Hi, I must be forgetting or missing a step...I'm asked to submit an opinion on a program that can't be run without a registration code...I downloaded and installed this software before the time limit was up and find that all I can do is search for files but can't view results..how would a person know the search produced valid results? If the registration code was available then a true opinion could be rendered..

Sorry for the bothering. I know this place should be used for evaluation, but I have a problem that I failed to solve for 3 years now. Its may handycam. The DVD suddenly stopped recording in the camera with an error: "Camera door open" (the door was closed). Now the DVD is useless (it contains my Neice Wedding). I tried to recover the data, with all available software, but the problem is that the computer does not feel the disc, as if the drive has no disc inside. I am almost sure that today's software will fail as well.
Any help?
My cam is Sony E-608

I tried this to see if it could read a hard drive that I'm unable to access, but it could not find it. So no luck there.

One recovery program may work where another will not. Everyone's primary language is not English. Any software company's marketing and translation skills have NOTHING to do with the quality of their software. I'm a US born US citizen. While I love many things about my country (but not other things) - THE US has not cornered the market on GOOD IDEAS or GOOD PRODUCTS. - Used for a terrible purpose, the German "Messerschmitts" blew away all other war aircraft.

I feel companies using GAOD should give their contact info and location as a matter of trust. But the bias here (by some) against non US software or language imperfections may contribute to it. So what if the form is a bit rough, look at the SUBSTANCE. Thank you again Giovanni for your other suggestions. Most everyone has to roll back their registry from time to time and loses these programs. Your info is always helpful.

Tried to open Aidfile file recovery twice,both times my Norton antivirus killed it, saying it found a threat: SONAR Heuristic. Too paranoid to try a third time.
For details, it said "Very few users, very new, Risk high"
Dick H.

Will this recover files from a hard drive that is not partitioned or only partitioned drives?

thank you i find this is almost the same as easeus data recovery. thank you gaotd it even works on 7 so why do those say it dont work. if you dont use it dont say it crap. and dont say you hate till you try it. maybe those that cant install it dont have admin rights to install it

I used this twice today. On two failed hard drives. They were past the point of getting info off of as they were saying they had to be formatted , and one was even making clicking sounds. I had tried a few other programs that did not work. This one DID work. It did not get EVERYTHING off of them, but it got most and for that I am so grateful! The shady web-site comments scare me a bit, but I took the risk - and glad I did ! A thumbs up here !

EVen though the rating system here is of much good, ... Simply yes on the comments which ARE helpful to you ... while the remainder of comments not liked "Click Nothing" to make it a neutral feeling to how one feels about the overall outcome.

Some folks who feel their software is worth putting on the market can get an idea to what the current consensus has to say, some vendors are very game to believe they have created something of high value can only receive neutral comments.."IF" each of us can avoid adding negative comments.

So in summary .. Leave the negative comments out, and ONLY click yes for positive responses.
Take the NO vote system off for a more fairer system of gaining accurate results.

While there is an error happens translating from your language to mine, I would not accidentally deletion your software from my computer since I won't be purposefully installing it. I say give this software the bad sector of boot. The bad translation of the advertising is exclusively high.

Will this support memory cards that get corrupt or cannot retrieve files or photos from?

Good reviews on other sites. It's free! DL and save for emergencies.

Tried this software once before...as some have stated, it sounds like you're dealing with kindergarten kids. Giovanni...you must have too much free time on your hands to actually be able to test run all the freebies you list...as some people have stated the other day, a number of the freebies are full of crapware and take hours to get rid of.

I do appreciate the giveaways, but once again, as others have said before...the voting process is useless and many of the gives are from thoroughly saturated fields.

This will probably not get posted as I seem to get 'moderated' a lot.
Mothman

Well I tested it out, seems to work ok! I have lots of recover
software from gotd! Seems to work as well as others! I personally backup everythig on an external hardrive just in case something gets lost! Or use search, for some reason a file will be found inside another file where it should not be! Anybody wonder if Giovanni's
computer and house is like a hoader house - stacked ceiling to floor with software??

SYSTEM: Dell Inspiron 530, 2 GB RAM, dual-core processor @ 2 ghz. Vista Home Premium. Install was simple and flawless. The program did exactly what it said it would do, and has a simple, intuitive interface.

