I know it's late, but I hope this is helpful:

The caution about not installing this program to the drive you need to recover files, etc. from only pertains to those who are installing the program to a drive that you need to RECOVER RIGHT NOW. The installation process will overwrite the files you may need as it installs the program from scratch - - - in other words, for the first time.

If the program has already been installed on your computer (like today), you are free to use it to recover files at any time because the program has already been written to (installed on) your computer and is "ready to go."

Hope that helps. The program is awesome!

@36
I am not a well informed constributor, in fact I come here to learn from them...since there is no response to your question...what I did
was to hook a USB drive to computer, then installed the program when I saw the default location where the program will be installed, I select the external drive by clicking on "Browse" button.... so far
look like OK to me...

What no one has said is that there is a small possibility that in downloading this program you might be overwriting that very part of your disk that has the file you wish to recover.

Some quick (and hopefully accurate) observations.

1) The free edition of Easeus drw displays a message indicating a max of 1gb data may be recovered. The current GOTD version does not.

2) I was able to install directly on my usb flash drive by simply specifying that drive as the target. This seems to be portable (the program runs on another computer. However, I didn't actually try a recovery

3) Even though I had the free version on my system, the insytall tio the flash drive was unhindered by any "uninstall earier version" messages.

4)Your Mileage may vary...

Best regards and thanks to GOTD,

Chuck

Some day I may need to recover data FROM ANY hard drive or large USB stick in my system, and write the recovered data TO ANY drive. So it seems to me that I should copy the Easeus folder to many places, INCLUDING my C: (Windows) drive. Then, for example, if I lose data on external HDD#1, I can run the software from my C: drive and write the recovered data to C:. Comments, anyone?

This app is good as most data recovery softwares. But since I face this crisis yesterday morning, Ma whole hard disk corrupted due to power failure during disk management process using Win& diskpart.

It got me wondering, there are hundreds of data recovery softwares for windows and some for Linux variants. But for most of these to work, there should be a working os. You have to run it on a os. Which was impossible for me to yesterday.
So I think Data recovery softwares should have some kinda bootable ability. You simply burn it to a CD/DVD or create a bootable USB, boot it and recover your lost data... That'l be 1000 times more easier to use n so on. We have a lot of usual recovery softwares, but not this type.

I tried to open the zip file with 3 different Zip programs and keep getting and error. I downloaded the file EaseusDataRecoveryWizard.zip and it came to by 249 KB on my drive each time I downloaded it. Does that sound right? I hope so. I could really use this program...

No hassle install, automatically activated?
I put it on a external drive.
Hope I don't need to use it, but thanks to Easeus
and GOTD, as compared to a lot of the other BS companies.

1) On your site, clearly mention all the different supported formats that Data Recovery Wizard can handle for recovering lost, deleted and formatted files and folders, e.g. Word files (.TXT, .DOC, .DOCX, .DOCM and other extensions of Microsoft Office Word, Google Docs and Open Office Writer documents, and .WBKWord BacKup extension), Excel files (.XLS of Microsoft Office Excel, etc., and other Spreadsheets documents), PowerPoint files, Photos (.CR2, .CRW, .MRW, .NEF, .PEF, etc., with for each extension the trade name of the digital photograph camera), Pictures (.JPG, .JPEG, etc.), Images (.BMP, .TIFF, .PNG, .GIF, etc.), Drawing files (.DWG, PSD, .PCX, etc.), Movies / Clips (.MPEG, .MPG, .AVI, WMV., .3GP, .ASF, etc., with an explanation for each extension, ie .MOV QuickTime Movie File), Audio / Sound files (.MP3, .M4A, .WAV, etc.), Email files (.DBX Microsoft Outlook Express document, .PST Microsoft Office Outlook document, Mozilla Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail, etc.), Temporary Files (.TMP), programs files (.EXE, .CAB, etc.), .PDF, .HTML, Java Scripts, .ISO, etc., and Database documents.

2) Mention also the different supported supports types, e.g. that it can recover files from Floppy, Memory Sticks, Flash Cards, Sony Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, SD Cards, MMC Cards, XD Cards, Secure Digital Card, Hard Disks, Zip Disks, Mini Disks, iPod, CD / DVD disc types (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD-RW), etc., and the folders types it can handle (Inbox folder, Sent Mail, Drafts, Trash folder, etc.), .ZIP, .RAR, and other compression types. Doing this will help your customers, and from an SEO aspect it will help you achieve better visibility in the search engines results pages.

3) In the wizard, put different modules for the various files to recover (e.g., documents, media files, email files, etc.), and give the option to recover directly a file by its extension.

