Following my earlier comment No 32, I have to say I have changed to an overwelming thumbs down.

When I finally got around to trying to sort out the files, most were not there, and several that had been "revcovered" were unreadable - so basically a total bust and I am glad I had the files backed up elsewhere

@ Patrick # 74

Sorry, I agree my response was poorly crafted in haste.

It was not directly related to the offered software which is more suited to user deleted files but to significantly lost data on storage devices such as NAS which are remote from the processor.

My post was based on the point that having seen many different data blocks corrupted by mistiming caused either by poorly twisted / stretched parallel cables or tracked down to wireless injected interference any potential cause must be removed before working on data restoration.

One classic case I observed was where during a thunder storm a large petrochemical design model on screen literally got visually blown apart, component parts were saved on the system but took some significant time to restore back into one cohesive file. Another odd example was where military records on an optical multi-drive device went consistently faulty, some files were "missing" (bad FAT) and some became "unreadable". After file analysis showed me a constant shift in bit patterns, I suspected a long SCSI cable and on questioning was informed there had been an unsucsessful attempt at theft (sent them a new cable as it was highly likely some strands of the cable had been stretched more than others).

You are correct in that I ment "remove the data device (whatever it is) and attach to a second system with a shorter fresh link". Where possible duplicate the faulty media (e.g. a raw copy) and work on the copy preserving the faulty master for alternative attempts.

The data may have been transported with a common twist which can be programmatically undone, or more simply the data is generally good but file allocation entry may have not completed correctly.

Hi ! I didnt make it in time, but it is okay... cant be lucky all the time...

(7.) @Mike - Size do tell how much the programmers use the standard files from the OS... and that can be a very important matter when we talk about recovering as the OS DO block many functions. Including that you even as an admin CANT go into some places in a another copy of the OS !
The bigger the program is, the bigger is the chance to go-around the OS and do a REAL recovering. Most smaller programs dont have more functions than ppl diar to expect.
Many OS users today dont know much about the OS they are using... The OS do have many functions itself, but MS do not allow you, even not as a admin, to go into some data on YOUR HDD !

Btw... The OS licens talk about that you, as a user/buyer, may use the programs to what they are build for... hmmm... so by blocking you as an admin, MS also say that you shall not think that you can use the OS to recover itself... then you have to buy other programs to do that for you !
But if that program is too small then it cant run as a replacement to the old old old IBM/MS DOS... outside MS Windows OS, away from the "you-cant-do-this-or-that-MS Windows OS" !!!

This one at least has the option to recover from a Format. I know for a fact that Easeuse free version will not allow anything but deleted files. This could be useful for that occasional reason.

@Anon I Muse #69:

Only some 40 minutes away from expiery of today's offer so perhaps this will not catch your attention anymore.

Would you kindly expand somewhat on your advize that "reliable media recovery is best when a device is attached with a short secondary cable to a seperate “clean system” with a mirror copy inspected by multiple software tools of your choice"

I don't really understand the setup you suggest. Unless of course the media were part of an existing LAN, or, in case of a built in HD e.g., it were to be removed and attached to a second system that is a miror of the first one (or at least contains all necessary data to enable recovery) via a special cable from a USB-port on that system to the HD in question (such "USB Conversion Cables" as they are called do exist and come with a power cable).

I don't see how I can connect one HD to two seperate systems at the same time "with a short secondary cable", which is what you seem to suggest. Perhaps you can refer to online some tech article on the subject?

Thanks!

Have a nice week end.
Patrick

For people who insist on referring to this site as GAOTD:
The verb is "give away" (two words). The noun is giveaway (one word).
Similarly, "log in" and "sign up" are verbs, but "login" and "signup" are nouns.

Despite the WOT ranking I reluctantly installed the app.

I found it below average relative to pay-for and free data recovery utilities.

My firewall alerted me that the program was trying to connect to the internet.

Regarding the mysterious .exe that is required to launch at start-up, the app cannot run unless this is enabled.

One thumbs down and uninstalled.

Comment #54,The software is 100% safe,the risk warning is normal when installing a new software.You may block to install the software when the popup of message.Please unblock and then insall again,you will find the software shortcut icon after successfully intalled.

