You did all the work for free while many of your users are probably making thousands using it.

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Luke
Recovery Force Donor Inventory: 5,000+ Fully Cataloged HDDs & Growing

I am just spending too much time on it. Because I sell a pro version, I feel obligated to support it as best I can, even for the free version. I think I want to be able to say that I will support it when I have the spare time, and feel like working on it. To get to that mindset, I would have to make it completely free, and just say "Sorry if it doesn't work like you need it to, or that you don't know how to use it because it is complicated. It is free, and you get what you pay for. Deal with it". I would still offer better support for the few that have paid for it, but otherwise I want to be more free of the obligation.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

And this is even as I am getting ready to release the new direct USB feature for the pro version. I think part of it is that if that feature needs tweaking, or someone needs help using it, I don't want to feel like I have to jump right on it and blow my day away.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

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.

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Joep - http://www.disktuna.com - video & photo repair & recovery service

Nice... Keep it up..

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Data Recovery Pakistan

To be honest you shouldn't offer support for the free version and only updates when there is a major new version.
The free users should be able/capable to discuss any issues amongst themselves on this or any other forum.

I just tested that in Chrome, and it did work, but it took several seconds before the button showed up. And to that I would like to add that my website is a Google Site... so WTF, it should f***ing work right in Chrome!

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

Yeah, maybe I should just completely stop free support unless it is a bug. Maybe only offer limited support for the paid version unless it is a bug. Maybe put a disclaimer to read the user manual, and if something doesn't work, provide as much information as possible, and I will check to see if it is a bug, and if it is a bug it may not get fixed right away. Maybe also a disclaimer that the software is as-is. I just need to get away from it for awhile.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

I think part of my problem is that I am obsessed with the program, and keep finding things that can be improved, or new features that can be added, all of which takes time. That is my problem that I have to figure out how to deal with.

But then there is the support. Sometimes I just get stupid people that don’t know what the heck they are doing asking questions or saying they are getting an error and it is not working. Then sometimes I get smart people that just don’t read the user manual first, and ask questions that they should have figured out on their own. But then there are the times where it turns out to be some sort of issue or bug that I need to (or should) address, or maybe something that I just can’t fix without having the problem hardware myself.

My goal is to get the program to the point where there are few or no bugs. My ideal goal is to just be able to sell it and not have to deal with any issues (pipe dream?). I think I am sabotaging myself in a way by adding extra features and improvement that could cause bugs that I have to deal with. And here I am about to release a major new feature, just waiting for someone to find something wrong with, or not understand it. Maybe I just need to adjust how I deal with support, and say “this is my software, and it is what it is, you can report bugs, but otherwise just deal with it”. That is not a good attitude for customer service, but I might have to adopt it to some point to free myself. The problem is how to do that without blowing off actual potential bug issues. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference.

Even though not many have purchased it, I still do like the bit of extra income I just need to not spend as much time on it. That would mean less support and bug fixes. Still not sure where I am with this overall.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

And now I see that my automated language translation has issues. Might be time to drop that support. I have one person that has provided a proper Russian translation, maybe I should just stick to language translations that someone is willing to keep up with, and dump the automatic that is based on Google Translate. Probably nobody uses the other translations anyway...

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

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

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

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

I am currently working on fixing the translation, it wasn't that hard to figure out to fix, and the updated files will be uploaded when done.

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.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

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.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

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

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

The issue might be that this is a data recovery forum full of professionals, and you are asking advice on whether you should increase the cost of the product to data recovery professionals.......

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery
Founder of The Data Recovery Professionals Group

Yes, but it is full of professionals that have not yet bought my software, mostly because they already have much more expensive tools. Maybe I am being to open. Maybe I am giving warning that the price is about to go up for anyone that is thinking about the long term version, but has not bought it yet. Maybe I am just going to do what I feel like no matter what the response. But in any case, asking should not hurt any. Maybe there could be one response, either public or private, that could help make me see something that I am missing.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone

And so you should, its your product.

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery
Founder of The Data Recovery Professionals Group

I see on your user comments page:

"I'M VERY SATISFIED! Your FREE VERSION outperformed ALL cloning software that I know"

As a side note, he also states it outperformed DiskPatch which TBH isn't too hard as it relies on BIOS extened int13 calls. So that's going through and dependent on more layers/black boxes. Anyway, I made DiskPatch a few decades ago and there's also success stories to tell about that tool. But my point is people paid for the disk clone option, I disabled that in the free version. There was a scan option that they could try to see if it could read the source disk. IOW, this HDDSuperClone FREE user could have been a paying customer.

What I have noticed is that tech shops and people who cloned disks that were not end users / home users actually were paying for a tech license. And in that light I don't fancy the short term / long term thing. As an end user I have this intuitive 'no' when it comes to very limited time licenses even if I intend to use something only once. What if I need it a second time just too late for my license to work .. For a while I did had a mechanism in place where it was easier to use tech license on multiple PCs where the end user version locked itself to a hard disk. Can't exactly remember how I did that though. But I dropped that at some point and still sold tech licenses.

Anyway, just sharing this FWIW.

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Joep - http://www.disktuna.com - video & photo repair & recovery service

Just had a silly comment on my don't use Spinrite page (from a believer) which prompted me to put down a link to HDDSuperClone.

If you're struggling to get data of a disk that's ill behaving due to bad sectors, instead use something like HDDSuperClone (http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsuperclone). It is safer (read-only) and more effective due to lower hardware access.

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Joep - http://www.disktuna.com - video & photo repair & recovery service

So to go back on this a little bit, if I wanted to dump/sell hddsuperclone, what would someone be willing to pay for the source code? If I were to sell it, it would be as-is. Once sold I would not want to support it in any way. My man-o-pause mid-life-crises voice in the back of my head is asking. Not saying I will do this, but need to ask.

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http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone