User Reviews
PC Inspector Smart Recovery
PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a data recovery program for Flash Card, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card(SD) or any other data device for digital ...
Average of 33 user ratings: 
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- Nov 26, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Buffalo hunt saved...... 
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Thank You so much for this. I killed a world class buffalo and accidentally deleted my pictures. I was so crushed with pain that I could not sleep all night. I went on my laptop and found your site. I received all my pictures and more pictures from other months. Your site saved a most memorable hunt. Thank You again so much. Words can't express but the pictures can.It was easy to use.
Review by: BuffaloGal
First post
- Oct 03, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
It works, it`s easy, and it`s free!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I love this software! It works, it is easy, and it is for free: what more would one want? I have to disagree with the 'bad apple' comment of "the odd man out": he states that pc inspectors 'file recovery' does a faster and better job. So i tried it on my sd-card with lost pictures: it is complicated, took ages, it didn't recover all my pictures, and also gave me some rubbish. Then I tried smart recovery: it was easy, also took a while, but the result was splendid! I'm not saying PCI's file recovery is a bad program, maybe it is not specifically meant for this purpose, and there's probably a lot of things you can do with it, but for picture recovery from a memory card "smart recovery" works straight and good.
Review by: globalbrian
First post
- Sep 22, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Odd man out
- Interface: 3
- Features: 3
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
While I hate to be a bad apple here... This app takes way too long to recover images, not to mention only one type at a time. I re wrote over my USB flash many times and it did recover two most recent pics but took what seemed forever. The funny part, PC Inspector File Recovery, same makers, took seconds to do the same plus recovered numerous other files. Undelete plus did the same as well and took seconds too. PCISMR is far too slow and doesn't seem to recover anything more that the others. That said, something that took almost 45 min on a 1 gig flash drive to recover same two files, other software did in seconds, and more files to boot, does not allow me to give this a very good rating. It's great for free but as I said, others do the same but twice as fast, even one of it's own freeware brand file recovery.
Review by: gimpguy (369)
Read all 369 reviews by gimpguy
- Aug 10, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
It really does work!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I hardly ever post reviews but I am so happy with this service that I had to. I had lost most of my nephew's pictures for his 1st birthday party while trying to move the file of his pictures from my hard drive to my flash drive. I didn't know that my flash drive was almost full and my computer stopped transferring the files half way through the process. Somehow most of the pictures got lost in "limbo" somewhere in the process. I did a mad search on my computer and couldn't find them anywhere! Luckily I still had my camera's memory disk. I googled for someway to restore the camera's memory disk. I found plenty of on-line software that I could pay $40 or more for and then I luckily found PC Inspector Smart Recovery. It took a while to scan the memory disk but it found my cherished pictures! Most of the pictures (except 2) were of good quality too. Thank you to whoever invented and shared this free service!
Review by: nodalo
First post
- May 15, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Saved my bacon
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Windows XP decided that (One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency) in other words it gave my compact flash card the kiss of death. After XP did the scan I could no longer access the wifes pictures (Bad, Very Bad) XP reported the files from her Nikon where empty. I ran PC Inspector Smart Recovery 4.5 and it recovered all but two pictures...Life is good again! Worked Great!!
Review by: dilacy
First post
- Feb 18, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Simply amazing
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Sad but true, my 18 year old son stole my digital camera. He then claimed to people including my parents that my younger 16 year old son took it and planted it in his car. Thanks to this free software I was able to recover all the pictures made on the camera's SD memory card showing many pictures of my 18 year old and his friends proving that he did steal it and showing the time frame that he had used it.
Review by: housewife
First post
- Jan 27, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Saved my career!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I'm a photographer and I recently carried out a job in Cincinnati, only to come home and accidentally throw the entire file in the recycling bin without notice. The next morning I woke up to the disaster. I downloaded many programs to my computer trying to retrieve the files from the hard drive, only not realizing i was overwriting my files with all my added deletions and installing and uninstalling of the software. I found this doing a search in google and it actually found 411 photographs on my memory card. while a lot of the pictures failed when opening them, I still had enough to work with to get the job done. Really, you saved my career.
Review by: Lizzie
First post
- Jan 09, 2008
- For version:
- 4.5
Great minds at work
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
The application helped me in retrieving many photographs which the otherwise Freewares would not help you with. Also the features provided are 100 times better than the paid applications. I would recommend this application to anyone looking to retrieve photos from the SD card.
