Cool.It is a very useful software that help me to make a bootable CD when I can not run my operating system.

After reading all the comments, I guess EaseUs will have to explain more on the use of the software. Though many technical people take it for granted the knowledge of partition and data recovery, most people (including every system admin I know personally!) just don't know - coupled with the availability of easy to use backup solutions like Acronis TrueImage.

Even if you have full automated backups (let's just say you use something like NTI Shadow that make backups at each save so it's almost "constant backup"), how about the "shadow" temporary file MS Word creates for your autorecover? When disaster strikes (abrupt power failure/surge), the ability to repair and access the partition can enable MS Word to recover the "unsaved" changes that your backup application haven't had time to backup yet. Maybe you don't think it's hard to just retype the 5 minutes missing data from MS Word, but think about a transactional server...

The chances are miniscule but it has happened to me once where there was abrupt power failure in a supposedly 'secure' building and somehow even the UPS system failed at the same time causing data corruption to a critical (and mirrorred!) Exchange server - there was ONE very important information that was not yet mirrored in that several second time lapse between transaction log and mirrorring task (unfortunately, human memory also failed at that time as the person claiming the data loss couldn't recall where to re-fetch it.. urghh.. could have saved me one month). No backup solution can help in such situations - NONE. The first step in recovery is to get the partition accessible again - and then run all sorts of data recovery as well as rebuilding the index, flushing the transaction logs, re-constructing the database, etc, etc. It may be just one byte of data but it could mean profit or loss for your business.

Those who suggest buying another hard disk are just complete idiots. So how about the lost data? Hard disk's cheap but the data is invaluable! A partition repair and data recovery software is not about repairing a hard disk, it's about accessing otherwise unreadable data! Backup, on the other hand, is for short-term recovery - to get things up and running while technicians try to recover any possibly lost data - you wouldn't know until you've recovered as much as possible and compare to backed up images.

Where's common sense, these days?

Doesn't work on Vista Basic? Won't boot or run!

one thing about this software - it does not have USB support installed on boot up. I got caught off guard when I tried to run it using a wireless mouse and keyboard. Both were useless when booting from this cd.
So remember to have a PS/2 Mouse & Keyboard available prior to boot up or at least have the USB to PS/2 adapter available for both mouse and keyboard

Pondering the purchase of a network media player (and, research shows units all over the place on file formats served) .. I'm thankful for this program.

Not having much experience with such conversion programs, my initial attempt to convert a .mov file to .bmp ended in immediate "complete" message and music. There was no conversion .. no bmp file.

Studying the GUI a moment, I saw my error. I'd selected the .mov file for modification and entered the output directory without problem .. however, my interpretation of the GUI was that I should also "select" mov from along the top listed file formats .. which, would then display in the "Output Format Setting" box my available choices for converting a mov file into (bmp is an available selection there)!

Needless to say, my "Source Video" and "Output Video" remained the same format .. mov. I selected wmv from the top and it immediately changed the "Output Video" column to wmv .. and the mov file was then processed/converted to wmv without problem.

I then proceeded to make some additional, varied, conversions .. all of which the program handled flawlessly.

I wonder if others here reporting conversion failures are also making some similar GUI error?

Good luck!

Thumbs up! This little utility has repaired my MBR in one second and my second PC works again. I was unable to fix the NTLDR stuff for days, but it works perfectly now.

okay i downloaded this and it activated and it's in my c drive. Now what do I do? These conversations are very techie or promote alot of other stuff and I'd like to complete this before the time runs out to make sure I did it right. Thank you.

I dont now what happend with picture link in previous post so here it is
http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=Test001.png

Hello and thanks for all nice programs you offer to us. Until now I had no problems with applications, but with today GAOTD I receive this , so I cannot use it. I tested it on 3 different computers, one virtual machine and it shows this way.

Thank you Marshrat for your suggestion and link. This should help me alot :)

#80 I have a pc without floppy drive, and cannot use CD drive because for some reason, the pc forgot how to find the CD drive...that's why I had asked about using the prog with a USB stick.

On CD boot:
"Missing or .. command.com"
"Enter ..path"
Don't know about this one.

#93
You may release your breath now, the wait is over. Ken kelly's missing part, that he is still trying to figure out, is the Vista bit.
This is not vista compatible. I wish Gotd would not be discriminitory to Vista users.

#95 By default it goes to C:\Partition Recovery Bootable CD.

#16-escanive,
Thank you thank you so very much for taking the time to help me out. I appreciate this very much and I am sure there are others that may not know how to do this as well. Thanks again!! :)

Robin

When I unzip the softwhere, no ISO file shows up. Where is it?

