Your drive stays as it is.
Everything on this page is by design, not by setting.
Read-only
The source is never written to. Not one byte, no repair attempts.
Backup first
Retriever makes a bit-for-bit copy of the drive and then works on the copy. Read errors do not stop the run. Bad sectors become gaps and are shown.
Never into the source
The destination is never the source drive. Existing files are never overwritten.
Why it asks for your password
Reading a drive at the raw level needs administrator rights on macOS. Retriever asks once, through the standard macOS dialog. You type your password into macOS, not into Retriever.
Nothing is installed, nothing runs in the background. Uninstall is drag to trash.
No tracking
No tracking, no telemetry in the app. This website has no tracking scripts and no cookie banner, because it sets no cookies.
The license key is verified offline. No server, no account, no login.
Where it comes from
Retriever is downloaded as a DMG from this website. It is not in the Mac App Store, because the App Store sandbox forbids the raw drive access recovery needs.