Review by: Hitler
First post
- Dec 26, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Great program
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Like other reviewers I normally don't write reviews but I was so happy to have found this program through photo.net camera forum. I had saved all of my vacation photos on a 2GB Sandisk CF card and was trying to download the photos to my computer when I discovered that the files on the CF card were corrupted. I used the program and was able to recover about 95% of the pictures both in JPG and CR2 format. I was so thrilled that I contributed money to the freeware program developers. The internet is truly a wonderful thing and the graciousness of the PC Inspector Program developers and CONVAR should be commended.
Review by: FrankL
First post
- Oct 08, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Awesome!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I've never posted a review in my life but after finding this program and it actually worked, I had to pull my finger out. My wife had just got back from holidays with a heap of family snaps and mid way through transferring the files off the XD card it stuffed up. It kept saying the card had to be reformated! Anyway after trying everything under the sun and to no avail I came across this FREE program. A BIG SINCERE THANK YOU to the clever people who came up with the PC Inspector Smart Recovery. It was quick and easy to use and WORKED!
Review by: rizzard
First post
- Aug 11, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Saved me from certain death!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Like other here, I had deleted vacation photos from my digital camera after downloaded what I thought was all of them. No such luck. I had only downloaded a few. When I went to show them to my wife, she said, "Where are the rest?" So I jumped on the net and googled "file recovery smart digital" and this program was the first one to come up. I tried it after reading other reviews and it worked like a charm! Some of my vacation photos did not come out perfect - cut off or odd graphics problems - but a majority of the photos were there, along with just about every photo I've ever taken with this camera. I never post reviews but I had to on this one because some other husband will be panicking and doing exactly what I did. Best of all, it did not mess up my computer. Download it now and get those pictures back!
Review by: impboy
First post
- Jul 26, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Great simple tool and its free!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This software is great. it is free and it works. got back my smart media card files that i goofed and deleted.
Review by: joeabe
First post
- Jun 17, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Does the job well!
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Worked very well for recovering Canon RAW files from a Compact Flash card where they had been deleted. One thing is that it seems you have to select the "Format Type" of the files you're trying to retrieve. I presume it only looks for that type of file in each scan. In my case that was sufficient because the whole media was full of the same file type. However, If I'd been switching between RAW and JPG files, I think I would have had to run the scan (which seems like it will take several hours for a 2Gig CF card) several times. Either way, slow but works better than several others I tried. Thanks Convar!
Review by: SteveBower (3)
Read all 3 reviews by SteveBower
- Apr 21, 2007
- For version:
- 4.5
Outstanding!!
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Well I really thought my photos were done for...I had nearly filled a 1GB Extreme III card up with shots from longleat and then yesterday I went out thinking I'd downloaded them and formatted the card in the camera, I then took a whole load more, downloaded these to my laptop, formatted it AGAIN, took more pictures today....ONLY THEN did I realize my mistake! I couldn't use the recovery disk that came with the card as it doesn't work with my cd drive, however I came across this FREE product and thought I'd just see what it could find. Amazingly it found over 60 files at 70% scan (I stopped it then because it found all the photos I wanted back). Can't recommend this enough. Thank you so much!
Review by: toyers
First post
- Dec 27, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Saved the day!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Very happy I located this very handy software. I accidently deleted our Christmas pictures that I was about to print. Although the program took a few hours to recover the photos, the time was worth it. Thank you!!
Review by: Happydance
First post
- Nov 21, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
It worked! i got my camera files back!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Nuff said. Two thumbs up! Thank you!
Review by: pcguysphl (2)
Read all 2 reviews by pcguysphl
- Oct 23, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Thank you so much!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I managed to find and save all 210 photos from a recent studio sitting, so my client didn't have to come back in with her three children. I can't express my gratitude enough - but hope a small donation through Paypal helped a little! I only wish this was available for Mac too! Will be singing the praises of Smart Recovery for quite some time!
Review by: anydanger
First post
- May 16, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Thanks!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I registered to this site to thank these guys who did this great program. i accidentally erased photos on my SD card and now I have them back. thanks!
Review by: alazan
First post
- May 10, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Sweet little program
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Just got back from a week in Florida. Wife was looking at some of the pics this morning and realized she'd been clicking the X instead of the "next" button.... Thanks to this little program - the pics are back!
Review by: GimmeGimme
First post
- May 02, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Good
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
It's a best prog that I ever try. Once day my father delete my all pics. then I was frustated because my mother blame me. thank God I found this prog...
Review by: willy_Mcchrist
First post
- Apr 11, 2006
- For version:
- 4.5
Great but slow
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Great piece of software that actually does what it says on the can. It is slow but for its price who's worrying. Matches many pieces of commercial software.
Review by: dragoon
First post
- Dec 02, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Why havent i this prog before?
- Interface: 4
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 4
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Whoa! It did a great job. It didnt recover all the pics in my SD card, but it did it in the best way it could. I recovered an 80% of the error deleted pics. Very good prog!