Commment #42:
This software can work on Windows 7.
I am thinking you may not log in as admin,if you loged in as Admin,
there will be a shield at the right bottom of the of wGXe Data Recovery

@ 49 @50 (Randall Staggers)

NAS and other remote drives.

Your first post answers your second.

From experience wireless and long cables (including network and even SCSI) are notorious for spurious coruption thus data loss.

Hardware wise (HDD, optical drives e.g. CD / DVD, and SSD, USB etc) reliable media recovery is best when a device is attached with a short secondary cable to a seperate "clean system" with a mirror copy inspected by multiple software tools of your choice, which could include todays offering, though i'm giving it a miss :-)

Never trust NAS as your primary backup unless connected direct i.e. short (1 - 2 metres or yards) twisted pairs.

How about the Freeware DISK DIGGER guys??

@ 21 (Modest71) said
"All working well till I changed the year to 2044 to see if I still can run it. After I run the program, it quits. Changed back to 2010 and works again."

This is common to many windows/dos/Unix programs
AFAIK (As far as I Know), Armageddon date for date based apps is Y2K38 (3AM 19 January 2038) not the Y2K00 (millenium) as was feared (although that did affect some hardware), I don't expect to be above ground then, so for me its academic.

Not only is the file size irrelevant but so is the price. I come here to get technical assistance, not to see the publisher criticized for overcharging for a program we are getting for free anyway. Who are you guys to tell others what they may want or need and what it may be worth to them?

i'm confused. Which are the ''authentic'' mike's opinion? -mike Macs PC or just a name Mike?

I always read mike's opinion before i try but since recently there's a something named mike macs pc. Could anyone clear it?
thanks

Wow this program sounds like a real piece of sh*t. What does it do that Recuva doesn't do? Besides look ugly, have huge buttons all across the top, write to your hard drive without asking first WHILE YOU'RE TRYING TO RECOVER DATA, and repeatedly send you to its homepage for no reason. Oh yeah, it costs $90 too.

@ Macs-PC
Well put, despite most of the rude comments directed your way. And I appreciate the list of freeware you posted. I actually use a couple of those myself.

@ Morons missing Macs-PC's Point
He is alluding to paying for data much in the way that we buy anything else these days. It is becoming common practice, in an age of exabytes/year, to charge dollar-to-data. He is simply stating that a limited file suggests limited features and safeties(you can only put so much in a small box). There's a reason paint and picasa are small, and Adobe and GIMP not so much. When there are many freeware programs available with such similar size, features, and interface, most with a longer (often better) track record, anyone looking to pay $70-$90 is not looking for simple and small. They want it for the safeties and redundancies and other extraneous features a quality software suite entails. You buy a Walmart table to cover a need, but go to a private boutique (and pay more) to cover a want.

I have a problem with all the comments above. All ya'll talk about is the things that are listed in the description or not important especially since ya'll don't have to pay for it anyways. But want I really wanted to know about this product is that does it does what it says in the description. It says it can "recover" files deleted I'm assuming by the user. I do not know or have a program that can recover something I deleted off my flash drive or out of the recycle bin. So if it can recover files that were deleted by accident from those places, then this is a very useful application. But I didn't even think you could recover files after you deleted them in the recycle bin. If you can then somebody need to tell me how. Because that could have been really useful in the past. It would also be nice if I could recover the pictures I lost when I had to wipe out my whole HD because of total file system corruption...

@27: OldFart
Mike's posts are welcome here. His explanation, posted after your comment, clearly shows that YOU are the one who doesn't know what you are talking about and don't have your facts straight.

To all who concentrate on slamming other comments (and yes, I am aware that I'm doing so right now!) please consider that everyone who writes in adds something and has taken the trouble to do so. For the benefit of us all, please concentrate on the software and NOT on the other comments.

For my part this software doesn't interest me because of the buggy nature, the amateurish interface and the free availability of many other programs. I wouldn't go to a store to purchase the product and I won't even bother to use it for free. Sure, there are small neat programs - however I'm afraid that I can't include this one with them.

