is available in 6 different variants making it one of the most versatile data recovery software out there. From a beginner to professionals, this software can help everyone recover data from any data loss scenarios. Here we review the software in its entirety, you can skip to your favorite part (if you don’t have time to read the full review) by clicking on the links provided below:

• System Requirements
• Stellar Data Recovery Professional Installation
• Dashboard
• Advanced Settings
• Data Recovery
• Stellar Windows Data Recovery Features
• Performance
• Stellar Data Recovery Professional Pricing
• Final Verdict
• FAQs

System Requirements

The system requirements for this software are not very high as you can easily run it on even the oldest Windows PCs. For smooth operation, you must have a Pentium PC with 2GB of RAM (4GB would be better) and 250 MB of free space in your hard drive, that’s it.

We are testing this software on a 9-year-old Pentium PC with 2GB RAM and we haven’t encountered any problems yet. However, during the deep scan, the PC does get a little hot, and fans go on, but it still works fine without any noticeable lags.

Verdict:

So, overall in terms of system requirements, there should be no problem and you can easily run it on any of your Windows PC meeting minimum system requirements.

Installation

The installation of the Stellar Windows Data Recovery is as easy as it can get. You just have to download/buy the software from the official website of Stellar. And then follow the regular software installation process as you would do to install any other software. It will be installed on your PC in a matter of a few seconds and be ready for use.

Moreover, it’s lightweight software of less than 70 MB so it will be downloaded quickly. Also, you don’t need an active internet connection to install this software. So you can even install and use it when you are offline.

Verdict:

Downloading and installing the Stellar Data Recovery Software on your Windows PC is child’s play and anyone can install it on their PCs without external help.

Dashboard

The dashboard of Stellar Data Recovery Professional looks quite simple and user-friendly, there’s nothing much to it. Upon launching the software you will see a clean interface showing you locations and devices from where you can recover lost files from.

It has three categories: Common Locations, Connected Drives, and Other Locations (On the free and standard version of this software you only have two categories Common locations and Connected Drives).

Common Locations: From here you can select a specific folder or location on your PC that you would like to scan for data recovery. For example, you can scan desktop, documents, or any other file or folder of your choice.

Connected Drives: From this part of the dashboard you can select and scan the internal hard disk drives and externally connected devices like USB, MicroSD cards, and External hard drives. You can also select the can’t find drive option if you want to scan a deleted partition on your PC.

Other Location: This option is only available on professional and above versions of this software. From here you can select the option to recover data from CD/DVD drives.

Verdict: 

Overall, the dashboard is clean and simple but we liked the dashboard on the EaseUS data recovery software better. The UI on this software looks old school and boring but that’s nothing to complain about, it does its work well and that’s what matters the most.

Click Here to Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional

Advanced Settings

The thing we like about this software is you can customize it according to your needs and how you would like to recover your data. Like you can change the language of the software, you can turn On/Off the preview settings, and you can even add a new file type to the software that is not available in its library.

To customize the software before using it to recover your data, you can select the settings option on the top right of the dashboard(next to the home icon) and make the following changes.

1. Preview

The first is the Preview settings where you can turn On/Off the preview of the recovered files. You also get this option while recovering the file but you can set it in advance if you need it. By turning off the preview option you are making it easier for the software to scan the location faster because scanning with preview takes more resources and time.

2. File Types

This is another handy option to make your scanning more streamlined as here you can select only the file type you want to retrieve from the scan. It will save a lot of your time if you are looking to recover a specific file type. You also get an option to select the file type at the start of software launch but from there you can only select a file format like video, audio, documents, etc. but not the specific file type like here.

3. Add Or Edit File Types

If by chance the file type you are looking to recover is not listed in the directory of this software you can also add it manually to the software. For this, you have to add 10 sample files of the file type you want to add to the software. For example, if you want to add an MP4 file type to the software then you have to add 10 MP4 files to the list. And then the software will automatically detect the file type and add it to its library. You can also edit the added file type later if you feel like it.

4. Resume Recovery

The resume recovery option is there for you to complete the incomplete scans which you have saved on your computer (This software gives you the option to save the incomplete scans for saving time, which we will discuss in the latter part of this review). You can upload your saved incomplete scan files and resume recovery from the previous scanned location.

5. Languages

You can also change the language of the software if you find it inappropriate for you. For that, you have to just click on the change language button and select the language of your choice. There are 5 different languages available on this software like English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

How To Recover Data Using Stellar Data Recovery Professional

Now comes the main part which is why you are here that is recovering lost data from your Windows PC or external drives. We have tested this software for retrieving our lost data from different storage options like Pendrive, MicroSD cards, and internal as well as external hard drives and we are glad to tell you that it recovered data from all of them.

