Ran with no problem, found nothing with "recover lost files", but found lots of image files using "Recover Format", recovered a bunch, and recovered them onto my D: drive, put them into a RAW folder in Public Pictures, but as JPG files. Then got the list in DCIM folders to show up as icons and it hung during preview of files. Restarted, then it couldn't get back the files it lost on the first go-round with a lot of files, and so lost the first recovery of the files in DCIM folders. Initially it showed the SD card as I: (Fat 16), but after it hung, it showed the SD card as "prior recovery" and couldn't get it back when clicked. And then Puran File Recovery, like Windows itself, couldn't see the SD card, as before. So much for causing no damage. I did not delete any KiwiG files and try again, but I might do that, since there's nothing to lose by trying again.

Interesting thing I found when looking at the easusue.log, spy server???!!!! then (WTF?): server=track = easus.com:
--Info. log level=3
2014-02-11 19:54:04:160[UE] --Info. need spy=0
2014-02-11 19:54:04:164[UE] --Info. top num =0
2014-02-11 19:54:04:166[UE] --Info. try send=1
2014-02-11 19:54:04:166[UE] --Info. InstallSpy. inst=052772F0
2014-02-11 19:54:04:166[UE] --Info. server=track.easeus.com, object=/product/index.php/?a=statistics&p_type=m_drw_userinfos
2014-02-11 19:54:04:172[UE] --Info. SpyServer::Init step 1 InternetOpen succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:172[UE] --Info. SpyServer::Init step 2 InternetConnect succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:172[UE] --Info. SpyServer::Init step 3 HttpOpenRequest succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:172[UE] --Info. SpyServer::Init step 4 HttpAddRequestHeaders succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:172[UE] --Info. send data=uid=1DF539F9-5956-4CCC-A63C-75F1C8E3C5DF&install=1
2014-02-11 19:54:04:322[UE] --Info. SpyServer::SendData step 1 HttpSendRequestEx succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:322[UE] --Info. SpyServer::SendData step 2 InternetWriteFile succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:427[UE] --Info. SpyServer::SendData step 3 HttpEndRequest succeed.
2014-02-11 19:54:04:427[UE] --Info. send succeed.
2014-02-11 20:13:01:849[UE] --Info. log level=3

****Was this for activation?****

In the DRWlog.log:
KiwiG Data Recovery Professional 6.2.2 20131111
Date Generated: 02/11/2014 22:03:59
Memory status:
Total physical memory:7080 MB Available physical memory:3903 MB
Total page files:14159 MB Available page files:10710 MB
Unknown operating system!
OS Directory - C:\Windows\system32
Module Directory - F:\KiwiG Data Recovery\

Unknown operating system??? It looked for 32 bit, but the notebook is 64 bit! Windows puts a lot of stuff in the old system32 folder left over from when WinME was first introduced, or maybe earlier, Win97!!! And it didn't know this? I am using Win7 Home Premium SP1.

I also showed 2 DRW.exe files in my F:KiwiG Data Recovery folder, one twice as big as the other, but bringing up the same screens.
So...

@drvajra
Recovering large files such as photos and videos are the most difficult because they often reside on more than one cluster. When recovering photo's, thumbnails are easy to recover because they are small and scattered all over the drive but media files over 1-MB are much tougher.

@El Coyote
"you can recover data from a disk that has been formatted up to seven times and overwritten twice."
Again BS. No one on the planet can recover data if low level format then wiped one pass. You have been watching too many spy movies. The person that can recover wiped data can also recover the data displayed on your monitor last year. It was "possible" to recover small amounts of data from the old low-density removable-pack drives such as the DEC RL02 and RP06 with an electron microscope and some special dusting compound. Those disk drives were about the size of a large dishwasher and the platters were about 20-MB so the data was spread over a wide area of disk platter. Modern high-density drives are totally different.

