GORDON BELL  Any customer who purchased Data Rescue 3 earlier can contact Prosoft directly to get a new boot DVD download link for free (if you paid to have a Data Rescue 3 DVD shipped to you, Prosoft will re-ship you the latest DVD this time at no additional cost---Just contact Prosoft sales (check prosoft website for contact info)..

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 3.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Boot from the DVD if you need to recover your main boot drive (or, if you have one, you can boot from a secondary bootable drive that has Data Rescue loaded as an application)....

Run as a regular application if you're scanning anything other than the main boot drive....

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi Tank,

I just replied to another similar post on another site so i'll use the same message I posted there. Your feedback is very appreciated but I did want to reply to you as we love to interact with our customers...

First off, thanks for looking at Data Rescue 3, as a current Data Rescue II owner.. We know that most customers use Data Rescue typically once or twice and then they put it away, maybe reaching for it again many years later. So we know that for most customers, upgrading isn't really something they're interested in. They used it when they needed it, but don't need it currently and therefore don't need or want to pay for an upgrade...With that said, we do have some staunch followers that always want the latest and greatest version around and we thank them for that continued support--

We could've released Data Rescue 3 as the only version that would be Snow Leopard compatible simply by never releasing Data Rescue II with the Snow Leopard compatibility built in, but that's just not our style ;-) We wanted to have all our Data Rescue II users get a Snow Leopard compatible build before we came out with Data Rescue 3.. I think that's pretty generous and I'm proud we did that, to be honest..

We launched Data Rescue II back in September of 2005 and we've done lots of builds since then.. We added support for Intel Machines, support for Leopard and then Snow leopard, all as free updates to Data Rescue II... I think that's probably a record (4 years of development and updates with no paid upgrades...). That's something I'm pretty proud of too...

So we've been giving away a lot of updates and stuff for free over the years.. This is our first paid upgrade since 2005... But we still know that most customers will only care about what version is available now, buy it, use it once and that's it... For those that want to keep on using Data Rescue II, of course it'll still work, but we're excited about the new features, power and performance increases in Data Rescue 3...

We'll have a new Data Rescue 3 down the road that will be 64-bit, and that'll be a free application update to any owners of Data Rescue 3 .. Making it 64-bit is indeed a substantial change and one that will take quite some time.. But it's on the radar for sure... In the meantime, this new version really is a substantial effort of engineering, worked and perfected over the past few years... We're excited about the new performance features like FileIQ® and improved scans and additional files supported.. It is a huge improvement over Data Rescue II, plain and simple..

We appreciate your thoughts and we know that for some, Data Rescue II will serve them just fine if they already own it... Down the road they may look to upgrade to Data Rescue 3 and we'll be there for them when they do...

Thanks again for the support and please contact us if you need anything--

Gordon from Prosoft--  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi all,

We did see some Defrag issues that would affect less than 1% of customers in past versions. Although that's a small percentage, considering the sales of Drive Genius, that was affecting a group of customers and we had strived to improve on that.. Even with a warning message to recommend a backup before running Defrag (or any major disk utility type of feature) we still saw many that didn't backup and if they were one of the very few that had an issue, it was indeed pretty upsetting (Understandably). Of course, when that happened, and there was no backup in place, it was frustrating and those customers would post their experiences (which is what MU is for..)-- Unfortunately most of the 99% that didn't have a problem usually wouldn't post and therefore doing a search would typically only show the posts of those that came into problems.

Defrag was greatly improved with 2.1.1 and therefore we're not seeing that at all now. However, with any disk utility software it's always recommended to have a backup before you work on your drive (we include the Clone feature which provides you with the fastest most thorough type of backup with a quick click).

We're very excited about these latest versions of Drive Genius as they represent improvements in all features, especially the popular features like Defrag and Repartition and DriveSlim.

Even with the improvements and continued performance boosts, we still always recommend a backup before using any disk utility. Any company that tells you to use their disk utility product and not worry about backing up first is indeed leading you down the wrong path, so we'll never really change that recommendation. Some people will take that recommendation and think, "Oh, wow, they want me to backup, their product must not be very stable." but that's just the case with this type of software. Even apple warns customers to backup before doing major changes or upgrades to your system---

We do appreciate all the feedback and I truly welcome those comments as they help us strive to improve our product.

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 2.2)

GORDON BELL  We're already working on a new build (coming soon) that of course is a free update-- Stay tuned-- (For now, if you do a restart that should get it back up and running)-- Please contact Prosoft support if you want to check out the new build in beta--(that will be available to our beta group shortly)--

Thanks

gordon from Joesoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi There,

Hopefully folks can understand that bandwidth does cost money. We pay akami quite a bit each month and when we used to give the boot DVD downloads away for free, we saw tens of thousands of downloads from IP addresses where we simply do not see many sales (eastern Europe and China).

