14 DAY TRIAL // With all storage devices going down little by little each month, it is a shame such a small amount of users have the "audacity" to back up important data. It is a known fact that a slip of the fingers is all you need to lose entire folders. And if you add some extra-ingredients like by-passing Recycle Bin during the deletion process, you are almost screwed. However, with a backup at hand all this nightmare is no reason to fret.
Although creating a backup for important data does not require hard work, few are the users that take the time to do it. Yet there is still a chance for these users to recover shift-deleted files and save some money as there are plenty of freeware applications ready to face the problem and recover deleted data. Sure, these will work only under specific conditions otherwise reliability is pretty shaken up.
Get My Files Back is yet another competitor on the market of data recovery tools. It comes at a $59.99 price and the trial version has as sole restriction: the ability to actually recover the data. Otherwise it will scan the selected locations and provide all the information on detected files.
The application is extremely user friendly and will pose absolutely no problem neither during installation nor while working with it. There is no configuration of the program and all the settings you make are related to what you want it to detect and show and set the type of scan to be used for detection.
Setting Get My Files Back is done via a wizard that presents every single option in a single window. There are two types of scans to choose from, one searching for deleted files, deleted folders and temporary files (Quick Scan), and one that goes a bit deeper and searches for full cluster level as well (Thorough Scan). Of course, the latter will take longer to complete because it is more complex, but, as in the majority of cases, we are interested in recovering deleted data, a quick scan will simply do the trick - and fast, too.
Get My Files Back is able to scan all sorts of drives, including removable devices like SmartMedia, USB flash drives or memory cards. You get to choose the drive you want to be checked from the lower part of the wizard window. OK-ing the settings will start the scanning process of the selected drive. A Quick Scan will not take too long to complete and, given that certain details have been respected, there is no problem in recovering deleted files (during our testing a 6GB drive was scanned in a couple of seconds and the recovery of about 400MB of data took slightly longer).
File filtering options available in the application can be used either before or after the scanning is over, as the program will recover all the data it can find anyway and the filters will allow you to segregate the desired files. For making it easier for you, the filter supports masks and wildcards, as well as other criteria, like searching for date, size or file attributes.
Get My Files Back does indeed a wonderful job with recuperating deleted files and providing useful information on the data that can inform you on the condition of the data, type of file, size or modification and creation dates.
However, as good as Get My Files Back may be, there are certain scenarios it will not work with. Attempting a file recovery after formatting the drive will result in utter failure as well as if you overwrite the files. The application will attempt to recover at least some part of the file, but, in the case of overwriting, chances are that some documents are recovered in a corrupted state and of no use. Yet, in the case of overwriting, I suggest going directly for the thorough scan mode. This way you may still recover some of the files.
But, as long as you appeal to the application as soon as you realize the accidental deletion of the files and there is no modification to the drive storing the data, success is guaranteed.
Get My Files Back is extremely easy to work with and does not require any special knowledge for a better handling and, if used properly (immediately after the files have been lost), it will definitely recover them.
The Good
The user friendly interface requires the least effort from the user and quick scan process is hyper fast and efficient. The recovery of the data takes a very short amount of time to complete.
For fast finding the desired files you can use the filters and apply date, size and file attribute criteria for more accuracy of the results.
The Bad
Given the competition on the market, the price is way over my budget as application's detection engine is not able to go beyond drive formatting.
During our testing, we shift-deleted about 400MB from a drive and overwritten them with 20MB of data. Upon recovery, the application could retrieve only a little less than 8MB of the previously erased 400MB files.
The Truth
Putting its features and options in balance with the price, an average user can clearly see where the flaw is, especially if you take into consideration Piriform's newest player, Recuva, which is absolutely free and does the same job.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
