Writing about ArchiveHive? Everything here is free to use. Review licences are free and carry no conditions: no embargo, no approval of copy, and no expectation of a favourable review. Write what you find.
Boilerplate
One sentence. ArchiveHive preserves every readable part of an old drive in an archive you can check and repair, using published formats and recovery instructions that work without ArchiveHive.
One paragraph. ArchiveHive is an archival disk-imaging tool for Windows and macOS from Steeltype LLC. It captures every readable sector of a drive into a compressed image with a checksum for every chunk, PAR2 recovery data that can repair damage when enough good data survives, and a plain-text guide to the formats stored inside the archive itself. Unreadable regions are recorded. The archive library searches indexed files and checks and repairs copies over time. Reading, verifying, repairing, and extracting an archive never requires a licence, and the software has no account, no activation server, and no telemetry. It is sold for a single payment.
Facts
- Product
- ArchiveHive, an archival disk-imaging tool
- Maker
- Steeltype LLC, an independent software company in Indianapolis, Indiana
- Current version
- 2.0.0, released 2026-09-29
- Platforms
- Windows 10 or later (64-bit) and macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon
- Price
- Personal $49 through 31 October, then $59; Commercial $149 through 31 October, then $199
- Licence model
- One payment, perpetual for the 2.x series. No subscription, no renewal
- Trust
- Windows builds signed by Steeltype LLC; macOS builds Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple. Every download publishes a SHA-256 checksum
- Refunds
- Thirty days, no questions asked
What it does
- Copies a drive sector by sector, including free and unallocated space, rather than copying files.
- Writes the image as Zstandard-compressed chunks with a SHA-256 for each one, PAR2 recovery data, a TOML manifest, and a plain-text recovery guide with the format specifications inside every archive.
- Records the regions it could not read, and the drive’s health readings when available, alongside the image.
- Reads, verifies, repairs, mounts, and extracts archives without a licence, forever. That is a term of the licence agreement, not a promotion.
- Searches file names, paths, and hashes across indexed archives. Checks archive copies and repairs damaged pieces from other copies or recovery data when enough good data survives.
- Offers optional scheduled checks, with a dated history and separately enabled repair.
- Needs no account or internet connection to create or read local archives. Update checks and licence retrieval by activation code contact Steeltype; automatic update checks are off by default.
What it is not
This matters more than usual for this product, because some people arrive at drive-imaging software in an emergency and deserve a straight answer.
- It is not data recovery software, and Steeltype is not a data recovery service.
- It does not repair drives, rebuild filesystems, or retrieve data a drive never returned.
- It is not a forensic product. It makes no chain-of-custody claim and is not sold for evidentiary use.
- There is no free trial, because there is no timer. The reader is free and a purchase can be refunded within thirty days.
If someone is facing a failing drive holding their only copy of something irreplaceable, the honest advice is to stop using it and consult a recovery lab. We would rather be described accurately than recommended for the wrong job.
Assets
- Logo (PNG, transparent)The mark as it appears in the application and on this site.
- Screenshot: reviewing the planWhat the program shows before it writes anything: the drive it found, and exactly what it intends to do.
- Screenshot: starting an archiveThe Preserve screen before a drive is chosen, showing the three steps to create an archive.
- Social card (1200 x 630 PNG)For link previews and article headers.
Review licences
Email support@steeltype.io with the publication or channel and where the piece will appear. A Commercial licence comes back the same way a customer's does, usually within one business day. It is a full licence, not a limited build.
Questions of fact are welcome and answered directly, including the awkward ones: why the product is closed source, why it is not a forensic format, and how its archive can be recovered without the app. Those answers are the same whether or not they are flattering.
Contact
support@steeltype.io reaches the developers directly. There is no press agency and no media team.