I know tool, but is shareware Recover doc, it may recover information from corrupted Microsoft Word documents and templates located on corrupted media (floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, Zip drives, etc.), allows users to avoid losing data important for them. Indeed, Microsoft Word is nowadays the most popular tool for creating any documents, including corporate ones.

#79 Elprime Media Recovery settings are optimized to recover as many data as possible by default and there are no other products in the market offering better recovery quality. So it worth its time to recover your favorite files.

If you want to decrease recovery time you can adjust recovery settings:
1) Use only Forward or Backward reading direction instead of Forward+Backward (works 2 times faster)
2) Select "Break at First Fault" option if your media is vastly damaged. This may reduce recovery time up to 10x times faster, but this may decrease recovery quality too.
3) Turn off "Reverse Reading Order" option. This will also decrease recovery time and (possibly) quality.
4) If your CD/DVD drive is working too slow, check Error Handling option and set response time to lower values.

Now, I know this is no longer relevant, given that the time to download this program has expired, but it performed so spectacularly badly that I felt the urge to post anyway.

Firstly, the fact that the program can only 'recover' one file at a time makes it damn near useless to any but the most patient of users. Secondly, it is incredibly slow. Incredibly incredibly slow. Now, I admit, I don't understand the process of recovering media, but more than 40 minutes attempting to recover a 1mb picture seems extreme. Finally, the program doesn't really seem to like thinking about corrupt files and froze the first couple of times I tried choosing them as the source file. This seems to me to be a bit of a hurdle for a media recovery program.

Yes, I understand that I got the program for free. I am not blaming GAOTD and am thankfull for the numerous usefull programs they have given me. Just because you are given something for free, however, doesn't mean you can't complain about it being crap, especially when it wastes so much of your life

I cannot believe the price i paid for my tand- I could have bough 4 computers NOW and - om i have a 40 mb hard drive -- that was BIG
heheeeh and top of the line! tandy 1000 tl with deskmate and a CGA monitor -COLOR even-- heeehe


i saved this and version 1.0 -- just used a diff directory!

i am so excited I got a program back that i lost the other day :)

MidnightSensei (#59) - Oh... things were different back then. :>
I have a printer for it too, but I don't remember what brand/model it is.

Fantastic download!

Dude, you have no idea.

I haven't been able to load my Freespace Silent Threat game for nearly 9 years because of scratches.

After identifying the exact files giving me the read errors, I then used this to recover them. It took over an hour to do it but it did it perfectly.

Great niche item.

#74, You can still download and try it for free here: http://www.elprime.com/media-recovery.htm

Downloaded twice but won't activate. Immediately pops a dialog saying can't see server. Dropped firewall = same deal. Bah! Would have liked to try this.

Thanks GOTD and Elprime for this nice piece of software !!!

Great program thanx a lot very handy in times of termoile!

I notice in process monitor that emr.exe (The main elprime process) tries to load:
C:\program files\Elprime Media Recovery\WINSPOOL.DRV

Does anyone know the reason for this?

Thanks Giveaway of the Day! I too lost my previous install of this very useful software in a crash and was looking for it every day, for a repeat appearence. After a long wait I got it.

Works a treat, glad i d/l this.

Cheers :)

installs but won'y run

tried a second time still won't run

turned off the virus pgms and firewalls and popup blockers and everything else I could think of

still won't run

"#7 Great little software. it was here on may 27. i know today it is free, but $39 for 500kB???"

..."$39 for 500kB???"...

Well, that pretty much sums up the intelligence of so many of the ingrates on this board.

What do you expect, software to be sold by size? Or by weight?

An ounce of gold isn't much, maybe it should be $1.

Ridiculous logic out there...

ITS ONLY 0.5 MB... AWESOME... I MAY NEVER USE IT BUT WHO KNOWS

I still have 1.0 from the May 14 GOTD. Haven't even used it yet.

installed fine with vista, didn't gave it a try because I don't have any damaged cd's :p but I think it can be useful in the future.

The software does not open, the Zip is damaged

downloaded, extracted, while install, says the offer is over! what a crap!!

I usually don't enjoy the negative reviews on here [even when they're helpful], but I've got to give credit when it is due. You all cracked me up commenting on today's giveaway.

It was worth checking out today's offering if only for the grins and "powerful" chuckles available by reading your comments. And it was 100% totally completely FREE!

Thanks to you all. I needed a laugh more than you can know.

Thank you wery much GODT. I downloaded and installed it in case I would need it some day. Then I asked my little brother if he had any computer games or something, where the cd didn't work. So he watched through his cd folder, and told me that the game "Mafia" stopped under installation. I put the cd in, and started the program. After a short moment it was completed, and the log file said that it fixed 187 corrupt bytes or something. Anyways. The game is now installed, and I got one happy little brother. :)

Downloaded and installed without a problem. I don't have an CD's that are damaged but I operate on Murphy's Law. If I didn't download this program then tomorrow something would happen.

