Home Forums SharewareOnSale Deals Discussion WinToHDD Professional / Jul 8 2020

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  • #16096970 Reply | Quote
    Ashraf
    Keymaster

    Have something to say about WinToHDD Professional? Say it here!

    Have suggestions, comments, or need help? Post it here! If you know of better software than WinToHDD Professional, post it here! If you know of issues with WinToHDD Professional, post it here! Share your knowledge with all of us. :-)

    #16100279 Reply | Quote
    Peter Blaise
    Guest

    #1, Ashraf, I recommend redesigning our SOS website, combining reviews and discussions into one page – I almost NEVER read reviews, but now I see discussions over there, and now I feel as if posting here would be unnecessary duplication.

    #2, I have found Win to HDD to be incomplete, needing other software in order to accomplish an entire task, and needing other resourced, such as a Windows CD anyway, from which this software copies what it needs – if I had the Windows CD, I would not need this software!

    #3, from the extensive arguments in the reviews, I’ll try this software once again to see if it has any improvements, but the reviews seem to say, no, it’s the same old software that needs our Windows CD anyway, and it still needs other software, like partitioning software, anyway. So why not just use our Windows CD if we have it, it partitions for us, and use our other partitioning software if we are going to use it anyway.

    REVIEW: Win to HDD seems aimed at a PC maker / repair shop where they need to make copies of fully-running Windows setups all the time, and they have all the raw resources at hand, and this would let them just make copies AFTER they assembled all their other tools and resources to make a master.

    Now on second thought, after reading my own feedback, I’ll pass, this software seems NOT to be aimed at the solo user, but instead, this software seem to be aimed only at production builder/repair shops.

    Thanks anyway, let us know when they develop a version that does not have the same old compromises we have been commenting on since this software first came out.
    .

    #16100714 Reply | Quote
    milton amorim da silva
    Guest

    ÓTIMO PROGRAMA IREI TESTÁ-LO EM BREVE MAS POR CIMA ACHEI ÓTIMO E JA USEI A VERSÃO ANTERIOR RECOMENDO

    #16102570 Reply | Quote
    Gioantonnello
    Guest

    [@Peter Blaise] In other words, it is not made for the normal user. Only for those who repair PC

    #16106539 Reply | Quote
    Peter Blaise
    Guest

    @Peter Blaise] In other words, it is not made for the normal user. Only for those who repair PC

    That’s my guess.

    And not made “for” those who repair PC, but made “by” someone who repairs PCs.

    I often see a tool someone develops for themselves or on contract for a customer, then they try to sell that tool to the public, and it seems an odd, awkward tool, and when researching who they are, we find they are a servicer themselves, not a programmer, hence the lack of development of their offering from version to version – they are not taking care of the customers who purchase their tool, they are taking care of themselves and their own use of their own tool ( they are happy, and think we should be too ).

    Win to HDD expects the user to have other resources in order to make Win to HDD work, specifically, we all seem to mention the need for an additional partition manager software, and the need to have Microsoft original resources like a Windows CD and or “wim” files *, as well as having a personal technical mastery of Windows disk partitioning schemes ** ( primary, secondary, invisible boot partitions, versus operating system partitions, and so on ) as if we end users were all Microsoft Certified Computer Builders and Windows Administration Technicians.

    Though this is all learnable, the programmers of Win to HDD expect each user to master and manage low level programming protocols, their program is not a simple “point and shoot”, it has no sophisticated intelligence of it’s own, for example, it asks what the user wants the target partitions to look like … I don’t know nor care, I just want Windows to boot and work.

    Most of us have enough challenge learning a program, we should not also have to learn stuff outside of the program in order to learn stuff inside of the program.

    I have other solutions to make a bootable Windows drive:

    – a cloning drive bay for ~$35 from Microcenter, insert 2 drives, push a button, it copies one to the other, no computer needed ( then it acts like a USB expansion drive bay for external drives when it’s not being asked to duplicate a drive, so I can use it all the time ).

    – cloning software from many vendors, including free versions that intelligently copy and resize the contents of a working Windows drive onto another drive of larger or smaller size, including migrating from hard disk to solid state disk.

    – Microsoft CD or CD-to-USB-thumb-drive original Windows installation media, which either arrived with a computer, or I downloaded free from the manufacturer’s support sites, and this original Microsoft Windows installer intelligently takes a blank hard disk or solid state disk and makes it into a bootable Windows disk, I just point and shoot.

    All three of those are self-managing intelligent solutions that do not require the end user to figure out the low level programming and disk partitioning schemes.

