Data Rescue 6 Review: Pros, Cons & Our Verdict

Prosoft Data Rescue has been around since 2002, and now it’s on version 6—and that’s exactly what we’re here to test. In this Data Rescue 6 review, we’ll check if it still delivers when it comes to lost/deleted data recovery, go through its features, usability, recovery performance, pricing, and everything else you might want to know about it.

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Prosoft Data Rescue Capabilities

Data Rescue 6 is a recovery tool from Prosoft Engineering, and its latest version, 6.0.9, was updated on August 3, 2024.

• System requirements: Windows 7 (or later) or macOS 10.12 (or later), a secondary storage location, and an internet connection.
• Supported file systems: FAT, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, HFS+, APFS and NTFS

As the developer puts it, Data Rescue 6 is the “perfect solution to retrieve data that may have been accidentally deleted, lost after emptying the Recycle Bin, or erased for other reasons.” That’s exactly what we’d expect from any recovery software, but let’s see what else it brings to the table.

Recoverable File Formats

Prosoft Engineering lists a wide range of supported file types, including common ones like JPEG, MP4, PDF, and ZIP, along with less common formats like RAW camera files (e.g., NEF, CR2), Quark, and AutoCAD. You can check out the full list of supported formats on their official site.

Claimed support is one thing, but as you probably know, reality often differs from what’s advertised. That’s why we tested it ourselves to see how well Data Rescue 6 actually performs.

Review Previous Scan Results

If you’ve completed a scan already, you can access it again. As long as the previously scanned drive is connected, you can use Data Rescue 6 to pull up the contents of the previous scan. However, only the last scan will be saved.

Larger, more complex scans can take quite a lot of time so having a saved record is helpful in saving time so you don’t need to re-scan the entire drive again.

Clone Your Hard Drive

If you have a failing hard drive, or a hard drive that’s not performing as well as it used to, you can use Data Rescue 6 to make a complete clone of your existing drive, so it can be safely scanned.

If you don’t have a disk to clone to, you can create an image file directly from within the application instead. You can use this image file to create a complete clone of your drive with a new healthy hard drive at a later time.

Hex Viewer

Data Rescue 6 includes a HEX Viewer. While it’s a powerful feature, it’s designed for those with specialized knowledge of hexadecimal data, so for 99.9% of users, it’s not something you’ll ever need or want to use.

For professionals, though, the HEX Viewer is a valuable tool. It lets them view raw drive and file data in detail, which might make it easier to diagnose tricky issues, confirm file recoverability, and tackle problems that standard recovery tools can’t handle.

FileIQ

As we mentioned earlier, Data Rescue 6 supports a lot of file types out of the box, but for anything it doesn’t recognize, the developer recommends using FileIQ.

This feature lets you teach the software to recover new file types. All you need is a sample file. The software analyzes the sample, learns its structure, and uses that knowledge to identify and recover similar files in future scans.

RAID Recovery

Data Rescue 6 can recover data from failed RAID configurations. It lets you simulate a physical RAID setup virtually, which is especially useful if the RAID array can’t mount or isn’t recognized as a single volume. By reconstructing the array manually, you can attempt to recover data that might otherwise be inaccessible. This feature is geared toward IT professionals or users familiar with RAID systems, as it requires a knowledge of how these arrays operate.

The software also includes a Number Sectors Tool, which helps determine the correct order of drives in RAID-like setups. Each sector’s data is displayed as its corresponding sector number, so it’s easier to guess the sequence of the drives. While the tool isn’t automated, it provides a simple way to troubleshoot and recover data when RAID configurations are unclear.

Is Data Rescue 6 Safe?

The short answer is yes. As always, we checked the installer for potential malicious or suspicious content using VirusTotal. The scan shows that 0 out of 62 security vendors flagged it as malicious, so the installer safe to download and use. We also scanned our system after testing its performance, and everything came back clean.