If you suspect that your drive has a problem, the very first thing to do is remove the drive and perform a sector-sector clone onto another drive then perform your recovery from the clone. Data recovery is very disk intensive work and will often kill a weak drive which would likely destroy all chance of recovering your data.

Keeping your disk drive defragmented makes data recovery MUCH more successful but over course you cannot defrag after the data loss event.

To those who want to make it portable, I downloaded the zip file to my hard drive, unzipped it there, but installed it to a USB stick, and it didn't argue about it. Only thing it argued about was where it would put the shortcuts! Haven't run a test yet, but just thought I'd make the comment. I'm going to try it on an SD card that went bonkers after a "flood of the century" with dozens of one-of-a-kind photos on it. We'll see if it finds and recovers any of them. Windows can't even see the card.

# 5 FrancisBorne, thanks for your comments here. And we agree with your that it is better to create an identical image for the device which contains lost data first, and then try to recover data from the image file will reduce the risk to damage data twice.

But our product is a read only tool in all 3 recovery modes, so you don't have to worry about that the lost files will be affected in the recovery process.

# 26 Marian Clarke, none of data recovery tool manufacturer dares to damage your data during scan in order to make more orderes, that is illegal, or they want loss all other potential customers since then.

# 17 drvajra, why not have a try with the free tool where you posted your comment for.

# 31 and # 33, if you guys kindly enough to indicate where we need to improve on editing a webiste, that will be much appreciated.

To all, we just want to provide you one more option for your lost data, hope you all have fun with it.

greetings all you free stuff fans

ah well, another one that sounds like it would be useful, and probably would be if it was accessable, not even able to find the registration startup point on the main window, or the close button or any other control in the window, another total blow out but thanks for trying GOTD, its not your fault that so many software producers do not have a care about accessibility, not everyone can do as well as Microsoft, apple, and MS office, or 7-data recovery suite(which I did get from here, finally someone is partally accessible software)!

installed great on my windows XP and 7 home edition computers just couldn't read anything in the screens with my screan reader application.

and from how they were presented I'm not sure if screen enlargement tools for the partially blind could make use of it either,

too bad, so sad,,

BCU

What seemed to disable the update check, at least for me on my XP SP3, was changing "NotNeedCheck" from "0" to a "1" at this location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\KiwiGeeker\DRW\StartupCheck

@Karl (#27):

Because of your difficulties, I went back and repeated my trial of the software, and in doing so I verified my previous finding, that I could find and see *some* of the previously deleted JPG files that I was seeking (just as a test). Some of them, as you say, were just empty boxes with a red "d" at the right of them. But, based on the images that were viewable, I can say that the program does work.

I have not compared its capabilities with Recuva or any other program, but I can verify that this program does what it says it can do.

Thank you #28 FrancisBorne and #29 El Coyote for explaining that to me.

As for you Floyd!! #30 Yeah I certainly feel enlightened now.
Didn't you ever hear the saying?
"there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers"

"Kiwi" is misleading...like americans travelling in europe with canadian flag patches on their clothing so they'll be treated better.

Probably the same motivation here, too bad the english is so poor.

Kiwi fruit were actually a chinese fruit brought to New Zealand (non native fruit there) and developed and marketed. So _technically_, there is a Chinese connection :-)

Looked up the domain registration and it appears to be registered to a Private Individual rather than a company....Sending alarm bells ringing. No thank you GAOTD.

Domain Name: KIWIGEEKER.COM
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Name Server: NS7.NS0.COM
Name Server: NS2.QUICKSERVE.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

#31 There is absolutely no requirement for speaking English to be able produce good code!

Just reading their description was enough for me. Their English is so poor, that I will not trust them to have a safe program. If they don't take time to hire someone who can really speak English, then it means that they don't care about producing a program that works. Just my opinion.

#19: "Is it true that data recovery can alter the structure of recovered/un-recovered data sometimes making in unrecoverable?"

Yes, Marian, that is true. So to avoid making your data unrecoverable, it is best to not try to recover it.

