Rooting for File Recovery with Disk Drill
There are many reasons to root your Android device and you’ve likely heard the term “root” many times. Rooting unlocks access to hidden features on your Android device or running unofficial apps which are not listed in the Play Store. Those are two of the more common reasons to root your Android device but that is really just the tip of the iceberg.
Some interesting and useful things you can do with a rooted Android device include tweaking performance (and increasing battery life), uninstalling factory bloatware and apps which you don’t need, removing stock skins and re-skinning your Android device at a level otherwise not possible, and last but not least: Android data recovery.
Data loss is disastrous and can happen to anyone. You may only imagine it possible to recover files from your desktop computer with data recovery software but that is far from the truth and with a rooted Android device you can recover lost and deleted messages, pictures, songs, videos and much more directly from your Android device.
Here are some quick an easy steps which describe how to recover files on an Android device with a popular, powerful file recovery software called Disk Drill. If you do not have Disk Drill you can download it for free.
- Root — First, you will need to root your Android device to perform file recovery. Rooting is an easy process and quite a few options are available, further in this article we list some of them. If your device is already rooted you are ready to begin Android file recovery with Disk Drill, please proceed to the next step.
- Launch Disk Drill — Once you’ve downloaded and installed Disk Drill this is easy enough, just find the Disk Drill icon and launch Disk Drill. If you are using Windows you can find the icon either on your desktop or via the start menu *. Mac users can find Disk Drill in their Applications folder.
- Recover — Locate your connected Android device in the Disk Drill device list. Click the “Recover” button next to your device and wait just a moment while your lost and deleted Android files, messages, photos and more are found and recovered. You can select which files to recover and where to recover them to once the scan has completed.
More Details on Rooting
The first step to successful file recovery on your Android phone or Android tablet is to unlock your device. If you have not rooted your Android device yet then you have a few options depending on which version of Android you use. Below is a current list of two of the most popular Android rooting apps for both Windows and Mac.
Windows:
- UnlockRoot [Discontinued]: UnlockRoot was a popular rooting tool for Android up until Android 4.4.2. With a simple to use interface and just a few quick options, UnlockRoot was able to help users root their Android devices with relative ease. Among the notable devices which were supported by UnlockRoot you can find the original Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 & S4 as well as many other previous flagship devices. Since UnlockRoot is no longer supported or updated the current recommendation is to instead use KingoRoot.
- KingoRoot — Fast, easy and functional Android root tool/APK which works with most popular versions of Android: Jelly Bean (4.1.2, 4.2.2), Kitkat (4.4.2, 4.4.4), Lollipop (5.0.1, 5.1, 5.1.1), Marshmallow (6.0, 6.0.1), Nougat (7.0, 7.1). Most devices are easily supported and rooting is as simple as downloading and clicking a few buttons. There are no complicated options, dialogs or codes to deal with when using Kingo Root to root your Android device.
Mac OS / OS X:
- One Click Root — This Android rooting tool attempts to make rooting as easy as possible, in just one click! It actually takes a few more clicks to get your Android device rooted but One Click Root does a great job and works with many flagships and popular phones at this time: LG G3 & G4, LG V10, Nexus 6 & 7, Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 & S7, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, 4 & Note 5. One Click Root supports most phones which run Android 2.1.X or newer except for HTC devices. They even offer a remote help solution which allows an unlocking specialist to remotely root your Android device over the internet.
- BreakDroid — [Android 4.4.2 or older only] — BreakDroid was once one of the most popular Android rooting tools. Free and easy to use, BreakDroid enables rooting of most devices running Android 4.4.2 or older. Newer devices will not work although BreakDroid does support both the Kindle Fire (1st Gen) and multiple Samsung Galaxy tools, quite uncommon for older rooting solutions. This rooting tool enables Android rooting by making use of multiple known exploits which means that a large range of devices will be supported even if they are not on the supported devices list. If you have a more recent phone with a newer version of Android we suggest another alternative such as One Click Root (Mac) or KingoRoot (Windows).
The Details on Disk Drill
Disk Drill is a state-of-the-art data recovery application designed for both Windows and macOS/OS X which can recover files from a wide range of devices: internal and external hard drives and even Android phones and Android tablets! *
Disk Drill uses a powerful scanning engine to detect just about any lost file. When files can’t be found the easy way, Disk Drill is not afraid to get hardcore! Deep Scan enables scanning for files when they would be otherwise unrecoverable such as when there is no partition or the disk has been used after deletion. Disk Drill’s powerful Deep Scan is capable of detecting 350+ file types, even hard to find files.
You can download and use Disk Drill for Android recovery with just a few clicks. Android recovery can be done with Disk Drill on any compatible Mac OS or Mac OS X computer running OS X 10.8.5+… and yes, Disk Drill even supports Mac OS X Sierra and OS X High Sierra. Running a scan is completely free and will allow you to detect and preview the files which can be recovered.
Android recovery is easy with Disk Drill once your Android device is rooted. You can recover many file types, to name a few:
- Contacts & Call Logs
- Text Messages
- Photos & Videos
- Whatsapp Messages & more
You can find out about how Disk Drill works for Android recovery on the Disk Drill website.
Disk Drill 3 can be downloaded for Mac OS X for free.
Once you have Disk Drill recovering files from Android is easy and takes just a few clicks, we included a great getting starting guide at the beginning of this article!
* Please note: Android recovery in Disk Drill for Windows is not yet available and will be added soon in a future update.