Others say...

"Poorly developed software"
I bought it and tried to install it. Installation of the software caused my conputer automatically turn off and restart. Then I consulted with MS Tech Support. They suggested to remove the software from my computer. When I tried to remove it both from control panel/add-remove software and from using uninstaller of the software, I kept getting error messages and the software cannot be removed. Finally, I email a question how to unstall it to technical support of the company StompSoft. No response so far!

"Disappointing Data Recovery Program"
Needless to say, I recently had a hard drive "crash" and needed a good data recovery program. So I asked around and did some research and found "Top Ten Reviews" on the Net. This particular site ranked "Recover Lost Data" (henceforth RLD) as number #1, especially in data recovery effectiveness. So guess which program I picked up? Wow, you guys are really smart out there.

That's right. I got RLD and was very disappointed. The program was "simple" to use but perhaps was too simple in terms of the technology behind it. The program took way too long to scan my "crashed" hard drive (about 8 hours for a 160 gig hard drive) and after that the program shut down as another reviewer said.

But even besides that, after it did "find" some files on my old hard drive, it didn't find much, and what it did find was useless to me because it was apparently too corrupt for me to use. Needless to say, I took this product back and got a full refund withing 3 days.

Enter the data recovery program called Stellar Phoenix. It was recommended to me by someone who had a similar problem. It was much more expensive (about $129), but after needing vital data saved and recovered, such a price is worth it considering the fact that data recovery companies will charge you from $500 and up to do the same thing. So, I went online and ordered the product. In fact, I didn't even do that first. I actually used the DEMO version of Stellar Phoenix first just to see if it could find my lost data. Not only did it find the data, but it found the specific file names and the exact file sizes and dates the files were created.

RLD didn't even do half of that. The DEMO of Stellar Phoenix did better than the active version of RLD. That in itself prompted me to fork up the $129. So now I'm happy as can be because I have recovered ALL of my data from that crashed hard drive, and I hope that you will take my advice, spend a little more, and forget about RLD.

I didn't have to call tech support like another reviewer said he did with RLD. With Stellar Phoenix I just downloaded the program, entered my activation code, and recovered my data in far less time than the wasted hours with RLD. Of course I'll be writing a "Stellar" review for Stellar Phoenix.

P.S.: I do have to add that you will need to use another working computer so that you can use it to scan the crashed hard drive with. In my case I had to purchase a new hard drive, install it in my old computer with the crashed hard drive attached, format it, put Stellar Phoenix on it, and use the new drive to scan the old one.


"A Lifesaver!"
The following is from my husband, the PC "expert":

I accidentally corrupted the primary hard disk on my wife's PC, losing all of her data (virtually no backups). She was decidedly unhappy! I searched for solutions online and asked experts I know for advice. Sending the hard disk off for professional data recovery is out of my price range. I found ratings of data recovery software online, and StompSoft's Recover Lost Data (RLD) was the highest. It was relatively inexpensive at Amazon.com, so I ordered it. After some minor shipping difficulty, I received the program (on CD).

My first attempts at using RLD (DO NOT install to "crashed" hard disk), were promising. But it kept closing itself out (stopped running and disappeared from the screen) spontaneously at about the same place in its long disk scan. StompSoft's Tech Support responded to my problem report within two days. Their tech said that my disk might be damaged in that one spot and suggested I narrow my scan range to clusters outside of this location. I then searched the disk both before and after the narrow, problematic cluster area, locating thousands of lost files. I then recovered hundreds of files, saving them to a different hard disk.

I highly recommend RLD for software-related disk problems, like accidental formatting, partition corruption, file deletion, etc.


"Works great!"
This also includes a file shredder too, it found every file i ever had on my hard drive, and i reinstalled windows many times! It takes about 20 minutes to scan a 10GB hard drive. Not that bad compared to others!