Thanks to #31 and #44 for the great advise. If you haven't read their posts please do so.

#55 I still have my Tandy 1000 TX and dot matrix printer. It's still working as good as when when bought it. Did they just make them better back then?

Not a bad app to have just in case. It adds almost zero reg entries, and seems to work well, if you ever need it.

#38 try bad copy pro, this is a great program, i had a flash drive that kept asking if i wanted to format it eveytime i tried to open it this prog pulled all my data off of it, I also used it to pull pics off a bad cd, the cd was new but must have been a bad cd the lady said she put pics on it but was not able to open the cd after running bad copy pro i was able to pull some of the pics off could not pull all off due to there location in the bad sectors. now bad copy pro is not free its about $39.00, but well worth it. now the free version will not let you save the data. but here is the link, http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/

#33 use O & O disk recovery, its great and will pull data off of a HDD even after a format.

Hey,
If you guys have a word document that is completely corrupt, try
DOC regenerator. I had TONS of word documents that I desperately needed for college that I burned onto a defective DVD (and by a strange accident, deleted from my HD), and when I tried opening them, they just showed up as random greek characters. I tried about 10 programs supposedly for data recovery, but none of them worked except DOC recovery. It did a PERFECT job at recovering ALL of my files (there were probably 200 word documents). It's $49.99 to buy, but if you have a bunch of Word docs you need to repair, if you download it (without buying) it will still show you all of the contents of the word document (recovered), but won't allow you to copy that text. So you can test it to make sure it works with your documents before you buy it.
Anyway, just a little info for those of you with defective WORD documents (I think it's JUST word documents too.)
You can download it from:

http://www.topshareware.com/DOC-Regenerator-download-17823.htm

Those interested in recovery software that finds deleted files, deleted partitions and the like, TestDisk, which is free (GPL) software. I won't quote the whole intro page (most of the information you'd want to know about it is on the front page, a nice, clean yet thorough page), but here's some of it:

TestDisk is a powerful [cm. note: there's that word again] free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting your Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

BTW: I am in computers since the early TRS-80 Model I (one) days, does that count too? :)

OK..for a more serious post. I had a SD card from my camera that wouldn't allow me to read the pics off it.

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

This worked great. Not for the faint of heart, its more of a command line interface, but it did recover all the files. It did a better job than some of the freeware products as well. Its in my toolbox now.

I just got a new computer, so I lost my old version... hope it is as good as it used to be!

#38, try this, its freeware, worked well for me on a usb memory pen which was unreadable, got back 26 folders and 230 files (out of the 31 folders and 298 it could see)

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

I used the prior version to recover data (photos) off a memory card that was not reading well. Worked great - quick and straightforward. Will probably need to use it again in the future.
Thanks Elprime for a small utility and GAOTD for sharing.

I wish to thank Elprime Software for Elprime™ Media Recovery Ver. 1.5. It is an excellent Multimedia utility. I wish to also thank Giveaway of the Day for the opprotunity for free software.

Cheers: Terrific

I just wanted to thank all the whiners that visit this site on what definately appears to be a daily basis. I get a good laugh at all you (sorry for the generalization...) ungrateful and probably mostly idiot americans who think the world should be handed to them. If you dont like the software, shut the fuk up and come back another day... or you can petition bush to send in the military and take over the company - or ruin it - which would eventually happen.

Thanks GAOTD for this site. Must be frustrating having all these a-holes do nothing but whine and complain...

I think I asked my question before on this, but I was wondering if this software was able to get into a hard drive that crashed - something that a professional said can only go to a place to use the magnetic pieces to pull the data off the drive.

Thanks.

38# This program is designed to recover scratched and damaged media (NOT DELETED MEDIA), so I am not surprised that it would not recover your Photo's.

Hello all! Today's 15-Minute Review is up! Check it out!

http://www.bladedthoth.com/reviews/15mrs/elprime-media-recovery-v1-5-quick/

As well, my original review of version 1.0 can still be found here:
http://www.bladedthoth.com/reviews/15mrs/elprime-media-recovery-v1-0/

Previous version was 1.0; this is 1.5. I will check out the upgrade.

@ 31: Phil, these "maintenance guides" exist, the question is only if those who use the computer for games want to read them, and even more take the time to follow (your or any) step by step guide.... untill it's to late and the system's hard disk crashes due to too many cross-linked clusters. Upon request folks told me that they never did any maintenance, simply because "it was not told".

BTW: I am in computers since the early TRS-80 Model I (one) days, does that count too? :)


In general

Before using any recovery software on damaged CD/DVD's; make sure they are absolutely clean: No fingerprints; no dust; nothing, just a shiny clean CD/DVD!

If you spot scratches that may be to deep; try polishing the CD with a toothpaste like Colgate (don't use the bi-color types), and DON'T use a toothpaste too cheap; it might ruin your CD even more, just as it might ruin your teeth!

