Data Rescue 4.1

Recover lost and corrupt data

$99 (around £65) Developer Prosoft Engineering, prosofteng.com

Requires OS X 10.7.5 or higher, Core 2 Duo or better, second hard drive

This heavyweight tool has long offered one of the best shots at recovering data. It’s capable of reading and copying data from physically failing drives as well as recovering lost or deleted files. So long as the drive is visible to OS X, Data Rescue can probably help.

Version 4’s main new feature is BootWell. This requires a USB flash drive – you can supply your own or buy one pre-built for $15 (around £10) plus shipping – and works outside of OS X to recover data from your main drive. It also implements NTFS support for recovering data from BootCamp drives and makes fewer demands on your Mac, so won’t tie it up during lengthy recovery sessions.

It may not be the quickest, but Data Rescue remains one of the best tools for maximising your chances of rescuing your data from a dud drive outside of an expensive recovery specialist’s lab. Nick Peers

Data Rescue 4.1 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but adds useful tools to make it a worthy investment.