This level of safety is expected from Prosoft Engineering, a trusted company with decades of experience in software development. They also have a clear and transparent privacy policy. As they state:

We at Prosoft Engineering, Inc. value our customer’s data privacy. It is our goal to ensure that personal information is collected only as needed to offer our services and products to our customers. The data is used for our internal purposes only and is never sold to third parties. Where possible, data is aggregated and made anonymous such that it cannot be associated with any individual.

The Data Recovery Process

Now let’s look at how a typical recovery process actually works in Data Rescue 6. For anyone new to the software, the steps are fairly straightforward, though there are a few quirks along the way.

1. Download and Install Data Rescue

First, of course, we need to download the software. Just head to the official Data Rescue 6 page and grab the Windows version of the program. Once the download is complete, run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. The process is straightforward, though it might ask you to reboot your PC after installation.

2. Choose ‘Start Recovering Files’

When you open Data Rescue 6, you’ll be met with a welcome screen that lets you choose between scanning for files, viewing previous scan results, and cloning your drive. To start off, click on ‘Start Recovering Files’.

3. Select the Drive You Want to Scan

The next screen will let you choose what discoverable drive you want to scan for lost or recoverable data. If you want to scan your primary hard drive, you cannot do so unless you change the temporary file location through File > Change Temporary Storage Location.

As you can see in our snapshot, Data Rescue 6 detected all the connected drives, including internal hard drives, external drives, and even smaller partitions. It does a great job listing everything that’s plugged in. If your drive isn’t showing up, there’s an ‘I don’t see my drive here’ button at the bottom to help you troubleshoot.

Once you’ve selected the drive you want to scan, click Next.

4. Select a Quick Scan or Deep Scan

Now comes the choice between whether you want to perform a Quick Scan or a Deep Scan. Each scan is going to examine your hard drive, but the difference between them is how thorough the scan will be.

Quick Scan and Deep Scan serve different purposes. Quick Scan is faster and works best for recently deleted files or drives that still mount properly, relying on existing directory information to locate data. It’s great for simple cases and usually completes in minutes. On the other hand, Deep Scan is more thorough, analyzing the entire drive to recover data from formatted or corrupted partitions. It doesn’t rely on directory information, which makes it ideal for tougher recovery jobs, but it’s much slower and can take hours on large or heavily damaged drives.

Once you’ve chosen one, click Start.

5. Review the scanned results

When the scan is complete, you will be presented with a list of files that Data Rescue 6 has found on the drive. These are the files that can be recovered.

The interface is quite spartan, as you can see—there aren’t many filtering options to help you sort through the results. There are no thumbnails for quick previews, and unlike many competitors, it doesn’t provide an estimation of recovery chances for the files.

To preview a file, you’ll need to click the Preview button. You can also use the Search function to look for specific files.

To recover your lost files, simply select the ones you want from the list and click the Recover button. If you’re using the trial version, keep in mind that it has a 1 GB recovery limit. If the files you want to recover exceed this limit, you’ll need to upgrade to either a Standard or Professional license to proceed.

Recovery Performance

So, the recovery process is clear—but what about its performance? How well does Data Rescue 6 recover data in different situations?

We found Data Rescue 6 to be a mixed bag when it came to recovery performance. For straightforward tasks, like recovering recently deleted files, it worked well on NTFS partitions using Quick Scan. However, it had trouble with exFAT/FAT32 partitions, and managed to recover only a small number of files.

As for its Deep Scan, we’ve found it to be inconsistent. It recovered many document formats, like DOCX and PDF, and some video files like MP4 and AVI. However, it struggled with RAW photo files, often producing corrupted data. Professionals who work with specialized formats, such as photographers, may want to consider other tools for better reliability.

Device support was one of its stronger features. The software worked well with hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards. It also handled RAID0 setups but lacked support for RAID1. The absence of tools for lost partitions was a letdown, especially when compared to competitors.

