re own comment @#39


Where *.mkv files were reported recoverable by other apps, EDDR also found and happily recovered them, so I'm happy to correct my earlier report.

The observed 'failures' was probably down to first segment of particular files having been overwritten. (I used the option in both EDDR and Recuva to exclude such files). The alternative cause may have been fragmentation of the files (since I'm not aware of any writing to the disk after I deliberately deleted the files in question).


Overall, I found little benefit in the RAW search offered by EDDR or by other programs.

Where, e.g. I have restored LOST *.mp3 files in the past, being able to rename these from tags was very useful - possibly a feature that could be built into recovery applications.

Working with the program more, it eventually becomes apparent that, as noted by others, where it doesn't recognise a file type, it won't restore those files. This includes a number of standard file types such as .mkv. The concern for potential buyers who use standard design, GIS, statistics or video packages is that the program won't support what they regard as their usual file types. I think this is a further weakness.

Although its possible to accumulate scans of multiple drives or even multiple scans of the same drive, e.g. with and without a RAW scan (including on 3 TB GPT drives), there are two additional failings.

Firstly, you can't refresh a scan to take account of changes since the scan was made, you have to add an additional scan, which means that you can potentially end up with series of out of date scans. There is no option to discard these.

Secondly, considering how long it takes to do a scan, especially since you can only specify one drive to be scanned at a time, it would be a nice feature to be able to identify which files you wanted to restore from C: whilst the program was busy scanning F:. Can you do this? No, you can't.

So, yes it would also be nice to be able to say scan E:, F: and C: overnight rather than only having the option to do them individually.

And it would also help to be able to say whether you wanted to carry out a scan in the RAW beforehand, rather than it being a default operation which you have to interrupt.

Why can I not download this program t 3AM ET? I have never had this problem before.
Mike

Trial you asked?

If you look under help/about it should say registered version.This implies that its not a trial version. If yours does not say this then perhaps you forgot to activate by double-clicking Activate.exe.

I suspect it wud be a trial version without activating.

I have the following are questions:

1) Is this a full version - or just a trial version?

2) Will it only work on a computer I install it on today?

3) As far as I can see from this thread, it does not install on a USB drive?

4) If it only runs on the computer I install today, and this drive fails, how can I then access it and run the recovery?

5) How can I recover data from an older EIDE or SCSII drive, that I can't hook up to my laptop?

Bottomline, without it being able to run from an USB drive - or being able to install it later when needed on any other computer, this is useless.

OR am I wrong??


I need a solution to recover data from a 8GB SCSII drive that accidentally got formatted halfway through before the error was discovered and the formatting stopped immediately.

no help to me wont let me recover files from my Apple Time Macine

I Am using Windows 7 Pro 32bit

Program has very few actual features. It has no ability to scan the raw data area and search for files unless it can find a file system.

It's basically just an overglorified undelete program.

I gave this a thumbs down because I loaded it and tried to recover an external HD that has content on it and the app crashed 5 times. It didn't ever get past 10 seconds before crashing.

Am I doing something wrong?
Here's the short story: My laptop crashed. Took the HD in to where I bought it for them to recover it. They transferred the data bit-by-bit over to my 3TB external. Then they couldn't rebuild the damaged sectors that were copied over from the laptop HD to the external because their app kept crashing half way through. So I brought it home and this GAOTD came up so I thought I'd try it and all the others Giovanni, et al, have suggested.

Isn't it worth a try? Anyone else have other suggestions?

I understand the point that this app and my vendor's app both crash and that it's "probably" something with the data on the external. Obviously. But isn't that what this software is supposed to recover?

Hey Mike,
thank you very much for your reply. I understand that you are a PC technician....so it would be nice to keep in touch with you to debate this and other issues elsewhere (could send you by email the SFC log file, for instance) but don't know how to do that.
However, after further investigation, it looks like the missing DLL files, not fixed by SFC SCANNOW prompt command, are not crucial and do not require any manual installation.

So I wonder why my system still does not work properly....

For instance, sometimes my laptop suddenly crashed (mouse, keyboard etc.... no longer work), forcing me to reboot it, but all my drivers seem to be perfectly updated: so what could be the cause of this issue for you?

Another issue is that my system does not often recognize both my USB flash drives and my external HD, forcing me to reboot it...but once again USB PORT drivers seem to be updated: do you know a way to fix this annoying problem once & for all? Maybe via BIOS?