Moreover, it’s an easy-to-use software that allows you to recover your lost and deleted data in fewer and simpler steps. Here’s a step-by-step process by which you can retrieve your data using Stellar Windows Data Recovery.

1. Data recovery can be a time-consuming process depending on the size and the condition of the device you are scanning. Therefore, you get an option to select the specific file format that you wish to recover every time you launch this software. Just to make the data recovery process more streamlined and less time-consuming. However, you can also select the Everything option if you want to recover all kinds of lost data and then click on the Next button at the bottom right corner.

2. Now on the software dashboard you need to select your preferred location from where you would like to recover the files. And then select the deep scan mode if you want to run the deep scan on your selected drive/location. You can also skip the deep scan if you want and click on the Scan button at the bottom right corner to move on with a quick scan.

Note: If you want to recover recently deleted files then you can go with the quick scan. However, If you want to recover old files that were lost due to power failure, virus attack, or any other reason you must turn ON the deep scan mode.

3. Based on your scan type the file will be recovered in some time. If you have selected the quick scan the files retrieved will be less in number while if you have selected the deep scan, the files restored will be huge in number. They may even reach tens of thousands. However, once you have found your lost file you can select it and recover it by clicking on the Recover button and the file will be restored in the location of your choice.

That’s it with just a few steps you have successfully recovered your lost and deleted files using the Stellar Data Recovery software.

Click Here to Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional

Stellar Data Recovery Professional Features

Now let’s have a look at the different features of this software that makes it an all-around data recovery solution. We have divided the feature section into two parts, Basic Features, and Advanced Features, respectively. The basic features are the ones that you will find on all versions of the software while the advanced features are available only in the professional and above versions.

Basic Features

1. Advanced Scan Modes

The most important part of any data recovery software is its ability to scan your selected location or drive for lost or deleted data. On this software, you get to see two scan modes: Quick and Deep Scan respectively.

Quick Scan

The quick scan is helpful in retrieving intentionally deleted files that were deleted recently. It takes less time and is quite accurate in recovering deleted files. However, when it comes to finding and retrieving old data that was lost due to software or hardware errors it’s not possible to use the quick scan mode. It only scans the device and location from the surface it doesn’t go that deep, so you have to go for a deep scan if you want to retrieve old files.

Deep Scan

The deep scan mode is a more advanced feature that scans a location or storage completely by digging deep into it and therefore takes more time. However, all the data lost due to software and hardware failures can be found and recovered using this process given that the data is not overwritten by new data. Using the deep scan mode you can even retrieve data from corrupted and formatted drives as well as lost or deleted partitions. So it is worth the time!

2. Sorting Files

After the scanning is complete you may end up recovering lots of files out of which maximum files will not be of any use to you. Now finding your desired file among a heap of files is a tough task but not with this software. As here you get to sort the recovered data in a way that it becomes easier for you to find your lost files. From the left side panel, you can change the way files show up, which makes it easier for you to locate your lost file.

Besides that, you can also find a recovered file by searching it. You can search the file by its name, or entering its file type for example PDF, MP4, Jpeg, etc. Finding a file this way is very easy and effective.

3. Preview

The preview option allows you to see the recovered file before restoring it which is a great thing. Because this way you can check whether the file you are recovering is the right file or not. However, keeping the scan option on at the time of scanning may take up more time so it’s advised that you keep it off during scanning and enable it at the time of recovering the data.

4. Supports All File Types

With this software installed on your Windows PC, you can literally recover any file type deleted or lost due to human or computer errors. From Videos, Audio, and Documents, to Archived files you can recover all types of files from your selected locations. In general, it supports over 300 file types and also provides you the option to add more file types to its system.

5. Recovers Data From All Windows Based Internal And External Devices

Be it your internal hard drive or externally connected hard drive this software can effectively recover data from all of them. We have tested it on a lot of different devices and locations like internal HDD and SSD drives, Pendrives, and SD cards, and it worked perfectly on all of them.

It’s a very simple process to recover lost or formatted data from external drives. Just plug your device into your Windows PC and launch this software and scan the connected device. It will find the lost and deleted files that you can recover easily. However, we also tried to scan our phone by connecting to the PC using a USB cable but it was not able to recognize it. Nonetheless, it is still great software for recovering data from all sorts of devices.

6. Data Recovery From Bitlocker Encrypted Devices

Besides Courrpted and formatted devices, this software can also help you recover files from devices that were encrypted with BitLocker. So if you have forgotten your password that you have applied on your data storage device for security purposes you can still recover your data from it using this awesome software.

6. Resume Scan

Unlike quick scan mode, the deep scan takes a lot of time and sometimes it may take up to a couple of hours or more depending on the size and complexity of the device you are scanning. In such scenarios, it’s not possible to complete the scan in one go, therefore you get the resume recovery feature on this software. So that you can stop the ongoing data recovery process and resume it later.