To #19, #21, #24 et alter:
True or not True?
Both!

Well, a good data recovery utility should never alter the structure of the media which is working on.
The problem of messing up with "lost" but already existing and recoverable data lies at two level:

1. When recoverable files are found you have to save them somewhere.
"Somewhere" means everywhere you can (a different parition, a different/external hard-disk, any accessible external unit where you can copy/save what can be recovered.
The key point is: never write/save files on the unit you are working on because in doing so you might overrwrite existing data.
Also, if you leave absolutly unchanged the media where you want recover the lost data, you may use more different utilities to see if one work better than another.

2. Windows is an operating system that keeps writing on the disk whatever you do. Its file system uses any "old" empty space immediately for the simple reason that when you delete a file all the blocks used for that file are flagged as free space.
That's why the utility offered here today is interesting.
In fact, creating a bootable "unit" on an external device (CD, USB-Key) you are sure that no matter which is the operating system the disk you'll be working on to recover your files will remain untouched.

Additional info: if you want to go beyond "normal" recovery utility, you need forensic grade utilities and instruments.
That way you can recover data from a disk that has been formatted up to seven times and overwritten twice.
Starting price: about $1,000
Hardware needed to work on a HD recovered from a fire or salted water:
from $3,00 up to $30,000
No, you'll not find the software here on the GOTD nor at any good software store.
In fact, the sale of the most sophisticated tools is restricted to those with an appropriate license, police officers and courthouse members.

There are some contradictions between #16 mike, #19 Marian Clarke's intelligent question and #21 Happy Dae.

I want to resolve this:

1 If you are trying to recover a somehow erased file (or files) a good software copies the result(s) to another harddisk, partition or whatever and thus leaving the source file untouched. You thus can try this with all recovery programs of this type you own and pick out best results e.g. by looking at a photo or viewing a video etc.

2 If you try to recover a whole partition my choice for program's logic would be to do the same as in 1 but automatically for all files. But there are recovery programs (call it #1) which try to repair this lost partition in a whole (writing to file tables etc as mike told) and if they are unsuccessfull everything is lost because things have gone worse as no other program can undo the changes program #1 did. Another program only could be successful starting from original "erasure" status of this partition.

And this was the cause for my question at bottom of my comment #5 above towards
KiwiGeeker / EaseUS Software.
But they didn't answer so far. What a pity!

@ Frank D.

I searched for "Graphics" on partition e:.

The recovery program found "lost files" 177, marked with a red "d". the file size seems reasonable for a normal .jpg file. The feature "thumbnails" shows a "broken" image sign for all "found" files. When selecting "preview", not one of the found images could be displayed, neither in parts or in whole. The messagebox shows the above mentioned: ”Warning! Not support the image format!”.

This leads to another problem. The recovery program cannot decide, whether a file with the assumed extension is really a .jpg file or that the files to be "found" cannot in my case recovered to usefull result.

Other recovery software shows in their preview, that the file can be displayed in readable parts, in whole or cannot be identified as an image file. So I can select, which files could be really recovered.

Then the program gives the information :

If the files are not found or corrupted in this mode, please go to "format recovery"

In this "raw file mode", the program lists (as it seems) all files found on the partition without marking which files have been deleted and can be recovered and which files are simply existing. In my case ten thousands of files. Yes you can search for a file name or an extension, but this doesn't lead in my test to a file, which has been deleted and can be previewed.

In this case rather useless.

Thanks for reading my comment.