    As a computer user, I’ve got better things to do than stop what I’m using the computers for, and instead, learn low level programming and partitioning schemes.

    If I were a service/build/repair-shop that makes new computers or repairs old computers all day, every day, I would not have to stop what I’m doing to learn low level programming and computer partitioning schemes because that’s what I would be doing all day, every day, anyway – that is presumably a matching customer for Win to HDD.

    – – – – – – – – – –

    * A WIM file is saved in a file-based imaging format that was introduced with Windows Vista. It allows a single disk image to be deployed to multiple computer platforms. WIM files are used to manage files such as drivers, updates, and components without booting the operating system image. The Windows Imaging Format is a file-based disk image format. It was developed by Microsoft to help deploy Windows Vista and subsequent versions of the Windows operating system family, as well as Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, wimlib pipable variant, disk image, developed by Microsoft Corporation.

    ** Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk, before any file system is created. Each operating system platform has its own way of partitioning a drive. Windows 10 can use as little as four primary partitions (the MBR partition scheme), or as many as 128 (the newer GPT partition scheme). The GPT partition is technically unlimited, but Windows 10 will impose a limit of 128; each is primary.

    – – – – – – – – – –

    Note about me, I “repair” PCs for a living, actually, I support people who use PCs, so I have been fixing broken PCs, and building new PCs, for the past 50+ years … and I have never been able to successfully incorporate Win to HDD into any functional use, and if the program makes itself obtuse to me, me, a tech since before the IBM PC, then I understand why others in the reviewing section here at SOS also find Win to HDD to be useless, or, for those who like it, I presume they just happen to be on the same wavelength as the programmers of Win to HDD, and they also have the other resources at hand, and they are not distracted by conditions that do not match the conditions expected by the programmers of Win to HDD.

    We all have something to offer, and I’m glad Win to HDD has found some folks who can benefit from their tools.
    .

    #16112302 Reply | Quote
    Chieu Bao An
    Guest

    My license key did not work. There is a window that says: fail to run system API

    #16120901 Reply | Quote
    jboy
    Guest

    #1, Ashraf, I recommend redesigning our SOS website, combining reviews and discussions into one page – I almost NEVER read reviews, but now I see discussions over there, and now I feel as if posting here would be unnecessary duplication.

    I have been suggesting this for a very long time, glad to see someone else do so as well. Especially since so many of the reviews are quite old and, though there is no way of knowing what version is being reviewed, when it is years old it may often be many versions behind the one being offered. Those old ones can be pushed down to the bottom for reference, under “Older Reviews”, while the current are at the top. With the discussion and reviews all on the one page, it might also inspire people to actually post reviews of the current offering. I believe it would also increase the discussion/helpful Q&As as I bet many people do not even realize there is one or bother to go to the “discuss this offer” page here. Just a thought. Stay safe everyone!

    #16122431 Reply | Quote
    Brian Donovan
    Guest

    Where is the activation key. My version says free, not Pro as advertised on the web page?? I see a link at the bottom of 1st page to UPGRADE, I thought this was supposed to be PRO version??

    #16153631 Reply | Quote
    Tortuga
    Guest

    I have other solutions to make a bootable Windows drive:

    – a cloning drive bay for ~$35 from Microcenter, insert 2 drives, push a button, it copies one to the other, no computer needed ( then it acts like a USB expansion drive bay for external drives when it’s not being asked to duplicate a drive, so I can use it all the time ).

    Hello Peter !
    First let me thank you for all the comments you make.
    They are really really helpful!!

    You mentioned a ‘cloning drive bay’. I find it interesting, would like to know more. I searched, but am not sure I found the right ones. I don’t even know what is a ‘Microcenter’ (a brand, a model, a company?).
    I am not in a English speaking country, so its complicated…
    Could you post a few links, maybe for reviews, or Amazon? If I know what it looks like, I can get started !! :)

    Really would appreciate it!!
    Peace
    .

    #16160649 Reply | Quote
    Lanetue
    Guest

    Hello,
    My license key is not working. Error message “The license key has been deactivated.(0x0000020501340000)”
    Thanks for your help

    #16245672 Reply | Quote
    Fabio
    Guest

    On the 8th of June I received the e-mail SharewareOnSale with the gift of WinToHDD Professonal and that same day, I activated the license and my program turned into a Pro version. A few weeks ago, I noticed that he went back to being Free, that is, for some reason they deactivated the license key.

    #16249739 Reply | Quote
    tuan
    Guest

    why my license key has been disable ?

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
Reply To: WinToHDD Professional / Jul 8 2020