Good works well # 55 with Backup is good as for never need it good luck my PC went bad & ultimakebootedcd.com disk not fix went to new boot no good so try make new boot with XP not work Partition Table Doctor fix now XP is ok,so get it & hope you don't need.

To 14 Ken Kelly, serial nonsense poster
Congratulations on finally making a post number that matches your IQ.
We are all waiting breathlessly for your findings on the "something missing".
Could be grey matter, I suspect.

I appreciate GAOTD SOOOOO much! Every day their give aways create so much to talk about so even if I have no clue what it is for I sure learn a whole bunch!
Whats good for the goose isn't always good for the gander!
Love this software, gonna get it and burn it on my sisters 20 cent CD and thats a win win !! Thank you.

#35. I'm sorry you were "forced to endure the nightmare" of an operating system that doesn't BSOD. It may not be pretty but it gets the job done. If you want a pretty operating system I might suggest a MAC. Its nice of you to offer something to the less technical but you can always do it without maligning something that is the basis of all you do. If DOS had not performed as well as it did MS Windows would not exist.

I would just like to mention, to the people who eschew this program because they do backups regularly. What do you do when you have a fairly new and a perfectly good hard drive (physical hardware)which has a corrupted MBR or Partition table (software)? Do you throw it away? With this utility, you might be able to fix the software (MBR or Partition table) and reuse your perfectly good hardware.
Just something you may not have thought about. :^)

@83: Sure, go ahead. EASEUS programs don't seem to be limited for installing only on the giveaway day. Anyways, the CD image isn't in a special format or is protected, so you can burn it even from a decade from now. ;-)

This program caused A-Squared to post a warning - "this program is trying to change your browser settings" SO I WOULD BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS ABOUT WHAT IT DOES - Maybe be more dangers than one would think - I VOTE NO GO !!!!

#67 Spiritwolf:You can use a program like Acronis True Image to do a drive to drive copy.This will be an exact copy of your old drive to your new one.You OS and all your programs will work exactly the same.A good free alternative is DriveImage XML available here:-


http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Have a look around their site, there are tutorials etc to help.

Marshrat

Installed fine.. i booted to CD that i created from iso.

When i booted PC ALL I GOT WAS A BLUE BACKGROUND ON SCREEN,

meh.. didn't work for me!

Tried it on XP sp2, worked well, based on FreeDOS a stable, proven OS. Good mouse support unlike some DOS based apps. Small enough to work on older machines. Not for beginners, a good little utility. Thank you GAOTD

Common people! If you put yourselves in a position to need this it's on you. You have failed PC 101, basics in backup! All my friends, children & family members have a PC & all know how to & use regular backups! My 15 year old has an external & can create a drive image with any program of that type.
I won't say this isn't a useful or poor app. It's just one that shouldn't be needed in 2008.

I unzipped the file to the hard drive and it came up with the activation screen and said activated. Does anyone know if I can burn the iso to a disk another day since it is already activated. Would appreciate if anyone knows for sure. Don't have any disks handy or would just do it. I imagine it would be yes but would like to hear from you anyway. Thank you and GOTD too.

Just a few days ago I’ve bought “ RollBack RX Professional “ which is much better of the Windows System Restore points. It’ll install under Windows and roll back hours, days even months to Complete System recovery. Go Back...Instantly Recover From Virus Attacks, Software Installations or User Errors. RollBack Rx™ is a robust system restore utility that enables home users and IT professionals to easily restore a PC to a time before certain events occurred. RollBack Rx makes it easy for users of all skill levels to quickly and easily repair PC issues - saving time, money and PC trouble. Here is their web site, it’s worth to read and check it:

http://www.horizondatasys.com/169614.ihtml
http://www.horizondatasys.com/Default.aspx

And what I like – one don’t have to be a computer guru to use this program ( yes, you’ll spent a few bucks but will download whatever you’d like or catch any virus or bugs but recover after).
Vlado (I’m not a sales man of any company, just trying to help the guys here with an average computer knowledge)
By the way – THANKS GWOTD, you’re great!

Finally something useful.

I used WINRAR to unzip the .iso. Made a bootable diskette with Windows format. Copied all file from .iso to the diskette EXCEPT Command.com. Rebooted with the diskette. PTD.exe looks great, but I did only passive (reading) tests as I don't have any problems that currently need fixing (except that I have lost WMP!).

Of course, if you don't have a diskette drive, then you have to used a CD. I hope that nobody has a PC without a diskette drive and cannot boot off a CD!

BTY, I did not have an activation problem.

