installed windows 7 ultimate *32 it doesn't activate nor scan every time i start it it crashes and causes the system to crash with it i've restarted my windows 11 times till now

Tested it and it could recover a deleted text file and MsWord doc file from my USB drive. Recovery was fast. You can select which file you want to recover.
The recovered files were complete.
Easily registered after doing first quick scan.

Have numerous file recovery freeware (and some commercial recovery software that came bundled with purchased higher-end memory card).
But will be keeping this.

Directions were to run scan before entering regis #. This is strange. Then I tried 3 different scans and each time "not responding". Of course I uninstallled it.

I recorded a video of this program recovering various files as proof it worked, put it on youtube and put the link here for others to see and tried to add a sensible comment to the idea informer. Didn't pass moderation. Won't waste my time being helpful again.

Have the previous version 2.5 and it barely runs on W7 x64 8Gb mem, thanks anyway GOTD , and thank you for the comments, as I won't be putting this on in fact may just stay with the freewares. Many days past a large 1 TB drive failed me installing some partion ware, this product didn't do so good, data recovery didn't work and even recuva running all night long 12 hrs was able to recover about a third of the data. not too bad; had to live with and rename all the files as no original names were available, had to compare with some backup(incomplete)for that and alot of work still for a medium big accident. Wish had spent more time on the backups. Still learning hard way: backups beat recovery any day!!!

App will not respond after a scan. Have tried several times. I'll save my impending frustration for something more important.

The idea informer should be renamed the 'no idea informer' as once some people with no idea have had their say you can't add anything.

About my last comment 38 (The other one is from another Sandra), I managed to get it working but when I closed my web browser (Google Chrome). So use it but close your Web Browser (IE or whatever else). But what I tried to recover is not working. There were old mp3 files and one small bit of movie, none worked. The folder to look for these recovered files is the letter of your local drive:\recovered. For me, it was C:\recovered.

This does what it says on the tin and its a great pity that yet again something is wrongly slaughtered here. Read this first then go here to see my short video of this recovering files successfully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIr1mt4oXDE

On running today's offering the only sign of activity for some time was the USB flashing. A bit of communication wouldn't go amiss about what its doing. Stopped it twice to see if it would run quicker with everything i could stop safely stopped. Eventually progress bars started appearing and finally a folder tree of things to recover. Some in folders that remain on USB and some in format Folder001 etc which were clearly deleted folders.
First observation is that unlike Icare or EaseUs there was no choice of detected partitions to recover from. Maybe that approach is offered in one of the other products. It would benefit from telling you more about progress by listing current sector being scanned or illustrating like a defragmenter or by showing the recoverable tree forming. It should stop displaying a previewed file once another is clicked rather than when the next viewable one is clicked. Nonetheless it does what it says on the tin and its a great pity that yet again something is wrongly slaughtered here. Thanks to GOTD and developers.

I tried, and after a while, I found out how to register it. Just scan a small drive such as a floppy drive or a memory stick. Then click on the button with a paper depiction and enter your code there. (Copy and paste works well).

But it does not work anyway, so far. It keeps freezing in the end. My PC is XP Home edition SP3. Perhaps, it would need to be programmed for Windows Vista and Windows 7 and for larger drives? The "Qick Scan" and the deep scan didn't work. Time to try to change it... ;-)
Anyway, thanks. Sorry it didn't work. And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Also I suspect this little program is using too much memory.

Recover Vs. Gutmann: There is a certain problem on both sides here, and aside from people being rude, it hardly matters anyway.

The point of Gutmann is to absolutely eliminate any chance or recovery. It significantly exceeds any government standard (DoD is 3 or 7 passes). It defeats all known actual, practical, and theoretical recovery processes. That was what it was designed to overcome. Some of those impractical, but theoretical recovery procedures is why Gutmann takes so long.

Because of this, it is rather pointless to test any recovery software against Gutmann. It just cannot be done. (Anyone that somehow managed to write a recovery program that could even recover Gutmann 1% of the time could write their own programming ticket AND charge however much they wanted. It would also be top story on a number of tech sites overnight.)

Testing software like this: Most software like this is only worth testing as a glorified undelete. They can recover data that isn't overwritten, including data missing because of FAT corruption, etc, but they would be pointless even against DoD, let alone a truly secure file wipe.

After installing this program I realised it was not the excellent “RecoverMyFiles” by GetData but someone else hoping to use their good name with a similar sounding product.
It was immediately uninstalled.
For those of you so trusting of overwriting data to make it secure, I suggest you read some authoritative information regarding data recovery, be prepared for some surprises.

@ MikeR and all
Thanks for your suggestion of Recuva

This one is crap though. It's just not responding after a quick scan.
Uninstalled.

