Glarysoft is giving away a program called "Amazing Dr. Recovery 3.1" on their web site at:
Giveaway - Glarysoft

The download is a .ZIP file of about 4.5 Megabytes.
You unzip it to create a folder that contains a Glarysoft installation program and a ReadMe file. The Glarysoft installation program connects to the internet and installs the file recovery program on your computer. The ReadMe file will have the activation key. To activate the program, CTRL-C copy the activation code and click on the "Activate" link in the opened file recovery program. The program will ask for the activation key. CTRL-V paste the activation code in. The program will respond to tell you if the activation was successful.

I used this Amazing Dr. Recovery 3.1 on my USB drive with the corrupted FAT table, and it successfully found and recovered all of the files on that USB drive.

On 5/14/2014 8:34 PM, nestork wrote:

Glarysoft is giving away a program called "Amazing Dr. Recovery 3.1"
on their web site at: 'Giveaway - Glarysoft'
(http://giveaway.glarysoft.com/)

The download is a .ZIP file of about 4.5 Megabytes. You unzip it to
create a folder that contains a Glarysoft installation program and a
ReadMe file. The Glarysoft installation program connects to the
internet and installs the file recovery program on your computer. The
ReadMe file will have the activation key. To activate the program,
CTRL-C copy the activation code and click on the "Activate" link in
the opened file recovery program. The program will ask for the
activation key. CTRL-V paste the activation code in. The program
will respond to tell you if the activation was successful.

I used this Amazing Dr. Recovery 3.1 on my USB drive with the
corrupted FAT table, and it successfully found and recovered all of
the files on that USB drive.

I get all sorts of software from the Glarysoft giveaway site and I also
get software from Giveaway Of The Day. I've never gotten a virus or any
malware from those sites. Glarysoft also produces Glary Utilities in a
free version and a paid version. There are all sorts of free software
sites on The Web but these two sites are the ones I use to get
commercial software that one would normally have to pay for. All sorts
of software is available from them at no cost for a 24 hour period. If
you miss getting some software that you would really like to have, keep
an eye on the sites making sure you check them every day. ^_^

http://giveaway.glarysoft.com/

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

TDD

Thanks, I have both of those web pages bookmarked.

The Give Away of the Day website:

Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. Today: Aidfile Data Recovery 3.6.5.8 - Aidfile recovery software is an easy-to-use and powerful hard disk data recovery tool specialized in recovering files from corrupted partition ...

is giving away Aid File Data Recovery 3.6.5.8 today.

You have to both download the installation program and install it.

There are two things I don't like he

1. About the web site:
This site has all kinds of other downloads offered, so you have to be careful on which link you click on to get the giveaway. Otherwise you get some freeware that wants to dump a bunch of garbage on your computer, like changing your default search engine and putting needless toolbars on your web browser. As long as you're careful on what you click on, it's OK.

2. About the AID File Data Recovery program:
I don't like the fact that it doesn't give you a registration key. Once you unzip the downloaded file, there's a file with a key icon that you click on to activate the full blown version of the software. That program simply tells you that the activation was successful, but it doesn't give you an alphanumeric code that you can use in future to activate the full blown version repeatedly. So, if you ever have to format your hard drive for some reason, then the next time you install this program, you're back to the trial version, not the full blown version.

I tried using this program with a USB memory drive that I know has a corrupted file allocation table, and it found all of the files I had stored on that drive.

I've become disillusioned with this Glary - Giveaway site.

The problem is this:
The site does not give away the installation program itself.
You click on an installation icon that shows up in the downloaded files, and that installation icon downloads the program from Glary's web site onto your computer.
So, if in future you have to reformat your computer's hard disk and reload your software, you've lost the programs downloaded onto your computer from the Glary site.
That's because if you try to use that installation program again, it tells you that the time to install the program has expired and to return to the Glary site for new programs.
And, you can't simply copy the folder the files were downloaded and paste them into your computer's C:\Program Files folder because Windows requires the program be installed properly, not just copied into the Program Files folder. If you do that, you get a message saying the program "didn't initialize properly", which basically means it needs to be reinstalled...using the installation program you don't have available to you anymore.