This one is a keeper for me, as although I seldom "lose" things that I would need this for, it DOES happen once in a while, and I would rather just use this simple, effective program than have to spend time on the web looking for, buying, or learning something more complex. I'm a school teacher, and this is going on my records computer just in case something ugly happens to my grading files.. :)

Special Thanks also to Giovanni for the extra info he puts up each day, especially when I MISS a giveaway and am looking for something similar.

I had an opportunity to test this software today in a real-world situation. I have a customer's laptop hard drive that was formatted and windows was reloaded on it. I have tried all of the options in this software to recover files. One Plus: it's pretty quick. Other than that, it was completely useless. It recovered less photos than other recovery tools I tried, and absolutely no useful files were recovered. It did recover some 93,000 .ico files, none of which are actually icons. It's pretty much garbage as far as I can tell, but I'll keep it around and give it another go if I get backed into a corner & and am desperate.

@ #2: La - It does support windows 8. I have windows 8 pro and I downloaded, installed, and tested it without any problems.

a fine piece of software.
installed smooth with win7 ult.
test recover positive from deleted, defragged and used hd drive from days ago.
:)
thank's!!
(thumbs up)

I did a Goole search on this software and it does support Vista & Win7. But, not Mac10.
The website that reviewed this software, stated that the maker of thiis software's website, is full of typo's, which undercuts the integrity of this software's creator! I guess the selection part, when it comes to choosing which version you want to purchase and download, can be very confusing, due to the various versions and prices.
Here is the website address that reviewed this software: http://www.askdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-software-reviews-aid-file-recovery-for-advanced-data-recovery-advanced-disk-and-usb-data-recovery-software/
I hope this helps in deciding on whether to do use this software or not. I also hope that I pasted this website address correctly, since this is my first time doing so!

#6. Giovanni

Well said! I usually ignore the thumbs up/down numbers and read the comments.

I would like to contribute but never have time to install & try products the day they come out, so I really appreciate the folks who do take the time to evaluate a program, to post results/opinions, and to suggest other products.

#4: Personally, I do prefer well-written (in English) product descriptions, but I try not to be too biased. As a college computer instructor, I know that excellent code can be written by people who can barely write their own names. I would be glad to edit product descriptions into "proper" English, so perhaps more people would try the product. And remember -- the description writers are not necessarily the same folks who write the code.

BTW -- Giovanni, you rock!

Leah

#2 la "doesn’t support vista/7/8"

"System Requirements: Windows 2000, XP, 2003 or later"

Later than "Windows 2000, XP, 2003" does include Vista, Win 7 and Win 8

#5 Chris

The company Mitusoft ltd. is located in Shanghai, China.

Just because a programmer's website hasn't been translated into proper English doesn't mean the software offered is bad.
It probably means they purchased a translation program or used a translation service to do the translation for them.
Since they don't read or speak English, how would they know if the translation is messed up?
They program in their native language probably, so the software can be just as good as any programmed in English.
If the program works, who cares if they dangle modifiers or don't use the correct subject-verb agreement on the website?
Quit judging the websites and start judging the offered programs.

#3

I too agree with #6 with the exception of his comment "Are you a little child who needs her mom’s advice whenever you have to take a decision on whatsoever matter? Come on…LOL!"

But he or she is absolutely correct in eveything else he says "In My Opinion". GAOTD
is a very valuable service to all of us. I personally don't believe or think the rating system is needed.

If an offering appeals to you try it. Don't pay attention to the user ratings because they don't and should'n make decisions for you.

In the words of my brother-in-law. The rating systems "DOES NOT COMPUTE". Or interms of current USA election jargon. "DO THE MATH".

mACK

Talking about suspicious: one dubious trick that unfortunately seems typical among Chinese software vendors -- including this one -- is listing their "awards" on their websites, which in fact they don't have. These "awards" aren't even clickable links, but just pictures. Just out of curiosity I checked -- at least, they are actually listed on zdnet and sofotex, but there no mentions of any awards for this software on either website.

