PROPOSAL: (old/full) FD-ISR WS Edition

Todd and Gang - My first post here...I've signed up as I can't take it anymore...you're killing me!

I came across references to (Raxco) FirstDefense last year when I was looking for ways to have a better backup system in place....I didn't quite understand what the heck it did at the time, so I went on and then things became busy and I stopped looking for that ultimate "system backup" solution.....until just recently where I've been back searching. Of course I had all my data files backed up...but not my system, so that was the one thing once I had to install Windows again.....I told myself..."that's it...I've got to find the ultimate system backup solution...this is B.S.!"

Step 1 - I just recently bought Terabyte's bundle package and imaging via "Image for Linux" and so far that's working beautifully and I can sleep better at night.

AS WELL....I've been reading and reading everyone's posts here at Wilders on FD-ISR and having trialed the "Rescue" version over the last days - I tell you...I LOVE THIS PROGRAM!! It's already saved my ass a number of times. That's when I realized....all the guys here at Wilders pushing for FD-ISR are/were right....this is one heck of a program.

NOW....I'm supremely jealous of all of you who talk of the older version with archive and freezing ability (Erik - you only make it more hard on us!). I don't know what to do now. I would gladly pay for the Rescue version if that is the only choice I have, BUT the $295.00 version is way too hefty for an above-average home setup.

The big question here is: If there are folks that are willing to spend more than that (say around $70.00 - $100/120-ish), are you willing to sell to us?

The one thing that I think is missing in all this....is a middle-tier price product. You have the "Server Edition" - $295.00 version and the $39.95 "everyone else" version. Then you have folks like us....home users, but get into this type of thing more than your Average Joe. Therefore....I think a product between the Rescue and Server needs to be filled as it's a hole in the market/revenue.

Therefore I had an idea I would like to propose to Todd and the Gang - how about bringing back the "old version" - price it higher than before - but make it a "Wilder's Security Edition"! That's of course assuming if you will not at all consider a main-stream mid-priced product.

So...for example - to be able to order it, you have to at least be registered at Wilders and fill in your "nick" upon ordering....something like that or request a special ordering link - but you have to be registered here to get that special link.

I know, I know....this is probably all a shot in the dark, but one thing about this place that Todd and Partner(s) can definitely add into the equation in thinking about this is:

• 1) if wasn't for Wilders - Erik probably never would have found it and around here, I think everyone can agree he is FD-ISR's best salesman
  
• 2) I wouldn't have found it AND understood it either if it wasn't for Wilders and for the most part....Erik's posts
  
• 3) there are plenty of folks here willing to shell out more money than $39.95, but $295.00 is out of the league of most folks that hang out at Wilders (incl. me)
  
• 4) your support forum is here - and you gets lots and lots of feedback from genuine people about your product, are concerned about their backup system and as compared to other products on the market, etc. You also get residual interest as well....other folks who come here looking for malware stuff and end up stumbling on your product. Not a bad place to be actually from a "business point of view".
  
• 5) thanks to Wilders...a beautiful place to talk about this kind of stuff, so much so that folks take time to read gobs and gobs of forum posts = the more people talk about your product = the more people will be interested = the more people will buy; then you have your "distributor" who does his own sales.
  
• 6) you have the older full version that you are continuing to update but not charge for - OK, so why not sell that version instead of it basically collecting dust?
  
• 7) and the fact it doesn't help that people like me reading posts here that flaunt that they have the "older and better" program. that REALLY sucks.

So what do you say Todd?? I would like to reiterate that I would have NO PROBLEM spending double or triple what Rescue is. I think that would be a fair price for an "above average home user". You've got the "average home user" covered with Rescue (and it works fine actually) - and then the SERVER folks.....so what about us folks?? A Wilders Security Edition!

(sorry for the long post!)

 

holymoly,

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Put me down for one !

Since Todd/Leapfrog have released a new version, obviously they are still developing it. I know part of the reason is to have one "common" vendor code instead of the 3-4 that were out there. It does seem like they don't want to abandon their baby totally, and rightfully so, they worked long and hard at perfecting the software.

Heck, if they have gone ahead and tweaked it already, and we are willing to pay more than the old rate, and we already know enought to ask the great braintrust on the forum for some help/support instead of sucking up their time and resources... why not ?

It may be an opportunity to put a couple hundred bucks in their pocket with very little cost on their end.

Tim

 

oops! will correct that...my apologies Todd! (am only on my 1st cup of coffee this morning!)

but thanks for the welcome...and yeah, I may be quite well be beating a dead horse, Pete, but you know.....it never hurts to say something and I figured the worse thing he/they could say is..."No"....OR..."absolutely not...you're insane, don't ever bring that back up again".