For someone like me, who reformats their surfing computer hard drive at least once per year, these free program giveaways are just a tease. They let you use the program long enough to evaluate it, but they don't give you the capability of re-installing it, or installing it to another computer if you have more than one. It's that inability to re-install the program if you have to reformat your hard drive that I'm most upset with.

On Thu, 5 Jun 2014 18:36:23 +0200, nestork
wrote:

I've become disillusioned with this Glary - Giveaway site.

I've mentioned before these sites are not what they seem. They set the
bait, reel you in and finally set the hook. Nothing is free. Not even
freedom. There is always a cost sooner or later.

| I've become disillusioned with this Glary - Giveaway site.
|
| The problem is this:
| The site does not give away the installation program itself.

That's become a common problem with a lot of software.
In this case, though, there may be a workaround. If you
look at the source code you'll see near the top there's a
link to the actual file:

http://giveawayfile.glarysoft.com/So...esizerv5.2.zip

I found it because the ID of the download button is
"download" and there was a function "#download".
There's also an autodownload function with the same
link. The download is a ZIP with an installer of about
4 MB inside. (At least I assume it's the installer. I didn't
run it.) You then have to go register today, though,
so it's not clear whether you'll be able to save your
activation code and installer for future use.

I'd also recommend IrfanView, though. It's very good
and it's compact. If you can deal with the disorganized
menu you can almost use it as a fullscale image editor.

Image editing is a difficult issue, I think. There are lots
of options and they span a large range of functionality
and sophistication. If you really want to do image editing
then IrfanView is limited, but mostly just because it just
doesn't have a convenient interface, like you'd get
with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
On the other hand, if all you want is batch resizing,
without and sharpen, brighten, crop, etc then there
are probably lots of free tools to do that.

On Thu, 05 Jun 2014 17:11:50 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:12:00 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Thu, 5 Jun 2014 18:36:23 +0200, nestork
wrote:

I've become disillusioned with this Glary - Giveaway site.

I've mentioned before these sites are not what they seem. They set the
bait, reel you in and finally set the hook. Nothing is free. Not even
freedom. There is always a cost sooner or later.

Larry Ellison summed it up best.
If you are not paying for a product, you ARE the product.

I agree this is a good way to get people to try a product but it is
not really a license to own the product.

If you really like this free stuff, image your drive and you can
always get it back by reloading that image if you lose a drive.

An ISO image would be a solution, I agree. I don't think Nestor has
tried that yet.

I haven't tried it because I don't know how to try it.

But, he11, in the final analysis I'd ideally like to have access to the installation program itself so I have the flexibility to use it when I want, to load it on different computers and to reload it when and where I want.

I'm thinking that if I image my hard drive, then I'll lose all that software if something expensive goes wrong with my computer so that I end up having to buy a new computer. I'm presuming the image of the hard disk on one computer can't be pasted onto a different hard drive in a different computer, can it?

I haven't tried it because I don't know how to try it.

But, he11, in the final analysis I'd ideally like to have access to the installation program itself so I have the flexibility to install the software where and when I want.

I'm thinking that if I image my hard drive, then I'll lose all that software if something expensive goes wrong with my computer so that I end up having to buy a new computer. I'm presuming the image of the hard disk on one computer can't be pasted onto a different hard drive in a different computer, can it?

My surfing computer has an 80 GB hard drive, and right now with all the junk I've been downloading recently, I'm using 5.32 GB, so I've got plenty of room for images of that software in the remaining 75 GB of unused space.

Is there a good Freeware ISO hard drive imaging program available anywhere?

