UFS Explorer places forensic image formats, the E01 and Ex01 files an examiner works from, in its Professional Recovery edition at $699.95. Its RAID Recovery edition, at $149.95 to $259.95, rebuilds arrays but does not carry those forensic image formats. Sherlock Forensics Recover Pro is $295 and does both. It rebuilds the RAID. It images a drive to E01, reads E01 and reads Ex01. It records the chain of custody an examiner needs. The free tier images and browses a drive before you pay anything.
UFS Explorer Alternative
Sherlock Forensics Recover: A UFS Explorer Alternative That Measures
UFS Explorer is a capable mature recovery workbench. For a ZFS pool, byte-level hex editing or recovery across a SAN, it does things Sherlock Forensics Recover does not, which this page says plainly below. What it is about is the overlap most people actually need: rebuilding a RAID and working from a forensic image. There, Sherlock Forensics Recover costs $295 against the $699.95 UFS charges for the same capability. And it measures the recovery rather than asking you to trust a percentage.
Price
The Forensic Imaging Capability at $295, Not $699.95
Approach
It Measures the Recovery Instead of Asking You to Trust a Percentage
Every recovery tool finds candidate files. What separates them is what they tell you about each one. Sherlock Forensics Recover reads the true length of a file from the file itself, so a recovered photo opens rather than arriving as 500 MB of the surrounding disk. It refuses to rate a partial recovery as good. When it rebuilds a RAID it scores each candidate layout against the file system structures that must appear at computed offsets rather than against whether the result looks like data. It refuses to assemble an array from a disk that is out of sync.
Compare
Sherlock Forensics Recover vs UFS Explorer
| Capability | Sherlock Forensics Recover | UFS Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price with forensic imaging (E01 and Ex01) | $295 Pro | $699.95 Professional |
| Price with RAID reconstruction | $295 Pro | $149.95 to $259.95 RAID Recovery |
| Free tier that images and browses a drive | Yes | Evaluation trial |
| RAID reconstruction | Yes, scored against file system structure | Yes, RAID Builder and metadata |
| Forensic images E01 and Ex01 | Read and write E01, read Ex01 | Professional edition |
| True length measured on recovered files | Yes, 55 formats | Not stated |
| File system breadth | NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ext, XFS, Btrfs and ZFS read | Broader, adds full ZFS, ReiserFS, JFS, F2FS and APFS recovery |
| Full hex editor | No | Yes |
| SAN, VMFS and Network RAID | No | Yes |
| EV-signed installer and application | Yes | Not stated |
Where UFS Explorer is the better choice
When to Pick UFS Explorer
If your case is a ZFS or Btrfs pool, a Reiser or JFS volume or anything that needs a hex editor or SAN access, UFS Explorer Professional covers ground Sherlock Forensics Recover does not. For that work it is the right tool. Sherlock Forensics Recover is built for the Windows and Linux file systems most cases involve, for rebuilt RAID and for forensic imaging, at a price that does not assume every job is an enterprise Unix recovery.
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Try Sherlock Forensics Recover Free
Download Sherlock Forensics Recover free for Windows. The free tier images and browses a drive at no cost. Pro is $295 for deleted-file recovery, carving, RAID reconstruction, lost-partition search and the previous versions Windows kept.
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UFS Explorer is a product of its respective owner. Pricing shown is the published figure at the time of writing. Sherlock Forensics Recover is provided for lawful use. Terms of Service