 

LOL. Let's not forget the other old adages as well: "Be careful what you wish for, it may come true" and how about: "What we ardently wish, we believe."

I think there are more than a few of us that probably fall more true to the 2nd adage! After doing a little homework....LeapFrog surely have changed positions over the years with different partners and distributors, so I think anything is possible....and I would think they would say the same thing. "Never say Never"!

 

Greetings,

I appreciate the post. I will keep this short. Please read the post entitled “Market Repositioning”. This explains why we just could not keep going on as we were. It took us a few years, but we had to change our strategy.

For the time being, FD-ISR has been taken off the public market.

 

Todd - I appreciate the quick reply and although Pete had it right (yeah, yeah, but I still stand behind my words!)....at least you know there are folks out there like "pratzert" , others and myself roaming here at Wilders that are quite jealous and envious of the folks that have your full-featured version. I'm kicking myself in the butt now for not having looked further into your product at the time when it was available via Raxco.

I do fully empathize with you guys that at the end of the day, it's all about the money, like any business. I guess because of the continued support and the fact that alot of folks around here keep bringing up the advantages of the older version as compared to the newer "rescue" version - at least with the ongoing discussions here at Wilders - is disappointing to say the least esp. since it's still being supported.

I hope if you ever change positions again in the future and bring back this old version, that you will give those who have purchased the HDS "rescue" version an option to upgrade to that full-featured version. You indeed have a very cool program that saves alot of peoples butt and even has been said to put RollBackRX to shame (which I believe is NOT exclusive to HDS - see EAZ-FIX)...and therefore I find it hard to believe that such a radical market re-positioning was actually needed. I'm in the international oilfield business....I have no idea about the software market, so what the heck do I know? LOL.

Take care and thanks again for your reply. I will go and have a conversation with myself about the "Rescue" version.

 

Peter,

It would seem that in this case "Ignorance is Bliss" ( or would have been)... meaning that if we didn't know that the software existed in another form, we may think that the Rescue is best thing there is.

It's a case of always wanting what you can't have.

I feel like it's Easter time and I'm standing outside the candy shop looking thru the window at the ten giant chocolate bunny rabbits they made... and know that's all there is going to be.... and that someone else already bought them.

Tim

 

I hear you loud and clear, Pete....and I've read where you said that once or a few times here, so your comments on this definitely make me feel better about just accepting as it is now in its basic form. It surely does the job its intended to do quite well and the trial version has already pulled me out of a hole several times.

But as Tim mentions....the problem here is that its "grown up" since then with archiving and freezing/unfreezing - we know it, you guys have it, folks keep talking about it and how better it is, we don't have it, we want it and will pay for it.....just not $295.00 (for personal use).

PLAN B - anyone up for a license transfer!??

 

Hi huys,

I can understand how you feel. When HorizonDatasys decided to replace FD-ISR Pro with FD-ISR Rescue I was totally pissed off. It meant that a product I bought 2 months earlier would not be supported anymore.

Anyway thanks to Todd and his big heart FD-ISR Pro is alive as ever.

ps. FD-ISR rescue is not as bad as it sounds. I would advise you to ask Horizondatasys if they plan to add the import/export of archives, since it is already supported in the server edition. Maybe they could release it as an optional plug-in with a little extra cost. This would make everybody happy since it would not change the nature of FD-ISR Rescue and would provide some more income from those that have an OEM Rescue version [if they want it they will have to pay ]

Panagiotis

 

holymoly,

That $295 you mention is what they are selling the FD-ISR Server "Rescue" version for.... and it does NOT have all the functionalilty of the good old Original FD-ISR.

So even if you sprung for $295 you still would not have the package that all these other lucky people have.

Tim

 

I am still at a loss to fully understand why they would stop selling the original version because it lost money, particularly in the support area, but then turn around and sell a dumbed down version for more money that they STILL have to support.

Why not just sell the full blown original for the $295 instead?

 

Don't be confused. The price is high because it is for a different market. You cannot install FD-ISR pro on a server (server 2000, server 2003, server 2008 ).

It is a substitute for the FD-ISR Server edition, not for the FD-ISR Workstation Pro edition.

 

LOL! Willy (Wonka) has indeed shut his gate and the back fence is too high to climb to get in.

Maybe the "privileged golden ticket holders" will get in trouble and be carried off by oompaloompas.

 

you REALLY have to rub it in, do ya?