It's important to note that application updates are indeed free- We never charge for an application update ( 2.1 to 2.2 or something)--

This most recent update is indeed a boot technology update (only needed if you have one of the brand-new machines which require that booting technology). Yes, we also fix bugs with each subsequent release, but hopefully users think that bug fixes and performance improvements are a good thing -

If you want to avoid the $5 download charge, we strongly recommend that you use a secondary bootable drive and run the Drive Genius 2 application from it (to work on your boot drive)-- If you need any help or instruction on how to get that up and running please do give our support team a call, we'd love to hear from you-

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 2.1.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi again,

We've discussed the bit torrent option but still have not gone that route (I don't know, just too close to the "other" bit torrent action that seems to be going on, so we stay clear)-- Many already use that and that's fine with us- We don't really make any money on the download and are happy that users are able to find alternative sources if the $5 is just too much-

We kind of get slammed from time to time for small charges like this (even though our competitors have much higher costs!)- We pride ourselves on free technical support (we even answer the phone (sounds corny doesn't it? Sad that phone support is something that is no longer the "norm"--)-

We'll continue to look at options which make sense for our customers as well as for us as a developer (we have to strive to make our options as easy-to-use as possible since we get very basic customer questions (Yes, we've been asked, "what does "drag and drop mean?"-). We have a tough job of catering to the basic, non-technical users as well as the ultra-high-level users that are out there. Sending a very basic user to Bit Torrent might require additional support help for that (that costs us money too, when customers want us to be on the phone with them for 20mins as they navigate that or complain about slow download time, etc). Others may simply be offended that we send them to bit torrent--

Thanks again for your feedback, we really do appreciate it!--

Cheers-

gordon   
(Version 2.1.1)

GORDON BELL  You're definitely correct, bandwidth costs money, and that is why we can't offer the 300MB+ image download for free- We already have free technical support via the phone, with our support team NOT based overseas, but actually here in our home office in CA. That is something we pride ourselves on-- I wish we could do free DVD downloads too, but it just isn't in the math- back when we used to do that, we had tens of thousands of dollars of downloads each week coming from IP addresses in parts of the world that we don't really sell to (eastern europe and asia). The $5 helps us manage that, plus, it honestly does cost to serve large downloads like that (our Akami bill is pretty substantial each month)-- MacUpdate is looking into some possible solutions to help the situation out--

FWIW, we sell a good portion of our product via outlets like the Apple Store (and even a super deal we offered with MacUpdate a few months back)-- Our per-unit revenue is nowhere near the $99 price in the majority of cases- You'd be surprised at our per-unit revenue from the MacUpdate promo for instance..Quite simply, we cannot pay our employees a decent wage, offer free support via phone (which is based in CA), continue to invest in the product AND give free DVD image downloads -- We wouldn't be in business long to be honest--

I do appreciate the input and I just wanted to write back some of the things on our end that prevent that---

Cheers and thanks for all the support!

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 2.1.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

I want to address a few things--

We've never heard of the streaming issue you've mentioned from anyone, anywhere, so we'd love to hear from you about this.. Are you streaming via itunes radio? We have many users that do that and as mentioned, have never heard about this--

As far as uninstalling: Hear is a product which affects the sounds on your mac, not just iTunes.. Therefore it is installed differently than a normal app (has to) so that it can be used on games, DVD movie playback, QT movies, iTunes and other apps.. If you don't like Hear, not a problem, simply use the included uninstaller, which removes it easily (yes, you have to restart, as mentioned, because of the type of program it is and how it runs)-- You can also turn Hear off for whichever apps you don't want it to affect --

We've had extremely happy users for Hear and offer a full 30-day demo to try it out-!

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

Thanks for the feedback, as you know we take the feedback our customers give us very seriously-- It's great to hear "wonderful product" and "this thing rocks", etc, but it's the more constructive comments/reviews that really help us understand how we can better our products and our offerings.

With Drive Genius 2 we had our first paid upgrade in 3 years. I think that's a long time to go without a paid upgrade in today's software world, but with that said, you can't just charge for an upgrade without providing some new features. With Drive Genius 2 the most noticeable change was the user interface but there are some additional things that came with DG 2 as well.