@4: Here's a news flash for you: there are other countries and other nations on this Earth besides the US, and for most of them English is not the native language. Granted that their English description leaves much to be desired, the bad quality of their translation means only that: the bad quality of their translation. If they want to market their product to the worldwide community, then of course they shoud do better with the narrative. But what does it have to do with their programming skills? And where do you come off insulting people just because English isn't their first language? (No, I don't work for this company, nor am I Chinese. But I've seen the same arrogance here way to many times, and it's finally gotten to me.)

@5: Now, that -- hiding their identity -- is a bad sign and really suspicious. Although, at least according to Giovanni, even that doesn't say much about the quality of the software.

#6. Giovanni

- TestDisk
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.

I used this version "testdisk-6.14-WIP", and by following the instruction, step by step as per the wiki article above, was able to recover an entire 1TB drive that had it's complete partion tables destroyed, in a fully functional drive with about 1% of the data lost!! None of which was critical.

So yes I do recomend TestDisk, it worked when no other software would, which says a lot, for such a tiny program!!

Well I went to give this a try as I'm doing a data recovery for a friend as their HDD had the usual 'Unable to find disk' routine with damaged sectors. A few other recovery programs including Diskgetor data recovery has found the partitions and has recovered the data, so I thought why not try this one also. Needless to say this program can't even find the disk, so what are the chances of it finding the files. I'm afraid it won't be a keeper in my program list.

@ 3 Although I didn't 'downvote" it, I will tell you the reason. As a computer technician I can tell you that NO recovery software is of any value UNLESS it is portable.. i.e. can be run from a disc or flash/thumb drive.

 

Another reason this particular software is of no value is it's claims.

"partition error writing, unintentional formatting, accidentally deletion, false backup, MBR losing, bad sector of BOOT, virus attack, Hackers Attack, conversion error, partition logic error, logical bad sectors of hard drives"

This software installs on the same drive it intends/claims to be able to recover. What happens when the hard drive becomes so corrupt that this software will not load? Now you know why there are so many "downvotes". Those with experience in working on computers KNOW that to be effective and dependable in most all situations it must be portable.

A live cd/usb operating system like Spotmau Boot Suite 2012 is MUCH better in a non-booting computer situation. Google the tools available with Spotmau and remember that when your hard drive is so corrupted that the recovery program offered here will not load, a portable operating system on a cd/usb will boot and most ofter will provide access to the failing/failed hard drive unless the arm inside the hard drive is broken (you hear a loud clicking).

#3: The yes/no voting system is not for rating the software, but for rating the reviews - you're voting on each individual review as to whether it was helpful or not. This has been mentioned a hundred billion times here. One could just as well thumbs-down your comment, because it, too, was not about the software. OTOH you have a legitimate concern about people panning the software before they've tried it and those yahoos certainly need to be continually dug at; In that light your comment does have some usefulness. But I repeat that the yes/no system is for rating the reviews themselves.

can this find the files on an old TIVO hard drive that hides the recorded files ?
If not is there a software to do that ?
or even just unlock the Tivo hard drive ?

Thanks for your help

#6 Giovanni - While your evaluation of the ratings system here may have merit, your paternalistic personal attack, followed by a passive-aggressive "LOL", adds nothing of value to the process.

Note that some people here are distrustful of the software's merits, because of the "poor English". May I ask, is this an English grammar tutorial software program? If it is then your distrust is valid. Or any people here in the computer programming industry tell us if the various programming language is the same as everyday English, that anyone who cannot speak English will necessarily be a bad programmer.

#1 got a lot of downvotes, so perhaps someone could explain: if I can't install it on a CD or USB drive, how am I supposed to recover a failing hard drive with software installed on that hard drive?

'THE' big question. Will this recover a Drobo that was acidentally formated???

#4, #5
This software does have massive problems with spelling and formating. The text in buttons are often cut off. Capitalization is ignored. Obviously, the creators of this software are not native English speakers.

#6
However, spelling and formatting do not decide how functional a program is. This program is very good at finding deleted files. Unfortunately, the structure in which the found files are displayed is horrible. It is impossible to find a specific file you are looking for. There needs to be a list of all the files instead of all of them being hidden in expandable folders. A search box would also greatly improve functionality.

My final prognosis is that there is no need to download this software. Thanks!

