HDDSuperClone

drdoc

New member
Yes your are right!

It worked as advertised.

I found that 18.04 would not see the qla2100 fiberchannel card

but 14.04 lubuntu did and worked

Sorry to be such a noob.....
 

maximus

Member
I am considering stopping my work on HDDSuperClone, and just making it open source with limited or no further support. It is taking up way to much of my free time to maintain and update it, plus the expected support. And only a small number have purchased the pro version. The small amount of extra income I have gained from it is not worth the time and effort. This is not set in stone yet, but I am really seriously thinking about this.
 

Joep

Member
Too bad. From what I read it's an excellent tool with lots of potential that can compete with more expensive solutions.

However in my experience this 'freemium' type model (where you have a free version that offers very usable functionality) you're using does not work for this type of software. Amount of support may drop and revenue may increase if you drop the free stuff: Most people are free riders. There's a large group that feels that they're entitled to free stuff.

I tried this model. I spent large amounts of time on supporting the free riders and it appears a simple thank you for your time is even too much to ask for. Those people will never pay for a license.

And then you didn't even try to solve the easy stuff: In Chrome I see no paypal button. I am assuming Chrome is the most used browser, so that may be a thing.
 

maximus

Member
With all the negative thoughts, here is a positive one.

New release of HDDSuperClone, with a new Direct USB feature. Refer to the user manual for more information about the new feature:
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ect%20Mode

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.14 20190818
* Improved USB ATA locked up drive detection
* Fixed a bug with the driver minimum cluster size
* Made the minimum driver cluster size also affect domain reads
* Enabling SCSI write now uses /dev/sgX devices
* Added the new Direct USB mode
 

maximus

Member
Okay, I think I am coming down off my mid-life-crisis and getting a grip on reality again, not sure for how long though :lol:

It has been asked for support of NVMe devices, and I have looked into it a bit. There is no good documentation at all. There is no official "passthrough" as there is for SCSI and ATA. Plus the drives are normally connected to the motherboard either directly or attached to a card, so there would be no way to power cycle the device if needed. Plus it would be about impossible to keep the OS from trying to access it while still being able to access it with software.

So with this new Direct USB mode, I am going to say that is my solution for NVMe drives. Get a USB to NVMe adapter, and then you may have some sort of chance to read it, with the ability to power cycle, and have the OS leave it alone. I don’t know what resets are possible with NVMe, but depending on the USB adapter bridge, it could (should?) be capable of performing whatever reset is needed with the USB bulk only reset. I also don’t know what kind of luck you will have reading these devices when they are messed up. It could be futile. This is the best I can do.
 

maximus

Member
maximus":1puhjqtv said:
[post]14567[/post] I am considering stopping my work on HDDSuperClone, and just making it open source with limited or no further support. It is taking up way to much of my free time to maintain and update it, plus the expected support. And only a small number have purchased the pro version. The small amount of extra income I have gained from it is not worth the time and effort. This is not set in stone yet, but I am really seriously thinking about this.
After some thought, I will be keeping on with my work, but I may change how I handle support, and maybe not as many updates/fixes as quick. So if someone has an issue at a time where I don't have the time, then I may say I don't have the time, and that I don't know when I will get to it.
 

maximus

Member
Someone pointed something out about my pricing, and I am thinking about a bit of a change. Currently I am charging $25USD for the short term 60 day license, and $150USD for the extended long term (basically lifetime) license. That is a ratio of 6:1. I am thinking of going with a 10:1 or 20:1. Maybe $20 for the short term and $200 for the long term, or even $15 for the short term and $300 for the long term. The idea is that someone that is doing some data recovery on a semi regular basis will be willing to pay for the long term license (and not worry about always needing internet access). But for someone that wants just a one time or occasional use, or wants to test it before committing to the long term version cost, the price is more affordable. I would make more from those that want to use it regularly for data recovery, and also get more of those that either want to test it or only use it for an occasional recovery. So what do you think, 10:1 or 20:1? I am thinking I like the 20:1, go big or go home :)
 

maximus

Member
maximus":5n4jkrs6 said:
[post]12339[/post] Hi Amarbir,

I will start with the licensing. There is the temporary license (currently 30 days), and that license requires internet access every time the program is started. Then there is the full long term license, which is good for the lifetime of the major program version (and I honestly don’t see a new major program version any time in the near future, if at all ever). It requires online access to activate when you install the license. It then does not require internet access again on that computer. The only reason it would need internet access again is if you are running it from a live CD which can’t save the activation between reboots. But this can be overcome by running from persistent live USB instead. So for the long term license, it only needs internet access for the initial activation. And if you read the EULA, you would see that it allows for installing on up to 3 computers.

As for HDDSuperClone and your setup, I can’t see where the pro version would be of much use with a laptop and the USB dock. The direct modes that can do the soft and hard resets require the drive to be connected directly to the computer, not through USB. The ability to power cycle a drive using a relay also gets complicated with the USB dock. Considering you have the DFL, it would win over HDDSuperClone in this case. The only thing it could possibly do better at is USB only drives, as I don’t see USB ability on the DFL. I just put instructions on the website for power cycling USB drives. And using the virtual driver and R-Studio (Linux license) could allow for better data extraction.

If you had a regular computer with accessible SATA ports and power cables, then the pro version of HDDSuperClone could start to compete a bit with the DFL. I would like to think that with a relay setup it could compete with the older DeepSpar DDI3. The computer does not need to be high end, although I would think that it would benefit from SATA 3 and USB 3 ports. But the only way it would work with a laptop is if you managed to somehow get a direct external SATA port. If you do get or have a system it would work well on, I may be willing to give you a free temporary trial license, although it would require active internet as described above.
I would like to say now with the new Direct USB mode, HDDSuperClone can now be more useful with something like a USB dock. I have a Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA 2.5 & 3.5 dual bay hard drive docking station, and it handled every drive I through at it in testing. Connecting drive directly at SATA is still much preferred, but this is now a viable alternative. Just know that not all USB adapters/docks will be the same. How it reacts all depends on the USB bridge.
 

maximus

Member
New version of HDDSuperClone released:

version 2.2.0 20190824
* Fixed a bug with SCSI write
* Fixed a bug with Direct USB inquiry
* Other fixes for SCSI passthrough for inquiry and read capacity
 
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