DriveSlim, Bootable Leopard DVD, improvements in Directory Repair and Defrag, small improvements in Shred, Improvements in Repair, and of course bug fixes and overall product improvements-

It's important to also point out that we have free technical support on the phone. That's important because I think many companies are abandoning that (and the support team is right here in our head office in California). Plus, if you ever want a new, updated Boot DVD, we offer that for just $5 (most other companies charge around $25). Considering that, I think that owning Drive Genius is actually quite reasonable (but I hear your thoughts!)---

We will be making some more improvements shortly (next few months) that will be part of a free update to Drive Genius 2 (app will autoupdate), so keep an eye out for that--

For anyone going to Macworld SF in January, we'll be there and I'll be in the booth each and every day so I'd love to hear from some of the MU (and VT) faithful that make that trek-- Come by, say hello, give your feedback and thoughts and pick up a Prosoft bag (just ask for Gordon and mention VT or MU)... If anyone needs passes to MWSF, we have a handful of free passes (just email us at sales@prosofteng.com and we'll send some your way, while supplies last )..

Cheers

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

As mentioned, Drive Genius is not immune to issues, even if those are very rare. NO SOFTWARE is immune to issues, not even those titles from Apple--

With that said, Drive Genius is one of the top-selling utilities at the Apple stores and other very large vendors such as Office Depot and Office Max (here in the US). You don't find other software titles there for a reason.

When you sell as much as we do, we have a much larger user base than other companies and therefore have much larger numbers of people who comment about our products (good and the very rare bad)..

As mentioned in my last post, we are spinning our wheels going back and forth here and therefore I do indeed invite you to give me a call next week if you'd like.

Sincerely,

Gordon  
(Version 2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there-

No problem with your complaint above (sounding like...)-- You have a right to comment and complain of course.

Yes, there are a few folks that have seen issue, but (not to sound too snide), the number of people we've seen with this issue is extremely, extremely low--

The number one selling feature of Drive Genius is Defrag, so it's safe to say that most of our customers for Drive Genius are using it to defrag their drive(s)- This is also the feature that Apple has been using Drive Genius at every Genius Bar around the world for over two years now (part of the TuneUp offered via ProCare).

If the issue you are seeing was happening to every user that used defrag, we'd see thousands of calls a day for this, as Drive Genius has over 100,000 users worldwide. I understand that hearing that you're in a very small group of those that have seen this happen won't make you feel any better, but it is definitely not something that we've seen too often-

As with any Defrag tool, there are very small numbers of things going awry, which when it happens, can be devastating if you don't have a recent backup- Having a drive corrupted can be frustrating to the point where you want to post about the experience (which people do). It's different than, say, just having to restart you Mac to get back up and running fine).

I understand your concern and your frustration based on your experience- As severe and frustrating as that is, it is definitely not the norm for Drive Genius users. In fact, it is extremely rare that users see any issues like that. You don't win Editor's Choice, Best of 2007,2008, 4.5 Mice, etc with product that has something "severely wrong" with the number one used feature. Drive Genius defrag wouldn't be used by Apple every single day around the world if there was something severely wrong, I'm sure you would agree, no?--

We could go back and forth here on MacUpdate but we'd be spinning our wheels to be honest. I invite you to contact me toll free at 1-877-477-6763- I am actually on a family vacation this entire week (yes, I am answering your posts on MU while on vacation with my family), so please wait till next week to reach out to me if you'd like to--

Sincerely,

Gordon  
(Version 2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

When using any disk utility, it's always recommended to backup. We specifically include a Clone feature in Drive Genius so that you can protect the data on the drive in case of a problem.

Although Drive Genius is the most awarded disk utility of the past few years and is used every single day around the world by Apple at the Genius Bar (for defragging!), there are a small number of cases where corruption can occur. When that happens, and someone didn't do a backup, it can be very frustrating for sure- Restoring from a Time Machine Backup is no picnic either (restoring from a device clone like the one included in Drive Genius, or from Carbon Copy Cloner can be easier for sure).

There is no bug to fix per se, but rather, all disk utility products can cause data corruption as they write to the disk-- Even though we've won the awards from all the major magazines, are used every day by Apple, and are one of the top-selling products on the market, I understand that won't make you feel better about your experience with Drive Genius, but we can honestly say that Drive Genius is one of the top products on the market--

If you'd like, our support team would love to hear from you to get some more background info about your set up, etc. We take all our customer feedback very seriously and dedicate ourselves to making our products better at every chance--

Sincerely,

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hear does not "require a restart every time"--

We are seeing a few isolated cases, where, after some amount of time (usually a few weeks or so), that Hear requires a restart. We are looking into the cause of this and once determined, can look for a bug fix for that. Its not occurring for most customers and therefore it makes it trickier to track down and reproduce.

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi again--

Thanks for the post.. We've tested it here and are not having any problems with loading a new version of iTunes (8.1 or other) or any other system updates... We'll continue to check into this.. We'd love it if you could contact us via support to open up a case for this--thanks--

Cheers--

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi again,

So I've been looking into your question and got this from our engineering group:

Threshold basically controls how much to amplify the signal, only it is

measured in the opposite direction. It is a kind of like a pair of scissors, which will

bring all the signal that exceeds the threshold down to the threshold

level, and then amplifies the signal so that the threshold is brought up

to whatever ceiling value is showing.

