To answer this question, we need to start with explaining how data recovery actually works. There are so many file formats supported by Disk Drill, but in many cases, the format (or binary signature) of a specific file is not the definitive factor of its recoverability.
The actual list of file types recoverable with Disk Drill for Mac and Windows is comprehensive – and, in some cases, as you can see below, unlimited. It all depends on the type of recovery that is available for a particular volume. Here is a break down of the scanning methods and the types of files available for recovery.
Some factors affecting the recovery chances:
- Disk surface condition
- Fragmentation
- File system
- Storage device type (SSD disks are harder to recover)
- How much time passed after data loss
- File activity (Was your file overwritten?)
We made Disk Drill as simple as we could for every user. That’s why in most cases when you run its scan for lost data, you will be dealing with our Universal Smart Scan.
Smart Disk Scan
This is what Disk Drill does when you don’t set a specific scanning method. In this scenario, Disk Drill will create the most effective sequence of scanning algorithms specifically for your storage device.
In a general case, it may look like this:
- Quick Scan
- Lost partition search
- Allocate existing data
- Undelete protected data
- Deep Scan
Each of these scanning methods can locate different types of recoverable files. And depending on your specific recovery scenario, you can achieve the best results by choosing one of them, or letting Disk Drill combine the most effective ones.
Any file type, limited situations
Can it recover any file type? Yes
How does it work?
Quick Scan finds recently deleted files that have been marked by the file system as deleted, but are still physically present on your disk.
When is it effective?
Quick Scan can recover any file format, but it often isn’t comprehensive enough and a Deep Scan (see below) might be needed to recover all deleted data. It works best in the following situations:
- Recently deleted files on volumes with FAT, ExFAT and NTFS file systems.
- Very recently deleted files on volumes with HFS+ file systems.
- Recovery of data from lost partitions on HFS+, FAT, ExFAT or NTFS volumes.
Can it recover any file type? Yes
How does it work?
In case your system cannot read a live device storage, Disk Drill may try extracting the existing data from it using its own low-level data reading techniques.
When is it effective?
Allocate existing data may help when your storage device is detected by your computer, but shows up empty, even though it was never erased or formatted.
Any file type, if previously protected with Disk Drill
Can it recover any file type? Yes
How does it work?
Disk Drill features 2 data protection algorithms: Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery. They both have to be enabled prior to a data loss accident to work.
When is it effective?
This method can recover any file type, but it can only be used in the following situations:
- HFS and HFS+ volumes where Guaranteed Recovery was activated prior to data loss and the lost file was deleted by sending it to the Trash.
- HFS, HFS+, and FAT, ExFAT, NTFS volumes where Recovery Vault was activated prior to data loss and was set to protect the particular partition where your lost data was stored.
Limited file types, works in any situation
Can it recover any file type? No, it can recover only known file formats, read on.
How does it work?
Deep Scan reads your storage device data sector-by-sector and detects patterns that belong to specific file formats. We teach Deep Scan to recognize new file types with every new update of Disk Drill.
When is it effective?
Unlike the two previous methods, Deep Scan recovery method can be used in any situation – on any volume with any file system or even without it. The only drawback is that while it can recognize over 350 file types, it cannot reconstruct all of them on every scan (see the factors above).
Below is a list of all file types recognized by Deep Scan, organized by type (Video, Audio, Image, Document and Archive) and then by file extension. If you’re not sure of the file extension for your application, search this page by application name or other keyword. If you don’t see the file format you need listed, please send us a request.
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Total known file formats –
- 360 (360-degree GoPro cameras video footage)
- 3G2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2)
- 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project 2)
- 3GP (Videos for 3G UMTS services)
- 3GPP (Videos for 3G UMTS services)
- ARI (ARRIRAW images)
- ARX (ARRIRAW images)
- AVI (Audio Video Interleave)
- BIK (Bink Video)
- BRAW (Blackmagic raw video format)
- CRM (Canon raw movie file)
- DIR (Adobe Director Movie)
- DV (Digital Video)
- DXR (Protected Adobe Director Movie)
- FCP (Final Cut Pro)
- FLA (Editable Adobe Flash movie)
- FLV (Flash video)
- FCPEVENT (Final Cut Events)
- INSV (Insta360 Video file)
- M1V (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 1)
- M2V (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 2)
- M2T (HDV video)
- M2TS (Blu-ray BDAV Video)
- M4B (iTunes audiobooks)
- M4P (iTunes Music Store audio)
- M4V (iTunes video)
- MKV (Matroska Video)
- MLV (LabVIEW mathscript file)
- MOV (Apple QuickTime movie)
- MP4 (MPEG-4 video)
- MPA (MPEG-2 Audio File)
- MPG (MPEG video)
- MTS (Advanced Video Coding High Definition)
- MXF (Material Exchange Format)
- OGM (Oog Media)
- R3D (Redcode Raw video image)
- RM (RealMedia)
- RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bitrate)
- SWF (Flash movie)
- TOD (JVC Everio Video Capture)
- TS (Video Transport Stream File)
- VP6 (Encoded video format developed by On2 Technologies)
- WEBM (HTML5 WebM Videos)
- WMV (Windows Media Video)
- AA (Audible Audio Book)
- AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
- AIF (Audio Interchange File)
- AIFC (Audio Interchange Compressed File)
- AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)
- ALP (Ableton Live Pack)
- AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec)
- ASF (Advanced Audio Streaming Format)
- AU (Audacity audio files)
- AWB (Adaptive Multi-rate Wide Band)
- CAF (Core Audio File)
- CDA (CD Audio Track)
- CPR (Cubase Project)
- DS2 (Digital Speech Standard Pro)
- ENS (REAKTOR Ensemble)
- FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
- FLP (FruityLoops Project)
- IDF (MIDI instruments Definitions File)
- M4A (Apple Lossless Audio)
- MID (MIDI)
- MP3 (MPEG Audio Stream, Layer III)
- MP2 (Audio file format used with MPEG Audio Stream; recovered as MPA)
- MPA (Audio file compressed with MPEG Layer II compression)
- MPC (Musepack Compressed Audio File)
- MUS (Finale Notation)
- NGRR (Guitar Rig sound files)
- OGA (audio extracted from OGG; recovered as OGG)
- OGG (Ogg Vorbis Compressed audio file)
- PTF (Pro Tools Session File)
- RA (Real Audio)
- RFL (Reason ReFill Sound Bank)
- RNS (Reason Song File)
- RPP (REAPER Project Files)
- RX2 (REX2 Audio Files)
- SIB (Sibelius Score)
- VOC (Creative Labs Voice)
- WAV (DTS-WAV)
- WMA (Windows Media audio files)
- ZRV (Philips Voice Traver)
- SESX (Adobe Audition CC Session File)
- 3FR (Hasselblad camera 3F RAW image)
- 3MF (3D Manufacturing Format)
- AEP (After Effects Project)
- AFPHOTO (Affinity Photo)
- AI (Adobe Illustrator)
- ALBM (HP Photo Software Album)
- ANI (Windows Animated Cursor)
- APM (Adobe raster images)
- ARW (Sony Digital Camera)
- BLEND (Blender 3D Data file)
- BMP (Bitmap)
- BPN (ArchiCAD Backup)
- C4D (Cinema 4D Model)
- CDR (CorelDRAW)
- CPT (Corel Photo-Paint document file containing a bitmap image)
- CR2 (Canon Raw Image)
- CR3 (Canon Raw 3 images)
- CRM (Canon RAW Movie)
- CRW (Canon Raw CIFF Image file)
- DCR (Kodak RAW image)
- DJVU (DjVu Images)
- DNG (Digital Negative)
- CinemaDNG (Container for DNG raw photos)
- DPX (Cineon image file)
- DXF (Drawing Interchange File)
- EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile)
- EPS (Encalsulated PostScript file)
- ERF (Epson raw image file)
- EXR (HDR image format developed by Academy Software Foundation)
- FC (FlipaClip: 2D Animation Creation App)
- FFF (Hasselblad Camera RAW image)
- FH3 (FreeHand 3 Drawing file)
- FH8 (FreeHand 8 Drawing file)
- FH10 (FreeHand 10 Drawing file)
- FH11 (FreeHand 11 Drawing file)
- GPR (GoPro raw image format)
- HEIC (High Efficiency Image File Format)
- HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format)
- ICNS (Mac OS X Icon)
- ICO (Windows Icon)
- IDML (Adobe InDesign Markup Language)
- IIQ (Phase One RAW Images)
- INDB (Adobe InDesign Book)
- INDD (Adobe InDesign)
- INDL (Adobe InDesign Library)
- INSP (Panoramic image captured by an Insta360 camera)
- INX (Adobe InDesign Interchange)
- JNB (SigmaPlot)
- JP2 (JPEG2000 image)
- JPG (JPEG image)
- JPX (JPEG2000 image)
- KDC (Kodak Photo-Enhancer File)
- KEY (Apple iWork Keynote)
- LRCAT (Adobe Lightroom Catalog)
- LXO (Luxology Modo)
- MA (Maya Project)
- MAX (Autodesk 3ds Max Scene)
- MB (Maya Binary Project)
- MDP (FireAlpaca Drawing)
- MEF (Mamiya raw camera image format)
- MOS (Uncompressed Leaf raw image file)
- MP (Maya PLE Project)
- MPO (Multi Picture Object File or simply stereo images)
- MRW (Minolta Raw Image File)
- NEF (Nikon camera RAW image)
- NRW (Nikon Raw Image File)
- ORF (Olympus camera RAW image)
- PCX (bitmap images)
- PEF (Pentax RAW image)
- PLA (ArchiCAD Project Archive)
- PLN (ArchiCAD Project File)
- PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
- PPM (Flipnote Studio Animation files)
- PS (PostScript File)
- PSB (Adobe Photoshop Large Document Format)
- PSD (Adobe Photoshop)
- RAF (Fujifilm RAW image data)
- RW2 (Panasonic camera RAW image)
- RAW (Uncompressed and unprocessed image data)
- RWL (Panasonic/Leica RAW image file)
- SKP (SketchUp)
- SPP (Substance Painter project)
- SR2 (Sony Raw digital photos)
- SRF (Sony Raw digital photos)
- SRW (Samsung camera RAW image)
- STL (3D printing and computer-aided design (CAD))
- SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
- TPL (ArchiCAD Project Template)
- VSD (Visio Drawing file)
- VWX (VectorWorks Design File)
- WEBP (Image format for Web)
- WMF (proprietary Windows graphic format)
- X3F (X3F SIGMA raw images)
- X3I (X3F SIGMA super fine detail raw images)
- XCF (eXperimental Computing Facility, the native image format of the GIMP image-editing)
- XD (Mockup created for website or mobile applications using the Adobe XD software)
- XHW (ChamSys MagicQ Icon Snapshots files)
- ZBR (Pixologic ZBrush 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting)
- ZPR (Pixologic ZBrush 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting)
- 1CD (Russian Finance 1C:Enterprise 8)
- AAF (Advanced Authoring Format)
- ABCDDB (Apple Address Book Database)
- AFDESIGN (Affinity Designer document)
- ALS (Ableton Live Set File)
- AMB (Licom AlphaCAM)
- ANX (HotDocs Answer Format files)
- APK (Android Package)
- ASD (MS Word snapshot files, recovered as DOC, identical to DOC)
- BKF (Windows Backup Utility File)
- BOK (Economacs File)
- CELTX (Celtx Project File)
- CFB (Microsoft Compound File Binary)
- CHM (Compiled HTML Help File)
- CS (Visual C# Source Code File)
- CST (Adobe Director External Cast File)
- CWK (ClarisWorks Document)
- CXT (Adobe Director Protected Cast File)
- DB3 (SQLite3 Database)
- DGN (MicroStation Design file)
- DMF (Geosystem Digitals Map File)
- DOC (Microsoft Word)
- DOCM (Word document file format that supports macros)
- DOCX (Microsoft Word)
- DOTM (Microsoft Word template file that enables macros)
- DOTX (Template file format used by Microsoft Word)
- DPDOC (Digital Performer Document)
- DWG (AutoCAD)
- Supported versions: 2004/ 2005/ 2006/ 2010/ 2011/ 2012/ 2013/ 2014/ 2015/ 2016/ 2017
- Unsupported versions: 2000/ 2000i/ 2002/ 2007/ 2008/ 2009
- EBML (Extensible Binary Meta-Language)
- EFA (Encrypt 2005 E-mail File)
- ELFO (Elsterformular by German Tax Office)
- EMB (Wilcom ES Software)
- EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile)
- EML (Electronic Mail Format or Email Saved in Plain Text)
- EMLX (Apple Mail Message)
- ENEX (Evernote Export XML format)
- ENL (Endnote Library)
- EOT (Embedded OpenType Fonts)
- EPB (EP Budgeting file)
- EPUB (Open Ebook file)
- ESS (Skyrim Save file – TES 5)
- EWD (Essay Writer projects, by Spark-Space)
- FB2 (FictionBook 2.0 Files)
- FDR (Final Draft Document file)
- FDX (Final Draft Document XML file)
- FMP12 (FileMaker Pro 12)
- FOS (Fallout 3/NV Saved Game file)
- FP7 (FileMaker Pro 7+ Database)
- GED (GEDCOM Genealogy Data File)
- GEO (TruTops Geometry File)
- GP3 (Guitar Pro 3 documents)
- GP4 (Guitar Pro 4 documents)
- GP5 (Guitar Pro 5 documents)
- GP (Guitar Pro 8 documents)
- GPS (Guitar Pro 6 documents)
- GPX (Garmin Basecamp, GPS Exchange Format)
- GSM (ArchiCAD Graphic Description Language File)
- H (C/C++ Header File)
- HPG (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language)
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
- HWP (Hangul Word Processor)
- IBA (IBasic Source Code File)
- IBANK (iBank 5 app)
- iCash files
- ICS (iCalendar)
- IPA (iPhone or iPod Touch Application)
- IPYNB (documents for Jupyter Notebook)
- ITL (iTunes Library File)
- JKS (Java KeyStore)
- JTD (JustSystems Ichitaro Document)
- JTDC (JustSystems Ichitaro Compressed Document)
- JTT (JustSystems Ichitaro Document Template)
- JTTC (JustSystems Ichitaro Compressed Document Template)
- KDB (KeePass Password Database)
- KDBX (KeePass Password Database)
- KEYCHAIN (Mac OS X Keychain File)
- LAYOUT (Google SketchUp LayOut document)
- LNK (MS Windows Link)
- LWO (LightWave 3D Object File)
- LWS (LightWave 3D Scene File)
- LYX (LyX Document)
- M (Objective-C Implementation File)
- MBS (Opera Mailbox File)
- MDB (Microsoft Access Database)
- MBOX (Native archive format of email clients)
- MINDNODE (MindNode document)
- MM (FreeMind)
- MMAP (MindManager Map)
- MOBI (Mobipocket eBook files)
- MSG (Outlook Mail Message)
- MUSE (Adobe Muse)
- MUSX (Finale Music Notation files)
- MYO (Mind Your Own Business)
- NOTEBOOK (SMART Notebook 16.x)
- Notes.app database
- NUMBERS (Apple iWork Numbers)
- NSF (Lotus Notes Archive)
- ODG (OpenDocument Graphics)
- ODP (OpenDocument Presentation – OpenOffice Impress)
- ODS (OpenDocument Spreadsheet – OpenOffice Calc)
- ODT (OpenDocument Text – OpenOffice Writer)
- OLK14MSGSOURCE (Outlook Email Message Data File)
- OLK15MESSAGE (Microsoft Outlook for Mac message containers)
- OPJ (OriginPro 8 files)
- P65 (Adobe PageMaker 6.5)
- PAGES (Apple iWork Pages)
- PCBDOC (Altium Designer)
- PCBLIB (Altium Designer)
- PEM (RSA Private Key)
- PUB (RSA Public Key)
- PDF (Portable Document Format)
- PGD (PGP Disk Image, high recoverability if stored without fragmentation)
- PLD5 (Professional League Turnierdatei)
- PLIST (Property List XML Files, not binary)
- POTM (Macro-enabled templates created by Microsoft’s PowerPoint; recovered as PPTX)
- POTX (Template file used by Microsoft PowerPoint)
- PPT (Microsoft PowerPoint)