Polishing is done with a mildly damp cloth (cotton preferable) with just a little toothpaste on it. Wipe vertically (not circular!!!) to polish it; next rinse it with mildly warm water to get rid of the toothpaste residue and dry it gently with a non-fluffy cloth. Then use this program (or others) to recover your data.

I have been able, using the "toothpaste method", to get heavily scratched Operating System CDs back to full operation again, without any problems. Be patient, and if it doesn't work the first time... try again!

For those having problems with this program's registration / activation, google for "Unstoppable Copier".

Cheers, and uhm... good luck while recovering your data! :-)

Good Choice to Recycle ..

While i was traveling I had this nifty software installed on my laptop through GAOTD, once I reached home the offer was expired, ever since I wished for it to be offered again for another chance to install it on my desktop.

Although it works like a charm on laptop, but having the (new) desktop ready is a real value add :)

Thanks a lot GAOTD team, and good choice for recycling offerings.

Cheers

Hello All again,

The program downloaded and installed fine.
Simple interface, looks pretty much like it did B-4.
Tested the program on a single track from a CD.
The scratch was pretty small not much more than a hair.
Still picked up destortion though it did clean up a small amount.

Useing the 5 horse rating- I give this a 2 pic pic

If the folks that reviewed this earlier would have looked at the programs settings, they would have noticed that this is for a single file. ie one mp3 track etc. not the whole CD. If you have a large file in a and part of it is in the dameged area, odds are your out of luck with this program. (unless your good enough to take out damaged section after being fixed and place back into file)

Back to the program, sorry but no recomendation here.

Thanks as always GAOTD

Fantastic software thank you heaps. Works beautifully on the USB

#23: If you get another drive just like the one that lost its circuit board, you can replace boards on the drives IF they're identical.
At least, you could at one time, I did it a couple years ago and recovered all the data on the disc
:)

As for this proggie... it's surely not going to let you recover a file from a damaged CD if your computer can't read the CD in the first place, eh.

Perfect....but too late. I'm working on my hard drive to recover my data since two days and just this morning I managed to copy some of my files. I wish you gave this yesterday (giveawayoftheyesterday).

Thanks

I was so excited to see this offered. I have a camera where the kids deleted the images, but I have been careful not to take anymore (to preserve the card) in hopes of getting software that will be able to retrieve them. I tried several freeware programs without success, and then test drove one that costs $49 that shows the images are still there but of course must pay to get them back. Anyway, my previous excitement over this program has now faded because it is not able to retrieve anything from the card and I also found this software hard to use. I am used to clicking on browse and choosing the file I want to use and that is it, but with this program it is not that simple. And I did read over the help section but the directions did not help to solve the problem. Perhaps saving a scratched up CD is an easier task with this program but as far as a camera/media card - I am not impressed. Thanks for the offering anyway.

Having been a visitor to this website for several months, I've downloaded a couple of progs. Even if I get little use from those, this new prog looks worth a look. This forum of comments, however, keeps me coming back. I'll keep returning as long as there are interesting posts to read. Congrats to GAOTD!

whoops

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

Nice software but if you need to recover deleted files then this is the best freebie out there

I suppose the argument of "Quality vs. Quantity" fails to impress the braindead. The gimme society of today only wants to collect, gather and acquire. I find similar symptoms in my field of genealogy, where the name grabbers have no idea if the individual added to their pedigree is even related.

GOTD provides free software. Some of it is quite good. Some of it is fluff. I will say that I've not yet downloaded anything that hasn't worked, once I could get it properly activated.

I read the reviews here to help decide whether or not to download the proferred software, be it game or utility. I enjoy both. I value some opinions more than others, and expect you do, too.

Thanks for posting and thanks for reading this wee note.

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

can this be used with hard drives?

I had this from the first giveaway and it recovered a badly scratched game cd I had. I look at this like getting a free upgrade even if it doesn't do much more than the original. I un-installed the 1.0 version before I tried to install this one (I think it would have asked me to do that anyway). I had to download from mirror link 2 as there were problems with the others, but it downloaded and activated (automatically activated) ok for me. Haven't tried it on a music cd but it recovered the game from the scratched cd (checked just for testing purposes) just like the 1.0 version did.
I give it thumbs up just for great CD program recovery on a disc I had given up on but never threw away.

As per what I said before I'll post a game link for those wanting a free game. I have no affiliation with the site other than it's one I've gotten a lot of games from. Just chose this one because it's still one of my favorites:

King's Quest 1:Quest for the Crown (I know it's old, but it's from Sierra and beats anything from Doublegames)
http://compactiongames.about.com/od/freegamesdk/p/kquest1_free.htm
20.5Mb download
A lot more free games there, just browse the site.

Thanks again Elprime software and the GAOTD team!