As an example: If Ceiling=0dB, that means to bring it to the maximum.

When Ceiling == Threshold, the signal is just cut (limited) at the

threshold level and no amplification is performed.

Of course, Limiter within Hear is a dynamics processor, which does not just clip the

signal, but rather, ensures that no audible clipping is made while the

signal stays within the given range.

One can think of a limiter as a volume control basically, which

carefully limits all the output that goes beyond what hardware can output.

Hope that helps --

Also, sorry to hear that you did not hear back from our support team- Did you send an email or use the form on our website ? Just trying to track that down so we can improve that experience too--

Cheers--

Gordon from JoeSoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Yes, we are looking to address the issue that the restart is helping to rectify.. Hopefully we'll have something posted in the near future-- Thanks for your feedback--

gordon  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

We are running several test machines with this set up and not seeing any issues-- Please contact our support team as we'd love to see what is going on -- Also, try a restart, as that may rectify the problem---

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi there-

Yes, we got a lot of feedback from our users in terms of new features they'd like to see added to Drive Genius, so we're excited to have the new DriveSlim™ function as a free update.. It does do the Universal Binary removal and language support removal (like Xslim), but it also does other stuff like Duplicate File scan (with deletion of duplicates, we put alias' in their place), Large File Scan (find old video files and other files you might not realize are even on your drive, and delete them easily), Cache/Temp File Scan (delete them easily... We even have Orphan File scan (must use expert user preferences, discussed in the manual.. Due to nature of Orphan File scan, we really don't promote that use for most users..

We are excited to add all these new features at no cost to Drive Genius 2 users, and we'll continue to improve Drive Genius, add new features and power, and take care of our customers as best we can.. This is the same philosophy we followed when we offered the new Leopard Boot DVD at no charge to all our Drive Genius 2 customers.. We even paid for the shipping of the free DVD, which is kind of unheard of I think nowadays. We do appreciate all the feedback, constructive criticism, bug reports, new feature ideas and support...

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

Thanks for posting--

I will check with support to see about your issues. I am not in support, but I did have the support manager work with our QA group to specifically test Hear, 10.5.5 and Skype and we didn't see any problem-- I'll have them also check what version of QT they have installed-- Please do contact support and ask for David- We'd love to track down what issues you're seeing--thanks in advance guys--

Gordon  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  We're checking on World of Warcraft now... We had issues with Skype before but had fixed them with the last release (You're running 1.0.3, correct?)---We just tested Skype here and aren't seeing any issue

We have not had anyone contact support with any issues with 10.5.5 and we're running that here with no problems.. We'll keep checking-- I'd be good to have you contact our support team with the actual system set up, issues you're seeing,etc (we don't monitor these pages for support, so it's always best to contact them for that directly)--that'll help us track down and reproduce the issues you're seeing (which we're not seeing with other customers)..

Cheers,

Gordon from Joesoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi Dremwkr,

Joesoft is always appreciative of feedback and we routinely check MacUpdate for posts about our products (both good and bad)..

We are looking into the issue you're seeing with WoW and 10.5.5... Please note that the version you're using is something that was released before 10.5.5 even came out, although that might not be the root of the issue--

We did do testing with WoW and did not see that issue before, but we'll be working to reproduce that on our end and look for a fix in the next build..

As far as uninstalling, you have to use the Hear Uninstaller, which removes all pieces associated with Hear (after that, you do a restart). This is due to the nature that Hear is working (daemon-app), and many of the third-party uninstall products do not do a good job of removing the app completely (we include the uninstaller anyways, so always best to use that since it comes from the developer)..

Nonetheless, we do appreciate your feedback and we'll look into the issues you're reporting here and hopefully can have them addressed shortly--

Cheers,

Gordon from Joesoft  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  If you deleted the files, then yes, OS X will delete the naming structure that goes along with those files, at the time of the deletion (it's just how OS X works..)

If the drive had become corrupted, then the files and their names are still intact and we can get names back, folder hierarchy back, etc...

I'm not sure what you mean by Mbox are unusable.. Please contact our support team to see if we can help out!

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

Sorry you did not like the Hear product. Most customers have been very happy with the product and how it improves their music, movies, games,etc.... It's really important to make sure you tweak the EQ Settings to your preference (the standards are just starting points...)--

Because of the way Hear works, you cannot simply trash the prefs file, delete the app,etc.. Hear works system-wide, which means it must be uninstalled using the uninstaller (under the Hear drop-down menu)-- By trying to remove it piece-by-piece, yes, you created a little extra work for yourself... It's easy, just use the uninstaller and restart and you'll be fine---

Cheers,

Gordon from JoeSoft--  
(Version 1.0.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the post... We have indeed seen conflicts with Skype and other similar apps like Skype. We will be releasing a new version of Hear this week that addresses those issues..

