I'd be very careful using this as Windows Live had to recover all of my current emails into recovered folders, MS and Word had to reconfigure itself taking about 5 minutes.

Message path not found occured many times during drive search, with no option to automate clicking ok.

Used way to much CPU usage and prevented lowering priority for the program.

No minimize tab while running.

Other than these seems to work well.

Seemed like a good program but after two tries to get my Giveaway email registration serial number, no response. Therefore, the Giveaway was useless... too bad, because his other software offerings looked interesting.

For those of you who mentionen that they did not receive a 2nd e-mail with the key: You can still obtain it again from the 'Register' menu. Only the installation was time limited, the registration itself still works for the next weeks.

If there should be any more problems, please send a message to support@1-abc.net .

Pros
- Simple little program that remember where and what to delete.

Cons
- Too expensive on the background of its simple function
- Seem to be another program in the era "1-function-programs"

Conclusion
I clean my PCs by hand. No programs, but the build in explorer. Over time have I learned where to look and what to delete. Todays offer is oldish and should have been offered with more similar options that´s HDD related !
I can´t find the time saving factor when I need to run 10 different programs and they do the same basic search, but with different result depending on the users requests.

Examples:
Delete all TMP files... search time 2 minutes
Find all DOC files... search time 2 minutes (same HDD and folder)
Total time is 4 minutes when you have 2 single programs, but only 2 minutes when the same program do both jobs.

Very fast and it finds a lot, like GarbageFinder, another Giveawayoftheday that finds a lot but that I can no longer use.

Both of these programs need improvements - more options, window resizing, etc. but both are very thorough - they find stuff CCLeaner, and Advanced System Care, didn't.

It's only fair to point out that CCleaner is donationware, and can even be bought outright.
I like to make an app-sized donation for programs that serve me well for a long time.

Very fast and it finds a lot, like GarbageFinder, another Giveawayoftheday that finds a lot but that I can no longer use.

Both of these programs need improvements like being able to exclude file types, directories and drives, and being able to resize and minimize the window. But both are very thorough - they finding stuff CCLeaner, and Advanced System Care, didn't.

Loaded well on my XP and it worked fine and YES it has made my computer run better! Thanks 1-abc.net Support Team and GOTD. However I installed the program this morning [NZ time] and now over 10 hours later I have NOT recieved my email for registing and the offer will be expiring in about an hours time sob sob. Kiwi Bruce

dont like the email way to get the key

15 mins and still waiting for activation code?

This software is way more detailed than ccleaner...sorry haters.

I also keep getting the "PATH NOT FOUND" error with Win7-64. I registered the software, restarted it as instructed, and still get the annoying "PATH NOT FOUND" popup every few seconds.

Well, I download a lot of programs from this site. Some I keep, some I don't. However, I have never seen ANY developer repeatedly defend it's software in the comments section as much as this one has. Because of this, and the numerous other comments from others having issues with this software I have decided NOT to download this.

I'll stick with the freeware cleaners that I currently use. It's too bad because it appeared to be an interesting program.

71 Clive, may I suggest that if you have several bad downloads on several days, there is a fault or virus at your end. try saving to a different disk. install a fresh copy of winzip. do you use a d/l manager?

G1

Tried several free and pay Cleaner programs prior to trying this program. This one found heaps of garbage files that the others whisked over! Thanks for a super program!

To #71
Grow up, dude and make sure that you have a reliable internet connection with acceptable speed!
The files on servers are not corrupted, but your download fails.
Check your internet speed (www.speedtest.net) and complain to your ISP if not getting what you're paying for.

I wish people would read instructions better, or even Google reviews of programs. This is a great little cleanup program and you can use it with other programs such as ccleaner. Best of all it is free,it isn't relevant that any other time it's 19.99, its free today !

I got my first email to confirm my email address about one and a half hours before the activation time was closed and it took five hours before i received it! by the time i receive the activation code for the full version it will be too late as the activation time will be finished (whats up with this company)?

Wow ! ! What a great program for stated purposes. Installed without a hitch and registered flawlessly. Ran a "wash" after a clean with Advanced System Care 4 - and Hard Drive Washer found/eliminated 1/4 Gb of superfluous files. This is one software vendor that I am GOING TO HAVE TO TRY THEIR OTHER TITLES. Good selection GAOTD !