Thanks GAOTD, especially for the progs of the last few days.

#42: "... for windows 7... getting the following error
“The Device is not Accessible”. "

A *guess* would be a drive/partition/folder that was created outside of 7, which 7 would then not *own*. If you can locate it in Windows' Explorer, tight click & select properties -> security, & set permissions &/or ownership there.

* * *

#46: "... was correct about it not installing on Windows 98 Second Edition..."

If absolutely necessary to run on 98, ME etc., I'd try to install it on a current OS [in a VM?], then copy the program's folder to your 98 or ME install & see if it'll run. You *might* need to update Windows MFC related files if they're not current.

* * *

#48: "... Or can it REALLY recover ALL kinds of file types..."

To Windows, Windows' Explorer etc., files are files. Backup imaging, cloning etc. all works regardless what you have on a drive/partition -- why wouldn't recovery software? ;-)

* * *

#51: "Can someone give the correct procedure to install this on USB stick?"

To make it portable -> Portable App Creator to convert to PortableApps.com format, or just do it manually. There are 4 needed registry keys that I found [there may be more so test] that the app needs re-directed to find on the USB stick.

That said, if you just put it on a USB stick it ***might*** run [no harm in trying it], though it will try to add those 4 keys to the registry, which is by definition not portable.

* * *

#52: "... I went through scans with seven different recovery apps before I found one(EASEUS)that could successfully recover the files on an XD card with a trashed fat..."

FWIW the electronics between the actual memory & the USB interface -- the part that gets the OS to see a drive -- varies considerably, as does it's compatibility depending on PC/laptop hardware, drivers, & OS. IOW what works here won't work there. When/if you have or suspect problems with any USB storage device, it can help to connect it to different hardware, OSes, using different cables/hubs, using different software, booting after a complete shutdown [to empty system RAM] can all in my experience make a big difference. [Stuff like Cables or shutting down the system may seem a bit *out there*, but I've seen it make a very real difference -- every bit as much as switching to a different card reader when that applies]

For me price is insignificant when I'm trying to recover lost data.

Please disregard my last post. However it was loading, Norton didn't like the pattern it was seeing., I disabled the "SONAR" scanning and loaded successfully. I'll follow up with a detailed virus scan now just in case and report back if anything pops up on the scan.

The most important thing I can say about wGXe Data Recovery Pro, is that in a very quick & easy comparison test with the free Recuva, it failed... recovering 3, very recently deleted email [.eml] files, 2 of the 3 had a lot of garbled text whereas the same files retrieved by Recuva didn't. That's the 1st time I've had a recovery app fail on the *simple stuff*, so while I'll probably keep it around just in case it picks up something others don't on a long, raw data scan, it'll be the last app I use -- & then only if I'm desperate.

That out of the way, wGXe Data Recovery Pro takes up ~15.5MB in 5 files, & it uses the Windows' Installer [bleh], meaning that while there are only 4 registry keys needed, you'll get loads, plus 1 file & 1 folder added to Windows' Installer folder. FWIW I was able to get it working as a portable app [in the portableapps.com format using Portable App Creator from their forum], which can be a big plus with recovery software [e.g. when you don't want to pull or alter the drive you're recovering from]. wGXe Data Recovery Pro includes a real help file, & it also includes a file called: "esdrwstt.exe" that's hardwired to start with Windows -- running the app adds it to 1 of the registry Run keys (delete it & it'll just reappear next time you run today's GOTD). Whatever it is or does, it doesn't stay running to show up in Task Mgr, nor did I get 1 hit Googling on the file name -- right-click properties only says it's an MFC app.

Running wGXe Data Recovery Pro you get a simple GUI where you can choose Data Recovery or Email Repair -- of the 5 buttons up top, Home, Purchase, & About take you to the app's web site... Help brings up the Help file, & Register didn't do anything. According to the help file Email Repair works for Outlook & Outlook Express only -- no info on what versions -- & you can recover emails or repair corrupted files. Data Recovery has 4 options -- Deleted, Format, Partition, & Raw recovery. Some will like that after a scan the app doesn't list existing folders/files.