On my computer I have 11 recovery programs. (Mainly because I
test a lot of programs and often don't delete the unwanted
ones...)
About two weeks ago I moved a folder with subfolders containing
several GB of picture files from one partition to another partition on
the same computer. Moving means deleting - therefore I now have a
nice testing opportunety.

Today's GOTD offering, Easy Drive Data Recovery, reported finding
hundreds of picture files. I sorted the 'found' list, choose the 303
biggest files and recovered them to another partition.

*** Checking the files with an ordinary graphics viewer I found 300 of the
files to be viewable and totally ok! Almost unbelievable.***

The more well known Recuva found a lot of files too - but what it found
was mainly smaller files, images, ikons etc from deleted web pages.
The big picture files were absent.
PC Inspector FileRecovery and some more were not helpful either

So:
If I had to choose only one recovery program today's would be the one!
(But it is wise to keep several. Under different circumstances the result
might have been different.

I must mention, if a file is fragmented it is not normally recoverable as far as I know. That's why often files you know were there & recycle binned will not be salvageable.

Hi Everyone,
Well, This looks like a useful program and So this is a great time to try it out..
Installed and registered with No Problems on Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit. As always from GOTD Free programs, I have never had a problem installing or testing, I did run some scans on my C: and D: drives and did a pass on my External 1.2 T-Byte backup drive and it worked very good on that as well. Ran very fast although if you run the Deep search it takes some time but it seems to find any and everything that was Ever on any of my HDDs I really liked it.
I did test one Memory stick and that found things that had been deleted two or three times ago! (o; some of toughs files, It said reliability was low but I would expect that.. (o;
Over all it did everything it said it would do and is a nice easy to understand and use file recovery program, That you may have on your backup drive or thumb drive and never use or need it? Hopefully? But that one time you do need it? Its a real life saver! The price seems a little high for an emergency only program but it seems to work as well as any others I have tried, So I guess this will come down to personal preference?, If money is no object then it does not matter what the price is! If you need it! If on the other had, You are like me? and have to keep to a budget?, One of the free or lower priced, Other recovery programs listed, By some of the revues listed on this GOTD might be a better option? You would have to do some real comparative testing to see if the price makes all that much difference? Usually it does!, The old saying, "You get what you pay for?" May applie? In bad times of lost data, You may be happy to pay the higher price if Easy Drive Data Recovery works when the freebies don't? Again some very thorough testing would be in order.
The deal about making it portable is not an issue! If you buy the software you can install it on a thumb-drive, Or any place you think it might be needed or if the drive it is on has a problem? You could then just reinstall it on another drive and run it from there. That is a drawback to GOTD, Is you can not move or reinstall most of the applications they giveaway thus being the need to buy it!
The only other thing I did not get a chance to try and I don't know if it will work this way? But I will test it later to see if it will recover Data from a CD-ROM Drive or Disk? I know it says you can hook the camera up to your PC and then run the app from your C; Drive and it should use the camera drive as if it where a HDD? I have two cameras that use the small CD's or DVDs! One is a DVD and one uses a small CD to store the photos you take, Sometimes! I have had the battery go dead before I can shut it OFF! and it corrupts ALL the Data! Or? 250 plus Photos! SO it would be nice to get most or some of the photos off the bad CD? I will try this later and report if it works or not! (O:
ALL and ALL , I feel that Easy Drive Data Recovery, and MunSoft Data developer, Deserves two thumbs UP! and is definitely worth having around just in case!? and Thanks of course to GOTD for making it possible to get and use another very good Application for FREE today! You guys do a grate Job and it is very appreciated. Thank You! Have a great Day Everyone, Take care, and Always Have Fun! Rick D..

I've not seen Recover My Files mentioned.
Unfortunately not a freebie but I'm yet to find a free alternative with better features than my early 2009 version (3.9.8).
You can often (a bit buggy for my version) even search a specific drive (or partition) in designated segments set at kb position.
Folder & file view trees are excellent, the normal previews. It just actually works as you'd hope it would.
The fast scan & deep scan options. It must be even better by now.
GotD might pursue it for here?

Just like Mike Miller @#8, I am confused by the sentence in the intro "All the recoverable data can be previewed and the trial version is designed to let the potential customer know in advance whether their data can be recovered."

When they then talk about purchasing a personal license with 70% discount, I too am left wondering if this is just a trial version, for which we will have to purchase a personal license after the trial period expires.

Care to elucidate MunSoft?

My computer crashed along time ago and lost everything -
googled a recovery tool and got back est. 95% of lost files!!
Tools like this are handy! The problem is gotd and giovanni
are giving away so many softwares and games - that it might be impossible to find the software to recover lost software, becus this software is lost among thosands of software given away by gotd and giovanni! I used PC Inspector File Recovery to recover my files along time ago! worked great - haven't used for 8 years - but recover tools
get thumbs up from me!

Performed recovery on a 8Gb SD card which contains jpg and mov files that got corrupted. The software was easy to use and it took about 10min to recover data. Compared to other data recovery software this was faster but did not recover as much data. Easy Drive recovered 60 files where EaseUs Data recovery (previous giveaway) and RescuePro Deluxe was able to recovery close to 200. I prefer recovering more data over time.

#11: "Of course I solved the boot issue but several DLL files are still missing….and the SFC / scannow command was not able to fix some of them. As a result my system is a little bit unstable…best solution would be a new reinstall but I did a clean format of my system just 10 days ago.
Maybe this trick could help (still didn’t try it though bcs not easy to implement):
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/42776-extract-files-windows-7-installation-dvd.html"

The problem trying to extract files from an install DVD or ISO is that the files may be older versions replaced/patched by hotfixes, & since those hotfixes have already been applied to your running copy of Windows, I wouldn't think they'd show up on Microsoft Update. Personally I'd install VirtualBox, add a win7 VM [win7 will run as a trial for an extended period of time], update win7 in the VM, & there you have fresh copies of everything that are up to date. Create the virtual disk as a win7 .vhd rather than the Vbox default .vdi, & when the VM's not running you can mount it to access the files like any others in win7, run Windiff or similar to find anything missing etc.

Need to replace files in use? Maybe try a LiveXP or WinPE setup like those you'll find at reboot.pro. If you need to replace a huge number of files [e.g. those in System32], I've found it easier to do something like create a Windows\1System32 folder, put a copy of everything you want/need in it, then booting to a CD/DVD/USB stick rename the existing folder _System32, then re-naming 1System32, System32 -- restart & it should work, but if not it's extremely easily reversible. Problems getting a copy of a file that's in use, say for the registry? Use one of the Paragon apps to do a full partition image backup, then still in the Paragon app, mount the backup -- it'll show up as just another drive.

* * *

#15: "Try to make it PORTABLE using this magic FREE tool (or use Cameyo for that ==> see comment 4 above):"

Conversion to portable should be fairly trivial -- there are a couple apps besides the ones you mentioned & portableapps.com has tools & directions as well. A bit more kludgy but should still work, you can merge a saved .reg into your running LiveXP or WinPE OS, though as that goes away every time you re-start, a bit of a kludge.

I like the way Giovanni is suddenly "trying " the program, after several comments have suggested he hasn't been. lol.

#19 Mike3

Why not install it in partition D or make it portable using this tool?

http://enigmaprotector.com/en/aboutvb.html

Useless, how are you going to access this recovery software when you have installed it on drive C and later you can not boot from drive C. How on earth are you going to implement the recovery unless this software is portable and can be run and boot from an external USB drive.
Uninstalled it.

@ Meredith Brooker

This sounds as a typical situation for testdisk. I used it a lot in the old days when unplugging a USB drive often killed the master boot record. Let it search for your lost partition. After that you can preview the files on the disk (or even copy files from th disk). If that worked it can recreate the MBR and the hard disk drive will work again. A few seconds after the MBR is rewritten the HDD should be recognized by Windows an the auto play dialog will show up (if it is not disabled or your OS is too old).
If there is no hardware damage it should be safe to recreate the MBR and this is a lot faster than typical data recovery.

Once again, my qiestion to MunSoft what doese it mean that "the program can deal with files that have been erased"?
There ia no recovery soitware wich can do
If Easy Drive Data Recovery can recover erased files it's the first in the world to do that

# 13 Chris H


Try to make it PORTABLE using this magic FREE tool (or use Cameyo for that ==> see comment 4 above):

http://enigmaprotector.com/en/aboutvb.html

I have a drive that is showing all partitions as RAW. I had formatted the drive and transferred files to it. I unplugged the USB and now shows all partitions as RAW. Will this program do what I need or will I need something else?