I installed the program onto a USB stick, but the DRW icon is on my desktop. Does this make sense? Is that where it's supposed to be?

How to tell if it's registered to GAOTD?
Clicking the about tab doesn't say anything about it being registered.

# 24 and #28 I get that same message unless I turn off my avg firewall just long enough for it to connect and register, then turn my firewall back on and all is fine.

OMG, why UI of this program looks like "windows 3.1" proggie, please use standart windows look.

Can this be used in conjunction with something like USB4WIN so that data can be recovered from outside of windows?

#2: "Is there any difference between today’s offering and the apparently same version (Version 5.0.1) that was offered on February 16th earlier this year?"

According to Microsoft Windiff several files in this version are newer (so it's not just the dates).

* * *

#15: "... we are warned that you cannot recover anything from the disk on which this app is installed!! ...

If it helps... when/if you've got lost files, they are lost because the drive's TOC doesn't know just where they are. That means that any data written to the same drive/partition/device might write right over them -- that's how you securely erase data, so if you want it back, it's not a good thing. Now what the app's message is telling you is **If** you already have lost files on your drive, *Don't Write to it* -- in fact maybe you shouldn't even be running it, because Windows & your web browser and any other running software all write to the hard drive. In a nutshell, if a drive has lost files that you want back, don't install today's GOTD to that drive, and don't write any more data to it. If OTOH it's a matter of having the app in case you've got lost files in the future, install it by all means, as suggested elsewhere both on hard drive(s) & USB.

* * *

#16: … can i put this on a usb stick and then use it on other computers? My laptop crashed awhile back and was wondering if I need to download it there or can i run the usb stick on it. Also what if the computer I install it on crashes? Can I use a usb stick on most of these giveaways? Thanks for any help"

Yes. Ideally boot from USB/CD/DVD to WinPE type environ [to keep from overwriting files], then run EASEUS Data Recovery (from USB) recovering files from your laptop drive. Same answer if the system it was installed to crashes. No. Good questions -- you're welcome. :-)

* * *

#21: "... Should this be installed on my hard drive or do I just install it onto a USB Drive and leave it there in case of need?"

*If* you have more than one PC/laptop, & don't mind pulling the drive out of one and connecting it to the other, install normally on both. And/or I'd suggest installing normally, then storing the program's folder elsewhere, so it can be run & used without disturbing the system drive should you need to recover files from it in the future. One scenario would be to create a WinPE type USB stick or CD you can boot from, then run your stored copy of EASEUS Data Recovery. Another would be to boot to something like an Acronis boot disc, create a sector by sector clone or backup of the drive/partition, then try file recovery on that clone or restored image using another PC/laptop.

The program will not install to my external drive because I have the version given out in February on my computer. I would like to keep the version I know works until I've tested this one with this method.

I keep getting message to uninstall prior version. Same does not exist. Complete reinstall of win7 two days ago. Any help appreciated. Thank you. I am a non-techie senior and really like GOTD

EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard is a [~15 MB] portable app with a couple of nice touches, but like other file recovery apps I compared it to this morning [iCare, Recuva, ADRC etc.] it goes blind with large (~4 GB) lost files, and can also get confused using either deep or quick scans. The getting confused part surprised me... I used an 8 GB USB stick to stay away from 2+ hour deep scans, deleting a 6+ GB .m2ts audio/video file (in BD format). Then I ran a quick scan with today's GOTD to make sure it worked OK with the USB stick before transferring files & testing -- EASEUS Data Recovery listed two, ~2 GB .avi files, so being curious, I went ahead & recovered one [it was physically impossible that more than 1 GB of 1 .avi file was still intact, & odds were very little if anything remained]. Instead I recovered the 1st 2 GB of the .m2ts file I'd just deleted, only named as the recovered .avi. I thought that was interesting enough to post -- since every app behaved the same, recovering the same ~2 GB file incorrectly, it shows off 1 of the limits of recovery software.

One nice touch in EASEUS Data Recovery is it doesn't list files or folders without deleted files, reducing clutter that can lead to confusion. It also remembers what it finds when you do a scan, offering to use those results (rather than a re-scan) if you re-open the app & select the same drive/partition. A 3rd feature I thought was pretty cool at 1st was the ability to create an image of a drive/partition, then mount it for scanning & recovery... it's a great idea, but it uses an odd format & you can't restore that image to another drive or partition, effectively preventing you from using something like Recuva for a 2nd opinion should EASEUS Data Recovery fail. I was a bit surprised that even their backup software would not read the format, IMHO meaning Acronis or Paragon apps are a better choice when creating a drive image for data recovery &/or forensics [just make sure to do a sector by sector image rather than just file content].

