runtime software - thanks for nothing

I think what Runtime were actually trying to say is that it was a mistake on your part to use the FREE version on a customers drive.
If you had used the paid product and had this issue then they would help you sort it out.

We use ShadowProtect IT edition ourselves here to backup any customer's drives and it is an awesome product although it is expensive.
We also use it on servers though so the cost is not really an issue.
 
I think what Runtime were actually trying to say is that it was a mistake on your part to use the FREE version on a customers drive.
If you had used the paid product and had this issue then they would help you sort it out.

Which part of:

there is no way to repair it or fix it.

...do you not understand?

It would not have mattered, free or paid. The software produced a corrupt image that is not retrievable.

The issue, if you had read the thread, is all the bollocks about "if you buy the product we will provide tech support"... for an issue they apparently cannot fix.

The software produced a bad image.

I asked for support.

Their response: a whole bunch of links to docs and faq's - none of which relate even remotely to the problem. And a request that I buy the product so that they can offer tech support.

I push the matter further with them.

They concede the issue is irrevocable.

-

The correct response would have been:

"Sorry for the inconvenience! Sometimes our software just does that when there's too many files. Unfortunately your customer's data is irretrievable"

.
 
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Something we always do, once a backup image has been taken of the clients drive, is mount the backup image and make sure it is readable before going ahead with the nuke n pave.

You never know when your own storage device may develop bad sectors.

Anyway I know how you feel.
I had a similar issue with another piece of software that's pushed on this site, D7.

I tried out the user profile backup part of D7, which worked fine, the problem was after I'd formatted the clients drive and reloaded windows the profile data couldn't be restored with the free version of D7.
A warning about this before doing the backup would have been nice.
When I asked about this and suggested the warning I was basically laughed at as I was complaining about a free product.
Not the best way to get me to buy the software.
 
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I've used DriveImage XML a few times in the past & while it did work it was painfully slow compared to Acronis. I can't remember the exact difference, but it seemed like it was about 2-3 times slower than Acronis when creating an image so I stopped using it.

Seeing all the bad reviews for Acronis doesn't exactly give me a lot of confidence in using their product anymore. Has anyone had any problems with the newest free versions of Acronis that Seagate & Western Digital offer?
 
Seeing all the bad reviews for Acronis doesn't exactly give me a lot of confidence in using their product anymore. Has anyone had any problems with the newest free versions of Acronis that Seagate & Western Digital offer?

Bad reviews? Acronis True Image? because backup & recovery version is awesome. The true image sucks
 
Seeing all the bad reviews for Acronis doesn't exactly give me a lot of confidence in using their product anymore. Has anyone had any problems with the newest free versions of Acronis that Seagate & Western Digital offer?

Nope...love it, use them frequently all the time.
Wouldn't pay for them....but don't need to. When cloning clients drives..typically to upgrade to a new drive, these free ones work great.
 
Nope...love it, use them frequently all the time.
Wouldn't pay for them....but don't need to. When cloning clients drives..typically to upgrade to a new drive, these free ones work great.

I have never had a problem with Acronis.

The first thing I do with any system is a Fab's backup of all their profiles. If I'm doing anything drastic to their computer or if a failing drive is a remote possibility I also make an Acronis image just in case. That way I have the image to fall back on if things go horribly wrong.
 
Slight diversion :
I just find acronis product strategy a mess.

Different versions, versions that don't support each other. Historic problems with upgrades that screw things up.

I wish they would streamline their range.
 
One sided converations

Hello Techs,

This is Jody from Runtime Software, the person who has had correspondence to Jim Stewart or whatever name he goes by here. There are a few things that need to be clarified:

1. This is a free software that has no support. It states so everywhere on our website.

2. It can not be used in a commercial setting as Jim Stewart used it as it is a free private home edition only.

3. This is a 32-bit (x86) application that can only handle so many files before it does indeed run out of memory.

With those things out of the way. This software should have never been installed on the customers machine to begin with as the proper license was not purchased, so the software was being used outside our EULA.