Advanced Features Of Stellar Windows Data Recovery

1. Recover Data From Crashed PC

Is your PC not booting up? Are you concerned about the data stored in it? Don’t worry with Stellar’s Professional and Premium version you can actually recover data from a crashed PC that won’t load. For that, you will have to create a bootable USB drive using Stellar. You can go through this step by step guide on how to recover data from an unbootable PC to learn how to create and recover data using a bootable USB.

2. Data Recovery From CD/DVD

Optical drives are not very relevant these days but you will still see them around.  If you happen to lose your data from a CD/DVD drive due to scratches, dust, or it has become unreadable due to other reasons, you can scan it using the Stellar Data Recovery software to get back your lost data.

3. Monitor Hard Drive Health

This is a great feature you find on the Stellar software, where you can keep an eye on your hard disk drive’s health so that you can change the drive to a new one before it’s too late and save all your data from deletion.

4. Repair Distorted Images And Videos

Another cool feature that you get to see in the premium version of this software is video and image repair. Using this feature the images and videos that were destroyed due to data loss are repaired. While it may not repair all the distorted images and video files, but it can still repair some of them.

Performance

Speed And Compatibility Test

In terms of speed and compatibility, the software does a really good job! We have tested it on two Windows PCs one with the old Intel Pentium processor and the other with the latest AMD Rayzen 5 processor. It runs equally smooth on both the PCs and we didn’t saw any lag either. However, on the old PC, there was a bit of heating issue when we ran the deep scan test, but it was nothing alarming and you can easily run it in the background while working on other projects on any of your Windows PC.

Accuracy Test

To test its accuracy, we deleted some files(Audio, Video, Documents, and Zip)from our internal and external hard drives to check whether it can recover all the files in proper conditions or not. In our test, we found that it can recover all the intentionally deleted files with 100 % accuracy given that you take action immediately after losing your files. The quick scan is enough for retrieving all your recently deleted files from it.

However, the accuracy in terms of recovering old lost files depends on whether the file is overwritten by any other files or not. If it’s not overwritten then you can recover even the oldest files which were lost due to power failures, virus attack or any other issues. For recovering old lost files, you must run a deep scan on your device and it may find you your lost files. We were able to recover some of our files which were deleted a couple of years back.

Verdict:

In terms of performance, Stellar Data Recovery Professional is one of the best data recovery software for Windows. It can recover all your lost files with high speed and accuracy.

Pricing

Stellar Windows Data Recovery is available in 3 different paid versions naming Standard, Professional, and Premium. There is a free version also available for download which lets you recover lost data of up to 1GB. If you are looking for one-time use then you can go for the free version. However, for recovering your lost files of large sizes you must invest in any of the paid versions of this software.

The pricing starts at $49.99 for the Standard version and  $79.99 and $99.99 for the professional and the premium version respectively. You also get a free trial of all these versions of the software where you can find and preview lost files but cannot recover them. Also, there’s no monthly subscription, which may be a letdown for some people who want data recovery software for a shorter period of time. Moreover, you have to download different software for different versions, which is something we didn’t like.

There are two more advanced versions of this software which are Technician and Toolkit made primarily for professional data recovery use and they are not fit for individuals. If you run a data recovery business then you can go for them.

Verdict:

Out of all versions of Stellar Windows Data Recovery, the Professional version is the best value for money as it can easily recover data from all devices and conditions like corrupted, encrypted, and even crashed PCs.

Click Here to Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional

Final Verdict

After testing the software for a couple of days we are nothing but impressed with this software’s ability to recover deleted and lost data from Windows PCs and external devices. It stands true to all the promises it makes and is really worth the hype around it.

Also, it is one of the most versatile data recovery software we have seen to date, available in 6 different versions it can recover data from any given scenario. Overall, the Stellar Data Recovery software is a great utility for all data loss related issues, and the Data Recovery Adviser team approves it!

FAQs

1. Is It Safe To Use The Stellar Data Recovery Software?

Yes, it’s totally safe to use Stellar Data Recovery Professional.

2. How Much Time Does It Takes To Scan A Device?

It depends on the mode of the scan, the size and complexity of the device you are scanning. From a minute for a quick scan to up to a few hours for a deep scan, the time it takes to scan a device varies accordingly.

3. Can You Run Different Versions Of The Software On The Same PC?

No, at a time you can only use one particular version of the software on a single PC.

4. Is Stellar Data Recovery Software Compatible With Windows 10?

Yes, the Stellar software works perfectly fine on all Windows versions be it Windows 7, 8, or 10.

5. Can You Recover Data From Crashed PC Using Stellar Software?

Yes, you can recover data from a PC that won’t boot up. However, it’s not possible with the free version and the standard version of the software.