Usability Overview

In terms of design, we’d place Data Rescue 6 closer to the Windows XP era. It gets the job done, but the interface looks dated and lacks the polish you’d expect from modern software. Navigating the basics, like Quick Scan, Deep Scan, and cloning, is straightforward, but when it comes to advanced features like RAID recovery or drive cloning, you’re kind of left to figure things out on your own. If you know what you’re doing, it’s not a big deal, but for someone less experienced, it could feel a bit much.

Some features, like the review of previous scan results, worked fine, but they felt slower than expected. Installation was quick, and we liked that it supports a wide range of devices. That said, we found advanced options like RAID recovery required more digging through menus than we would have liked.

On the whole, Data Rescue 6 works for basic recoveries, but the clunky design makes it harder to use for anything more complex. It could really benefit from a modern refresh.

Plans & Pricing

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The prices mentioned reflect the rates at the time this article was last updated.

Prosoft allows users to trial Data Rescue 6, you can scan for lost or deleted files and even recover up to 1GB (only if you’re a new user). Anything more than free data limit and file recovery will be charged under either a Standard or Professional license.

With the Standard license, you also have the option to scan your drive and only pay for the files you want to recover, starting from $19 for a single file. This pay-as-you-go method is great for those who may use the software only on occasion, but in our opinion, $19 for one file feels too pricey. If you plan to recover multiple files or use the tool regularly, the cost could drive up quite the sum.

Those who will use it regularly will benefit from the Professional license. However, the price is quite steep, especially considering it’s a subscription-based product. For $399/year, you get unlimited system activations and unlimited drive recoveries. Compared to other recovery tools that offer lifetime upgrades for almost half the price, it can be hard to justify the price tag.

License version	Price	Benefits/Drawbacks	Primary usage scenario
Trial	Free	✅ Scan and preview lost files ❌ Free data recovery up to 1GB (new users only)	For those who want to see if their files are recoverable, and perhaps recover a select few files.
Standard license	$79	✅ Unlimited software Access; ❌ Unlimited data recovery for 30 days.	For those who need to recover a lot of data once.
Professional license	$399 / year	✅ Unlimited file recovery; ✅ Unlimited activations; ❌ Expensive.	For someone who recovers files regularly and will use the tool extensively.

Data Rescue 6 User Reviews

It’s important to consider the opinions of others when doing a review of a product. Let’s take a look at what the internet has said about Data Rescue’s recovery software.

Techradar says: “While Data Rescue 5 is both efficient and effective, it’s not the only option out there. For example, both Disk Drill and MiniTool Partition Recovery offer free trials for recovery data up to a certain limit (e.g., 500 MB).”

Comparitech says: “Data Rescue 5 is, put simply, one of the best data recovery software suites on the market today. In my mind, the only real problem is they seem to know that, which is why the Professional version of their product costs $299 a year, rather than the standard flat fee that almost every other provider in the space charges instead.”

PCMag says: “Data Rescue is one of the top data recovery utilities that I tested. The addition of BootWell brings this effective, easy to use utility closer to alignment with Disk Drill, and I suspect that you will appreciate that, similar to Seagate, Prosoft hosts its own in-house data recovery lab.”

Support

Prosoft has an FAQs page that also contains various tutorials for using the software on both Windows and Mac.

If your query can’t be answered using their existing material, you can contact their team via live chat when they are available Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm PST. Otherwise, you can email them and receive a detailed response within 1 to 2 working days.

They do not currently offer a phone support line for troubleshooting queries, so all support-related requests need to be done via an online channel.

The Verdict

Prosoft Data Rescue 6 isn’t the worst recovery tool we’ve tested, but it’s far from the best. It handles basic recovery tasks just fine. However, when you factor in its mixed recovery results, outdated interface, lack of standout features, and steep pricing—$19 per file for pay-as-you-go, $79 for 30 days, or $399/year—it’s tough to recommend over more modern and affordable options.

The upside is that Data Rescue 6 offers a trial, so you can test it out before committing. It’s worth a shot if you’re curious, but for anything beyond the basics, you’re probably better off with a more capable and user-friendly alternative.

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