Mayayana:

I can download the .EXE program from the company's web site, but the problem is that it literally takes about 12 hours for it to install the installation program onto my computer using my dial-up connection, and the one time I tried doing that, the connection to my ISP crapped out and I lost everything I had gotten done until then. But, this is the first time I've had that problem. Normally, you just download a .ZIP file, unzip it and there's a GlarySoft Icon that you click on to install the program.

If you can figure out a way to wrestle the installation program out of that GlarySoft Icon, I'd be very interested.

I have the installation program for ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 on a USB drive.

This web page says that ImgBurn will both Create and Resto
Comparison of disc image software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Can I use this ImgBurn program to create an image of my hard disk so that if and when I need to clobber a virus by reformatting my hard drive and reloading XP, IE6 and my bookmarks, I can just write the image file over my existing hard drive contents? Will the imaging program do that or do I have to do that myself somehow?

Can I use CD's or does it have to be an "optical" disk? (I understand "optical" disk means a DVD disk.) Can I use a USB drive?

Does it make sense to store the image of my hard drive when it's as clean as a whistle ON THAT SAME HARD DRIVE, or in a completely separate location, such as a CD or USB drive?

What I'm thinking is that if I create image disks of my business computer and my surfing computer, as long as I keep them separate and only use them in their corresponding computer, there still won't be any way from a virus to get from one computer to the other.

I installed ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 on my surfing computer, and the first page of this program has 6 graphics on it:

1. Write image file to disk - which shows what looks like a small CD going to a hard drive.

2. Create image file from disk - which shows what looks like a large CD going to a small CD.

3. Verify disk - which shows a large CD and a small CD and a magnifying glass between them.

4. Write files/folders to disk - which shows what looks like a manilla folder with a bunch of papers in it going to a hard disk.

5. Create image file from files/folders - which shows what looks like a manilla folder with a bunch of papers in it going to a small CD, and

6. Discovery - Which shows what looks like a computer paper print out with a bunch of zeros on it going to a hard disk.

If I click on any of these graphic images, it opens up a new page. Can anyonbe explain what clicking on each of these graphic images does?

| I'm thinking that if I image my hard drive, then I'll lose all that
| software if something expensive goes wrong with my computer so that I
| end up having to buy a new computer. I'm presuming the image of the
| hard disk on one computer can't be pasted onto a different hard drive in
| a different computer, can it?
|
It can, with some caveats:

* The new computer components need to have drivers
for the OS. If you buy a new computer today, the
motherboard, graphics, etc would need to have drivers
available for your OS. That's usually easier to do if you
build yourself. A Dell XYZ will probably only have drivers
available for whatever OS they put on their XYZ model,
and their motherboard may be custom. On the other
hand, if you build yourself you get thr drivers from the
maker and they usually support everything they can.

* The motherboard drivers need to be uninstalled before
imaging if you might be re-installing to a different board.
Otherwise there's a good chance it won't boot. When you
uininstall the drivers Windows will put in generic drivers,
which will enable you to boot so that you can install the
new drivers.

* If your copy of Windows is OEM licensed then it's
not licensed to go on a second machine. You may not
be able to activate it.

A disk image is still a good idea, though. I always create
images for all machines I use, after all the software is
installed. It's insurance against a failed hard disk, and
if something like malware destroys the install it just takes
a few minutes to re-install a fresh copy.

On Fri, 6 Jun 2014 01:34:13 +0200, nestork
wrote:


'Oren[_2_ Wrote:
;3244945']
An ISO image would be a solution, I agree. I don't think Nestor has
tried that yet.

I haven't tried it because I don't know how to try it.

But, he11, in the final analysis I'd ideally like to have access to the
installation program itself so I have the flexibility to use it when I
want, to load it on different computers and to reload it when and where
I want.

I'm thinking that if I image my hard drive, then I'll lose all that
software if something expensive goes wrong with my computer so that I
end up having to buy a new computer. I'm presuming the image of the
hard disk on one computer can't be pasted onto a different hard drive in
a different computer, can it?

