HDDSuperClone

[maximus]

To change the subject yet again (blame my unofficial ADHD), I thought of a possible compromise for the licensing. To install the program would require a proper license key and internet access. But once installed no internet access would be required to run. So it could be ran from a live CD if really needed, as long as there was internet access when first running it, and of course would require internet access again with a reboot. But a regular computer would only require internet access to do the initial installation. After that it could be ran offline with no limitation. That would give good freedom for the end user to install the program as needed, but also give me control to blacklist a leaked license key to help prevent a full hack.

Thoughts? :?:
Concerns? :?:

 

[LarrySabo]

Sounds good to me.

 

[hdd00]

That's the way many programs work and it's ok.

 

[Jared]

My only concern is whether your activation server would be reliable enough. The moment that goes down for a bit, you'd have a lot of angry people wanting to scream at you. I know I've cursed Prosoft Engineering plenty of times when their activation servers were down and I couldn't launch Data Rescue 4 to finish a case I'd been working on.

 

[maximus]

The "server" would only be needed to install (activate) the software. If you install it on a system and activate it, it would not need to check online again. So the only case where it would need to check online for every run would be using a live CD.

And if for some reason this were to become an issue, I could potentially include an option where an activation file could be exported. The file would only work on the computer it was exported from with the proper key, but once you had the file it could be used instead of going online. But I won't do that unless it becomes an issue. Also, my "server" idea is a bit on the simple side of things. And while I don't want to get into details, I can say that the simplicity would allow for some redundancy if I wanted. And if my "server" goes down, the world will surely stop turning

 

[maximus]

I think what everyone will hate is, no matter how I look at this, it is going to require a very long license key. Right now it is looking like at least 125 characters. I am surely going to have to supply it as a text file, although I would allow for typing it in if someone so desired :shock:

 

[LarrySabo]

[post]9607[/post] it is looking like at least 125 characters

That's not unusual. I have several programs with keys like that. Copy/Paste of the key is not a problem.

 

[Jared]

I'm used to always copy/paste anyway. Even if it's 1000 characters wouldn't bother me as long as I can copy/paste.

One time activation isn't an issue, that's to be expected. I misunderstood what you were saying.

 

[nissimezra]

Hi Maximus,
thank you for building this tool

I will be testing it on a done job 1tb Seagate. It took about a day to clone it with ddrescue GUI.
The drive is in bad condition, detected by the bios but thats about it. Linux couldnt mount the partition nor windows.
ddrescue cloned 99% and manged to get the photos with photorec. The user folder was missing

I'll post the result

Regards

I'll post the result

 

[nissimezra]

Hi Maximus

i will be testing this tool on a done job, made by ddrescue
the drive is Seagate ST31000528AS, the drive is detected by the bios but the partition couldn't be mounted with Linux now Windows.
It took ddrescue about 30 hours to clone 99% of the drive. The user folder was missing I used photorec to recover the photos. The partition after recovery was good could be mounted in any OS.

Now I'm testing with HDDsuperclone, I'm impressed.

I will keep you posted