We've not seen system crashes and haven't heard of anything like that via our support center. I'd love to address that if you've seen posts for that somewhere.

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.2)

GORDON BELL  After uninstalling using Hear's uninstaller, you must restart (the app runs as a Daemon, so that is required)-- Let us know via support if you are still experiencing distortion after the restart...

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.2)

GORDON BELL  For those seeing the CoreAudio and other Activity Monitor "Not Responding" alarms..

This link gives a little more background about what is going on with that. Also, please note that the very latest release of Hear has addressed this problem with Activity Monitor, so you will not get these false alarms..

http://www.macworld.com/article/134188/2008/06/0627bugsnfixes.html   
(Version 1.0.2)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

Thanks for the post about Skype. We are looking into this right now to work on a fix for this.. Thanks for the heads up--

Gordon from JoeSoft/Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.2)

GORDON BELL  Hi There,

Not sure if you mean "mood", which is a preset we have or "demo mode"--

Nonetheless, both seem to be working fine and we're not seeing any others who are reporting this... Please contact our support team so we can troubleshoot this--thanks!

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.2)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

You mention a PowerMac.. We're curious what OS you're running. Please contact our support team as we'd love to look into that for you...

I'm assuming you already meet the system requirements posted:

http://www.joesoft.com/products/stox_sysreq.php

Mac OS X: 10.4 or higher

Internet Connection

Minimum memory requirement 256MB

Let us know (please send email to our support team).

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.2)

GORDON BELL  Gordon from Prosoft here,

We're looking into this and it does look to be something with Activity Monitor, as similar apps are seeing the same thing- There is a lot of discussion no this on developer pages,etc..

The important thing to note is that it's not hung. It looks as if Activity Monitor is simply reporting it as "Not Responding". Of course, if you hear that Hear is working (making your audio sound better,etc) then it is definitely responding, no matter what Activity Monitor is saying...

Basically, it looks like Activity Monitor has it's hands over its ears, saying, "I can't hear you! I can't hear you! Blah blah blah...", when in reality, it's working fine, no reason to be alarmed :-) We just need to find out why Activity Monitor is acting that way and reporting this incorrectly..

Nonetheless, we are working with developer relations at Apple to get to the root of the issue so that it reports correctly.. Hopefully we'll see that fix very soon-

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft..  
(Version 1.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi again,

Thanks for posting the reasons behind your review. I do appreciate that and can see how you came to your choice to give Data Rescue II a 2-star review (even if I still don't agree with the rating! :-)

We do mention the file name loss in our FAQs. Even more than that, we offer a full demo which we heavily promote and really want customers to try before they buy. We have that free demo offer all over our website and our sales team always tells people to try that first.. And by using the demo, customers (if they haven't read the FAQs or the manual) will then see that their file names are not able to be recovered in most instances...

With your feedback, I will look at our webpages and see if we can maybe add that fact in a few other places too.. We won't lead the page with "Won't recover your file names for deleted files" as no company markets their product by stressing what a product doesn't do, but i think we can probably add it in a way that makes it there for the customer to see more easily--

I'm still wondering if you had done the Deleted File scan, and chose which file types you wanted to recover. I'm also kinda curious how many deleted files Data Rescue found for you too! :-)

cheers,

gordon from prosoft  
(Version 1.2.1)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

Yep, like you mention, the fact is that for deleted (trashed) files, most of the metadata is indeed lost upon deletion via OS X.. We do the best possible recovery with what is still on the drive.. This is not true for a drive that is corrupted or won't mount.. When we recover a crashed/non-mounting drive, we can almost always recover file names, folder hierarchy,etc..

It's important to also point out that with Data Rescue, you can indeed search only for certain file types. That is, if you're trying to recover deleted PDFs, we can scan for that only (so your results list should only be PDFs, not "all" your deleted files.. That really helps bring that list of recovered deleted files down.

To be honest, I think a 2-star review is a bit harsh, considering that no other tool can do what you're asking Data Rescue II to do. We have hundreds of written testimonies from users that are ecstatic about recovering deleted files they thought were gone for good-

http://www.prosoftengineering.com/press/testimonies.php

Also, deleted-file recovery is only one way people use this product. Data Rescue II is also used to recover crashed hard drives. Apple, FBI, CIA, DoD, they all use it, as do many leading hard drive recovery shops that will charge you $5,000 to recover your drive (even when Data Rescue is all that is needed!).

The comment that you shouldn't use this product if you can recreate your files is indeed understood but in reality, even our sales department would say, "Sure, if you can recreate the files, why would you spend $99 on software in the first place".

