6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I activate the Stellar Photo Recovery offline?

Yes, in case you are facing issues with the online activation of Stellar Photo Recovery or do not have an internet connection, you can activate the software offline. See Activating the Software for more details.

2. Can I upgrade my edition of Stellar Photo Recovery software?

Yes, you can upgrade your edition of Stellar Photo Recovery software to a higher edition. See Upgrading the Software for more details.

3. What type of files does the software support?  

Stellar Photo Recovery software supports the recovery of all photo formats including JPEG, Exif, RAW, GIF, PGM, PNM, CD5, NFF, JPG, PNG, BMP, TIF, TIFF, DNG, DJVU, Adobe EPS (Mac), Adobe EPS (Windows) and TGA. Audio and video file formats such as MP4, 3GP, AVI, MPEG, Matroska Video File (MKV), AVCHD Video File (MTS), Divx Encoded Movie File (DIVX), MOI Video File, Video Object File (VOB), OGG Media Player (OGM), 3G2, ASX, MTS, AJP, F4V, VID, TOD, HDMOV, MQV, MXF movies and SVI are supported. It also supports recovery of deleted/accidentally formatted pictures from all major cameras like Canon (CR2 /CRW), EPSON (ERF), Fujifilm (RAF), Kodak (K25 /KDC /DCR), Konica Minolta (MRW), Leaf (MOS), Mamiya (MEF), Nikon (NEF, NRW), Olympus (ORF), Panasonic (Raw), Pentax (PEF), Sony (SR2, ARW, SRF), and Sigma (X3F).

4. I have accidentally formatted my camera. How can I recover the data?

If you have accidentally formatted your camera or the memory card, you need to follow the steps below to recover your data:

• Connect your camera to your computer and run Stellar Photo Recovery software.

• From Recover From screen, select the camera or the memory card.

• Click on the Scan button.

• The software will start scanning the media and show you a preview of the files which can get successfully recovered

• Select the files which you want to recover and click on Recover button to save the files on a different hard-drive.

5. I have created an image of the drive using the software. How do I scan the image file?

In order to know how to scan the image the created image file, refer to Create a Disk Image section. 

Note: The software can recover data from its own created images and cannot perform recovery from an image created by any third party applications.

6. Does Stellar Photo Recovery supports recovery of data from T2 security chip systems?

Yes, certainly. See, Enable Kernel Extension (KEXT) topic of this manual for detailed instructions.

7. Can I recover my data from my M1 chip system?

Yes, certainly. See, Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) topic of this manual for detailed instructions.

8. How to find only a particular file type and recover them?

You can search for a specific file in the preview window or from File List tab check the File Types category folders as per your choice. The files of the selected ‘file types folders‘ will be listed in the file list pane. Select the file(s) and click Recover. The files are saved at the selected destination.

9. Does my card need to be connected to the system until the time of the recovery?

Yes. It is very important that you do not remove your media during the scan or recovery. Media should only be detached once the recovery process gets completed.

10. Can I save my recovered data on the same drive?

No. The data cannot be saved on the same drive as it will lead to overwriting of data which in turn will result in permanent data loss.

11. Can I create the image of the drive on the same drive (from which I want to recover the data)?

No. Image of the drive needs to gets saved at another location as saving the image file on the same media will lead to overwriting and permanent data loss.

12. I have completed my scan. How can I recover the data using the software?

Please refer to Save and Resume Scan Information section to know how to recover your data after scanning. 

13. How to perform the recovery at the later stage after performing the scan?

Once the scanning is complete, click on the Back button. The software asks you to save the scan information that can be loaded later to resume recovery.

14. I do not want to use my drive directly for recovery. Can I still use the software for recovery?

Yes. You can create the image of the drive which is a sector by sector copy of the drive to a file. Once you create an image, you don’t need the drive to get scanned. The image can be used to scan and recover the data.

15. How can I recover selective files?

Once the scanning is complete, you can select the specific files that you want to recover and click on the Recover button to provide a destination for saving the files.

16. How to recover data from a drive that contains bad sectors?

You can create the image of the drive which is a sector-by-sector copy of the drive to a file. This process will create an image of readable sectors through which data recovery can be made easily.

17. Can I Resume Recovery using an image created by any third party application?

This software recovers data from images created by itself only.

18. How much time will Stellar Photo Recovery take to recover my data?

The time taken in recovering data depends on the size of the drive to be scanned. However, to speed up the recovery process, you can apply filters so that only desired files get scanned and recovered.

19. What is an Unallocated/RAW partition?

A free space on the disk which doesn’t belong to any partition or file system is act as an Unallocated/RAW space on a hard disk. This space is not listed under the drives on the PC therefore you cannot access any file or folder from this space. To access files and folders of Unallocated/RAW partitions use Stellar Photo Recovery software. 

20. When a drive space becomes Unallocated/RAW?

A drive space becomes Unallocated/RAW in the following cases: 

• Accidentally deleted a hard disk partition 

• A drive letter is not assigned to the partition 

• Damaged or Corrupted file system

• An uninitialized partition of a hard disk

• Changed partition map when a screen prompts from operating system. 

21. Can I recover data from an Unallocated/RAW partition?

Yes, you can recover your lost or corrupted data from an Unallocated/RAW partition with using Stellar Photo Recovery software easily. This software helps you to find your Unallocated/RAW partition on a connected drive and recover lost data from it. See "Recover Data from Lost Drive/Unallocated Partition" for more details.