I made the CD and booted my computer with it. When I looked at the name of the program it said "Partition Table Doctor," and not "Partition Recovery Bootable CD." This looks like the Partition Table Doctor program that was given away around march has been renamed to Partition Recovery Bootable CD.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Definitely one to keep in the toolbox for me. Burnt it to a CD in no time at all. With Nero installed, (and I'm sure many other burning utilities,) just click on the extracted "ISO" file and it opens the utility ready to go, I've stuck mine on a CD because some of the older PC's I come across don't have the ability to boot from USB.
Nice one GAOTD! more like this please!!

And, I just remembered. Try a program called TestDisk. It can fix all major file systems, plus ones you've never heard of. Runs from DOS, Windows, Linux/UNIX, and other OSes. I screwed up my HD really bad once by accidentally formatting it EXT2, but I managed to recover most of it by using TestDisk and then chkdsk. At least it boots.

#67: Notice that all EASEUS programs have installers extracted to your hard drive, condition free. That means that all EASEUS programs can be installed and reinstalled on a number of different computers, on different days than the giveaway. Also, it is possible to back up and install giveaways later. However, I won't be mentioning methods here.

This program stated that the partition table on hardisk1 was "Unknown", do you want me to fix it? There is nothing wrong with my HD. This is a bad program.

Um, #69: quote: "3. Strictly personal usage" from the terms. I suppose you can't let your customers use it (or use it for your customers). Also, you can't "burn" to a USB drive. It's called copy.

Ahem. @49: A USB drive is not a "remote device." Unless you plug it into another computer on your network, it's local. If you can't manage to get your computer to boot from USB, try WakePup2, if you have a floppy drive (new computers these days can all boot from USB). Write the floppy, boot from it, and when it tells you to press F5 or F8 to skip config.sys and autoexec.bat, press it, then let config.sys run, but not autoexec.bat. When done, navigate to your USB drive (usually D:), and execute the autoexec.bat from the PPB CD. Doing the impossible.

I already have a XP LiveCD (there are free software programs which can create those cds, you just need xp installation cd) and Paragon PM recovery cd so I don't really need this. But this is a really useful tool for advanced users. I think I'll take it (even if I will not use it).
Thanks go to this site.

I can't believe the people complaining that this is so small. Usually bloatware is the rule.

I can't believe people complaining that it is using a free operating system. What's wrong with free if it does the job?

I can't believe people complaining that it only does one thing (recover a messed up partition). It's not like you will need it every day, or that you will be able to run Word from a computer while you are fixing its partition table.

The interface is something most Windows users will find familiar enough; there are only a few choices (besides selecting device and partition). I didn't test whether it actually works, but I'd expect it does.

It is able to make a backup of your partition table (if you have a filesystem it can write to). Backups are good.

I manage to mess up my MBR once a year whether I need to or not; messing up the MBR means I can't boot into Windows, but doesn't indicate that there is anything wrong with the hard drive or the other data stored there. Fixing the MBR is a simple solution. (Note that some copy-protection schemes store stuff in the MBR area, so fixing the MBR may erase information they've tried to hide there. They're not supposed to do that anyway, so I'm unsympathetic...)

When would you use this instead of restoring from a full backup? If the partition table (or MBR, for that matter) gets messed up, but you can fix it with this, it will take you a few minutes. Probably 20 minutes to find the CD, and a minute or two to run the program. If it can fix the partition table, you are ready to boot into Windows (or Linux) and off you go. Compare that to repartitioning the drive, reformatting the filesystems, finding the latest image or backup, and restoring from it. How long would it take you to restore a backup of your drives? (Booting from a backup drive is more reasonable, assuming it is a good mirror of your working drive; but still, repairing the partition table might be preferable.)

Even if you don't trust yourself with this software, having the CD handy might make it possible for your friendly neighborhood geek to do the job for you.

As for whether a USB drive is better for this than a CD: dedicating a $20 USB flash drive to this doesn't seem cost effective compared to burning a 20 cent CDRom. Also, most machines will boot from a CDrom, but only the more modern ones will boot from USB. If you can put this on a bootable USB drive and all the machines you might use it on support booting from USB, that's fine; and you can use the USB for other things. It would come down to the convenience of having this on a bootable USB, versus the risk that one might need it on a machine that won't boot from any USB drive.

On the other hand, I did find two minuses: it didn't see my USB mouse, nor did it see my USB removable drive. I was able to use the shortcut keys to get around the mouse problem, but most people are likely to be lost if they have to use Alt-G instead of mousing around and clicking.

I'd guess that it would need to be better kept up to date to be able to use the latest drives, drive arrays, and USB devices. But otherwise, if the problem is your partition table, and this can fix it, it's exactly the right tool for the job.

In case anyone is wondering where exactly in newegg.com that the $49.99 Hard Drive is that #43, (Charles K) had commented about, it is at internet page:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145213

It is a: HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725032GLA360 (0A35411) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

It is the only $49.99, 320GB hard drive I could find there at Newegg.
Regular Price $59.99, on sale for $49.99 .