Thanks for your feedback, even if I do think 2-stars is a bit harsh for this digital-life-saving product :-)

Cheers-

Gordon from Prosoft

PS: Hopefully you understand my post here. I do value your thoughts and comments on the subject, I just wanted to give our response to those criticisms, which I hope you can agree, is at least a step in the right direction. I wish all software companies would see the value in their customers' comments and sites such as MacUpdate as much as we do at Prosoft.   
(Version 1.2)

GORDON BELL  Hear is actually the replacement for OSS 3D. With Hear, we've fixed many issues that OSS 3D had as well as redesigned the main UI and have added a substantial amount of presets to the product. We also have plans to add additional features (free updates) over the next few months which will further expand the differences between OSS 3D and Hear. Hear also comes with full technical support (phone AND/OR email). Please note that we have a discounted upgrade offer for former OSS 3D users (Just $19.95):

http://www.joesoft.com/oss3d/

Cheers--

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Drive Genius 2 comes on a Bootable Tiger DVD currently-- As you probably know, Apple has yet to release a bootable Leopard DDK- We are hoping that Apple releases a Leopard Boot DDK soon but we are still waiting as of today (March 7th, 2008)

Drive Genius 2 also works as an application while running leopard--

Therefore: If you want to use DG on your internal SATA drive, you need to boot from the Drive Genius 2 boot DVD (this is because we've put some safeguards into Drive Genius 2, which prevent you from encountering some known bugs in Mac OS 10.5.0-10.5.2 -

We're confident that Apple will have these bugs fixed in 10.5.3 when that is released....

If you want to use DG on any FireWire or USB drives, simply run Drive Genius as an application (no need to boot from the DVD)--  
(Version 2.0.2)

GORDON BELL  Hi There,

Thanks for taking time to post an update and glad we could help you out!

Some folks may be wondering why our serials aren't tied into dates. The "problem" is that Drive Genius can be found at various stores (around the globe), including large stores like Apple, Office Depot (yep, carrying mac titles now!) and upcoming at Office Max and possibly Best Buy... As you can imagine, we build products for those shelves and then ship out.. Therefore the serial inside the box would never be a true representation of when it was purchased by the customer..

Hopefully we've made it as easy as possible for customers to get their upgrades in this kind of situation, but i do appreciate feedback.

Thanks again for posting the update and let us know if you ever need anything-

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 2.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Any customer who purchased a full, new version of Drive Genius 1.x after October 1st, 2007 qualifies for a free upgrade to Drive Genius 2!

If you qualify, simply contact our sales team- If you bought directly from us, we can look you up.. You'll get a free boot DVD download link and a new serial number for Drive Genius 2... If you bought somewhere other than our online store, you only need a dated receipt.

Yesterday, in our release of Drive Genius 2, we also posted an all-new website. The free upgrade info had been posted for past 3.5 months, but was not present on the new pages yesterday (or this morning). We've since corrected that, and put that text on our upgrade page (thanks for the heads up!)

If any customers purchased the license today or yesterday, and now realize that they fall into that free upgrade range, they can simply contact us and we'll do a full refund, assuming they qualify according to the upgrade window.

I apologize for the sales person last week not informing you of an impending release. We've been telling customers of that release for some time now, and we even previewed Drive Genius 2.0.0 at Macworld in San Francisco last month (so it's not something we were hiding).. No fear though, you as well as many others do qualify for a free upgrade (4 month window actually!)....

Thanks for the support and please feel free to contact me or any other Prosoft team member if you need anything--

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 2.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Upgrade cost equals $59 if you want the download only, and $5 extra for shipping.. First major paid upgrade we've had for Drive Genius in a bit over 3 years.... Most of our competitors charge you $29 plus shipping just to send you a new CD or DVD if you've lost yours (not even talking about a version upgrade...just a disk replacement!).. And we offer free telephone support at no charge and we haven't sent the support team function overseas (they're right in or California headquarters...No plans to ever change that either...)--- But I do appreciate the feedback.. I see you have a few other products from us and I appreciate the support---

Cheers!

Gordon from Prosoft...  
(Version 2.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Thanks for the heads up on the incorrect text for the demo limitations..

We launched a new site to coincide with the launch of Drive Genius 2 and it seems that the demo limitations text for DG 2 were incorrect--

Drive Genius 2 does indeed have a very limited demo. Truth be told, it's hard to have a demo of a utility like this (one that doesn't need to be installed, used for one-time maintenance, etc..)--

As far as the product and being able to trust us... Well, part of that trust comes from dealing with us, but you can also get some idea of the product simply from the fact that Apple uses Drive Genius at the Genius Bar (and you've been using Prosoft code for years now, since we've sold quite a bit of technology off to apple over the years...)...

That said, we've gone ahead now and updated the text to better explain the limits of Drive Genius (which, as mentioned, is very limited)...

