While USB drives usually look & act like any other drive when you’re using Windows’ Explorer, they’re actually quite different & can have problems when/if you try to treat them as a normal, internal drive. First off USB drives are dependent on their electronics providing the USB interface, & those electronics vary widely. An external, USB hard drive housing may work perfectly well for normal storage, but cause all sorts of problems, have very serious compatibility issues if/when you try to use software designed to work with internal hard disks. Worse, these sorts of problems can & do vary from one PC/laptop to the next, depending on their internal USB hardware & things like the chips used. This can cause GRT Deleted Files Recovery, or any other hard drive software to just not work with some USB hard drives, & the only solution is to try something else, either hardware, software, or both. [I have one drive housing that will work with Acronis but not Paragon, BUT only on some PCs -- on others neither app will work.]

USB flash memory devices are most often worse. I’ve got a couple of USB sticks that show up in some Paragon apps as having 4 partitions instead of 1 [they actually have 1], but at least they show up — several other hard drive programs/utilities don’t show any of my USB sticks at all. And again things vary from one brand/model of USB stick to the next. An app like GRT Deleted Files Recovery (NTFS) may or may not work with your device & PC.

If/when you get into a situation where you want to try recovering files from some USB device, & the software you want to use won’t work with that device, copy its contents in the form of an image of everything — not just used data, restore to a hard drive partition, & scan that with the recovery software. I’ve gotten Acronis software to work with some but not all devices, & those that wouldn’t did work with the free ODIN. [ODIN is Beta, so I try Acronis 1st since it's been tested over quite some time.] Another free app that looks promising to me is DataRescue’s DD freeware, drdd.exe. Many just use dd itself — from Wikipedia: “dd is a common Unix program whose primary purpose is the low-level copying and conversion of raw data.” When/if the problem is software won’t work with the USB storage device, just take that data & put it somewhere else where the software will work. ;-)

In a nutshell it provides only a quick scan of your drive — it looks like you need their Data Recovery app if you want/need deep scanning — & does not have as many features as Recuva, but it did work as well in a quick test. While Recuva is available as a portable app, Portable App Creator [from the portableapps.com forums] did make GRT’s Deleted File software portable too.

FWIW my experience is that sometimes one un-delete or recovery app will bring back a file or files that others won’t, so I keep copies of more than one recovery app on a USB stick set up for repairs & recovery… Worse case I’ll waste a few minutes scanning a drive more than once. As I posted the other day, if I’m not 100% successful, & I’m doing it for someone else, they want to hear that I tried several apps anyway. For that reason I held onto the earlier GRT GOTD, though in practice I’ll still try Recuva 1st.

Not of value, IMO.

1.

I am sad. I had high hopes when I saw GRTsoft’s home page and its product line. Separate products for FAT family and for NTFS? The people who sharpen their focus tend to produce high quality, even if features may be limited.

Instead, GRTsoft seems to be into repackaging and repackaging. Which is a shame … if this company took the time it spends trying to work with file systems, and made sure that their basic platform, that is, the program’s GUI and installer and top level routines, made sure that their basic platform was solid, then the program would not be a non-starter out of the gate.

I am sad, not because of that, but it just seems that GRTSoft is -not- reading the GAOTD comments, and really, any developers/distributors that use GAOTD, and don’t use our feedback, are missing out. The related GRTSoft products were offered on September 7 and October 6, and the very same problems were mentioned then. Are they not reading us?

On the one hand, It would a -great- thing if this very same product showed up in November, but without the bugs. (Like, if could interrupt it without ctrl-alt-delete.)

On The Other Hand, It would be really -dismal- if, instead, we got a “GRT Deleted Files Recovery for EXTfs” that had the same installation, GUI, and stability problems. (Like not having proper documentation in a Help file or on the web site.)

Please, my biggest piece of (unasked for? unwanted?) advice to GRTsoft: You got some good ideas, but read the comments here, fix those problems, and then try another offering cycle. We want you to succeed and make money.

2.

On another subject, why do we keep getting shown “More titles by SoftOrbits” when we host GRTsoft? Are the two companies related?

My interest was caught by their two products “Advanced Woman Calendar” and “Private Photo Album”, which on their web site looked pretty useful.

Peace and God’s blessings.
Tom Tac

#2 FooSaa. Thanks for the warnings about this software. Yet, with the negative experiences you had, I’m just curious why you’d tell people to “please check it on your pc’s before the time is over.” Sorry, No offense meant here either. Again, thanks for the info.

#3 Simon. While Advanced File Recovery is everything GRT is not, they only have a demo/trial available, otherwise it’s $39.95.

#4 Happy Person. Thanks for acknowledging that I had found out that on October 10th, the reviewer agnesofhtekc, had copied/pasted most of your comments without giving you credit, & with no other original words. I hope others will look out for anyone else who is plagiarizing & bring it to our attention. Your reviews are some of the most in-depth & thoughtful, dependable, & helpful that I & other users of GAOTD are privileged to read.

To GAOTD: Thanks for the continuous supply of the time & effort you all put into giving us many, many worthwhile software to choose from, while maintaining this site for our benefit. Like today’s offer, not every one is a ‘keeper.’ But there is always the next day to look forward to.

Thanks to all.

Al