Review by: Choonaddict
First post
- Aug 30, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Easy to use, effective and free, what's more!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
This program saved a good portion of some seriously tragically deleted pics from my camera's SD card. It was extremely easy to use in WinXP via the card-reader interface and found over 80 pics I had thought lost forever. I only wish I had found this program sooner as some of the card was over-written. Even so, many of the photos were still found. The interface is child's play to use and very flexible. Whatever you do, download this at once and remember you have it if you accidentally delete your camera memory. One of the best moves I ever made.
Review by: mikfoz
First post
- May 31, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
I am happy again!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 4
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I lost all my photos of adventure race due to SD memory card error. This program recovered 59 of 60 jpg files without any problem. Thanks to authors!
Review by: janvir
First post
- Apr 27, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Fabulous!!!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
A good client of mine was in a desperate situation. He was helping a friend and he accidentally deleted all her pictures from the PC and flash card. I went over and saved the day by using this program. I did a Google search and there it was. It took several hours to complete because there were 180 pictures but they all came back. I highly recommend this software for recovery from a flash card.
Review by: mondrian
First post
- Apr 23, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Awesome
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Having overwrittten the photos from my daughter's birthday party, this saved my life. Worth every penny, and as it's free, just about perfect. Thanks guys.
Review by: Keith68 (3)
Read all 3 reviews by Keith68
- Apr 21, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Really brightened my day
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I'd just lost my NTFS volume on my new pc (ouch), and thought my most recent pictures that I transferred (and did not have a backup yet) were lost forever. Without any confusing settings or dialogs I got all 14 "lost" pictures back! It actually retrieved 28 pictures from the "blank" SD in total. I'm telling everyone I know, that this program is a must have!
Review by: MrJoel
First post
- Mar 17, 2005
- For version:
- 4.5
Looks nice
- Interface: 4
- Features: 3
- Ease of use: 3
- Value: 5
- Overall:
As i say it looks a great prog, unfortunately I do not have a card reader ,more info in the description should say this ---on my PC it would only show drives A,C,D,E & F a pity as it looks well made ,with a modern XP look
Review by: rickxs (3)
Read all 3 reviews by rickxs
- Dec 31, 2004
- For version:
- 4.5
Unbelievable! i'd pay for it if i had to!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
I had a Secure Digital card that for some reason was unreadable in any reader I tried. I desparately wanted to get the pictures off it because it contained the last pictures of my grandmother before she unexpectedly died. PC Inspector Smart Recovery got them all with absolutely NO PROBLEMS and no hassle. Fantastic!
Review by: KwadGuy
First post
- Dec 01, 2004
- For version:
- 4.5
Saved my life (wife was about to murder me)
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
We took a 2 week Mexican Riveria cruise this fall and I meant to delete one bad picture I had just taken, but instead deleted the whole card. I confiscated the card and protected it with my life till we got back home to search for such a data recovery tool for media cards. This one popped up at the top of the search. I tried it and recovered all 100 + pictures we had taken in Acapulco up to the deletion point. Fantastic that it is freeware. With my trial and testing on OTHER cards before trying the real thing, the only thing I discovered was if you took the option to do "With Thumbnails", instead of "Automatic", it only recovered exactly half the pictures. When I did "Automatic", it recovered every one. Thanks for saving my life!
Review by: Redavenger3
First post
- Aug 06, 2004
- For version:
- 4.5
Doesn't work
- Interface: 2
- Features: 3
- Ease of use: 1
- Value: 1
- Overall:
Tried it numerous times on XP machine and continually received operating errors. I have never been able to get it to work.
Review by: Boristhemoggy (3)
Read all 3 reviews by Boristhemoggy
- Jul 04, 2004
- For version:
- 4.5
Excellent utility!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Having filled up a 256MB SanDisk SD Card with 280 photos of my recent trip to Paris, but before I could transfer its contents to my computer, I was disappointed that for no apparent reason my camera (a HP Photosmart 850) would display the message "Card unreadable", and even the computer, while trying to read the card through a card reader, would say that the card is unformatted! However, thanks to this marvelous little program, I could quickly and easily recover all of my photos without any loss into a computer folder! Many thanks to Convar for having authored this precious utility! Highly appreciated and recommended!
Review by: JSPitanga
First post
- Jun 21, 2004
- For version:
- 4.45
A pretty awesome program for free!
- Interface: 5
- Features: 5
- Ease of use: 5
- Value: 5
- Overall:
Fortunately I have not needed this program often but when I did I was so pleased with the results. Thanks to this application a lot of pictures my sister took were recovered quickly and easily. I highly recommend it!
Review by: lmclark
First post