#21 Excellent, I had read a warning somewhere to be cautious of data recovery programs with claims that all data recovery programs and applications would alter the data during the recovery process. It was probably a marketing poly to buy their software. I had been reluctant to try any just in case so thank you for clearing that up. So am I right in thinking that recovery programmes copy or mirror the existing data to an alternative location leaving the original data as it is? If so, does that mean I can safely try various data recovery utilities with confidence that I am not doing anything to existing data?

make it portable!!!!!!! so that if your computer crash you still have the program on a usb and can recover your programs. if the program crash with the cpu you have to pay a big $60.00 for the program as this is only a giveaway for today only. here's a better and free apps my alternatives:
http://pcsupport.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=pcsupport&cdn=compute&tm=19&f=00&su=p504.6.342.ip_&tt=65&bt=7&bts=7&zu=http%3A//www.piriform.com/recuva/builds
make sure you uncheck the box to install Google chrome. also it has a portable download. here's my other free offer:

http://pcsupport.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=pcsupport&cdn=compute&tm=17&f=00&su=p284.13.342.ip_p504.6.342.ip_&tt=65&bt=5&bts=45&zu=http%3A//www.puransoftware.com/File-Recovery-Download.html also have a portable app. enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!! my 000000000000.2%

@#13: The first post I read here was from someone who said they recovered a jpeg photo that had been over-writtened (wiped). I call BS!

I read the post differently - "Easily recovered most of the photos (some had been overwritten)" sounds like the poster said it recovered the files that had not been overwritten.

@Karl (#4)
My experience was different from yours (where you could not see the JPG images). I could *see* the JPG images in the thumbnails and in the Viewer.

#19 No, not true.

I was happy with this piece of software. I have a SD card that had the formatting damaged. I tried two other programs that wouldn't recover the files (could only find pieces of them) and I had put the card away to try again at a later date.

I was surprised by the failure of the other software (both were previous GAOFD offerings) because nothing had been written to the SD card after the formatting issue. It would seem to be a fairly easy case.

When I saw today's offering I decided to dig the card out and give it another go. KiwiG was able to find not only the files but also the names of the files (which made it much easier to see what I was recovering.) It did this faster as well (the last one took like 8 hours of scanning, while this one did it in under an hour.) It couldn't get everything, but it got most things.

It was a fairly easy process and intuitive.

The only thing I didn't like was that my card reader did not show up easily in the program. I think I had to click on Window's dialog box telling me to format the card again before it would work. That little window was buried under other windows so I didn't see it, and this left me thinking the program wasn't working. The card also didn't show up under recover partition like I thought it would but rather under the tab about formatting. If I hadn't clicked around I might have missed it.

Overall, this program worked for me where others have not, and you can't beat the price!

CAN ANYONE RECOMMEND SOFTWARE, FREE (PREFERABLY) OR PAID, THAT CAN RECOVER PHOTOS FROM A SAMSUNG GALAXY REVERB SMARTPHONE RUNNING ANDROID 4.1.2.

THANKS, JON

Is it true that data recovery can alter the structure of recovered/un-recovered data sometimes making in unrecoverable?

I have a little micro SD card from my car video; the files were deleted and the card has not been used since, up to now nothing has been able to recover the video files.
I tried today's download using the deleted files selection, it found nothing but suggested a deep scan which I started but the estimated time kept rising, when it got to 5 hours plus I decided to stop the search.
I keep reading about Recuva and found I had a copy, so I tried it.
It immediately found the log files as do most recovery programs but no video, so I tried a more thorough scan and it found 149 files including a number of the video files after 40 min, and much to my surprise some were viewable.
I'm not going to bother with other recovery programs I thought the speed was excellent considering it was a 32 gig SD card and it had found videos nothing else could find, quite frankly amazed.

Recently, while moving pictures and videos from my camera to the computer, by a freak accident, I lost everything in the card. I used "Recuva", but it only recovered a few pictures, even though nothing was over-written on the micro-SD. It could not recover a single video. I tried another program called "CardRecovery" and found it useless as well.

The comments in this forum, other than #15, are negative. Anyone can suggest a good program which can recover video files?

Thanks

#5: "Is all recovery by KiwiG Data Recovery 6.2.2 (especially partition recovery) destruction free (READ ONLY access to medium)?"