Thanks

I don't see why comment 3 has been given negative votes for pointing out that it presumably needs a second disc drive to be run.

We learn that it doesn't produce a bootable CD so it presumably can't recover files if it's installed on the same HDD that's been corrupted or accidentally formatted?

Is it possible to instal a this program on say a separate drive used for backups? Won't the program files still try to write themselves to the main HDD? These are significant points which have not been answered.

I'll have to download Giveaway of the Day's - Easy Drive Data Recovery and give it a try..

But you guys forgot to add SpinRite

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

It's not free but it is awesome!!!

Larry

# Steve

Of course I solved the boot issue but several DLL files are still missing....and the SFC / scannow command was not able to fix some of them. As a result my system is a little bit unstable...best solution would be a new reinstall but I did a clean format of my system just 10 days ago.

Maybe this trick could help (still didn't try it though bcs not easy to implement):

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/42776-extract-files-windows-7-installation-dvd.html

As for today's giveaway FREE ALTERNATIVES, I forgot to mention some great Rescue Live CD tools, which can also recover lost partitions for FREE even when Windows does not boot in anymore.

Here is a list of them supporting TestDisk:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Livecd


Just let me know what you thing about them, if you have time to test them of course!!

Well, that's the first time I ever heard software described as "supreme and mighty" -- perhaps it's actually the Wizard of Oz?

It's definitely a better-than-average tool of its kind, maybe the best I've tried. At a price of $0.00, I've added it to my arsenal.

@#6 Giovanni.

I'd have thought you would have fixed that by now. I'm sure others will be able to give a better answer.

I've had (too frequent) problems in the past (XP and 7) where the lack of some mysteriously awol .dll prevents Windows booting. That's usually fixable provided you've got a copy of the right file available to fill the void.

Missing system .dll files that don't prevent startup are usually fixable with the Windows System File Checker (Run sfc /scannow). Google for more info. You could try the WinChecker built into Advanced System Care 6.

Some programs call for a .dll which they've not checked is on your system during install. Since that affects numerous people you can usually find somewhere online to download those from.

I suspect, however, that you'll already have tried what's relevant from the above. Unhelpfully, regular system backup is probably the best solution.

Your best bet is probably to provide specific details on a help forum.

Is this giveaway a trial version?...


"All the recoverable data can be previewed and the trial version is designed to let the potential customer know in advance whether their data can be recovered.


To purchase a personal license (including updates and support) with 70% discount please follow this..."

For most customers including myself $60 out of my league.

Today's giveaway is an EXCELLENT data revovery tool.
Can even recreate the exact folder structure you had before a format, showing you the name, size, recovery status and type of each file found. I've just tried to recover a couple of files I had lost after a recent format of my HD and well.... this tool did the job without any hassle.

60 bucks? Hmmmm...maybe it's a little bit overpriced, taking into account that it doesn't support bootable media creation: what do you make of it, folks?

1. to recover deleted files from formatted HDD and USB Drive:

- - DiskGetor Data Recovery FREE Edition (==> My Personal First Choice)
http://www.diskgetor.com

- (Portable) Undelete 360
http://www.undelete360.com

- (Portable) Wise Data Recovery (can even restore email files)
http://www.wisecleaner.com/wisedatarecoveryfree.html

- (Portable) Recuva
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/System/Backup-and-Recovery/Portable-Recuva.shtml

- UndeleteMyFiles Pro
Can recover accidentally deleted files from hard disks, USB flash drives, CF and SD cards and other storage media.
It shows the name, format, size, date of modification, directory and disk of each file found by an extensive search function, with the ability to preview any image files.
Can even restore deleted emails from various email apps with ease, through an easy to use Mail Recovery Wizard module.

http://www.seriousbit.com/undeletemyfiles

2. to recover files from removable media only (scratched CD/DVD, USB Flash Drive etc…):

- Abyssal Recovery (==> Superb FREE app for recovering data/files/movies/music from scratched CD, DVD, BD and HD DVD)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Abyssal-Recovery.shtml

- Get My Videos Back (==> It recovers videos from scratched CD/DVD)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Other-VIDEO-Tools/Get-My-Videos-Back.shtml

- PhotoRec (==> Great FREE tool for recovering pictures from memory cards and USB flash drives)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

3. to recover entire partitions and restore damaged boot sectors/MBR/BCD:

- REDO BACKUP AND RECOVERY (==> My Personal First Choice to recover data from a destroyed system)
Freaking awesome Live CD Open Source backup and data disaster recovery software supporting BARE-METAL restore, meaning you can completely restore a system back even on a machine without OS or with its Hard Drives completely erased by a virus. So with this tool you can easily overtake the only BIG CONS shown by this GAOTD, namely the lack of bootable media support, because it can recover deleted files even when you can't boot into Windows. Cool, isn't it??

http://redobackup.org

- TestDisk (==> Softpedia Editor Pick)
Very powerful multiplatform Open Source data recovery software, which helps you recover lost partitions as well as make non-booting disks bootable again with no hassle. In short what it does is querying the BIOS or the OS to find out the characteristics of the HDs of your machine, so as to perform a quick check of their structure and then compare it with your Partition Table for any possible entry errors.
If entry errors are found, this magic FREE tool can automatically repair them with ease, enabling you to search for partitions and create a new Partition Table or even a new MBR if necessary, should your system have missing partitions or a completely empty Partition Table. How cool is that, dudes??

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

- MiniTool Power Data Recovery
This is a terrific all in one data recovery tool designed to recover data even from formatted, deleted or corrupted partitions.
The only downside is that the free version limits restoration to a size of 1GB.

http://www.powerdatarecovery.com

Enjoy!!

Ciao
Giovanni


P.S. Steve & others: do you know a tool (possibly FREE) or an easy way to fix missing/corrupted DLL files?

Really bad RAW file recovery. It thinks my MKV files are bmp and jpg. It is lacking in most popular video format filters. No support for damaged GUID partitions (3TB and above). When my hard drive crashed containing my TV shows (.MKV, .AVI, .MP4, .WMV) I was only able to recover the AVI files as the program didn't recognize any of the others.

The option to show only deleted files - which many alternatives fail to offer - is a big plus. In general, the alternative views and preview (better than Lazesoft) options work well. Additional file preview types would be welcome but aren't vital. 'Previewability' gives a good indication of the likely chances of recovering a worthwhile file. It's possible that this might be used to appraise the state of RAW-scan/'unknown' files by the program but it definitely gives the user a useful indication.

You can work with more than 1 drive at a time. There's no option to save a scan or re-use your last scan(s) next time you start the program. Sadly, there's no way of searching for a file (e.g. *tram*.jpg) within your scan or a scanned folder/category other than by using the solitary filter.

Filtering seemed quite slow (> Recuva, >>> Lazesoft). It would be nice to be able to save sets of filter options (and even apply these to additional tabbed pages). Sorting of files by column parameters was decidedly speedy in comparison.

I'd appreciate a breakdown of the file categories (e.g. graphic)by file type e.g. jpg, png, etc.

It would be nice to be able to set a default save folder. The program presently overwrites files with the same name. It automatically creates subfolders (EDDR_RECOVERED, with a sub named for the letter of the scanned drive) under your selected folder.

When a recovery completes it would be nice to have the option to open the save folder so that the save files can be viewed. Recovery is as expected based on the state/viewability of deleted files.

The inability to select multiple files (other than all) is a real turnoff (but one that's common to many recovery files). Sometimes it appears that developers don't consider ergonomics at all.

I'm pleased to have this as a giveaway as an additional tool but since it will only run within Windows (unlike e.g. Lazesoft), it's not going to be a lifesaver that would be worth paying for.

Overall, overpriced for what it presently offers in comparison to the competition. That said, if the key weaknesses are tackled, this would very probably be at the top of the heap.

I used Cameyo to put all files needed as an activated semi-virtual semi-portable in a single directory. It works.

I guess I have to install this software on two different drives in case one of the drives on which this application is installed has access problems.

there is a select all option and filters but no incremental selection with mouse it is one click per file

Pros
*Finds deleted files and files that existed prior to a reformat
*Supports FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS drives — internal, external, USB flash, etc.
*Provides you with file name, size, type, time modified, time created, and recoverability of files that are found
*Allows users to preview files
*Has filtering capabilities
*Files can be recovered in bulk

Cons
*No ability to create any sort of bootable CD/DVD/USB drive to run Easy Drive Data Recovery from outside of Windows
*Not all file types can be previewed

Free Alternatives
Testdisk & PhotoRec

Final Verdict
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