Quick Background in case it helps...
Chunks of data are stored on drives, & oversimplified, tables of contents keep track of everything, like which chunks get assembled in what order into which files. When you recover files/data, if at least some of the original chunks of data still exist, recovery software tries to figure out how they should be pieced together. Sometimes it's possible to just find & use old Table of Contents data, & sometimes all you'll get are strings of data assembled into files that you may or may not be able to figure out how to use. Partition recovery, Master File Table rebuilding, the quick &/or deleted file type scans etc. mainly focus on the TOC end of things... usually much slower raw &/or deep scans look to reassemble chains of data into something usable. Personally I have seen a difference between apps that work with partitions & Master File Tables, but not so much with regular file recovery software unless you're doing deep/raw scans.

Now when you have *lost* files, &/or if you're attempting forensic recovery/discovery, you don't want to write to the partition or drive you're looking at... any chunks of usable data not listed in a TOC are subject to over-writing, & once that happens if you absolutely have to have whatever, things get exceedingly expensive as you ship the drive to recovery specialists. Obviously you don't want to run Windows (or whatever OS) from the drive/partition you're recovering from, because that means writing to that drive/partition. If the drive/partition in question is a 2ndary drive/partition that might be easy, but otherwise it means connecting it to another, running OS, by either physically with another PC/laptop, or running an OS from external/removable storage on the original hardware. That's where portable recovery apps are very cool, since they're easy to run & use if/when you boot to a Windows-like recovery environment [e.g. LiveXP, WinPE etc.]. Particularly if you suspect (or know) the drive's failing, &/or possibly for forensics, you can also backup/restore, clone, or copy the drive/partition & work from that, as long as you include all the sectors on the drive -- not just the known files that'll show up in Windows' Explorer -- and you can do that using external media/drives too, working on the actual recovery back at your desk.

Nice to see Steve Gibson's SpinRite (at http://www.grc.com) mentioned. He writes in machine language and his programs do not "install", they just do what they are written to do, and they are FAST.

Comment #32 Jen was encouraging to the program; though I probably won't try it out (already have Recuva, Paragon, Easeus and others). And writing to the disk during recovery is not advisable. The post about changing the license text is intriguing.

Thanks for the Data Recovery software, You never know when one might pick up something the other can not. One of the good things about this one is that it can get data out of a PST, if I am looking at it correctly.
But as far a Data Recovery is concerned, I have not found anything better than R-STUDIO.

http://www.r-studio.com/

R-STUDIO
The most popular, reliable, full-featured disk recovery solution for solving any task that an IT specialist or experienced user may ever meet when trying to recover lost data from a local workstation or server.

File systems supported: FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT), NTFS, NTFS5 (created or updated by Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/Win7), HFS/HFS+ (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux) on local hard disks.
Demo mode (files of less than 64KB): File recovery from remote computers over network; all the above file systems are supported).

***
The only thing that I do not like is that the license is per computer, not per person. They do have a R-STUDIO Technician package, but this is WAY-OVER priced for a person that just wants to use it for home use.

But, I have to say, this software is GREAT. I was able to recover data off a SAN volume that had been deleted and recreated, and a backup restore started. The software worked after I figured out that the SAN volume when it was recreated was off from the original setup of the volume. This software allows you to create Virtual RAID to create a virtual volume set or RAID. So I was able to rearrange the LUNs and put them back in the correct order, one word "SWEET".

I have tried about 10 Data Recovery software packages, all have their strong points. Thanks for the new addition to my collection.

Where does this install? I've tried several times and get the message successfully activated but shortly thereafter I get a popup form Norton stating that "SONAR detected security risk we2a814.tmp". It appears that the install aborts but I still get the successfully activated message. I can't find the software or a shortcut to it. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm running Vista x64.

I found only 6 comments useful today. I recommend everyone reread them.

#18 Comment by Mat
#23 Comment by Blackhorse 70V
#26 Comment by Rick Siegert
#27 Comment by 0ldfart
#30 Comment by Mark Peterson
#32 Comment by Jen

And the comment by Jen was an actual "case use" of the free software wGXe Data Recovery Professional and appearently it worked just fine for Jen. I wonder why others cannot have success also?

