EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Review

Published January 22, 2015

My original review for this data recovery software took a complete U-turn. Well not a complete U-turn but my review is tempered based on recent developments.

I purchased the data recovery software because I had overwritten valuable files on my computer and was looking for a way to recover them. In an earlier post I mention that I lost five years worth of data in backing up information before reformatting my computer. When I realized the error, I went online to in search of data recovery software to reclaim these files.

I came across various data recovery programs, but only three of them seemed like they could do the trick. Of the three software programs, I chose EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. I download the trial version and was able to see several of my overwritten files. Feeling optimistic that I could recover the files, I paid for the full version.

Using EaseUS

The first step in the process is to run a full scan of the hard drive where the lost files used to reside. This step took a little over five and a half hours. I also scanned the overwritten SD card, which took an additional half hour.

The software was able to locate the lost files, but a problem arose when the software incorrectly associated the software program to the file. In other words, my TurboTax or Tax Cut software files were converted into Adobe acrobat reader files. Instead of having the Tax Cut extension .t04 or the TurboTax extension of .tax2012, it was assigned the .pdf extension. This rendered the files unreadable.

Additionally, some of my old image files that contained screen clips of receipts from online purchases were also converted into PDF files thus rendering those unreadable too.

Contacting EaseUs

After having tried every way possible to convert the files to their original extension, I gave up and contacted EaseUS explaining the problem. I requested a refund as indicated in their 30-day money back guarantee, but they offered to work with me to fix the problem. In all honesty, I’d rather have the problem fixed than receive a refund. The lost files were much more valuable than the cost of the software.

In order to troubleshoot the problem, EaseUS asked me a series of questions as follows:

1. How did you lose your data? Deleted, formatted, or others?
2. How many partitions did you have? Which is the partition you want to recover data from?
3. Have you done (use the computer, make some changes) anything on your original hard disk (which contains the lost data) after you lost your files? Where did you install our program in? Where did you save the recovered files?
4. What is the exact file type of your lost files?
5. Where did you save the found files?
6. Did you try to modify the file types as what they were?

To which I responded as follows:

In response to your email, please read the following:

There is a two-fold process to the data loss. First the data was on my hard drive (c:). Over the years I saved the data to an SD card and deleted it from C:.

I eventually deleted the information from the SD card and saved a newer version of the information not realizing that I had older files that I needed to keep. So, the files I needed were at one time on the C: drive and on the SD card, but both were deleted.

I wanted to reformat my computer. I use Windows 7 and Windows 7 doesn’t allow for a clean reformat. Instead it takes the old files and saves them to Windows.old on the C: drive. After the reformat I realized I needed the old files that were previously on C: and on the SD card. This is when I went looking for data recovery software and purchased EaseUS.

To make things clear, I purchased EaseUs after I reformatted my computer to look for the files on my C: drive and then on my SD card.

I downloaded EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and installed it on a thumb drive (we’ll call it thumb drive A). I ran the original scan, which took over 5 hours. I was able to locate the lost files I needed. The files I needed were tax files and purchase receipts. The structure of my filing system was as follows:

The files I needed were all of the files located in the Purchases folder and all the files located in the Taxes folder. In each of the files there were documents of various program types.In the “Purchases” folder there were .doc, .jpeg, .pdf, .htm, .html, .txt. I saved receipts in various ways. Some of the receipts were from emails, some from websites, some scanned into the computer and were either an image file or a .pdf file.

As far as the files in the “Tax” folder, there were various types of files. Many of the files used the extension given to them by the tax software. I use both Turbo Tax and Tax Cut. Therefore the file extension was sometimes .tax08, or .tax10. Sometimes they were .pdf and other times there were scanned documents that would be either .pdf for some type of image file like .jpeg or .gif or even .png.

I also included any correspondence that pertained to the particular tax year or purchase. I use it as a digital filing cabinet.

Storing Recovered Files

When the software discovered the lost files, I got a second thumb drive (we’ll call it thumb drive B) inserted it into one of the available USB slots and saved all the recovered information on thumb drive B. Once the information was saved to the thumb drive B, I also exported the scanned .rsf file to the same thumb drive that had the EaseUS installation. (thumb drive A).

All of the recovered files had the .pdf extension assigned to it. I thought that was odd because all of my files were originally of different extensions. Then I attempted to open each file and got the following error message from Adobe Reader:

I then went online to find a .PDF repair utility. I tried three different programs and all programs said the file I tried to repair was not a .pdf file.

I thought I did something wrong so I tried importing my scanned .rsf file to try again. Imagine my disgust when I got the following error in attempting to import the file:

This time, instead of the 5-hour scan of my hard drive, I decided to scan the SD card, which at one time had the Taxes and Purchases files on it. After about an hour scan, I found the files and “recovered” them. I saved them to a different thumb drive (we’ll call it thumb drive C). Then I attempted to open the files and had the same error message from Adobe Reader that told me it couldn’t open the files.

I later tried to import the scanned file from the SD card and got the same “Failed to import...” error message.

These files are very important to me. If you can provide information on how to recover the files, please do so. If not, please refund my money.

Thank you,
Felicia A. Williams

After receiving my response, they wanted me to run the scan again, which was pretty useless, but I figured I’d be cooperative and did as they instructed. The results of the scan were the same as the last time. Additionally, their import function was broken. Instead of rescanning my hard drive I should have been able to import data from past scans to prevent me from wasting over 5 hours scanning the hard drive again. It didn’t work, but they seemed to ignore that fact.

Running Around in Circles with EaseUS

After some back and forth and running around in circles it was obvious that the software was unable to retrieve my files. I finally requested a refund, again. I cited their 30-day money back guarantee. Somehow in their interpretation of their money back guarantee, I was only entitled to a 50% refund because it was my fault, “I had overwritten the files.” Really? Their marketing wording specifically says it can recover overwritten files.

The day after their 50% offer they sent an email asking me to share my experience on Google + and/or Facebook. If I did I would be rewarded by receiving 100% off another product. Citing this email in my follow up correspondence to them coupled with inability to retrieve files, I explained I would rather receive a refund then take on another software program that I don’t need, but I’d be more than happy to share my experience on Facebook and Google +.

They came to their senses and issued a full refund.

Last Modified: 1 July 2023