These few days, I just lost 2 partitions - one USB 1TB partition and another one from my tri-partitioned 380 G Sata Drive. I tried TestDrive (which was able to save me last time), but of no use. I tried Easeus Recovery from a previous GAOTD, and took around 5 hours of scanning, finally stalling at the 99% mark. Tried Paragon Hard Disk Manager, after waiting for hours, claimed to have recovered it, the console seeming to show the recovered partition with the number of space used, but always showed "unformatted partition" in Window explorer, and Management console in my Windows 7 prof. 64 bit. I finally gave up, after spending 48 hours, all my fault for not backing up these partitions before trying Paragon Alignment Tool to align these HD. I format and re-format one, starting from an empty partition again, forgoing any hope of recovering these files, anyway, they are not indispensable. For the USB drive, I have low-format it after recurrent reminder of "2nd boot sector error".
When I saw this GAOTD, like many other claiming to recover, I thought maybe I will give it a try, just for curiosity. I started with the SATA partition, and lo, in less than 15 minutes, it recovered many fragments of my various files, with numbered names, and even mp3, mp4, zip, and even .gif and jpg from internet browsing (because I placed my Sandboxed browsing there). Then I thought maybe, I will try it on my low-formatted disk, and as expected, it recovered nothing, otherwise, I will have to ask for a refund for my low-format software which I bought online just for this purpose.
It works on Windows 7 prof. 64-bit, even when it is not mentioned
You will agree with me that this is a brilliant recovery tool, and leaves many recovery softwares in the dust if you have just what I have experienced. If this giveaway must have happened 3 days ago, it might have saved me a lot of trouble. Definitely a keeper, just in case you need it. By the way, Easeus once helped me recover some files, but only after 5 hours of waiting. AidFile Recovery did this in around 15 minutes, when Easeus failed and stalled after 99% scanning.

Installed and activated without any problem at all. I have Windows 7 64 bits Home Premium SP1.

I was even surprised that it went so fast.

Thumbs up.

@Georgia:
Actually, consider this:
If you install a GOTD product, you have only 1 day to install it.
Otherwise after 24 hrs and you haven't installed it and then decide to, YOU HAVE TO THEN, PAY FOR IT AFTER INSTALLING.

To me, I would rather have 30 days to try software before I decide to buy it IF THEY CLAIM IT IS THAT GOOD. The freebie lure is really bogus in that IF you have to reformat your PC, you lose the software; IF you want the PRO version or if they UPGRADE the software, you have to pay for it.

Most of you who say, "THANKS GOTD FOR THE FREE SOFTWARE", remember, NOTHING IS REALLY FREE NOW, IS IT? Or, if it's too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS.

BESIDES, DO ANY OF YOU ACTUALLY 'INVESTIGATE REVIEWS' ABOUT ANY SOFTWARE YOU DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL?

Do you know if the software contains trojans, malware, or any type of negative parasites that could harm your PC. If you do not consider this, THEN YOU ARE DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS and I think most of you are because all I read on this site is,
"Thanks GOTD! I love free software", like some giddy kids getting free candy at Halloween...............such drivel and stupidity.

This is a direct quote from the dev website. "Aid file Recovery software is a powerful hard disk data recovery tool for recovering deleted files.Recove lost files from deleted / formatted / repartition / missing drives / partition table damaged etc."

Please note the missing drives reference. If the drive is not there you can do NOTHING to recover from it. Just found that funny.

Peeps here have been asked a GodZillion times to quit judging other peeps by the thumbs. It is a quick vote of interest or lack thereof and has nothing to do with the app itself. Grow up and try to serve the community. I could use a neutral button to help settle the thumb wars :) I'll give this a thumbs up just for the comment value.

FYI: I did not vote on this software as I did not try it
Thanks GOTD, but this one fails my personal sniff test:
Developer claims ZDNet Editor's pick and a five star rating on Sofotex
ZDNet review does not indicate Editor's pick. Sofotex review 5 stars based on no (zero) user reviews. CNet review is identical to the other two. All three reviews submitted by the developer Mitusoft.
Mitusoft website not working correctly - the only link that works is for this application.

#1 Can this be used as portable software? Ran from a thumb drive?

