#40 said: "Ok. So the virus on the Seagate drives was not from China afterall. It was from DALLAS TEXAS USA and Korea."

Re-read the article and look at your interpretation again. The virus was installed on the hard drives in China, but the SERVERS where the passwords go appear to be from Texas and Korea.

Just a heads up

I posted a mild criticism of this web site suggesting the need for them to preview and screen software a bit better before posting it to prevent foisting problems upon us.

My comment was removed. A lot of other comments from the far reaches of the galaxy are preserved. Go figure

Wow this software started a movie pitch... The idea that the software is really malware that sends secret data is insane, not out of possibility, but unlikely. I have a few of the other encryption software packages on my machine and there is little use for them unless you don't password protect and have an open machine. I am the only user and I have a guest account, why, so that if I decide to "loan" the use of my machine to a friend they cannot see all my personal files.
The programs are free and you often get what you pay for... remember that folks and if you don't like what is out there today...wait for tomorrow!!!!!!! There is always another day. Thanks for the laughs and I will pass on this one.

AS DOCUMENTED in that very article that the person prior to Dawn posted, and reported by INFOWORD:

"Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson said that while the password-collecting servers may appear to be located in China, they are actually located in Dallas and Korea. "

Ok. So the virus on the Seagate drives was not from China afterall. It was from DALLAS TEXAS USA and Korea.

So, I guess that means that all of you are not going to buy or use anything made in the USA again from now on. Right?

Yes, let's not become anti-China over such non sense. Note that the article cited said Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson said that while the password-collecting servers may appear to be located in China, they are actually located in Dallas and Korea.
So, I suppose we should become fearful of Texans rather than China.
Cut the non sense out. I will run good software where ever it comes from. No, we don't need another kooky conspiracy theory to try & scare us away!

I was quite shocked to read about the Seagate drives being infected with such a virus as I do play online games, though not WoW, which was mentioned as one of the passwords being stolen. Seagate, are offering a 60 day free trial of Kaspersky,s AV software, which apparently can detect and delete the virus. Apparently Seagate drives shipped since Aug 07 may be infected. There was an instance of Maxtor drives with a similar problem last year. I've bought at least three seagate drives since then so will be checking them as my usual AV software hasn't detected anything:

You can get the 60 day trial from the following link:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/personal_storage/ps3200-sw

As for today’s software I’ll pass as the freeware alternatives mentioned by Louie comment #2 do come highly recommended. (Thanks for the heads up) though usually I don’t particularily like freeware applications.

WOW !! Data Security Wizard
Thanks all, for the warning.

The best chuckles i`v had all day.
I see conspiracy theory is alive and well.
I have some encryption programs but do not use them.I considered trying this one just for testing, but with the abundance of problems others have with Data Security Wizard, i will pass on todays Giveaway. I certainly don`t want to spend three hours reinstalling a system backup.
Thanks anyway GOTD team.
The Grouser

@Dawn #34:

Thank you (and Weeuns) for your response. Despite my attempt at humor, I was seriously wondering what you were referring to. I couldn't understand how a trojan could survive a format. However, after scanning several articles about it, it appears the hard drives in question might have been external, pre-formatted drives, in which case malware could have already been there.

Still, I would like to point out that no one here has confirmed any malware in this present software. The fact that somebody says it "smells of malware" to him because it doesn't offer choices he expects, or even "turned out to be malware" because he isn't able to uninstall it, or someone else doesn't believe it's possible for the software to do some of the things it claims to do only proves that some people ought to have to be licensed to use computers like automobile drivers are.

I didn't download the software either, but only because I already have too much encryption software and don't want any more. If you had said you didn't download it for some similar reason, I wouldn't have involved myself in this discussion. However, you have to admit that you implied that this program might have malware partly because "Chinese people may have written another spyware program to collect data".

I'm not Chinese, but it offends me when someone accuses other people of possible wrongdoing because someone else of their country (race, gender or whatever) is known to have done wrong; -- especially, apparently by mistake as the articles I read suggested.