Thanks for your feedback and update--

cheers,

gordon from prosoft  
(Version 2.0.1)

GORDON BELL  Gordon from Joesoft here.....

We built this product with input from many, many people, and many of them really love how the product turned out. However, every product out there can stand to be improved!

We'd love to get some good feedback from the rest of the folks that try this product out. Let us know what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see us add, etc.... Just send us an email or call us toll free (1-877-477-6763) from with in the US.

Thanks for all the support~

Gordon  
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi Ben (and others).

Sorry to hear that Data Rescue did not work for you in this instance. If you still have the drive, I can offer for you to send it into us. We will take a look at it here and if we're not able to do anything, then I can have a data recovery house quote you for the recovery (that is, if we're not able to get any data from it using some additional techniques we have).. The big question first is, does the drive show up in Disk Utility. If it does, then that is a great sign (even if it's not mounting). If the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility, then that is a sign of bigger problems... Not to beat a dead horse, but we always recommend to run the free demo from our website. Ben, if you're reading this, please do give our support team another call or call me directly at 1-877-4-Prosoft, we'd love to see if there was anything else we can do for you--

Cheers--

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.1.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

Thanks for the feedback on Data Rescue II.. I'd love to hear more about your recovery (since 15 days of scanning is extremely abnormal (not unheard of, but probably less than 1% of our cases show this long of a scan). If you have a second or two, please do call us toll-free at 1-877-477-6763 or email us at sales (at)prosofteng.com as we're always curious to find out why some folks are encountering these very long scan times..

As far as the serial number you get with your boxed product (from Other World Computing or any other partner) those will not have any problem with the downloaded demo, so have no fear of that---

Thanks again--

Gordon from Prosoft-  
(Version 1.1.1 )

GORDON BELL  Great to hear you're one of the lucky first (ok, million, two or three) that have a new iPhone.. :-)

Yes, some of the features of Jax are included with the iPhone, however there are other features currently that are not supported solely by the iPhone. Music Map and additional visualizers with scrolling lyrics are just two of the most popular features of Jax that people have been excited about (those features are used in iTunes, not on your iPhone).

Also, as you know, you can check out YouTube videos "live" on your iPhone as long as you have a signal (the iPhone doesn't currently store them on your phone). That's great for YouTube videos and for when you have a signal.. However, Jax allows you to download AND store many video files onto your iPhone (video iPod, AppleTV or iTunes).

You can load YouTube videos of course, but Jax also supports Yahoo videos, Ebaumsworld videos, Google videos, MySpace videos, College Humor, Veoh, Uber.com as well as some of the more adult-themed video sites as well (so many people ask, so we do indeed mention it, although not in our official marketing). Jax also allows you to import your own home movies (AVI or QT format) into iTunes which also allows you to send them to your video iPod, Apple TV, and iPhone. You're able to load up many different videos from many different sources, which is something the iPhone doesn't do on its own.

Jax really does have a lot of features and we'll be adding more as well. One thing to remember about Jax is that it is an open-api app (similar to widgets in theory) and we will be posting the API within the next month so that individuals may post additional features to add.

cheers~!

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi there,

Gordon from Prosoft here,

Thanks for posting this and bringing it to our attention. We're looking into this and I welcome your suggestions and ideas for Jax-- Feel free to contact us directly as well if you'd like--

Cheers

Gordon

gbell/at/prosofteng.com  
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Gordon from Prosoft here....

Please notice the Life2Go upgrade offer now posted:

http://www.joesoft.com/products/jax.php

Cheers---

Gordon   
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Gordon from Prosoft here,

There will be a Life2Go upgrade offer of $29 posted either today or tomorrow. Jax offers quite a few more features than L2G and will be an open API app (which will allow many more features to be developed, similar to widgets, except this is for iTunes)-- Much more to come---

Cheers

gordon  
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi Zews,

I can definitely understand the situation, i've been there before and you're totally right, it's good to take a break from it when it gets to that point...

I wish you safe travels and should you wish to revisit this when you get back in town, we're here to help..

Sincerely,

gordon from prosoft---  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hello Again Zews,

Our support team has tried contacting you a few times since the first set of contact but haven't heard back from you. Please do contact us again as we'd love to help you out, especially since you're attempting something (want to make a bootable clone) that most of our customers do without fail. There may be a few exclusions set in your backup that are causing the backup to not be bootable-

Please call or email us when you get a chance---

gordon from prosoft  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi There,

