Recover data ... Stuck in Recovery - iPhone 3GS

You are right, there are quite a few alternative tools.

It may be that the device's iOS system file is corrupted, you can try to fix it.

Bonjour, Monsieur de La Palice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_La_Palice#Lapalissade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_La_Palice#The_de_la_Monnoye_version

jaclaz

Try switching the phone into DFU mode. If you are able to do that, RecoveryTool Toolkit should be able to perform the full physical acquisition on this device. iPhone 3GS is old, and compared to today's devices its data protection measures are basically non-existent.

I believe you can find more solutions on Google.

I believe you can find more solutions on Google.

Really? ?

Good idea, I guess noone thought of doing a basic web search for the problem at hand.

jaclaz