Data loss strikes when least expected, often leaving users staring at a formatted drive or a emptied recycle bin in panic. Stellar Data Recovery steps in as a dependable retrieval tool, specifically engineered to salvage lost documents, photos, and critical archives from Windows environments. With the release of Version 12.3 in late 2025, the software continues to refine its ability to rescue information from modern storage devices, offering a generous 1 GB of free recovery to let you verify its effectiveness before committing to a paid license.
Key Features
- Bootable Recovery Media: Users can create a bootable USB drive to regain access to data even when the Windows operating system fails to start or crashes entirely.
- BitLocker Drive Support: The software effectively scans and retrieves information from encrypted storage partitions, requiring only the password or recovery key to unlock and restore secured files.
- Deep Scan Technology: This advanced scanning mode searches storage sectors for file signatures, enabling file reconstruction from formatted, corrupt, or RAW drives that standard scans might miss.
- On-the-fly Preview: You no longer need to wait for the entire scan to finish; the interface displays recoverable files in real-time, allowing you to identify and save specific items immediately.
- 4K Drive Compatibility: Fully supports modern hard drives with 4096-byte sectors, ensuring accurate reading and recovery from the latest high-capacity storage hardware.
- Corrupted File Repair: Premium editions include specialized tools to fix damaged JPEG photos and MP4 videos that may open with errors after being recovered.
Use Cases
This utility serves home users who have accidentally shift-deleted family albums or formatted the wrong USB stick, providing a simple interface to undo mistakes. IT professionals also rely on the technician modules to extract data from unbootable computers suffering from the "Blue Screen of Death" or severe registry corruption.
Stellar combines professional-grade scanning algorithms with an approachable design, making complex data retrieval accessible to anyone running Windows 7 through Windows 11.
Version Latest — 2025
- Added new "On-the-Fly" preview functionality, allowing users to view and save files while the scanning process is still active.
- Introduced a completely redesigned user interface featuring three customizable themes: Dark, Light, and Vibrant.
- Improved scanning engine with "Pause and Resume" capabilities, enabling flexible management of long recovery sessions.
- Expanded support for recovering data from Synology, QNAP, and ASUSTOR NAS drives with BTRFS file system compatibility.
- Enhanced virtual machine recovery tools, now supporting VMDK, VDI, VHD, and VHDX file formats.
- Fixed compatibility issues with the latest macOS updates (including M3 chip support) and Windows 11 system architectures.
- Optimized deep scanning algorithms for better retrieval rates from 4K hard drives and RAW partitions.