The first email where he said he was asked to purchase the software is not really correct. It is our automated email response to the free version of DriveImage when we get support requests (even though we do not offer support) that states that the following:

I am sorry, we do not answer any emails or phone calls regarding the free version of DriveImage XML. If you need support, you can purchase the commercial version of DriveImage from our website. Below I have provided some other links that may help you in answering your questions.

His response was as follows:

I remain in the position of having trialled your software which has resulted in data loss for a customer.

Thanks for your email, but it does not answer my question (which if you had read my original email would have been evident)

As I said, I run a computer repairs business, and was looking at your product as a prospect for my company.

It failed on the first run to produce a working backup, and now you refuse to provide any information to assist with the data loss that has resulted.

This puts me in a difficult situation with the customer, and the customer in the unfortunate position of having lost important personal data.


That is when I responded telling him that he should not have used the software to begin with, in a commercial setting and that there was nothing that could be done as he is still using the software again our EULA and wants us to fix the damage he has caused.

The XML file may be damaged, there may be too many files on the drive, but had he made sure that he could browse the backup before wiping this customers drive, this would not be an issue. Had he not used a free software with no support, this would not be an issue.

The issue here is we have this backup software on the market, it is free, it does not come with support. Demanding support and then writing a one sided post on an internet forum with threats is not something that makes us jump up and try to help solve a problem. The last thing he wrote to us was the following:

I will continue to bump the thread in the interim, to ensure other technicians are warned off from your company and its complete lack of customer service.

I think the customer service he was referring to is the one that we do not offer at all for this free product.

DriveImage is a free product for our data recovery customers who wanted an easy and simple solution to backing up. Is it the best on the market; no. Is it the fastest on the market; no. Is it a free software that allows people to make backup's; yes it is. This is not our market corner, we do not want it to be, we leave that up to other people.

Is our data recovery software the best on the market, yes it is. It is the fastest, yes it it. Our data recovery software is used by all Federal Agents and when they get trained, they are trained using our data recovery software.

I am sorry that Jim had this happen to him. There is nothing we can do on this end to resolve it. He used a free software with no support. Had he a commercial edition, we would have had him send us his XML and see what the issue was. He would rather take it to this level and try to same us into helping him, which we are really not interested in doing now.
 
Interesting turn of events.

Without having full indoor knowledge of what went on, I'm not going to get into that foray!

However, Jody, I do have some questions :

1 - Why does the software baulk at too many files? Surely its copying file by file or RAW so shouldnt have memory issues?

2 - Even if free version, surely core functions are across the board to the Pro version? So whats so different in Free to Pro?

3 - Given the trend towards higher drive capacity and multimedia storage by consumers surely point 1 is very very relevant to your customers free or not?

I've used the software in past(personally I might add) but dont recall any warnings regards amount of files it can cope with.

Also if the only version available to trial is your free version, and enter a key it unlocks to pro, how are we as techs expected to evaluate fully without with buying first?
 
blah blah blah blah

3. This is a 32-bit (x86) application that can only handle so many files before it does indeed run out of memory.

blah blah blah

The XML file may be damaged, there may be too many files on the drive

blah blah blah

DriveImage is a free product for our data recovery customers who wanted an easy and simple solution to backing up. Is it the best on the market; no. Is it the fastest on the market; no. Is it a free software that allows people to make backup's; yes it is. (apparently not if it has too many files)

blah blah blah

Honestly thats all I got from that post. Doesnt matter to me if hes being unreasonable. When I read your post I just see unreliable backup software and thats really all that matters.
 
I've been trying to stay out of this, but I'm going to weigh in a bit here.

I see points from both sides here. I think Jim knows he shouldn't have run it on a customer's machine in a first time test scenario. He screwed up; we all do from time to time. There's no sense beating a dead horse.

With that being said: I don't fault runtime either. I have been a long time user of their products, although I haven't purchased licensing in a while. I remember one time, I had a problem with a corrupt xml file. I hadn't wiped the drive yet, so I thought it was no big deal. Then I realized the drive had gone tits up all of a sudden. I contacted runtime, sent them the corrupt file, and they had it fixed in 24 hours. I'd say that's pretty good support. I've used getdataback for years based on a recommendation from ESS Data Recovery. I've never had to utilize support for that product. I wouldn't say it's the best, but it's right up there. I've seen it succeed where others have failed, and I've seen it fail where others succeeded.