I'm wondering how it is going.. I believe you spoke to someone in support...   
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  My mistake.. Someone here mentioned two messages from you and I always think "messages" means Voicemails.. It turns out that person meant the two emails... Nonetheless a tech is replying to you as I type..   
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  I just checked with support and it looks like the only contact we have from you is from today, about 30 minutes ago (two voicemails) as well as two emails to our support form around the same time. Typically we can turn around and get back to folks within the hour. I believe you should hear from one of our support members shortly -- Thanks for your notes and we look forward to working with you in a short bit---

gordon  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Ok, i will find out from support if they've heard recently from anyone with this problem (I'm not sure if you use "Zews" in your email to us and therefore will just check into what open items are still not replied to... Also, you can call me toll free if you'd like at

1-877-477-6763 -- I'm interested in hearing more about it (when the email was sent, etc, so I can try to find out why the response has been so slow). Usually our team replies that same day and it sounds like it's taken a few days.. I just want to see if anything is broken on our end and I appreciate your help ---thanks!

gordon  
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi there-

Gordon from Prosoft here..

Have you spoken to Prosoft Support? Just wondering..

Making a bootable clone of your main boot drive, onto an external FW drive is the main way people use Data Backup 3, so to hear you're having problems with it is cause for concern on our end... Prosoft support is free by phone or email-

cheers,

gordon   
(Version 3.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi There,

Gordon from Prosoft here..... We've lowered the price on Klix to $29.95 --- Customers who bought at the higher price from our website may contact us for a refund of the difference or take double-the-credit towards an additional product.... MacUpdate pricing info will be updated tomorrow to reflect this change~

Cheers,

Gordon from Prosoft  
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

This product will probably "mostly" sell in stores such as Apple Stores, Best Buy, CompUSA and camera stores... If it sells for $50 on the shelf, we end up getting about $22 for it. Take into consideration the costs for packaging and were into the teens....We also offer free technical support for those that need to be stepped through things, so there is some cost with that too... It all adds up.. We don't make killing on the products like one might think, and I know there are some options available in the freeware/shareware market but most of the people looking to get this product are ones that will find it in the stores and who may need support to help them with the process.. For that market, I don't think we can get much lower in price (and still be able to offer great support, based here in the states by a support staff that is employeed by Joesoft (not some outside group).   
(Version 1.0)

GORDON BELL  Hi, Gordon from Prosoft here,

I'm always shocked at some folks' postings here and this last one is quite interesting.

Drive Genius not finding any problems with a drive not booting is definitely strange. Drive Genius has been winning awards for the past 2 years (yes, even head-to-head against Diskwarrior). I'd recommend you contact our free technical support department since you're seeing results that are very non-typical.

I am surprised that you mentioned using Norton Utilities. Most folks know that that product hasn't worked well for years now...

As far as the serial number issue: If you have Drive Genius loaded onto the drive as an application (with the serial number loaded), then when you boot from the emergency CD it will not need the serial number... Yes, if you boot from the CD to scan a drive that doesn't have Drive Genius on it you will need to plug in the serial, but how often is you main boot drive crashing? Entering a serial number once should've really cause that much despair.

The serial number (as with all software), is the license key that proves you own the software.. There's not a whole lot of software out there that will run without a serial number.

The problem is that we really can't ship Boot CDs out that don't require a serial number cause that would allow anyone to make 10, 20, 500 copies of that CD and sell/distribute pretty easily. Hopefully you can see the reasons why the serial number is needed  
(Version 1.5.3)

GORDON BELL  Hi there--

Yeah, i mistakenly just listed it as a regular comment-- But yeah, I'm from Prosoft-- If you or anyone else has any problems, issues or questions, definitely call us up, we'll take care of 'ya --   
(Version 1.5.1)

GORDON BELL  This is indeed a free update! There are update links all over the Drive Genius page to click on--

If you need to update just the application, please note that that will only help you when you use Drive Genius on your non-boot drive.. Most likely people will want the new Boot CD, so they can boot from the CD and then use Drive Genius on their boot drive--- If that's the case, you can make a $10 order ($5 plus shipping)--- This $10 gets you download links for the new Boot CD download (it's about a 240MB download) AND we also ship out the CD to you via US Mail (in case you can't download the large files, or prefer the official, stamped CD from us).

This new version, 1.5.1 is now shipping on a dual-boot CD... For customers who already purchased the 1.5 updated CDs, the Intel-Boot CD included in your shipment is indeed a dual-boot CD (will boot both the PPC and Intel-based Macs)-- If you have any questions though, definitely call us at 1-877-4-PROSOFT or email us at sales@prosofteng.com  
(Version 1.5.1)

GORDON BELL  No Data Recovery tool is 100% effective in all cases. That's why we have the free demo to try before you buy... In very rare cases it may look like you can get your file(s) back but when the full recovery is done, the files are indeed corrupt (on your drive, not because of running our software). Those cases are very, very rare. We would not have the long-standing love of so many customers if that was always the case -- Of course, as with any customer who has an issue, we'd invite you to contact our support team..   
(Version 1.1 )