#71 Clive

This download does work - just like every download offered here.

It appears that the download did not finish. Empty your browser's cache and download it again, and hopefully it will download properly this time.

got key first, on my yahoo account okay , installed and registered ? don't know if it actually took though, no real way to tell.. it runs , as with all this type of software, restore points and test carefully. defaults on the C drive , of course that's not where I am, searching for log files on some elses drive for stuff to delete, hope it's not important to them ??!!

It can delete far more unnecessary files than the free ccleaner and iobit. Try it and have nothing to worry about.

Now put a rule on my Main email address to reject to junk any and all emails from the company. Of the awards plastering their site I tried Town Shareware, which came up Sorry, the page you requested was not found and this was behind the WOT poor reputation message. So they got an award from a site that does not exist AND had a poor reputation.

I decided to have a go. I can always send the newsletter to the trash, anyway. Read on, as I'm writing this comment while testing the software.

PROs:
- Scanning C: (XP PRO SP3 modded) was rather quick, about 1 mn to find 663 junk files (but I have the temp directories in another partition)
- Don't forget to fill in the exception file, so that you won't delete valuable files.

However, I'm not sure exceptions accept drives. UPDATE: in the help, they say 'Completely expected folders start with "\", all other' (sentence unfinished?). So I assume you cannot specify a folder with the drive it belongs to. This is more a con than a pro, but it doesn't make any difference now. See below for another remark about the exception file.

CONs:
- As a consequence of the point below this one, messages (in French at least) in the option window are incomplete if not missing at all. BUT, you cannot change the language within the options. So, I had to disable French *manually* in order to make English the default language so that I can read/understand the option labels: find and edit 0012trl.ini, search section 1036, rename it, save the file. Gee, what a hassle! I'm glad I know how to workaround.

- This bother me more than I can bear: why, but why do they think it's nice to have a window that can*NOT* be resized? I'm really fed up with the Microsoft shitty way of programming: "the guys have a 1440x900 screen, so let's make the window 200x150, so that they can scroll around". I'm really pissed off by the size of the window. F*** the programmers.

Far too many software behave like this. Unless I really do need them, they're quickly removed from my computer. It's already a pain to have this stupid mirror-like screen. One day, I'll kill one of those programmers or engineer or marketer, whoever takes such dumb and dumber decision.

- Not only there are idiotic tooltips, but tootips for file names are missing. Even Microsoft has a tooltip for items too large to fit into non-resizable windows, proving they could think sometimes.

- Option not very clear: "Break down long file names in list". What is the use of such an option? Better enlarge the window.
UPDATE: I ran the help, and found the reason why. I was right, they prefer to cut off the file name to prevent horizontal scrolling. But I think it's much better to resize the window AND provide a toolip for names larger than the screen (or the window).

- Unable to find Firefox cache. Because I have 6 profiles? Unable to find Comodo Dragon cache as well (or as badly?). But yes, it found the Opera cache. Not that useless after all...

- I've just remarked that even if install.log is in the exception file, these files are still marked for deletion. What will happen? The files will be deleted or not? Should I uncheck the marked files? This kind of uncertainty should never happen. Bad design, indeed.

- Missing: a select/deselect all check box. Just because of that I won't be able to press the "Delete" button. Hey, you don't want me to uncheck about 340 files one by one, do you? Pfffff...

- Statistics no more available after they quickly disappear. How many KB or MB or GB will I wipe out? I don't have a clue.

- Aggravating: vertical scrolling with the touchpad is not working in the file list frame. That's enough to make this software unusuable to me (and probably some other laptop owners). This is a definitive NO-NO-NO-AND-NO-PERIOD.

There was a time when touchpad wasn't working in Linux and always working in Windows. Now, it's becoming the contrary. Amusing, funny, lol...

CONCLUSION:

This software will be de-installed without regret, excepted the waste of time.

In case I won't be able to unsubscribe to the newsletters, the company's domain will be marked as spam, and not only on my computer. I hope (expect might be too much) the makers of this software will remove my data from their computers.

Hope this comment helps someone take the right decision: don't bother.

Unlike the laundry, cleaning a computer is much better done manually.

Why so old things? Who is it's needed? Moreover - as primitive? Would not it time for the normal things to offer. This, after all, people here are making a fool!