As for some of the free "alternatives" -here are 2 examples of "nonalternative" software

Recuva (File Recovery) is a file recovery program. (See http://www.piriform.com/recuva) "Accidentally deleted an important file? Lost something important when your computer crashed? No problem! Recuva recovers files deleted from your Windows computer, Recycle Bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player. And it's free!"

Partition Find & Mount - When Find & Mount tool does not work (see http://findandmount.com/) "Partition Find & Mount" software is designed to find lost or deleted partitions in the most convenient way, however, it may not work if the file system on a partition or hard drive itself is severely damaged."


#3 - – Mike – - ( Macs-PC ) - Why should they drop the price when EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional 5.0.1 has a Price of: $89.95 (see http://www.easeus.com/)? The one you listed is the free program that does not compare to the Professional version.

And wGXe Data Recovery Professional - Price: $89.99 is only $0.04 more expensive! But today it is FREE !!

And that is my "two cents worth" (times 2 = $0.04)

This is not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. When it comes to hard drives, most any good recovery app will work. But it's been my experience, that with usb drives and memory cards, most all recovery programs are a total crap-shoot, whether you paid $100 or got it free. It's always nice to have an additional one on hand. Just a week ago, I went through scans with seven different recovery apps before I found one(EASEUS)that could successfully recover the files on an XD card with a trashed fat. The same app failed to recover one accidentally deleted file on a usb drive two days later, where another one (don't remember which now) had no problems.

Thanks again to GAOTD;

Can someone give the correct procedure to install this on USB stick?
I am running Win 7 64 Bit, and I have noticed a few people having problems activating it. I think this would help a lot of our members here.

Thanks in advance,
Rich
Enjoy and have a great day!

Now a question. I have yet to find a file recovery program that will recover data from a NAS. Anyone know of one that actually works, Find many that claim to, but yet to find one that actually does.

TO ALL,
#38 MR. Dave is correct.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER install or run anything on a drive that you are trying to recover data from. It does not make sense to write to a drive that you are trying to recover data from. You may just end up overwriting data that you are trying to recover. Recovery software is for DAMAGE CONTROL. When you have a drive / system / software failure but can still read from the drive. Or screw up like I did and deleted a lot of data that my pc needed to run.(I had back up of the drive just when my NAS drive went bad, but had secondary back up drive on my main pc and online. Backup redundancy is the name of the game. That one drive that you backup to can go bad at the same time as you need it just as my NAS did.) REMOVE the drive and connect it to a pc that is working to recover data. Once you recover your files and all is well, if you do not have another pc to use next time you need to recover a few files install a file recovery program to recover a few files, not a whole gig of files.

From the developer's website and here as well, I did not find any answer of this question:
What kind of data / file types can this application recover?

I need detail, not only "all kinds" and "etc."
Or can it REALLY recover ALL kinds of file types (-->which I hardly believe)?

Thanks for any help.

@ 37 Mike,

Why the need to apologise and make amends? Most will know that a software's pricing will not be based on its filesize but on its sophistication, relevance and features, etc. Some software like Adobe family of software are huge in size but are also classified as bloatware.

If you can take a look at Spinrite from www.grc.com, it is only 100kb in size, but not only does it recover lost files, it does what most software is not able to do and that is, Spinrite repairs and maintains your hard drive.

Most of the data recovery software, like the one offered today, will recover lost files but the hard drive is still unusable. Besides, the lost files are usually not discovered in its usual directory structure but could be scatter all over the place, hence could be meaningless data if the lost files are recovered from huge drives of several hundreds of gigabytes in size, for you never can figure out where these files originally belong to. So, such data recovery software are suitable for recovering lost files from small drives or thumb drives. What is needed is a software that repairs the hard drive and its MBR. That is what Spinrite will do.

But of course, if the drive is dead or close to dead, then a data recovery software should be the choice to use.

Another thing, never use Chkdisk to repair a failed drive. It does more harm than good. Always use a data recovery software to recover lost files and choose the 100% partition. the rest of the partitions are usually past partitions that were over-written before.

