iBoysoft is a software company that develops data recovery solutions for Windows and Mac operating systems. Their flagship product is iBoysoft Data Recovery, which aims to help users recover lost or deleted files from hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, and other storage media [1].
iBoysoft Data Recovery comes in both free and paid versions. The free version provides basic data recovery capabilities, while the paid versions offer advanced features and functionality [2]. This article will examine what the free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery offers, its limitations, and the additional capabilities unlocked with a paid license.
Overview of iBoysoft Data Recovery
iBoysoft Data Recovery is a freemium data recovery software for Windows developed by iBoysoft [1]. It can recover lost data from hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, digital cameras, and other storage devices [2].
The software supports the recovery of over 1000 file types including documents, photos, videos, audio files, emails, and more. It can recover data lost due to accidental deletion, disk formatting, virus attack, system crash, partition loss, and other scenarios [3].
Key features of iBoysoft Data Recovery include deep scanning, file preview, data filtering, and recovery from unmounted drives [2]. It is designed to be easy-to-use even for novices.
Free Version Details
The free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery works on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista and Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008. It can recover deleted/lost data from hard drives (HDD, SSD, etc.), external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, and other storage media [1].
The free version supports recovering photos, videos, music, documents, and other file types that were accidentally deleted or lost due to formatting, corruption, or other issues. It can recover from both internal and external drives formatted with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc. [1].
Key features of the free version include [2]:
- Deep scan to locate lost and deleted files
- Preview recoverable files before restoring
- Filter scan results by file type
- Recover data from damaged or corrupted drives
The free version is fully functional but limited to recovering up to 1GB of data per scan [1].
Limitations of Free Version
The free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery has some notable limitations compared to the paid versions. According to iBoysoft’s own FAQ page, the free version only allows you to scan for lost files and preview them. You cannot actually recover or export any files without purchasing a license key.
In addition, the free version has a size limit of 500 MB for recoverable files. So even if you find your lost files, you may not be able to recover larger files over that size limit. The paid Home license removes this restriction, while the paid Business license allows unlimited file recovery.
Another major limitation is lack of technical support. The free version does not come with any formal customer service or ability to contact the iBoysoft team for troubleshooting help. You need to upgrade to a paid license to get technical support via email.
Overall, the free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery serves more as a trial to preview what files can be recovered. To actually restore lost files and get full functionality, you will need to purchase one of the paid licenses.
Paid Version Benefits
While the free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery provides basic data recovery capabilities, the paid versions unlock additional features and benefits, including:
According to G2 reviews, the paid Home version enables recovering unlimited data from a single storage device, supports 500+ file formats, and allows previewing files before recovery. The paid Windows Professional version goes further by supporting data recovery from entire RAID systems and providing advanced features like clone drives, create disk images, and recover deleted/lost partitions.
Key advantages of paid iBoysoft Data Recovery versions:
- Recover unlimited data from a single storage device
- Support for 500+ file formats
- Preview files before recovery
- Recover data from RAID systems (Professional)
- Clone drives and create disk images (Professional)
- Recover deleted or lost partitions (Professional)
For power users or those with extensive data recovery needs, the paid versions provide capabilities well beyond the free version. However, the free version may still meet the basic needs of casual home users.
Pricing for Paid Versions
iBoysoft offers several paid versions of its data recovery software with different pricing options:
- iBoysoft Data Recovery Home Edition – $69.95 per year for 1 PC
- iBoysoft Data Recovery Professional – $89.95 per year for 1 PC
- iBoysoft Data Recovery Technician – $299 per year for unlimited PCs
The Home Edition has basic data recovery capabilities while the Professional version includes advanced features like deleted file recovery, corrupted partition recovery, and lost partition recovery. The Technician version is meant for businesses and can be installed on unlimited PCs (iBoysoft Store: Secured Purchase for …).
Besides annual plans, iBoysoft also offers lifetime purchase options which range from $79.95 for the Home Edition to $359 for the Technician version. There are also volume discounts available for purchasing multiple licenses.
Users can try out the paid versions for free via a 7-day trial period. This allows testing data recovery on different file types before needing to purchase a license key (iBoysoft Data Recovery Reviews and Pricing 2024).
Use Cases for Free vs. Paid
The free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery is suitable for recovering small amounts of accidentally deleted files. For example, if you delete a few documents or photos that you need to recover, the free version allows recovering up to 1GB of data. This would likely be enough to retrieve those lost files.
However, if you have a significant amount of data to recover, such as needing to recover data from a failed drive or corrupted partition, you will likely need the paid version. The paid version allows unlimited data recovery, so it can recover data from any size drive or partition. It also unlocks advanced features like RAID recovery that are not available in the free version.
So in summary:
- Free version – Good for recovering small amounts of accidentally deleted files
- Paid version – Required for recovering large amounts of data or from failed/corrupted drives
How to Download iBoysoft Data Recovery
The free version of iBoysoft Data Recovery can be downloaded directly from the iBoysoft website at https://iboysoft.com/download/. On this page, simply click the “Free Download” button under iBoysoft Data Recovery to begin the download process. The software will be downloaded as an .exe file that can be installed on a Windows PC.
For the paid, licensed versions of iBoysoft Data Recovery, users must purchase a license key first. Licenses can be purchased directly on the iBoysoft website by clicking “Buy Now” on the product page and selecting the desired license type (Home, Business, or Technician). After purchasing a license key, users can download the paid software installer from the same downloads page and activate it using their license key. The paid versions offer additional features and capabilities beyond the free version.
In summary, the free version can be downloaded for free without a license, while the paid versions require purchasing a license key before installation. Both free and paid versions are available on iBoysoft’s downloads page.
Top Alternatives to iBoysoft Data Recovery
While iBoysoft offers a capable free data recovery tool, there are a few other free options worth considering as alternatives:
Disk Drill is a free data recovery program for Windows and Mac that can recover lost files from hard drives, external drives, memory cards, and iOS devices. Disk Drill has a simple interface and allows users to preview files before recovery. However, the free version only allows for up to 500MB of data recovery.
PhotoRec is an open source, command-line data recovery tool that works very well for photos, videos, documents, and other files. It’s not as user-friendly as iBoysoft, but is free and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. PhotoRec lacks the ability to preview files before recovery.
Conclusion
To summarize, iBoysoft Data Recovery does have a free version available that allows you to recover up to 1GB of data. The free version is fully functional and can recover data from hard drives, external drives, SSDs, SD cards, etc. on both Windows and Mac operating systems. The free 1GB limit is quite reasonable for personal use.
However, for business or professional use cases that require recovering larger amounts of lost data, the paid versions are recommended. The paid versions allow unlimited data recovery and advanced features like creating a bootable drive for recovery. Pricing starts at $49.95 for a single PC lifetime license.
So in conclusion, yes iBoysoft Data Recovery really does have a free version that is quite capable for personal data recovery needs. But for more advanced requirements, their paid versions provide additional capability and value.