I downloaded programme at least 5 hrs ago did all required ie filled out form for there news letter and still NO activation code has been emailed only the trial version for so many months!so just filled the form out again but still awaiting email for the activation code for the full version.

My system has refused to install this application.

The error message is as follows:
It is not possible to install 1-abc.net Hard Drive Washer for technical or legal reasons.

My system is programed to detect and discard garbage before it gets infected ... Sorry, Ain't no way I'm gonna touch this "offer".

I looked at today's giveaway and thought "hmm, maybe I'll give this a try." Then I read through the comments and changed my mind. I use Advanced System Care already and haven't had to supply an email address. My main and real email address that I have used for 10 years is yahoo. I think I will just stick with ASC and skip today's giveaway. Thanks anyway.

There is software out there which a lot of people use for instance advanced system care, and it has always done a good job so why not stick with what you know.

I'm unsure whether I sign in for the programs or the entertainment any more.

Still waiting an hour later to receive anything at my "real" (e.g. paid) Juno.com email (got the key right away at my backup "throwaway" gmail email) - 'course Juno uses a DNS black-list that cannot be over-ridden by the user pass-list in addition to spam filters, so, the lack of an email suggests that 1-abc.net is black-listed rather than the emails being key-word filtered into the spam box... Didn't find much in the way of 'unnecessary' files but *DID* flag for deletion a lot of working files from my antivirus and Juno emailer (not good to delete temp files from *RUNNING* programs. Caveat Emptor as accidentally deleted AV files probably cannot be restored except by reinstall (the AV should block attempts to replace/modify its own files and if Hard Drive Washer manages to delete or damage a critical AV file - you're boned)

I know a freeware program, CCleaner which is just as good as this program, or even better, so I do not see any sense why anyone would pay for this program when CCleaner is free every day!

Look, the internet is filled with idiots, a--holes, and nameless morons that love to say what they want to say, right or wrong. For the vender to make a preemptive strike admonishing me not to mention appropriate alternative choices (freeware or otherwise) is asinine. Hell, I welcome freeware comments & choices to make a apples to apple comparisons. You think you're doing us a favor? Think again...

@1-abc.net support team, I hardly know where to begin. Your first comment? Seriously? It comes across as incredibly childish and if you have indeed been here before or had done some research on previous giveaways similar to yours, you would have at least had a good idea of would happen. Which will include comparisons to "those darned free programs".

Taken from your T&Cs,
includes a subscription to The Vendor’s newsletter

It is required that you use your main and real e-mail address
Registration with an e-mail address only created to receive a key but no newsletter to this main address or registration with an e-mail including words like ‘spam’, ‘registration’, ‘regkey’ or similar expressions helping you to avoid to get The Vendor’s newsletter to this main address is not allowed

And from your own comments,

Please read paragraph 4 of the license agreement you accepted when you installed the program. Most of the time this message is sent when your e-mail address does not suit to this. Simply use another e-mail address, this should help.

First of all, for the reason of spam, I NEVER use my primary e-mail address on sites such as GAOTD. I do not want my inbox filled with "Newsletters" proclaiming the software within is the greatest in the world, and can be bought for the very low price of X amount JUST FOR YOU. The e-mail I do use is full of that. Second you should NOT be asking ANYONE for a second e-mail address just because it "does not suit to this". And finally, I've tried the program, it's not for me, the options on what it can "wash" are just too limited. However if I ever need a program to (apparently) remove every single log file, old file, and (for some reason) images used by a sidebar gadget from my hard drive, then yours is the program I will use.

Clive/#71: Complaining to the developers about corrupted files makes no sense because it's not an issue on THEIR end. If it were, the comments here would be full of folks with similar complaints - but it seems the overwhelming majority of us download and install w/o issue time and time again.

If I were you, I'd try: disabling any download accelerators you may have; downloading with a different browser; make sure your security software is up to date (or perhaps disable it temporarily), and if that didn't help, I'd worry about my internet connection (can you DL & install similarly sized files from other sites w/o an issue?), or my hard drive's health. HD manufacturer should have freeware tools available for you to test with, and there are third party options also. I can't suggest Windows programs as I do it under linux.