- PPTM (Presentation file used by Microsoft PowerPoint that supports macros)
- PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint)
- PPSM (Macro-enabled slideshow file format used by Microsoft PowerPoint)
- PUB (Microsoft Publisher)
- PRJPCB (Altium Designer Project file)
- PRPROJ (Premiere Pro Project)
- PSAFE3 (Password Gorilla storage files)
- PSS (Password Saver)
- PTS (Pro Tools 5 – 6 session file)
- PTF (Pro Tools 7 – 8 session file)
- PTX (Pro Tools 9 – 12 session file)
- PTXP (Pro Tools session file)
- QPW (Quattro Pro)
- QBB (QuickBooks)
- RFI (SPEFO Stellar Spectra Analysis)
- RP (Axure RP Project File)
- RPH (Sestava POHODA File – Report Designer software package)
- RTF (Rich Text)
- RVT (Revit Project)
- SBK (MagicQ Software by ChamSyS)
- SCHDOC (Altium Designer)
- SCHLIB (Altium Designer)
- SHW (MagicQ Software by ChamSyS)
- SCPT (AppleScript Script Files)
- SDA (OpenOffice Draw)
- SDC (OpenOffice Calc)
- SDW (StarOffice Writer)
- SH3D (Sweet Home 3D)
- SKETCH (Sketch app files (Bohemian BV))
- SLDPRT (SolidWorks Part file)
- STOREDATA (XML persistent store)
- SUD (NI DIAdem Scriptable User Dialog file)
- SXC (OpenOffice Calc)
- SXD (OpenOffice Draw)
- SXI (OpenOffice Impress)
- SXW (OpenOffice Writer)
- SWIFT (SWIFT source codes, XCode)
- TAX (TurboTax data file)
- TEX (LaTeX Document)
- TEXTCLIPPING (Mac OS X text clipping)
- TIB (Acronis True Image)
- TREC (Camtasia Studio 8.4+ recordings)
- TTF (TrueType Fonts)
- VBS (NI DIAdem VB Script file)
- VCF (vCard files)
- VDI (VirtualBox Virtual Disk Image for static disks)
- VSDX (Microsoft Visio drawing)
- WEBLOC (Mac OS X Website Location)
- WOFF (Web Open Font Format Files)
- WOFF2 (Web Open Font Format 2 Files)
- WPD (Corel WordPerfect Document)
- WPS (Microsoft Works Word Processor Document)
- XIB (Interface Builder Document)
- XLR (Microsoft Works Spreadsheet)
- XLS (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet)
- XLSB (Microsoft Excel Binary Workbook file)
- XLSM (Spreadsheet file used by Microsoft Excel that supports macros)
- XLSX (Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet)
- XLTM (Macro-enabled template file used by Microsoft Excel)
- XLTX (Template file format used by Microsoft Excel)
- XMCD (MathCAD 14)
- XMIND (Mind Mapping Software workbook)
- XML (Simple text-based format for representing structured information)
- XMP (Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform)
- 7Z (7-Zip Compressed)
- ARJ (ARJ Compressed File Archive)
- CAB (Windows Cabinet File)
- DMG (Mac OS X Disk Image)
- GZ (Gnu Zipped Archive Files)
- ISO (ISO-9660 CD Disc Image)
- JAR (Java Archive)
- MBX (Apple Mail mailbox file)
- MSI (Microsoft Software Installer)
- PST (Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders)
- RAR (WinRAR Compressed Archive)
- RAR5 (WinRAR New Method Compressed Archive)
- RDB (Retrospect Backup Set)
- TAR (Tape Archive files)
- TAR.XZ (XZ Compressed Tar Archive)
- TGZ (Gnu Zipped Archive Files)
- ZIP (Common Archive and Compression Standard)
- ZIPX (ZIP Extended Compressed Archive file)
Unsupported file formats
- If the format you need is not on this list, please send us a request.
- New recoverable file formats are added to Deep Scan frequently, based on user requests.
So? Can Disk Drill recover my file or not?
The short answer is, it depends. But the only true answer and our best recommendation is this one – you need to scan your storage devices and see for yourself if your lost files can be found and recovered.
Download Disk Drill data recovery app
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.updated: May 7, 2024 author: