Retrova

Problem

A drive that won't mount usually still holds your files, but macOS and Windows refuse to show them, and repair tools that write to the disk can make things worse.

Solution

A local-only app for macOS and Windows that reads the damaged drive itself, copies what matters to another disk, verifies every copy against the original, and then helps clear out the clutter a rescue leaves behind.

Approach

Its own block-level readers for APFS (including snapshots), NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ext2/3/4, XFS and Btrfs, so it can browse volumes the operating system has given up on. Source drives are only ever opened read-only, copies are staged as .part files and renamed once verified, and nothing is deleted permanently: extras go to the Trash.

Architecture

A Python engine with a local web interface bound to 127.0.0.1 and protected by a session token, so it never talks to the internet. Three stages: Rescue (browse, preview and copy, or carve 47 file formats from raw blocks), Verify (quick, sample or full byte-for-byte checks with a SHA-256 manifest) and Reclaim (duplicates, sparse virtual-machine disks and rebuildable dev caches).

Outcome

• v1.0.1 released for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10 and 11 in October 2026.
• Reads APFS, NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ext2/3/4, XFS and Btrfs, and carves 47 file formats when there is no file system left.
• Every copy can be checked byte for byte, with a SHA-256 manifest to re-check it years later without the old drive.

Specs

Stack

Python / JavaScript / C / SQLite FTS5 / Apple Vision / WinRT OCR