Anyway, thank you again for clarifying your position.

WOW I HOPE THAY DID'NT STEAL MY PORN!!!....The software is not so great but the comments are fantastic!!! thanks GOTD for a fun time.

Firstly, I never stated that I *believed* the Chinese government developed this program to hack our computers and steal our information, nor did I suggest that we should avoid all software from a particular country because of the seagate/maxtor thing. However, because some people think the idea is completely ridiculous, I thought I would point out the seagate/maxtor trojan. We know it because it was all over the news. Here is just one link. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58819

Poor translations shouldn't stop us from using a particular software, but because a couple of people who tried this program and had indication of spyware, along with the FACT that a Chinese company put spyware on Maxtor/Seagate drives, it is enough for me to not try this program.

@25 and 26. I'm not Dawn, but go here: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/12/Seagate-ships-virus-laden-hard-drives_1.html

How this piece of cr** got all those 4- and 5-star awards on the website I cannot imagine; they probably just made it up. It's terrible!

The logo on their website is very cheesy.

#8&9, #12—Thanks for your info. Personally, I feel bad that you had to experience the problems of this program. I now know that this is a piece of junk that doesn't work, and I won't even go to download the ZIP file.

As far as I'm concerned, the Chinese are probably plotting to take over the Universe, as the way I see it, they've established communications with a Communist alien race in the third quadrant, sector Alpha-17. ;)

I have XP Pro and received no terrorist malware from this program. That said there are a few things wrong: first you cannot decide where to install this program. it decides and it decides to go on the C drive. I don't like that. Second, it does not allow you to pick where the encrypted data will reside. It decides that too and it decides that it should be in the same place as the real original data was. The same goes for unencrypting, it places the unencrypted file where ever you have the crypted file. Other than that it seems ok and did a good job of encrypting whatever I chose so I cannot find any flaw there but I do think that the packaging of the program could be a little better. Thanks Nick.

>TedM

Screensaver Day is the day after tomorrow.

>allhadis

What? Who are you talking to?

>Hitman

Fine, you can get a malware program that screws up your computer, is impossible to uninstall, and(according to DoubleF and steve) doesn't even do what it's supposed to do. The rest of us will get the free alternatives.

Except for me, because I have no use for this kind of program.

Very baffling. I have administrator rights. I encrypted a file. It says it encrypted the file. The file can be open and the data used. I encrypted a program. It says it encrypted the program. The program can be opened and the data used. How is it encrypted? Am I missing something?

Aside from the conspiracy bull****. I don't understand why everyone tries to say you should get a free ware alternative to these downloads. This stuff IS free. This is the only place you can legally get $20 software for nothing. If I want to download free ware, I know how to use a search engine!

I hate to post again, but I have to ask #18 Dawn about that spyware on Seagate and Maxtor hard drives, since I was unaware of it. Mostly I'd like to know how they got it there. Was it put on new, unformatted drives (lots of potential secrets hidden there)? Or did they sneak in on Christmas night when people's chimneys were wide open for Santa and slip it on there then?

Your masterful explanation of this important event would be gratefully appreciated since my computer probably has one of those drives on it, and I'd hate to have my very important, top-secret recipe for rice pudding leaked to the Chinese government.

Wow, just... Wow!

The comments today really take the cake... Honestly folks, do you REALLY think the Chinese government is the least bit interested in the files you have on your computer??

I can just picture that... Someone in the Chinese government - I have a great idea! Lets have some software developer create some encryption software and market it in the USA. Then we can have it send those files to us to do dastardly things with them! WE WILL KNOW ALL THEIR SECRETS!!

Ugh... That's perhaps the weakest conspiracy theory I've ever heard. No, the weakest is the comment from Dawn (#18) stating that "We already know" the Chinese put spyware on Seagate and Maxtor HD's... Ummm... Right...

Dawn, you forgot that the Russian's invented WiFi in the hopes that they will gain our missle launch codes because they can 'listen in' on all WiFi transfers!

