Ben Myers...

True. I used the phrase "money grubber" earlier in this thread.

How Gibson chooses to run his business is his problem. He may not think he has
a product that would sell in higher volume if the price was lower. Honestly, I
agree with him. SpinRite is a niche product, plain and simple. It is not for
the run-of-the-mill average desktop computer owner. It is fine for techie
geeks, which are still in a small minority in the vast galaxy that is the
computer business.

Zone Alarm is not Steve's... Ben Myers


On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:38:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
SNIP

First of all...I never said "money grubber".
I believe spinrite should be more available at a reasonable cost.
I once emailed Mr. Gibson and said if he made spinrite's price more
affordable he would make up his profit on volume of sales. (no reply)
I also do not care for Zone Alarm.

Symantec has a removal tool(s) for its security software, named after Peter
Norton, who sold them his good name (trademarked) and reputation along with his
old-time DOS anti-virus software. If they paid him enough, I don't think he
cares about his reputation any more. He hasn't been heard from much ever since.
Maybe he retired to Acapulco or Cancun or somewhere else, to count his wealth.
wikipedia does not mention what he did after 2000, so he must still be alive and
well... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:52:17 -0500, "S.Lewis" wrote:


"JayB" wrote in message
...
perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.




Is that the same guy who has a software removal tool with his name on it?




heh

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
Symantec has a removal tool(s) for its security software, named after
Peter
Norton, who sold them his good name (trademarked) and reputation along
with his
old-time DOS anti-virus software. If they paid him enough, I don't think
he
cares about his reputation any more. He hasn't been heard from much ever
since.
Maybe he retired to Acapulco or Cancun or somewhere else, to count his
wealth.
wikipedia does not mention what he did after 2000, so he must still be
alive and
well... Ben Myers



It was a rhetorical question.

"Our software is so good that we had to create a utility/sw tool to remove
it."

I'd hate to have to walk into that office every day knowing that. Peter
Norton may not have to do so, but countless others do.

It's a farce.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:41:05 +1200, Tom Cole
wrote:

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:59:12 -0500, journey wrote:

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:57:58 +1200, Tom Cole
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:52:16 -0500, journey wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:09:11 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:37:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 19, 3:46*pm, Ben Myers
wrote:
Got an email back from Steve Gibson. *He said that his SpinRite page now has a
correct spelling for my name. *It does... Ben

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:40:34 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Can't Gibson Research spell...or is this a different Ben M. ?

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

p_z

He must read here...Steve, your products are bloated and expensive.

I use Avast and Kerio's free firewall. I wouldn't consider buying from
anyone as money oriented as you.

Spinrite isn't a firewall or virus checker. Its a hard drive
diagnostic and it's been around for ages so I know it's tried and
tested. I agree on the surface it's expensive but considering what it
does and how long it's been around, it might be worth every penny.
I believe those in the business use this software as one of their
tools.

I'd like to try SpinRite's post-disaster recovery on my Maxtor drive
that went bad, but there doesn't seem to be a trial version. I don't
mind shelling out money for good software but the price is a little
steep for me considering I can't check it out first. Maybe there is a
trial someplace and I'm just missing it.

There's not a trial version, but Steve Gibson offers a 30 day
no-questions-asked money back guarantee. See
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm "Why is there no trial demonstration for
SpinRite?"

Thanks Tom and RnR for pointing out the 30 day money back guarantee. I
would like to try it on my Maxtor drive that had the problems. Usually
I e-mail the developer and ask for a free or reduced license in
exchange for an honest review, and I have been granted a lot of free
licenses from that and also for being one of the most active beta
testers of some programs. Before trying SpinRite with the money back
guarantee I have to be clear with myself that I intend on keeping the
product if I find it to be of value. Considering that I have about
8-10 other external drives that are showing their age it might
worthwhile to have SpinRite esp. since it seems highly regarded.

Journey, You should be aware that because SpinRite is a DOS application,
it does *not* work well with external drives (e.g. USB or FireWire
connected). You should be prepared to remove the drive from the
enclosure and connect it directly to a motherboard or HD controller
board for best (fastest) results.

Whew, thank you for that info. I probably would have found it out
when I looked into it more, but you saved me some time.

My 250GB drives are getting very old. At least they are the prior
generation Seagate which are pretty good. It's hard to keep things
straight with so many "lower capacity" drives. From now on anything I
get will be 1TB, on a "just in time basis".

I wonder if there is a good utility to monitor those older external
USB drives. It's on my to-do list.

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:52:16 -0500, RnR wrote:

Honestly I can't think of many that have been around as long. Perhaps
there are but regardless Spinrite is a valuable tool and if you
consider what recovery firms charge to recover your data, Spinrite is
a bargain g. Of course if you back up "often" then perhaps
Spinrite isn't necessary????

---- but maybe I should consider it for my new pc business because
lately I'm in the pc repair/improvement business thanks to my
inlaws... I never realized how valuable my pc knowledge is ...
REALLY but I won't make any money because I spend too much time
tweaking after the fix :-(

For inlaws I understand the free tech support. For friends I
sometimes charge, and for acquantences I always charge. It's
interesting how people are my friend when they want free computer
support and then they back off when I say that I would charge for my
services. I've offered a one-on-one trade of my computer services if
someone would clean my apartment, but no takers so far :-)

Because SpinRite goes right down to the bare iron, issuing register-level
commands to drives (not BIOS calls and not old-time DOS calls), your only
recourse to use SpinRite is to remove the drives from their external USB cases
and install directly connected to a motherboard IDE or SATA port.