"how anyone would ever let it come to that in the first place"

I've had drives fail, the back-up drive crash, and DVD disks all destroyed. Back-up isn't infallible. Have any of you perfect backup people ever tried to restore from your backups? (The perfect ones will test each backup done.)

There are loads of things people do which are stupid omissions or acts.

Do you tailgate? Tailgaters cause more fatal accidents than speeders, a person traveling under 1 second behind another car is 8 times more likely to be in a fatal accident.

Ever send an email without meaning to? Or without rereading it?

I've gone through 4 fire extinguishers that were empty before finding one that was filled, despite the fact that they all had current tags.

Some people can't afford to drop money on another hard drive, we need to buy medications and food.

I'm burning this to a USB for my tool kit, since MY customers aren't perfect, and don't necessarily have a backup.

Note that the official recommendation for this kind of problem from MS is to reinstall everything.

Thanks GAOTD! I hope this rots in my toolbox, but if I need it, I'll be very glad to have it.

#49... normally you have to change the boot device and/or order in your computer's BIOS. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should not be playing with a utility like this - you will get hurt.

How can you back up GAOTD programs or transfer them to a new hard drive if the current drive shows signs of problems, when the program registration and activation can only be done during the one day it's given away?

I have a drive that I am having intermittent problems with, that has most of my GAOTD programs installed on, and would like to replace that drive with a new bigger HD, but I don't want to lose all my GAOTD programs either.

Downloaded, extracted, burnt .iso to CD using ImgBurn, and booted. Thanks.

@43=older pcs often won't accommodate SATA drives, so you have to use something to enable the PC to run SATA. I just recently bought Seagate Barracuda 320 Gb SATA drive, only to find that none of my desktops (late 2004 or older) had no support for SATA. So I ordered an IDE to SATA converter that is supposed to enable me to install the SATA drive and use it with the older pcs. Hopoefully when I get the converter and install it, it will work as it's supposed to.

wow, can we get just a few more rich, holier-than-thou people on here that are apparently anal retentive enough to make hourly backups of their all important letters to mommy?

I've been certified and doing this since before Windows was a glint in Bill's eyes, and let me assure you all that despite your best attempts to back up your data, there will always be that situation when you are working all night on that 50+ page document, when the drive goes down 15 minutes before you finish it.

On the other side, if you look at the income distribution of the United States, (not to mention the world as a whole), especially over the last 10-20 years, there are more people in this country that need to spend the $50 (that a "dirt cheap hard drive" now costs) on feeding their kids, going to the doctor, paying their mortgage, rather than buying extra computer gear that will be outdated within 2 years, and probably won't ever be needed. There are also a host of others that do not make backups for several reasons whether it be that they don't have the time, energy, or knowhow to do so. It is for these people that this type of software is a godsend. Even if you are disciplined enough to make regular backups, your backup is only good up until your last one. If you backed up last week, then it crashed, you have lost all of the data from now until the last backup. Sucks for that project you have been slaving over, that movie that took you the last 4 days to download, that cute picture of your precious little snot you captured last night.

I mean half of these people act like those that don't backup daily don't deserve to live, let alone get their data back. (#55, #43, etc.)

As to the DOS phobia, it doesn't really matter whether XP has a true DOS. All the program is doing is providing an interface to access the disk itself. It doesn't care what operating system you are running, except to the extent that it stores the info on a file system that this program doesn't recognize. It is just looking at the ones and zeros. If your computer won't boot to windows, all those pretty GUI based utilities won't do you a bit of good.

For those trying to save the dime to keep from writing a whole CD, you are better off doing so than wasting your time with a USB drive or some other method. Reason- many computers, especially older ones, will not boot from these devices, and even if they do, the method mentioned above will not copy the system files necessary to boot the computer.

Now for anyone who has spent their day checking this out that actually knows what they are doing, how does this compare to Hiren's boot CD? IS there anything on it that Hiren's can't accomplish? I don't have time to analyze it now.

#16=thanks for the useful info on how to put this on a USB stick. For some reason, my pc is unable to detect my CD DVD RW drive. I also have an older laptop that I've been trying to get running, with a DVD drive that doesn't work and being able to use USB stick will be very handy for this one too.

Does anyone know how it rates compared to HDD regenerator,
which is also could be burned on bootable CD.
(I think there is a trial version of HDD regenerator)

Quick Question I have a laptop besides my desktop and something happened to it the other day when I went to turn it on it says bootmgr is missing would this help fix it? I made a recovery disk set from my desktop but it doesn't help I would love if this fixed the problem.