What Are Your Top PAID Applications?

[Bryce W]

As you know, we mention many free applications as part of our Repair Tool of the Week here on Technibble. But what about PAID applications? The free price tag is great but as any good business person knows, you can spend a little bit of money and use it to make a lot of money, making the paid purchase well worth it.

So I want to ask all forum members. What are your top PAID applications that has either saved time or money? (or generated new money)

 

[silvano]

As you know, we mention many free applications as part of our Repair Tool of the Week here on Technibble. But what about PAID applications? The free price tag is great but as any good business person knows, you can spend a little bit of money and use it to make a lot of money, making the paid purchase well worth it.

So I want to ask all forum members. What are your top PAID applications that has either saved time or money? (or generated new money)

Malwarebytes Antimalware
HDD Regenerator
Eurosoft PCCheck
MacDrive
Acronis
Are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many more in my toolkit and Cd binder, but heres a few to start the list.

 

[Martyn]

PC-Doctor
Acronis True Home 2010
SIW Technician Version
Fabs Autobackup 3
Getdataback NTFS

 

[Kitten Kong]

Acronis
Get Data Back for NTFS.

Awesome products, worth every penny.

 

[gunslinger]

HDD Regenerator
Acronis

 

[iisjman07]

I'm probably breaking a ton of end user licenses but I believe everything in my toolkit is freeware...

 

[dbdawn]

Acronis
R-Studio
Dameware NT Utilities

 

[glricht]

Acronis True Image
Acronis Disk Director
ABF Outlook Express Backup/Restore
ABF Outlook Backup/Restore
Active Password Changer
Everest Ultimate
Microsoft TechNet (not really a "tool", but it's something I pay for)
Restorer Ultimate
SpinRite
CuteFTP (for my occasional webmaster support work)

 

[stevenamills]

As you know, we mention many free applications as part of our Repair Tool of the Week here on Technibble. But what about PAID applications? The free price tag is great but as any good business person knows, you can spend a little bit of money and use it to make a lot of money, making the paid purchase well worth it.

Bryce,

Virtually everything mentioned is rendered useless due ti restrictive license agreements e.g. Acronis, Spinrite, Getdataback, Fabs etc all require separate license agreements for each computer. There's virtually no commercial software available to the small shop. It is totally cost prohibitive. e.g. there was a recent discussion on pricing for data recovery. Most of the technicians responding were charging less than a license for GetDataBack or Spinrite.

Maybe I'm missing something and you can root out some decent software with reasonable licensing for a small tech. I can't find them.

 

[Methical]

Bryce,

Virtually everything mentioned is rendered useless due ti restrictive license agreements e.g. Acronis, Spinrite, Getdataback, Fabs etc all require separate license agreements for each computer. There's virtually no commercial software available to the small shop. It is totally cost prohibitive. e.g. there was a recent discussion on pricing for data recovery. Most of the technicians responding were charging less than a license for GetDataBack or Spinrite.

Maybe I'm missing something and you can root out some decent software with reasonable licensing for a small tech. I can't find them.

This could also be the whole point of the topic

I'm with @iisjman07 at the moment aye, everything in my toolkit is from AYS Tech Toolkit, plus a few more, and my beloved scripts

 

[Rodrick]

If curious, spin rite site license = 4 regular licenses, so fairly affordable if it comes in handy for you. I agree about darn near everything else above though that for a non restrictive license it is out of the realm of pretty much all non-enterprises.

Edit: I know a site license doesn't usually cover non owned machines but the dev specifically has said its ok for use by techs. I can drum up the source if anyone needs proof.

 

[MobileTechie]

The simple truth of the matter is that most techs are using personal licences on client machines because of the extreme pricing for tech licences.

 

[Martyn]

The simple truth of the matter is that most techs are using personal licences on client machines because of the extreme pricing for tech licences.

Yes and sometimes there isn't a tech licence just personal then enterprise.

This is the technician licence for Getdataback $849

Allows using the license for commercial data recovery on computers not owned or controlled by the licensee.

I have a personal licence and slave drives to my pc for recovery. As far as I'm concerned I'm controlling the computer

 

[NeutronTech]

I have a personal licence and slave drives to my pc for recovery. As far as I'm concerned I'm controlling the computer

This is the way I look at it as well. The license states on your computer. Your using it on your computer. If you it violates the license for you to use it on your computer with someone else's hard drive, then it must violate the license if you have someone else's keyboard. Using a single piece of hardware that belongs to someone else doesn't make it any less your computer than before.

But this raises the question, at which point does this belong someone else's computer. While the computer is in the shop you are responsible for it. If it gets damaged, you pay to replace it. One could argue that you have temporary ownership of the computer. There are a lot of loopholes or gray areas that could be argued depending on how good the lawyer is and what logic is used to present such an argument. I mean, granted, this is a clear attempt to subvert the licensing agreement. However, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that this argument could win.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I have read, and understood it to be exactly like that too.

My licence, is on the one machine only, which is hooked up to the backup server. All drives which need recovery are slaved to that single machine, and hey presto.

I mean, we are all in business, to make a profit, however small, and we have to cut the occasional corner. We are paying for a license(s), its not like we are pirating their software, and selling it on the street corners.

It it almost like saying, I never have broken any Single Law ever in my life. To me that is a ridiculous thing to say, there are laws, which I have never heard of, which I have probably broke in one way or another..

 

[dbdawn]

Bryce,

Virtually everything mentioned is rendered useless due ti restrictive license agreements e.g. Acronis, Spinrite, Getdataback, Fabs etc all require separate license agreements for each computer. There's virtually no commercial software available to the small shop. It is totally cost prohibitive. e.g. there was a recent discussion on pricing for data recovery. Most of the technicians responding were charging less than a license for GetDataBack or Spinrite.

Maybe I'm missing something and you can root out some decent software with reasonable licensing for a small tech. I can't find them.

Acronis does have enterprise solutions.
Dameware is really handy if you have a larger business with multiple computers that you support.
R-Studio as well has a technicians package that I have used in the past.

 

[lgtechcomputers]

GetDataBack NTFS
GetDataBack FAT
CutePDF - but I am going to switch because of abysmal support. I'll probably get Nitro PDF or PDF XChange.
Ghost 2003 - back in the day. These days I don't use that anymore.
Paragon Backup & Recovery

 

[wimwauters]

I'm probably breaking a ton of end user licenses but I believe everything in my toolkit is freeware...

Everything in my toolkit is free and I don't break any licenses

There's one exception of course:
DFsee (data recovery)

 

[14049752]

You guys are acting like the licenses are especially restrictive. $850 for GetDataBack? That's really not such a big deal. If you're not making your money back on that, you're probably not charging enough...or possibly not offering a data recovery service to enough people.
Personally, I use Easus Data recovery Wizard instead of GetDataBack. It's a bit less expensive at $500, but still a bargain because it's allowed me to make my money back several times over.


I also use, and have (tech) licenses for:
Malwarebytes Antimalware
Eurosoft PC Check
Micromat Tech Tool 5
Fab's Autobackup
Partition Find and Mount

maybe a few other things I'm forgetting.

I think the real shame is that some of the licenses for software are "Personal Use Only". Some of the tools like that work so well that it's nearly impossible to not use them as a computer repair shop. Generally, though, if software makes my job easier or allows me to make more money, I will pay most tech license prices.

 

[Cybjun]

This isnt really a software app but a web service. driveragent.com 30 bucks a year and it does a fairly good job identify hardware and providing driver links.