I don't use dxml all that much anymore. I use disk2vhd as it's fast and dirty. I also use Acronis to backup images to my NAS. Bottom line: I don't think it's fair to go ballistic at a company for not supporting a product you use for free. There are all kinds of free software providers out there (clearos, untangle, etc) that clearly state you are on your own unless you purchase a support contract. As Jody said, it's a violation of the EULA, it was used on a customer's machine without testing the image, and it's a free utility. I don't blame them for coming on here and defending their product or their company. Personally, I hope they stick around as there are a lot of techs here who use their software. I feel bad for Jim, and I wish his first experience with their software had been better, but I don't see faulting runtime as the answer.
 
I am sorry that Jim had this happen to him. There is nothing we can do on this end to resolve it. He used a free software with no support. Had he a commercial edition, we would have had him send us his XML and see what the issue was. He would rather take it to this level and try to same us into helping him, which we are really not interested in doing now.

Seems to me you may have missed an opportunity. Rather than respond as you did, perhaps you should consider the impact of providing outstanding customer service, despite the fact that you weren't "required" to do so. Then perhaps the title of this thread could have been "Runtime Software - thanks for everything".
 
As Jody said, it's a violation of the EULA, it was used on a customer's machine without testing the image, and it's a free utility. I don't blame them for coming on here and defending their product or their company. Personally, I hope they stick around as there are a lot of techs here who use their software. I feel bad for Jim, and I wish his first experience with their software had been better, but I don't see faulting runtime as the answer.

I see where your coming from and if it was some other free software like free web browser, ftp, file search, enhanced notepad, IM client, etc etc etc that would be fine. However we are talking about backup software here and backup software doesn't get to use the "free" pass.
 
1 - Why does the software baulk at too many files? Surely its copying file by file or RAW so shouldnt have memory issues?

2 - Even if free version, surely core functions are across the board to the Pro version? So whats so different in Free to Pro?

3 - Given the trend towards higher drive capacity and multimedia storage by consumers surely point 1 is very very relevant to your customers free or not?

Also if the only version available to trial is your free version, and enter a key it unlocks to pro, how are we as techs expected to evaluate fully without with buying first?

1. All 32-bit applications have a limit which is 2GB of memory used. Every file entry that is stored takes up some of that memory. When you load the XML, it must be loaded into memory. Therefore, once you have too many files, you will get an out of memory error. This will be solved with a 64-bit version when we do release one.

2. It is not a pro version, it is a commercial edition. The only difference is the ability to use it in a commercial environment and support. The functionality is exactly the same.

3. I agree, however currently less than 2% of our customers reach this threshold currently. Media Servers, photographers, and photographers reach this. However they are not using our product as it was never intended to be a professional backup solution, only a free one for our customers.
 
I see where your coming from and if it was some other free software like free web browser, ftp, file search, enhanced notepad, IM client, etc etc etc that would be fine. However we are talking about backup software here and backup software doesn't get to use the "free" pass.

So what you're saying is Mozilla, Google, filezilla, 7zip, cccp, etc get a pass, but products like runtime, cobian, etc don't just because those free utilities are for backing up? I don't agree.
 
I see where your coming from and if it was some other free software like free web browser, ftp, file search, enhanced notepad, IM client, etc etc etc that would be fine. However we are talking about backup software here and backup software doesn't get to use the "free" pass.

There is no free pass being given. He did not test his backup or use it accordingly, this is not a free pass, this is an unfortunate mistake on his end that can not be blamed on us.
 
So what you're saying is Mozilla, Google, filezilla, 7zip, cccp, etc get a pass, but products like runtime, cobian, etc don't just because those free utilities are for backing up? I don't agree.

Backups are simply too important. We are talking about the potential of losing family photos, important documents, videos, audio, work related material etc.
 
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