FWIW I don't see how recovering or rebuilding the tables at the front of the partition could be non-destructive. You can try to backup everything at that 1st part of the partition where the tables are stored, or back up the entire partition or disk sector by sector [everything including free space] beforehand, but it's not a file or files you could recover & store anywhere else.

I've used an OLD EaseUS app that was on GOTD called Partition Table Doctor to back up those tables, but it's no longer sold & won't work on GPT. You can find alternative apps/methods using Google -- I just haven't tried any of them so there's nothing I can recommend.

I installed without problems on Win 8.
Next, I did a test, on a HDD from a MacBook Pro, that got destroyed when the kids spilled water on it. I connected previously the HDD to the computer with a SATA to USB 3 cable bought from Amazon for $10, a very good price comparing with the overpriced BestBuy stuff. In Linux I was not able to set permission to the picture folder and recover the files. So I wanted to try KiwiG data recovery program. After installation, I let is scan the drive and after 45 minutes, it had found about 81GB, pictures that I took in about 2 years and believed were lost, pictures that I was not able to access otherwise. I do not understand some of the above posts, where they say the preview is not working, because for me I could see the files without problem. You just need to open the left panel directory with found files and select the directory where your picture reside, and the preview is automatically displayed in the main window. As I am writing this, my computer is working to recover the previously found files.
Thank you GAOTD

I have tried a lot of data recovery programs. The only useful one is Recuva and it is free

The first post I read here was from someone who said they recovered a jpeg photo that had been over-writtened (wiped). I call BS! If the file has truly been wiped even once, no program is recovering it.

Thanks! I was looking for a good format recovery program and this came up! Gotta try to recover my microSD -_- Stupid freaking corrupting PC

Windows 7-64 download & installed great. Activation was easy with key provided.
I performed a simple test by creating a new folder with a simple JPG image and deleted the image 'accidentally.'

Used KiwiG Data Recovery to recover my accidentally deleted image.

The program went through the motions to recover and all appeared to go as stated by the developers. A file was recovered and I was asked where to save the recovered file.

BUT, I was unable to view the image after recovery. Error message popped up and basically said " Windows Photo Viewer is unable to read the file, does not support this format or Windows Photo Viewer may not be up to date."

After several different attemptes to recover the image, Nothing, I finally gave up.

Like the program's interface and yes, it is an easy to use piece of software.

I'll stick with what I have that works.
Thanks GAOTD

installed without problem on win 8. tried to find pics on my external hard drive which were deleted by mistake but the result was disappointing as it was unable to show preview or even recover it.used a freeware named recuva and it found most of them with preview and then was able to recover it. the comments @ 1,2,3 seems to be launched by company itself.

Installed quickly on a USB drive (Win 7, 64-bit). However, when activating, I discovered that the provided version of the software only allows viewing the "lost" files, NOT recovering/restoring them, unless you buy the full version.

doesn't work. installed fine, but sits in tight loop during deleted file recovery.(58% cpu & no disk access) running windows 8.1

D/L to XP3 and Win7(32), don;t see anything that would justify the claims of a "Pro" setup, there are quite a few proggies available free that can do more, so for me, a loser at any price.

Uninstalled.

On purpose, I deleted some jpegs to check if this program really works.

1. First I tried Deleted File Recovery It found nothing.
2. Then I tried Format Recovery It found a bulk of pictures, but upon recovery the pictures had no information and all picture viewers said the picture cannot be displayed. All pictures were empty.

3. Then I tried Partition Recovery and it found nothing at all.

Given credits to the generosity it's free today and it my be useful for others, I like to give Thanks to Giveaway of the day and KiWiG.

As last thing, I found it rather amusing and I couldn't help laughing at their statement on the website (not meant to be sarcastic):
"KiwiGeeker's mission is to introduce a Green Concept for digital environments: We provide clean, safe and fresh software"

Looking for phone, address etc I found not a single information on the net. The name "kiwi" suggested to be from Australia or Newzealand but nobody seems to know.

http://www.domaintuno.com/d/kiwigeeker.com tells:
"Website Age 2 months 21 days " ...
"Kiwigeeker.com seems to be quite trustworthy website , it is 2 months old ."