According to their support team you can, if you have Windows OS installed on the thumb drive.

it is a waste of time..if you do not buy the program you cannot restore your files

i downloaded the program...it did the scan but will not save anything because it is not registered..how do i get it registered?

Installed and registered without problems on Win 7 64-bit.

No 64-bit version.

Gui is outdated and certainly doesn't look as if it's worth the money.

I am impressed by it's scanning speed, it's fast! Results however are as to be expected. It finds a lot but that it can 'detect' them is no big deal, it's the recovery we're interested in. The older the entry the more likely it's corrupted. These tools only work, or rather perform their best, right after the fact of deleting or formatting. Aidfile is no exception.

Still can't find shredded (securely deleted) files.

They leave out one vital tip on their site:
When recovery (sic) data You must be careful :
* Do not run this software on the same drive as the one you're trying to recover.
May seem obvious to most, but I've known lots of ppl (including me) who made that mistake in the past. Which brings me to the next:

Not portable! I copied the Aidfile professional.exe from C: to D:, uninstalled everything from C: and then took a look in my registry. There's still the license key entry. Delete it and Aidfile recovery is back in demo mode. This means it will only work on the PC it's installed on and it will fail if your C-drive is the one in need of recovery. So their claim Windows data recovery after accidental format, even if you have reinstalled Windows OS. is a bit misleading, you can't use it on your own system, only for drives you hook up externally. So in short, for 70 bucks you can't restore your own C drive.

Now that's dissapointing. Yea, I can export the license key to a reg file and pray that it'll work but for 70 bucks I'd expect better than that. Uninstalled and thumbs down. Thanks anyway GOTD and Aidfile.

Am I supposed to just blindly believe that their software code-writing is somehow a lot better?
Linguistics isn't coding logic. It's comparing writing with mathematics, just because their english sucks doesn't mean they can't do the math.

To # 6 Giovanni in regard to statement made to #3 Georgia # 3 (Are you a little child who needs her mom’s advice whenever you have to take a decision on whatsoever matter? Come on…LOL!)
Really Gio, That's a little harsh and unnecessay as I'm sure the person was simply making an observation. Not really basing a decision on it.
Moving on, We all know the voting system is pretty much useless but GAOTD never does anything about it but now it is even worse. In the suggest improvements section. As of this writing, The highest voted good idea is, "it is a very easy to use program and usuful to find the lost file" Whaaaat? Wow, I'm sure the programmers will implement that wonderful suggestion into their newest update. (Psst, that's just sarcasm Gio)
3rd time writing this, I wonder if it will get deleted again.

This software is a demo. it clearly states when you install to agree to these terms. Those terms are if you want to recover the undeleted files you must purchase the program version 3.55 if you noticed that is why they advertised it on the gaotd page. This program will not save your undeled file, but will find them and for the price of 69.95 i will stict to the free program gaotd offered called paragon. No thx to this demo gaotd.

To #6 Giovanni in regards to statement to #3 Georgia. You comment (Are you a little child who needs her mom’s advice whenever you have to take a decision on whatsoever matter? Come on…LOL!)

Pretty harsh and unnecessary Gio. Pretty sure the person was simply making an observation, not actually basing a decision on it.
END, Now as far as the voting system. We all know it's pretty much useless but now the system is even worse. In the "improve the software comment section" As at this writing the highest voted suggestion was the one (it is a very easy to use program and usuful to find the lost file) WTF. Great suggestion. I'm sure the developers will implement that wonderful idea in to their next update.(just in case Gio, That's sarcasm)

I've been using your service for about a year and I wanted to thank GAOTD and the software vendors for the opportunity to try out software that I would not otherwise have tried. Giovanni's encyclopedic knowledge of freeware is a great asset to the site, however unofficially. Thank you Giovanni.

That said, the rating system needs to be improved. I would suggest a very brief survey. #1 do you have a need for this software? #2 Have you installed and used this version of the software in the past three months? #3 Have you experienced installation or registration problems today? #4 How does this software compare versus freeware? #5 How does this software compare against its commercial (non-freeware) competitors? #6 Does this software have any unique features that distinguish it from its competitors?

#2 - La: "or later" means it is compatible with Vista/7/8; seems clear to me, they just didn't list them all as separate entries.