If you got iCare Data Recovery when last on GOTD you'll see the EASEUS app looks fairly similar, opening to a window where you choose which mode of recovery you'd like to launch -- Deleted File Recovery [quicker scan], Complete Recovery [deep scan], or Partition Recovery... once you make your choice I suggest heading for the Option menu where you might be able to pre-filter scan results a bit, before selecting a drive/partition & clicking Next. After a scan you'll see a file tree similar to Windows Explorer to select which file to recover, with buttons for File Preview, Search files, & Find file by name. EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard std. won't work on EXT2/3 or dynamic disks -- you'll need the pro version for that -- and it does come with a decent help file... the EASEUS site also has a "data-recovery-book" PDF for download. AS to how well it works, in my artificial tests I didn't see a big difference in the results between this & Recuva to be perfectly honest, though I like that EASEUS Data Recovery stores prior scan results & so prefer it.

That said, you don't always know the moment you delete a file that you've deleted the wrong one(s), &/or you may find some time afterward that you do need a file after all. When that happens, or when you have software or hardware problems, recovering files can be more of a challenge -- if you need or want the lost file badly enough, you'll probably run more than one recovery app if your first try doesn't get you out of trouble [I know I do]. Recovery works when the data's still stored on the drive or device, but the part that acts like a Table of Contents doesn't know exactly where it is -- that's what happens with a simple delete for example. Making it more of a challenge, files [data] are stored in small chunks that may be spread all over -- file recovery software tries to put together all (or most) of those pieces -- & since the TOC doesn't know where they are, it doesn't know to stop new data from overwriting any of them. As soon as you discover you need to recover a file or files, stop writing to that drive or device, even if it means cutting power.

From there your strategy can vary a bit... If the files are on a purely storage device/drive/partition, it's not as big a deal, as long as nothing writes there, be it software temp files or Windows' caches. If it's the system drive [the one with Windows on it], running that Windows install can overwrite your lost files, so don't -- pull the drive & connect it to another PC/laptop, OR, boot from CD/DVD/USB, then either recover the files, or make an image or clone of the drive/partition you can work with somewhere else... that way: 1) the PC/laptop can go right back to work, 2) you might be more comfortable back at your desk, &/or have better tools, hardware etc., & 3) if you're doing forensics, the original drive hasn't been touched, preserving evidence. A drive/partition image may have an edge vs. a clone, as you're probably not going to alter it at all, & so can restore it to another drive/partition as often as you need, so if file recovery fails you can try to restore tables etc. [partition, master file...] that can change things more or less permanently.

I too would like to know the simple basics for a successful installation to USB thumb drive from one of the many well informed contributors. Many of us newbies greatly depend on the advice of these commentators for guidance and support. (In fact, I tend to trust the opinion/advice of the regulars here than anywhere else.) PLEASE, HELP US OUT to take advantage of this GOTD offer.

Great Program, down loaded this morning 2 c if it would recover a deleted unformated partition on a Maxtor, fabulous results,
Thanks GAOTD & CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development

To #17 CompTechTeach... This program fast enough? on my system w/ 2 seagate 7200 rpm and 2 western digital velociraptor drives, this recovers at 20GB per minute, hello! how much faster do You want? and yes this is by far the more professional recovery solution, but one strong important note: * if you have efs files (encrypted files) that You don't have a passworded security key for, this program will be of no use, You will have to buy a liscense for diskinternals EFS File Recovery or a similair product that recovers encrypted files, however if these EFS files that You want to recover have an encrypted personal key that You have forgot the password to, sorry Your fully outta luck until You recall the password for the EFS key, and one last thing, don't encrypt Your EFS key because If You ever install windows it's gonna be one tough cookie to crunch trying to decrypt it, unless you have the key and install the .PFX key then decrypt it and enter valid password, I learned the very hard way by this and lost access to 17,000+ of my personal files, so i just had to delete them all and let a dead dog to rest... oh well live and learn...

Enjoy Your PC Time;

StanDP "Avid PC Enthusiast Since 1982..."

I installed it and then copied the folder to my flash drive. Ran DRW.EXE and recovered files successfully from within BartPE.

Thanks for this VERY useful and easy to use app!

This has come at the right time.
On Friday i used my flash disk in a third party machine which infected it, I lost all or most of the data on the drive. Especially annoying as I had a yet to be backed up business plan and product photos. I did think I was going to have to spend days rethinking and rewriting it as well as another [expensive]session with the artist and photographer.
I was more than a little sceptical that this app would be useful to me but I was pleasantly proven wrong.
It has not only recovered the files i wanted, but has "Found" and recovered things I had forgotten I had!
Amazing!
This will certainly go down as a keeper.
Thanks GAOTD xiexie CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development

I concur with No. 14. Once a file is overwritten, it's gone. Recently I had a long chat with a technician at a data recovery company.