Sorry, just detected that today there are two, really two (!) publishers mentioned above: "EaseUS Software, KiwiGeeker". EaseUS has nothing to do with US but is situated in China and is known for some good GOTD. Big question resolved. But why this disguise? Not increasing trustworthiness for everybody!

Download of free version on
http://www.kiwigeeker.com/freeware/data-recovery-windows.html
is same size as Pro version.

Is KiwiG Data Recovery 6.2.2 the free version? Probably not. The above prize $59.95 is the same as for KiwiG Data Recovery Pro on http://www.kiwigeeker.com/data-recovery/
But I couldn't find any comparison between free and Pro versions.
Therefore I suppose that this GOTD corresponds to Pro version but without update and support. Is this correct? I hope this soft works more precisely than all mentioned description hickhack.

Normally I tend to download any recovery software available free just in case and I'm preferring portable ones because what good is a software which by installing afterwards overwrites just recoverable information on install partition then lost forever. And a lot of people tend to act only afterwards.

I won't give any recommendation today. There are some favorites like Recuva to try first. But as practise tells you perhaps have to try all programs you have got because you can't foretell which program will produce best results in your special case. And for folders or files you can "merge" the outcome of different programs to get best combined results.

Some Freeware from Convar's recovery specialists I used in the past successfully for harddisks, good explanations to be found here:
http://www.pcinspector.de/?language=1
+ download link:
http://www.pcinspector.de/FileRecovery/instructions.htm?po=2&language=1
or for memory cards:
http://www.pcinspector.de/SmartRecovery/info.htm?language=1
+ download link:
http://www.pcinspector.de/SmartRecovery/instructions.htm?po=2&language=1
Other sites are telling it's up to Windows 8!
As far as I know you have to run recovery software as adminstrator.

Beware of programs which give no second chance i.e. don't let you store recovered files elsewhere. Telling you a partition is repaired or 10 000 files recovered doesn't mean this is true. If original data are altered any more successfull/better program is blocked.


@ KiwiGeeker / EaseUS Software
Therefore my question to "EaseUS Software" and/or "KiwiGeeker" - I hope one of them will be able to answer:
Is all recovery by KiwiG Data Recovery 6.2.2 (especially partition recovery) destruction free (READ ONLY access to medium)?

Installed and registered on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit system without problems.

The company, New Zealand based?, comes again with an eMail address, but no information about the company itself.

After installation an interface, decent and fresh "apple" green, starts and gives the user the choice, which type of date to search and on a second window, where to search. Simple, clear and understandable. Virtual partitions are not listet in the recovery modul.

I first choosed "video" on a test drive, It found some files - but the "preview" gave only a preview od the hex-code or the ASCII code. Okay, it has not an video player built in (and must not).

A second test with images gives the same result. And that's not, as it should be. You can preview the "Text", the "Hex", but when you want to preview the .jpg file, the software gives an error message :"Warning! Not support the image format!" (no, this is not a Kiwi company, but something from the China or so...: CHENGDU YIWO Tech Develeopment)

So the file preview, which should work for simple images or parts of it, does not. Negative!

When recovering the images, it shows, that the images itself cannot be read. Exactly for this reason the preview should work.

A simple recovery system with a friendly user interface, but lacking the features of other so called "Pro" software.

Unistalled via reboot.

Thanks for the Giveaway.

I think this is a must-have hard disk tool. It will be saving you when you encounter a data loss.

nice tool! really worthy to try! simple and effective, no skills required. Recommended!

Installed without any problems on XP-SP3. I had an SD card that I had used in an old camera that was formatted before the pictures had been saved. Easily recovered most of the photos (some had been overwritten).

Other GAOTD program offerings could not find these photos. Seems to work as advertised. Thanks GAOTD and KiwiG.