Yo Pete/Tim - see what I mean!??

it's not bad...but the archiving (or more than 1 backup snapshot) would surely be useful esp. after having read so many folks here going into detail on how they use it!

Yeah...that was a question I was going to ask - so where the heck do we go for support? here or there? sold by HDS.....and this place is for the "old" FD-ISR?? I am a bit confused. If Todd and Gang develop the actual program - surely they can talk to the HDS guys, right? I mean....why would I go to them when I know you guys and LeapFrog are here?

 

I will say Todd, that at the rate things are going with the lack of protection provided by security products, the plum tree may be getting ready to ripen again for FD-ISR. I would gladly shell out $100.00 to $150.00 for a product like this today. Marketing though, is the key.

People thought Geswall was dead a year ago, and trust me, it aint.

 

Exactly....so you're confirming there's a market being totally missed here = us - the "above average home user" that do NOT run Windows Server.

How many of you actually run a Windows Server edition - at home?

 

Because Freeze/Unfreeze, 10 snapshots and scheduling are features which seem useless in a server/Exchange environment. On the other hand, 2 snapshots (one for recovery) and archiving (archives are almost like images) look very useful.
Just a guess.

Archiving and transparency to the Windows storage stack are the core features of FD-ISR (IMO). That's what sets it apart from every other ISR solution.

 

I HIGHLY! sympathize with this topic's author 110% and then some. The good old version that lucas1985 and others refer to is for all intensive purposes (at least for me) as good as Gold! And i count myself as one of the fortunate ones that really didn't pay a lick of attention at first for awhile. But there was so much noise and high praise constantly running overtime again and again, then one of our member's Dallen in a personal note ask if i had looked into this FD-ISR and such, so i did, and was mesmerized by repeated high regard and excitement over this ISR from both Peter2150 & EricAlbert that it became irresistable and the rest as they say is history. But one thing about the old version, it's long from being old or outdated even now, and this baby turned out to save my tail when i had no image of my system to repair when it was viciously decapitated by a file infector virus.

To the rescue came FD-ISR archives i at least had forethought enough to make and store to another HD, and Lo & Behold, i got back my entire 3 partition 200Gb system with all files, programs, settings, and such COMPLETELY INTACT!!

Like others, it was a Dream to create multiple bootable systems=snapshots, and switch at will to any of them, but as it turns out the archives proved out to be a 100% true rescue medium in a real pinch.

In short, this app/ISR is proved itself consistently to be in a class all to itself and i really feel for anyone who missed out the opportunity to been a recipient of this World-Class ISR!!

 

I my self found out to late on this program.When I had XP It was no longer available but buy the Time I discovered what all the fuss was about it was to late.should have joined wilders a year ago or so but of course would not do me good know on vista.It was actually eriks repeated post of FD-ISR that sunk in my num skull to stop and wonder what is this FD-ISR.That said I purchased FD Rescue and love it.It may not be the original but all the same,its still effective and I have tested it out several times.I my self would like to see a born again original but I guess all good things come to a end.

 

@holymoly

Well at least it aint all bad.
Explore the options in BING; you'll love it.

Dont aplologise for wanting to keep the 'issue' alive: you are not alone
If enough voices speak up then maybe there is a pot at the end of the rainbow.

There was massive disappointment when HDS/Leapfrog decided to 'limit' options in FDISR releases. Todd has reappeared with a vengeance to support previous purchasers as he promised.

You can use BING to copy system partitions and setup each as required, use BING as Boot manager, image each partiton or whole disc as required for recovery

A easier option is VMWare workstation: multiple options check it out, excellent utility, cheaper than FDISR server, export and save snapshots etc etc etc 'virtually' unlimited.

(Oh how HDS has so missed the boat)

It's amazing how as desktop/home users we have had to coopt other tools to provide the range of FDISR options after a taste of FDISR Pro, still, there are some good options.

Good Luck.

 

As fd-isr rescue seems to have proved a financial success for Leapfrog, maybe they should consider bringing out different versions, I.E. FD-ISR Rescue basic, the program currently as it is, a mid range version including archives, and then a professional version including all features of the original FD-ISR.


I also like the way programs such as Defensewall operate with their license.
Buy the product and be able to use it for life, then after 12 months the license can prolongate at a very reasonable price keeping customers, and the money coming in.

The people at Leapfrog are very talented at what they do and at the end of the day if the product does not make the money then we will be devoid of even the basic version that is FD-ISR rescue

So fingers crossed that it does turn into a resounding success, then maybe one day, you never Know

 

Hey, I LIKE that idea. Probably too complicated though for the Horizon folks.

Acadia