DON'T rule drive health out w/o even testing, based on length of problem or the fact that you can access the drive. I knew my 320GB was toast last September, but didn't pull it because I didn't *have* to, and I was curious. Used it to pull data that had already been backed up, and store NON-CRITICAL items. It didn't die (not even show in BIOS) until August, and it came back briefly after that.

Hope you figure out what's going on. But don't blame GAOTD or the software devs :P

I found all went smoothly when downloading, registering and running this program on XPsp3. It offers useful options in choosing the types of files to delete and I intend to use it when necessary. Check your junk box for the activation messages: mine were sent straight away, but were in the junk folder.

@65: I missed #62, but one reason to collect IP address is so they can communicate with your browser, but since they are already connected to it, they already have it. No IP address, no internet communication. Your IP address is probably the LEAST secret thing on the web.

Well I downloaded this program-------and more frequently these days with G.O.T.D all I got when I opened and went to install the file is a message that "This file has been corrupted"......I am getting more and more fed up with wasting my time downloading things that DO-NOT WORK....and can you get hold of the makers to complain?.......Yep you guessed it NO!!!!

The above 66 comments are the reasons I use to decide whether or not to install any software. Lively debates, good points, some needless rants, but the bottom line is the vendor should weigh comments realistically rather than just defending its position. Some positions are just not defensible.

And if I knew the vendor was harvesting my personal information for ANY reason, I would not care if the product was free or paid - I wouldn't get it.

2 BIG THUMBS DOWN.Unless u like being told what u can and cannot do..

@GMMan, A+, Game Modder: During the first years of our business we did not log the user's IP addresses because we wanted to respect their privacy.

Later we got letters from lawyers and other legal staff blaming us to send them a newsletter they have never asked for. Since we log the IP address we can proof that they subscribed by their own and they do not sue us anymore. So this legal aspect is the only reason why we save the IP address though we totally agree that a user can not be happy with this.

At least, we inform our users about this.

#63 Awwww and I thought the company was pretty cool. Too bad.

Easily installed and activated. No problems getting activation code. On its default settings, found many files to be "washed". As a test, may try deleting all that it found - but only after a full backup with Acronis is done.

I do not want your newsletter rammed down my throat, so I say thumbs down and no to your software.

Unfortunately I do not trust the vendor nor the software here based on the many comments made, how do we know this person who is supposedly apologizing on behalf of the company is not the same person making these remarks? Trustworthiness is a big factor when it comes to a company and I for one do not trust this company with its multiple identities. Feedback is critical here just like any other giveaway taking place, and the vendor is making it like its illegal for us to recommend any other freeware product then its paid program. THUMBS DOWN.

@62: PR nightmare, eh? One recommendation: put a checkbox so that people can choose whether or not to receive your newsletter. Also, clarify why you want our IP address. I can guess it's for geolocation purposes to do market research, but if it is for anything further than that, you've got a problem (actually, even explicitly collecting IP addresses in the first place seems shifty). Also, the bolding of your messages make them a bit hard to read.

BTW, just a FYI for those who might want to know, the GOTD wrapper itself is 100KB, the Software Informer setup that GOTD insists on bundling instead of downloading on-demand is 933KB, the eleven language files are 130KB, and the rest of the weight consists of metadata for the Wrapper. The actual installer is 413KB. You can expect at least 1191716 bytes tacked on to each installer for the wrapper system.

Waiting on your key? Don't give up. Do as the software maker instructed, contact 1-abc.net Support Team. I waited longer than usual for a key at my .net e-mail. I decided to take the chance and to my suprise I received a reply in no time. WOW! Not many free programs or software giveaways provide support like that. I recommend trying this program. I currently use CC and a paid version of ASC, still Hard Drive Washer found almost 400 unneccessary files, after careful review I deleted them.
Thumbs up from me. Showing dedication to GAOTD users through support and offering efficient software. I only wish I could preview the files found with a double-click before deleting them. Is there an option to preview that I may have missed?

My thanks to GAOTD and 1-abc Software

I use 1 email for programs and it does not want to except it they can kiss my u know what dont really need them when plenty of really good free ones that dont ask for money i have used my email for 9 years they are stupid no wonder its free they want email addresses they suck

Who ever posted this #62 - it was nobody from our company :-)

But it's okay as long as we all have fun here, right?

*Comment removed*