He even explained a phenomenon I observed after trying to recover some lost pictures and a movie a while ago. With one recovery app I had seen a thumnail of the movie, giving me hope that it was recoverable, though the amount of data was small. I did not see this thumbnail with other recovery apps. Thus I was ready to pay a substantial sum for this paid-for-only software. The trial version had only shown up what was supposed to be recoverable, not actually recovering anything.

The technician explained that yes, some apps might show up a thumbnail, but none would be able to recover the movie file.

Further advice was, as regards flash memory, especially when used in cameras, never to deliberately delete pictures (e.g. because of poor exposure).
The way data is written to flash cards means that the next picture taken will be written first to any 'gaps' thus overwriting (fully or partially, depending on file sizes) the deliberately deleted picture.

In summary, do any deletions on your HDD and reformat the flash card if you wish to make space.

I found this rather illuminating so thought it might be useful at least to some of you as well.

I used a slightly older version to recover two hard drives that were completely trashed by a Paragon partition product (which was only being used to setup a USB flash drive). Paragon insisted on a reboot to setup flash drive. On reboot my C: drive and an extenal hard drive were completely gone. This was not user error (I'm a computer tech). Easeus did an amazing job of recovery. Just make sure to let it run to completion as it may look like it will only recover a bunch of scrambled file names and directories but eventually it organized everything back just the way it was (at least in my case). Two thumbs up to Easeus.

yes, I am wondering if I create a separate partition on my hard drive if it would be safe to use on a different partition on the same hard drive for data recovery. If so, how large of a partition would I need? thanks.

Same problem as Larry, #24 - failed to connect - repeatedly.

Works fine but as it suggest in th warning DO NOT SETUP TO YOUR C: HARD DRIVE. Download the installer. Copy the ibstaller to another drive or usb drive then set it up there on the new drive. Use from there or burn it to a CD and make it bootable. This can be done easily with Nero Burning Rom.
Thanks, Chris Lewis.

Thanks for this.

I have installed to the C drive, as I do regular backups/disk images (photos, music, docs) to my external hard drive (F).

Easeus is one of the few legitimate publishers offered on GOTD (Easeus, Paragon, Wondershare...Ashampoo (if you can take the endless SPAM) the rest are questionable at best) - Easeus products are consistently good, professionally done - as you would expect software to be. This particular title isn't my favorite, but if you can use it - grab it.

Dr. Z

praises be to Allah

Getting 'Failed to connect' trying to install. Downloaded twice each with Opera and Firefox.

Thanks I needed this program for my newest computer. I was able to almost fully recover all the files from a crashed external drive with this program. I used it a second time and was able to recover some different pictures that didn't come through the first time. Great program.

Also, I want to mention that I was able to find my error message on their webpage and it gave the instructions for the recovery.

Can someone tell me how this compares to Recuva??

Guys, a bit confused here. Downloaded, started installing, but it says:

We strongly recommend never installing Data Recovery Wizard on the same drive that you want to recover data from. Installation to the same drive will cause a permanent data loss and less chance to restore.

Current installation path: C:\Program Files\EASEUS\EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard 5.0.1 Continue to Install?

NOW, I don't currently have any need to recover anything. Should this be installed on my hard drive or do I just install it onto a USB Drive and leave it there in case of need?

Best thing Easeus can do for this software is give it a new name that at least will better distinguish it from their same number free version

I wonder what most here are doing? Are you creating a separate partition to install this program to so that it can be used on your existing computers hard drive?

Good program. Has recovered precious data from the old hdd (previous vwersion).
Thanks GAOTD.
Can I ask you to issue the full version DiskDigger?

For those wondering, this version is dated 2010 March 15, and the previous Giveaway is dated 2010 February 6 - the executables are different sizes - I assume that there were a few minor bug fixes / recompile differences and ChengDu YiWo didn't feel that there was any operational change warranting a version number change.

No single unerase / file recovery application seems to catch everything, but I would recommend Easeus DRW as one of the better ones, with reasonable speed. (The really fast ones tend to miss the most files). Always recover files to a different drive, because recovering cross-linked files in place prevents recovery of the alternate version (which could actually be the correct version).

As a reminder to all, defragment your drives regularly. Recovering fragmented files is usually a futile effort.