You might also try HDAT2, another DOS program which can also load drivers to
handle various interface types including USB-attached drives. I have not tried
it yet with a USB-attached hard drive, but a driver has long existed for DOS
programs to access USB devices, even though USB was invented well after DOS fell
out of favor as a way of doing things.

It may be worthwhile to look into some Linux disk diagnostics, perhaps packaged
in a diagnostics distro. Those Linux folk are pretty clever and they are
unencumbered by the uncooperative Microsoft... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:19:25 -0500, journey wrote:
SNIP
Whew, thank you for that info. I probably would have found it out
when I looked into it more, but you saved me some time.

My 250GB drives are getting very old. At least they are the prior
generation Seagate which are pretty good. It's hard to keep things
straight with so many "lower capacity" drives. From now on anything I
get will be 1TB, on a "just in time basis".

I wonder if there is a good utility to monitor those older external
USB drives. It's on my to-do list.

Your statement is a good start of an anti-Symantec campaign... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:55:22 -0500, "S.Lewis" wrote:


"Ben Myers" wrote in message
.. .
Symantec has a removal tool(s) for its security software, named after
Peter
Norton, who sold them his good name (trademarked) and reputation along
with his
old-time DOS anti-virus software. If they paid him enough, I don't think
he
cares about his reputation any more. He hasn't been heard from much ever
since.
Maybe he retired to Acapulco or Cancun or somewhere else, to count his
wealth.
wikipedia does not mention what he did after 2000, so he must still be
alive and
well... Ben Myers



It was a rhetorical question.

"Our software is so good that we had to create a utility/sw tool to remove
it."

I'd hate to have to walk into that office every day knowing that. Peter
Norton may not have to do so, but countless others do.

It's a farce.

Check Peter Norton out----
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...ton/index.html

He does an awful lot. He must have made a fortune,

Joan

Ben Myers wrote:
Symantec has a removal tool(s) for its security software, named after Peter
Norton, who sold them his good name (trademarked) and reputation along with his
old-time DOS anti-virus software. If they paid him enough, I don't think he
cares about his reputation any more. He hasn't been heard from much ever since.
Maybe he retired to Acapulco or Cancun or somewhere else, to count his wealth.
wikipedia does not mention what he did after 2000, so he must still be alive and
well... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:52:17 -0500, "S.Lewis" wrote:


"JayB" wrote in message
...

perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.




Is that the same guy who has a software removal tool with his name on it?




heh

He made out well selling his company, his name, his photo image, his trademarks
and all his software to Symantec. When he sold off the company, he had grown it
well beyond your typical small entrepreneur outfit. I would bet that his deal
included recurring royalties for use of his name, trademarks, etc, so he still
has a regular inflow of cash... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:44:24 -0400, Joan Hansen wrote:

Check Peter Norton out----
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...ton/index.html

He does an awful lot. He must have made a fortune,

Joan

Ben Myers wrote:
Symantec has a removal tool(s) for its security software, named after Peter
Norton, who sold them his good name (trademarked) and reputation along with his
old-time DOS anti-virus software. If they paid him enough, I don't think he
cares about his reputation any more. He hasn't been heard from much ever since.
Maybe he retired to Acapulco or Cancun or somewhere else, to count his wealth.
wikipedia does not mention what he did after 2000, so he must still be alive and
well... Ben Myers

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:52:17 -0500, "S.Lewis" wrote:


"JayB" wrote in message
.. .

perhaps he confused Steve Gibson with Peter Norton.
that's the first thing that came to my mind when i read it.




Is that the same guy who has a software removal tool with his name on it?




heh

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:24:28 -0400, Ben Myers
wrote:

Because SpinRite goes right down to the bare iron, issuing register-level
commands to drives (not BIOS calls and not old-time DOS calls), your only
recourse to use SpinRite is to remove the drives from their external USB cases
and install directly connected to a motherboard IDE or SATA port.

You might also try HDAT2, another DOS program which can also load drivers to
handle various interface types including USB-attached drives. I have not tried
it yet with a USB-attached hard drive, but a driver has long existed for DOS
programs to access USB devices, even though USB was invented well after DOS fell
out of favor as a way of doing things.

It may be worthwhile to look into some Linux disk diagnostics, perhaps packaged
in a diagnostics distro. Those Linux folk are pretty clever and they are
unencumbered by the uncooperative Microsoft... Ben Myers

Thanks Ben -- it's way over my head. Right now I use a program called
Second Copy to back up my data to a duplicate drive (I guess that
would be called a mirror, not sure what the term Second Copy uses; I
set them up a while ago).

When I sold systems frequently I would throw in things like an older
external drive. That was in the days when Dell had the $750 off
coupons. I've settled on a ThinkPad T61 14" which I love as my main
computer, and my trusty XPS 410 (with two 24" monitors, one landscape,
one portrait -- the 2408FPW Ultrasharp 24" is a great monitor,
probably the best on the market).

FWIW, I love Second Copy. It's very flexible and can handle complex
as well as simple tasks.

Oops, maybe I've hijacked a thread! Say la vie, it's all about me lol
:-)