Have you accidentally deleted photos or videos from your SD card? You can use many tools to revert data loss from a damaged, corrupted, formatted, or infected SD card.
One is Disk Drill SD card recovery software for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices. We’ve tried it to test its features and provide a first-hand Disk Drill SD card recovery review.
Besides exploring its features and providing a step-by-step guide to recovering data from an SD card, we’ll introduce a better alternative and compare the two solutions. Let’s get to it.
In this article
What Is Disk Drill SD Card Recovery Software?
Disk Drill for Windows and Mac is a desktop utility by CleverFiles for retrieving lost data due to accidental deletion, malware, or other unexpected issues. It can recover data from internal and external disks, including USB flash drives, SSDs, and SD cards – whether functional, damaged, corrupted, or formatted.
It can create byte-to-byte SD card copies and restore photos, videos, documents, and audio files in 400+ formats (including RAW) from external media and mobile devices (regardless of the operating system). Here’s how.
How To Use Disk Drill for SD Card Data Recovery
Disk Drill SD card recovery is straightforward, thanks to a user-friendly interface. Below are the steps to recover files from SD card using Disk Drill on Windows (Disk Drill SD card recovery on Mac is the same).
After completing the Disk Drill download and installation, follow these steps:
- Connect your SD card to your PC or Mac.
- Launch the program, click Data Recovery, and select your SD card.
- Click Search for lost data in the right sidebar’s information card.
- Once Disk Drill finishes a deep scan, select the files you wish to retrieve and click Recover.
- 5. Choose the recovery destination and click Next > Recover.
Disk Drill SD card recovery for Android, iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch works the same – you connect the device to your computer and follow the steps above to retrieve lost files.
Limitations of Disk Drill SD Card Recovery
Although Disk Drill is fast and reliable, it has several limitations.
Its Mac version excels at data recovery, but its Windows counterpart isn’t as competitive. Also, the latest upgrade excluded Windows 8 and older. Additionally, the software supports only 400+ file formats and can’t patch scattered video fragments of a single file.
Here’s a better alternative – which doesn’t have these limitations.
Best Disk Drill SD Card Recovery Alternative – Wondershare Recoverit
Wondershare Recoverit is a professional data recovery tool that has been selected as Leader in Data Recovery by G2 users.
It supports 2,000+ storage devices, including all types of SD cards, USB flash drives, NAS, action cameras, CCTV systems, UAVs, car dash cams, camcorders, and Android phones. It can even scan and recover RAW videos of cinema cameras, such as ARI, ARX, R3D, and BRAW files.
Whether you’ve lost data from an SD card or another storage medium due to formatting, malware, interrupted file transfer, or other unforeseen scenarios, Wondershare Recoverit can retrieve it.
The best part? It features a patented Enhanced Recovery technology for detecting and patching scattered video fragments of a single file (which is how professional cameras store them), making videos playable again. It can do the same for photos.
How To Use Wondershare Recoverit for SD Card Data Recovery
Like Disk Drill, Wondershare Recoverit has a modern, intuitive interface that makes recovering data from an SD card (and other storage media) a breeze. Once you download and install the Disk Drill SD card recovery alternative on your computer, follow these steps:
- Connect your SD card to your computer and launch the program.
- Click Enhanced Recovery if you’ve extracted your SD card from a professional camera (or SD Card for ordinary data recovery) and select your SD card device to start the scanning process.
- Choose the correct video format(s) for a deep scan and click Start. Wondershare Recoverit will simultaneously perform quick and deep scans.
- Once the scanning completes, preview the retrieved files and click Recover.
With a 99.5% recovery rate, Wondershare Recoverit can retrieve lost, corrupted, or deleted files in 500+ scenarios.
Disk Drill SD Card Recovery Software vs. Wondershare Recoverit
Now that you know more about Disk Drill and Wondershare Recoverit, it’s time to compare them to understand the differences and make an informed decision.
Here’s a brief overview of the essential differences:
| Disk Drill | Wondershare Recoverit | |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced Video Recovery | No | High-performing patented technology |
| Supported File Formats | 400+ | 1,000+ |
| System Requirements | Windows XP–11 / macOS 10.15–13 | Windows Vista–11 / macOS 10.10–13 |
| Mac/Windows/Linux Data Recovery | The Windows version less competitive than the Mac version (no Linux support) | Excellent features for Windows, Mac, and Linux |
| iOS/iPadOS/Android Data Recovery | Built-in features for all operating systems | Requires Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS/iPadOS |
| Crashed Computer Recovery | No | Yes |
| Corrupted Photos/Documents Repair | No | Automatic Repair in Preview Process |
| Corrupted Video Repair | No | Yes |
| Free Trial Limitations | Recover up to 500 MB | Recover up to 100 MB |
| Pricing | Starts at $89 (perpetual license) | Starts at $59.99/month, $69.99/year, or $119.99 for a perpetual license |
The crucial difference between these tools is Wondershare Recoverit’s patented Enhanced Recovery technology – available in the free trial and the Premium plan. No other data recovery software can put fragmented video files together. They try, but the videos remain unplayable.
Another advantage of Wondershare Recoverit is letting you recover photos, videos, documents, emails, and other files in 1,000+ formats, as opposed to only 400+ with Disk Drill SD data recovery.
You’ll love Disk Drill if you’re a Mac user, but you can’t enjoy the same seamless experience on Windows – and there’s no Linux version. Wondershare Recoverit offers fantastic features for all operating systems.
However, unlike Disk Drill, Wondershare Recoverit has no built-in iOS and iPadOS data recovery features. It requires installing Wondershare Dr.Fone for iPhone.
Also, the free trial lets you recover only up to 100 MB, while you get up to 500 MB with the Disk Drill SD card recovery free version.
Finally, there’s the pricing. The Disk Drill SD card recovery (full version) is more affordable than Wondershare Recoverit – considering a perpetual license. However, the latter’s patented Enhanced Recovery technology makes it an excellent value for money.
Also, you can get an affordable monthly or annual subscription if you don’t need a perpetual license, making Wondershare Recoverit a flexible option for everyone.
Final Verdict
Disk Drill SD card recovery is an excellent choice for anyone, but alternatives like Wondershare Recoverit provide better results, primarily with fragmented video files. Still, it might suit your needs and wallet perfectly, so try it for free to make an educated decision.
Get your Disk Drill SD card recovery software free download and try Wondershare Recoverit for free to see both in action and pick the perfect fit.