I have run previous DRW versions as a portable program - copy the installed directory onto a USB drive and run DRW.EXE from the USB drive directory. Just make sure that the Microsoft runtime libraries shipped with DRW are found in the DRW directory to avoid conflicts with other versions on the system. Traces may get left in the registry. For those trying to save space, UPXing appears to produce a significantly smaller, issue free version. Yes, a portable install option would be nice for most users (there are times when booting a CD & recovering system files is necessary), but I am of the belief that if users want to run system utilities as a portable program, users really should know what they are doing in the first place (such power users can easily learn whether an app could be made portable).

Though there is an office file viewer, file viewing is one area where further improvements could be made. Improving a text viewer with multiple filtering options would be excellent for inspecting damaged files in general. A compressed file directory viewer would be a great help, when the file to be recovered has no identifiable name. There are picture viewers from competitors which work better with damaged / fragmented pics. Personally, I prefer more manual controls, but that makes usability difficult for most users.

Giveaway of the Day: please note that the Idea Informer widget does not accept submissions when used in certain higher security browser configurations.

Thanks Giveaway & ChengDu YiWo.

Totally Newbie...can i put this on a usb stick and then use it on other computers? My laptop crashed awhile back and was wondering if I need to download it there or can i run the usb stick on it. Also what if the computer I install it on crashes? Can I use a usb stick on most of these giveaways? Thanks for any help

When installing, we are warned that you cannot recover anything from the disk on which this app is installed!! So I installed it on an external hard disk. Since people without a Product ID can't ask questions at the company's Support site, how can I find out if I can ALSO install it on an internal HD (for use on the ext HD)? And can it be installed on more than one internal HD so as to cover all internal disks for someone who does not have an ext HD?

@3
What happens when a file is deleted is that usually only it's filename is altered but when you write new material to the drive the old material is written over. So as long as the area of disk hasn't been written to again it's possible to recover those files. That's why a shredder program is a good idea for sensitive data.

Usually when I need a program like this it's because I've just deleted something I didn't mean to. Right now I don't have anything to recover so I can't test it, but it's good to have something like this on hand when you do need it because you don't want to risk deleting the stuff you want to recover with an install.

When the HD on my i-pod crashed I los about 6,000 songs, many of which I had paid for. Using Data Backup Wizard I was able to recover all but about 200 songs. This software works. I'm off to try it on a usb drive great idea!

how do you install Portable USB stick drive?.

Used it before on both my DSL camera and a removable disk, and it is excellent!

@ Damon #3 - Did you try 'deleted file recovery' or 'complete recovery'? That might make a difference.

@ Washuu #6 - Re: damaged partitions/file systems. On their website this program offers 'Partition Recovery' (Quote - "Partition Recovery" module is for recovering data from deleted, lost or damaged partition.) & also claims to recover lost date due to software crash, virus infection and other unknown reasons. - Your comment made it sound as though it only does deletion recovery but it does do much more than that.

I found I have Data Recovery Wizard 'Professional' V4.3.6 from Lord knows when GOTD and Easeus offered it. Works for me. There has been a couple times I was kicking myself for emptying the trash bin and this program pulled out what I needed...
-
On their website I see the 'free' version is good for only one gigabyte of recovery. Also this 'Standard' version they are offering today vs. the 'Professional' version shows only 2 major differences and that is 'Dynamic Disk' and 'Linux File System' recovery are mentioned on the 'Professional'. - Here is a page they have showing version comparisons and many of the functions are click-able so you can learn a bit more about them.
- http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/comparison.htm -

For my simple uses (No Linux or dynamic disk) it looks like it will be worthwhile to trade in for the standard edition today. My guess is that if you have V5.0.1 already there would be no difference in what you have (no number change) and what they are offering unless you have Professional. If they had made any major changes or additions wouldn't the first change have been the number? I'm not a programmer but seems to me they use those numbers for a reason.

I installed this on my Portable hard drive. Works great and I can take to any computer needing my assistance.

In my opinion the best recovery software is GetDataBack (it can recover the whole partitions, or files from damaged filesystem, not only deleted ones), but it is much more expensive.
This GAOTD program is simple, but very cost effective ;-)

I would also like to know if there are any changes from (Version 5.0.1) that was offered on February 16th earlier this year.

I had a power outage a couple months ago and lost access to my F: drive (external hard drive) while Paragon System Backup was running.
I used Easeus Data Recovery Wizard 5.0.1 and it worked.

Was really sweating it out for a while until I found I had this one, thank GOTD.

I fully agree with the comments above - this is one of the best recovery program I tested. Also I would like to recommend Easus Todo Backup and Partion Master (both are freeware as you can see) Easus Todo backup is nowadays my standard program for system backups. It is fast,reliable, and easy to use.