@ stephen #31, I think andemande's comment was referring to the futility of trying to recoup data from an "unrecoverable" 35 pass wipe. No program should be expected to recover data from that.

It can not recover a file just deleted, it says:
Error in recovery process and than froze in win 64 ultimate and same problem with xp 32 bit.
Waste of time. Not even worth a penny.

Got the program free on the Giveaway of the Day. Tried it twice. First time it produced an unexplained error. Second time stalled about 50% through scan. Sad that even free, the product is not worth the price.

@ andeman #7 I don't know why you have to be so condescending to someone that knows what they are talking about. The Gutmann 35 wipe pass is an industry or military standard that is supposed to eradicate a file by writing over the file 35 times. Your comment to # 2 Keya23 is pointless and rude. In the future please comment on the software and not on the person writing the comment.

#4 Gee.K - I agree... by reading the "About GRTSoft" there is more that 1 or 2 things to think about.

"...develop tools and utilites for home users. By focusing on a several products..." - "...we deliver maximum value to our customers." - "Our goal is to create convenient, high-performance..."

Strange way to show the customers (home users) a good (maximum value/high-performance) product by selling more or less the same program many times (several products) to the same customers.


Personal (Home Use): Max 9 PC´s, license for this major release

Business (Commercial Use): 10+ PC´s, lifetime license (3 major releases)

Total price Home $280 - Business $490


Big companies like MS, Norton, Serif, Sony, Roland have 1 major release per year. High-performance or not.

This developer sells "high-performance" lifetime licenses which mean that the company GRTsoft don´t last more than 3 years (counting from 2009). That could be very expensive for any customer, who any companies goals blindly.

@25 I make no defence of this product or of its cost but I tested Photo Stamp Remover and it works. It was obvious on the day many people didn't understand how to use it but I print screened the sample pictures from the site, enlarged them and reproduced their successful results. It looked like it had stopped as it took time but if you waited the result was excellent.

Ccleaner and Defraggler I heartily endorse but Recuva found NOTHING where Icare and EaseUS (previous giveaways) found thousands of potential files to recover on a much used USB and recovered some correctly. Many would have been overwritten repeatedly and be unrecoverable by anything. Can only assume Recuva gets good press because of its stablemates because I found it to be completely useless. You have to judge each program on its own merits not how other products by the same people perform.

Test disk wouldn't work for me either.

@ andeman ... yes I know what a Gutmann wipe is supposed to do: hence why I use it.
I don't seem to be the only person who finds this program about as pointless as your comment.

I don't know whether this developer is trying to specialise in plucking out random features of existing freeware and touting each on an individual, paid-for basis, but it certainly looks like it.

There's no case for the existence of a commercial product as immature as this or as redundant: Recuva, established for years and from one of the best software developers anywhere, is free of charge and backed by an international community support.

Why, then, would any computer user, anywhere, want to go with today's developer -- one I'd never heard of until encountering its earlier, and similarly utterly unimpressive 'Photo Stamp Remover' -- when the people responsible for the darn-near indispensable CCleaner are also the same people behind the darn-near indispensable Recuva??

I can't even get today's GAOTD to work on my machine. Or, if it is working, it's certainly not finding anything.

(That said though, I do wish some posters would please, please stop to think before levelling unfounded criticisms at software offered by GAOTD: the earlier post about Recover My File's 'failure' to retrieve something that was actually wiped (re-written) not once but 35 times has to be amongst the daftest to appear on here.

Truth is: a file recovery app will only work if a file is in a condition such that it can be recovered. Simple as that. No recovery app will work magic and retrieve the irretrievable. (And that doesn't just mean, files which have been erased due to multi-wipe passes as per CCleaner or, say, Eraser; it also means files that have gone thanks to something as simple as a routine hard drive defrag.)

Thanks then, GAOTD, but no thanks. And by way of what is intended to be a constructive suggestion to today's developer: how about packing in this bonkers idea of passing off as commercialware one or another single feature from complete sets in existing and well-proven freeware?

What with Photo Stamp Remover and now this latest effort, you really don't seem to have much idea of what the global software market actually is -- or how astute so many millions of computer users actually are, both here on GAOTD and elsewhere. Still, this season of the year is an appropriate time for a good laugh so I guess sincere thanks are due for trying to charge $49.95 for Recover My File: quite probably, the funniest tech joke of 2011.

* Information about Piriform's highly regarded freeware file recovery app here

downloaded to vista 32 home ok
had to run everything as admin to get it to work
i deleted files(avi, jpeg, exe, dwg) off a usb flash drive and tried to recover using this programme
in the preview section it showed me all the files so i asked it to recover them
after i was given the thumbs up i was was given a folder with all the files but when i tried to open them the promblem showed itself

NONE OF THE FILES WORKED

they were all corrupted
sorry giveawayoftheday but this doesn't work

thanks but no thanks

Should you have only one tool, there's nothing like testdisk. Costs nothing and is soooooooo efficient.