Most of these data recovery software will not write to the failed drive but only read its content. So, you should be fine.

Next, use a software like Spinrite to repair the disk. Usually, it will succeed in repairing. If it does not, then you can more or less consider your hard drive as failed and unusable.

Comment #10 ("Tm") was correct about it not installing on Windows 98 Second Edition. It just sits there saying "Activating" for me too.

Oh, and it's not the lack of support for ".msi" files as I have "Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows 95, 98, and Me
" installed already:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cebbacd8-c094-4255-b702-de3bb768148f&displaylang=en

Mac-PC - you might better slither away and stop digging yourself a deeper hole, attempting to defend the indefensible by throwing more meaningless words at it. Just man up - you don't know what you don't know. No shame in that.

Now for the rest of youse - I'm going to stand in for Asschaff today ...

PROS -
Fairly Straightforward and easy to use (compared to my litter pan)

CONS -
Somewhat of a resource how
Can't re-size the window (or run in a window... or whatever)

For the complete review and recommendations please go to wwww.Idontknowdink.com

The guy who complained about the high dollar-to-megabyte ratio must have been kidding (and that is kind of funny when you think about it). Go easy on him.

Outrageous price for a software worth maybe about half of it"s price.
There are better freeware alternatives out there.
My first post here,got tired of the obsolete italian section.made of individuals who base their comments on complete ignorance and total lack of education.
Anyway..I do find this software a lil "bulky" and don"t really like the interface..but then again,it"s free...
Cheers
Condor

Doesnt this work for windows 7? I am getting the following error
"The Device is not Accessible". Tried to run as admin, but ended with same message.

Here's full system configuration:
1. Windows 7 Home Premium
2. Toshiba 500 GB Internal Hard disk.

Thanks,
Suresh

NO data recovery software SHOULD EVER write to ANY of my drives WIHTOUT your EXPLICIT PERMISSION.
And note: EVERY opening of your bowser WILL WRITE data to your hard disk (at least standard browsers with standard settings!)

I would even go that far to say: this is not professional!

But that is not the only fault the folks from wGXe made, as others and I already mentioned before. Even not beeing able to say anything else about this tool: but - to me - it is not enough to have some some good ideas( have they?) and good will alone.

Size doesn't matter :) But price does. Even though this is free today, if you lose it and want it back - big bucks. Too big.

@25 Many Antivirus apps don't like programs that phone home or take you to their website - and this one obviously does. See all the comments about being taken to the developers web page. I doubt it is infected. As for Norton, keep checking GOTD for a better alternative.

A do it yourself license agreement ?? I certainly agree to this one.

"To add your own license text to this dialog, specify your license agreement file in the Dialog editor.

Navigate to the User Interface view.
Select the LicenseAgreement dialog.
Choose to edit the dialog layout.
Once in the Dialog editor, select the Memo ScrollableText control.
Set FileName to the name of your license agreement RTF file.

After you build your release, your license text will be displayed in the License Agreement dialog."

Comment #11 by Gem seriously scares me:
"But the main reason that made me unistall it, is because after each selection i made, in order to try the software, the program was opening my browser and directed to the developers page."

If I'm trying to recover files, NOTHING should be writing to my hard drive. Opening a browser causes all sorts of things to run, and many files get created and updated. There is a strong possibility that one of these writes will walk on top of the very data I'm trying to recover. What possible reason could there be for a program like this to "phone home" while it's running? Will not even consider using this software.

Hi Folks

I want to aologise for the missunderstanding I've caused with my FIRST post.

My complaint was not about the file size - it was THE PRICE - this kind of software is FAR CHEAPER than the minimum of $69.00

When I said that others were more substantial - I meant in features - not file size - indeed a couple of the FREE Programs I listed are smaller than 4 Meg !

The miss-understanding was completely MY FAULT - I was in a rush & I wasn't concentrating on what I was saying.

My Point was that BETTER programs exist - much cheaper & even FREE. Obviously the file size itself is not the issue. I use several tools which are not even a full Meg !!!

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE MENTIONED THE FILE SIZE - it wasn't important !!!

I apologise again - I should have taken more time to think about what I was trying to convey !
I am well aware I'm a muppet ! NOT a complete Muppet - coz some parts are obviously missing. :o)

Anyway - I'm big enough to admit when I've screwed up & I can assure you I'll take more care in future!
Yesterday my posts got over EIGHTY positive points for one reason - I always aim to help others to the best of my ability - one post took me three hours+ to type. I'm pleased to say my screw-ups are very few on this forum & I intend to keep it that way !

You only have to look at my SECOND post today to see that I tried to provide as much usefull info for you - the users in a small post.
Helping is my way - NOT putting peoples backs up ! SORRY !

I am actually very busy right now BUT I wanted to take a few minutes to put right my mistake instead of leaving the problem un-resolved.

If THIS post gets minus points - it's NOT because I didn't try to make ammends. I can do no more than apologise - you guys deserve better from me & thankfully - usually - you get it !

I hope you can accept this post for what I intend it to be - a genuine admittance of wrong doing & a genuine apology to match !

Anyway - I'm off back to my jobs.

SORRY !

Cheers for now
- - Mike - -
( Macs-PC )

A Question: I have several RW CDs that were created using a packet writing software package from Creative? (a competitor to Nero) on Windows 98. I can't read them on XP or Vista. The data is there, but not accessible. Could this software be used to pull the data off (I have some MP3s of a man named Kai playing the piano wonderfully that I would love to hear again.)

-Michael

@24 Neil. : They are really the installers of the software. It is available in %temp% of your PC and could be used to install in other PCs in future which is not possible using the GAOTD installer. :)

I would like to know what the purpose is of the file that is loaded each time we boot the computer.

Bloatware is a marketing tool. If a program is large and comes with an enormous manual it must be good. The same goes for price point. Gone are the days when a programmer wrote code to take advantage of every byte of memory available to him or her. @Macs-PC and the detractors of said comments are both in the right.

Peace

Must be serendipity.

Today I downloaded a student's paper to be marked onto my already fairly full (but I didn't realise how full) USB, and the file completed the filling up of the USB. Consequence - very "Not happy Jan" - disc appeared empty. 1 gb of data, assignments, lecturer resources etc vanished,. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!! I silently screamed.

Raced down to IT who said - can't find anything except these 2 small files - very useless ones - Sorry they said - sometimes these things happen. AAARRRRGGGGHHH I said - and a few other less polite things.

Got home and randomly checked GAOTD - what should be on offer but a data recovery program. Oh well I thought - nothing ventured nothing gained - so I downloaded and tried it - VICTORY HHHOOOOAAARRRRYYYY!!!!!

All files recovered - a bit of messing around to sort them out again - they aren't in the nice neat folders I had them in before but they are all there.

Verdict - saved me some grief so Thumbs up for that.
Did what the program notes said it would - so thumbs up for that.
Smarter than the IT guys at work so very Thunmbs up for that.

Not sure I would want to pay $89.00, but depends on how valuable the lost data is really - some people (I know one) pay around $3000 to recover lost data from hard drives - he didn't back up!!

Yes it is basic in appearance, but for people like me who aren't complete geeks, maybe not a bad thing.

So overalll THANKYOU from one satisfied customer.

Cheers

Derek,

Probably not. If the failure is hardware (as most of my seagates are) then the drive takes physical action to recover. No software can recover data from a hard drive that doesn't read.

If it is a software failure, corruption instead of hardware, then you have a reasonable chance at recovering some data.

Good luck.

The software seems effective but immature. The interface is poor and the dialogs have a 'draft' appearance. From a function standpoint the software may be worth the price, but I would not be able to get past the appearance to pay it.

The two glaring failures I see is that there is no obvious way to install this on external media. It needs to be able to install, boot and run from CD/Flash to allow recovery of the primary HD.

Even installing it on the drive where you need to recover will destroy data that is otherwise recoverable.

The second issue is that I needed to create a folder to recover to, and the program would not let me. It would seem that adding a 'new' option when browsing for a folder to place recovered files would be very helpful.

Does anyone know whether this software will enable me to recover data from a failed HDD