How to repair corrupted photo/image files - Stellar Photo Repair review
Finding your photos and videos corrupted in an old or damaged storage disk can be heartbreaking. Images long kept in external storage or even laptop hard drives are suddenly inaccessible due to wear and tear. Let's see how Stellar Photo Repair helps when trying to repair these corrupted image files.
If you have followed the reviews of data recovery tools on our site, it may not be the first time that you have come across Stellar and the tools that the software company has developed. If you have got corrupted photos and are looking for the best recovery options for them, Stellar Repair for Photos is definitely one of the right tools that you can put to use. We review it for you so you can check and see if this is something you really want or not. Stellar Repair for Photos - An Overview
If you have searched for photo recovery software, you might be aware that Stellar has a Stellar JPEG repair tool too. This is one of their older software and the new software is named Stellar Repair for Photos. This application, unlike the previous one, supports the recovery of other formats along with JPG files.
Yes, you heard that right. Stellar Repair for Photos can repair photos in multiple formats, a few of them are JPEG, RAW, TIFF, and DNG. The best part is that the tool not only recovers the photos that have got corrupted but can also help you recover photos that have been deleted. In this article though, we will focus only on the repair part of damaged photos.
Stellar Repair for Photo supports the option of reference files. If you find that the tool does not find it easy to recover a file, it will ask you to opt for Advanced Repair, which would use the sample files to help you in the recovery of your files.The Prime features offered by Stellar Repair for Photo
Some of the features that you will find practical with the Stellar Repair for Photo include:
It supports any storage media
Stellar Repair for Photo can help you repair your photos from practically any digital storage media. Some of the storage media supported by the software include HDDs, SD cards, flash drives, and images from drones, CCTV, tablets, and smartphones. It also supports images from memory cards (SDXC, SDHC, memory sticks).
A simple user interface
The software comes with a very simple and easy interface. The interface is easy to use and straightforward. You do not need extra technical knowledge to use the software. Anyone with a basic knowledge of computer usage would find it easy to work with.
Options to repair multiple files simultaneously
The tool can help repair multiple files simultaneously. The files do not need to belong to the same format to be available for recovery. You can repair your files in any condition, including corrupt, broken, or damaged files.
Ability to extract the thumbnails
If any photo is damaged beyond repair and cannot be recovered at all, the software extracts the thumbnail for the photo. The thumbnail extracted comes with no loss of quality, making them as good as the original files.
It can address multiple corruption scenarios
The software can repair a wide range of issues with your photos. A few conditions that it can handle are a corrupt header, corrupt data, invalid image file structure, an unknown or invalid marker, missing SOS marker etc, to name a few. The tool can easily work with inaccessible or grainy images. It can also help you recover blurred images with ease.How To Use Stellar Repair for Photo?
Stellar Repair for Photo helps you repair your photos in a jiffy, and it may be worthwhile to check out the guide to find out how it works. The guide here is aimed at helping you fix the issues with no hassles.
Step 1 - Add the files to the software
Assuming that you have installed the software on your computer, launch the application from the shortcut icon or the Start menu. The user interface is straightforward to use. 
Click on Add files , and add the files that you want to repair. You can add as many photos as you would want to. The software supports adding multiple files at once. You can even add files in different formats and from different devices.
Step 2 - Begin repairing your files
Once the files have been added, you can begin the repair process easily with the touch of a button. Click on Repair at the bottom of the window. 
Step 3 - Save the repaired files 
The repair process begins when you click the Repair button. The time taken would be dependent on the number and size of the files you have added to the software. Wait till the photo repair is complete. Click on Save repaired files and choose a location for your files. 
You can click on the repaired photo to get a preview of the same. If you are satisfied with the repair process, you can recover and save the files onto your device.
If any file is beyond repair, the software provides a suggestion for the Advanced Recovery. On doing so, you will need to provide a sample photo taken from the same camera. This will help you in recovering the file with ease and simple steps.
Check out the original files and the repaired files here to understand the software's ability to repair your corrupted or damaged photos.
Original files
Repaired files
What is our take on the performance of the software?
As far as our tests with the software are concerned, we found this photo repair tool delivering on its promise. The fact that Stellar Repair for Photo is a lightweight tool, we found it to be a very decent and good option for most of the expectations that we had with an effective photo repair application.
This photo repair software was capable of repairing every photo that we threw at it. We attempted to manually corrupt a few photos with some open-source software tools and found Stellar Repair for Photo software capable to repair the files with no hassles.
You may find a few photo formats not supported by the tool. However, that should be manageable as you can convert the file format using any tool available and then repair the photos using Stellar Repair for Photo.
One of the cons that we noticed is that it does not necessarily repair RAW files. Though we are still determining, we assume that the software can only extract the JPEG images from the RAW files. However, given the lightweight tool that it is, that should be a good thing too. The file formats supported
The Stellar Repair for Photo supports a good number of file formats. It also supports the images taken on different devices and platforms. The website lists the following image formats as being supported on Stellar photo recovery software - JPG, JPEG, ARW, CR2, CRW, DNG, ERF, JPG, MRW, NEF, NRW, ORF, PEF, RAF, SR2, SRF, TIFF and RW2.
Our suspicion again is whether the tool really repairs the files or extracts the JPEGs from the files. We suspect the latter. Though we are not sure, we do not see anything wrong with it as long as you get your images back without hassles.The Pricing
The software is available in three versions to choose from. You can pick from among Standard, Professional and Premium versions to choose from. The versions are priced at $29.99, $59.99, and $69.99, respectively.
If you are interested in repairing the corrupt or damaged files, opt for the Standard version. The Premium and Professional versions let you recover the deleted files as well.
Among all the three versions, we found the Professional version to be a great value-for-money option for almost all your practical needs and expectations. The Closing thoughts
Photo recovery may be quite an easy and simple option. But repairing a damaged photo may be more challenging than it may appear to be. Our experience says that in most cases Stellar Repair for Photo works exemplary, though we did have our share of disappointments. Advanced Repair is indeed a saving grace in those cases where the normal attempt has failed.
In any case, the tool is good, given the expertise that Stellar is known to possess. The tool is a worthy investment if you tend to deal a lot with the photos, and damaged photos are something you can afford. A few FAQs
Is Stellar Photo Repair worth it?
Stellar Repair for photos could be better, but it is definitely a worthy option. It may not be the best or fastest, but the repair capability and the success rate are something that indeed impressed us.
Is Stellar Photo Repair safe?
Stellar is known for its advanced capability in photo recovery and repair tools so that you can trust the software without issues. It simply repairs or recovers your files and does not have any ability to touch your system files.
Can Stellar repair for photo repair a faded photo?
Yes, Stellar Repair for Photo can repair a faded, blurry, and greyed-out photo.