Nestor,

I haven't done it for near two decades. It can still be done today.

You build an ISO image that has never been installed. Using the
original authentic install disk, Service packs, etc., include current
drivers, used software, and any possible thing you can think of.

This is called "slipstreaming", essentially a custom ISO image file.
Burned to disk / DVD and / or bootable.. Install the OS, execute the
files in order of necessity, add programs that you own, use, etc.
Basically you are building an image of "everything you need" for a new
and clean install.

For example. I have an authentic Win7 7 SP1 image (never installed).
From that I can slipstream any file I need on disk into a new ISO
image.

Okay I'm getting in the tall grass, but check into slipstreaming an
image ISO file.

One link is this: (there are others)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/creating-an-xp-sp3-slipstreamed-iso-file/1848

https://tinyurl.com/7bkhygz

You really should read up on this. I never knew that ImgBurn
could make disk images. I use it for writing CDs/DVDs. Maybe it
will work, but normally you'd use something you can boot from
a CD that would have more options. I use BootIt. There's also
Macrium and PartImage, if you don't want to pay, and a lot of
people use Acronis. (Personally, I don't think disk imaging is
something to cut corners on. If your backup is not worth spending
a few dollars then you probably don't need backup.)

It's also a good idea to partition: C drive doesn't need to be
the whole disk, and your data doesn't need to be on C drive.
It's easy to keep XP, with all software, between 1 and 3 GB.
My XP images all fit onto a CD. If you just have C drive, with lots
of photos, etc, and it's a total size of, say, 80 GB used, then a disk
image wil probably still be 40-60 GB. You're not going to get that
copied to a DVD. It's far better to put data on other partitions
and then back that up to disks separately. I generally write a disk
image to a data partition and then also copy it to CD or DVD.

But, again, this is really something you should learn about a bit
before doing it. There's no sense making disk images if you're not
prepared when you need them.



| I have the installation program for ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 on a USB drive.
|
| This web page says that ImgBurn will both Create and Resto
| 'Comparison of disc image software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'
| (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...image_software)
|


| Can I use this ImgBurn program to create an image of my hard disk so
| that if and when I need to clobber a virus by reformatting my hard drive
| and reloading XP, IE6 and my bookmarks, I can just write the image file
| over my existing hard drive contents? Will the imaging program do that
| or do I have to do that myself somehow?
|
| Can I use CD's or does it have to be an "optical" disk? (I understand
| "optical" disk means a DVD disk.) Can I use a USB drive?
|
| Does it make sense to store the image of my hard drive when it's as
| clean as a whistle ON THAT SAME HARD DRIVE, or in a completely separate
| location, such as a CD or USB drive?
|
| What I'm thinking is that if I create image disks of my business
| computer and my surfing computer, as long as I keep them separate and
| only use them in their corresponding computer, there still won't be any
| way from a virus to get from one computer to the other.
|
|
|
|
| --
| nestork

| You build an ISO image that has never been installed. Using the
| original authentic install disk, Service packs, etc., include current
| drivers, used software, and any possible thing you can think of.
|
| This is called "slipstreaming", essentially a custom ISO image file.
| Burned to disk / DVD and / or bootable.. Install the OS, execute the
| files in order of necessity, add programs that you own, use, etc.
| Basically you are building an image of "everything you need" for a new
| and clean install.
|
Creating a custom install disk is very different from disk
imaging, and it's doubtful he could set up his software that
way. With a disk image you have a copy of a partition that
can be written to disk: You copy C drive to a compressed
file and it can be written back -- as C drive and not just
as data. It's fairly easy with the right software and it allows
one to save an exact copy of the drive with everything installed
and configured just as one likes.

What you're talking about is usually done as a way to add
drivers and updates to an install disk. Windows then still needs
to be installed and configured and set up, and all the software
would still need to be installed.