Anyway, if files are overwritten (even once), there is NO chance whatsoever to recover anything but garbage. As for partitions, the master table (MBR) can be easily rebuilt if you saved (on a paper, needless to say) the partitions CHS start/end & type values. If not let testdisk do the work ---but it'll take time (see test cases).

From the Readme.txt :

"This software was tested under Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6,
Windows 2000 Service Pack, Windows XP and Vista operating systems.
Correct operation under Windows NT 4.0 without Service Pack 6 and
Windows 98 is possible but not guaranteed."

Installed but when I run the program, it stops half way through and stops working. Tried rebooting but the same thing. Uninstalled and will go with something that works.

Thanks GOTD team, this is what I needed, I hope it does what it says it will do.

It is suspicious that the user actually has to do a scan before even registering the program.

I suspect that the program does something else compared to what it is announced to do.

The program lets me choose drive to scan but then hangs even my Windows 7 32-bit computer.

And the program has about box or any menus or even any information whatsoever about the producers of the program.

Its only possible use seems to be to tell if each drive has NTFS or what.

yeah, same as the other reports, crashes on Windows 7 x64 every time

GRT Recovery My File 1.0 is the name given to today's offering, yet when installing it says GRT Recover My File 2.6. Has GOTD got it wrong?

installed and ran under 32bit system and it runs but does not find anything it takes about .5 sec to do a deep full scan on the drive but comes back empty doesnt even find anything in the trashbin. if it cant find anything in the trashbin then its not worth keeping to many other free alternatives out there maybe after they fix the crashes and add more features this might be a good program

Installed on win 7 x64 and keeps crashing as stated previous comments when I try to recover any file from my C drive ran it with debugger to see where it crashes and ended up crashing the whole computer. after 3rd crash uninstalled it on x64 bit system will try on a 32bit system later but does not look to be a keeper.

I'll stick with something trusted.... RECUVA, thank you.

you cannot recover files that have been securely overwritten (which I assume your '35 passes' are) with any software - that's the whole point, the data is overwritten completely so there is nothing left to recover.

Downloaded, installed activated. Tried to run a scan, but nothing happens. I am using Win 7 starter, 32-bit on a netbook. No scanning, no list of files to recover. I suppose I will try to re-boot later and try it again, but thus far, "no joy."

Coincidence or otherwise, I managed to get it to install by closing Firefox! Couldn't see anywhere to enter the serial number. Ran a "Qick" scan on one of my drives and it crashed. Uninstalled. I'll stick with having backups rather than relying on recovery programs. :)

Tried a few times to install on Win Pro x64 but just get an error message saying "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." Not really a very helpful error message. :D

There are some other data recovery softwares that is powerful than this.
One is getdata recover my files - www.getdata.com The other is remo recover. www.remosoftware.com The remo recover is more powerful because it recovers deleted partitions effectively and recovers files on it. But these two are not free.

Thanx man, are looking for such a software ;)

@Keya23
does it take brains to know what the purpose of a 35 pass Gutmann wipe is?
I am not claiming that today's giveaway is better than or worth the money but your comment re a 35 pass wipe is just ridiculous.

Where do you enter the registration key?

Win7 64bit: Everytime it crashes :(
I removed it. Thank you anyway Gaotd.

See you tomorrow.

Hmm, no ability to sort, search, or filter to more quickly select what you want recovered? Most data recovery utilities have practical features such as those, even freeware data recovery tools.

GRTsoft sells 6 "separate" products for data recovery:
GRT Recover Deleted Folder $69.95
GRT Recover FAT $49.95
GRT NTFS Recover $49.95
GRT Recover My File $49.95
GRT FAT32 Undelete $29.95
GRT NTFS Undelete $29.95
...it's generally standard for each of those "individual products" to be included and considered basic features in most "single" data recovery products, even freeware. GRTsoft considers it fair business to charge $280 for a basic set of data recovery features, most if not all of which can be found in freeware?

Is it just a coincidence that all of GRTsoft's "products" are all the same size of 1.3 Mb?

Smells a little fishy to me.

It's a good tool to recover the lost files, thx GOTD!

Downloaded and installed: I wanted to see if it could recover files from my recycle bin after trashing it with Ccleaner's "Gutmann (35 passes) option.
The program only seems to offer one setting: Recover from C: drive but I have no idea if it works or not because every time I run it it just crashes and I have to shut it down with my task manager.
This would be a lot more helpful if it:
a) allowed me choose a location to recover files from (i.e. my recycle bin)
b)didn't crash every time I use it

So this is definitely not a keeper for me - Piriforms free "Recuva" software is probably a better option.

win 7 64 bit starts then freezes when you start scan , thx anyway