Reading these comments seriously makes me sad for humanity...

I will pass on this offer but not because the publisher is a Chinese company. I can live with bad translations if a program works properly. Besides Wondershare is a Chinese company and their progtams are generally well recieved here. I just feel that Eraser and Axcrypt offer the same as this program and both are free. Thank you GAOTD for the offering and to the publisher Chengdu YIWO Tech Developement. Also thank you to earlier posts from users that made my dexision easier to make.

come on people you are not the center of the universe
nobody even thinks of you existence
waaaaake up

Well, seriously, you guys are falling apart. I say that the MOST common software on GAOTD is, Video converters, Screensaver, and, esp, ENCRYPTION softwares. I'm starting to miss screensavers! I give up, I'm no longer "spreading the word".

I would like to see some professional evaluations on this software before I jeopardize my computer system. The comments here are interesting and somewhat helpful, however.

Sofware installed on Windows NT without problem BUT ... the program is unusable because it says I need to have Administrator rights. OK, ... but I already have them ... !!!! - So what ???

The comments here just get dumber by the day. This company's website is poorly organized and poorly translated. The website links to all of their products; what GOTD is offering is just Data Security Wizard, which only does encryption and wiping. Although you may choose not to use any software from a given country, I don't think country of origin alone is sufficient information to evaluate a product (TrendProtect lists the website as safe). Encryption software doesn't have to be open-source, but the algorithms must be open. The website doesn't indicate what encryption algorithms are being used, which is reason enough for me to avoid this. They do list the wiping algorithm. And, as often noted, this would have to be substantially better than freeware for me to consider it. As for poor translations, that's common even from big-name multinational foreign corporations. Do you read the instruction manuals for your electronic products? You'll generally find lots of bad translations.

Thanks for the comments; I know not to download this program. You guys saved me a lot of headaches.

We already know that the Chinese put spyware on Seagate and Maxtor hard drives, so what's so crazy about thinking that more Chinese people may have written another spyware program to collect data?

#All
You people must be joking,right?

I s this yet, another communist consipracy to undermine and overtake the computers of GAOTD users world wide?
DOOMED I TELL YA, WERE ALL DOOMED

What the hell - if this program is malware who are the stupid ones (26% until now!) that gave a high rating for this program. GAOTD - I have not seen a good giveaway software for about 4 months now. What are you doing?? Wake up please!! And even the games!!A whole lot of baby childy games!! We don't play those. Please...This was a real good website until some months ago, and then...BUMM!! The website is dropping it's high ratings because of the stupid software. Please GAOTD!!! Don't let your website be smashed out because of baby stupid games or software that either is useless, has already been as a giveaway and you learnt that it was useless, or has viruses. Please!! If I could hibernate, I would go now!!!

thanks for letting me know how bad this software is, stopped me from even considering downloading it..

Obviously a plot by the Chinese government to infect and destroy GAOTD users computers after extracting their top-secret data. Then they'll be able to take over the whole world, ultimately dominating the universe. (Lord, help us!)

Come on, people. The software is probably buggy, and should only be thoroughly tested before relying on it, as should be done with ANY SOFTWARE, from here or anywhere else. Don't try it just because it's FREE TODAY!

This is not the kind of software people with little computer experience should be running. Try it only if you think you need it, and you aren't satisified with what you're using now. (Or, of course, if you're a member of some highly important government agency whose mission is to prevent the Chinese from taking over the universe.)

really...

Stay away, very far away, this little program just corrupted my system (running XP pro) so bad I have to do a full format and restore. Holy hitman, this thing is nasty.............

I was about to install it when I saw these comments. I'm not trusting my files to a Chinese security program that really is malware and probably sends copies of my encrypted files to the Chinese government. Also, currently it's impossible for a software shredder to shred the file completely and permanently in only one pass. Thank you comment #8&9 for helping the next bunch of users know not to download it.

well what i dont like about the description is this Security Wizard still is a reliable and ultra-fast shredder that will help you securely wipe any file, folder, partition and hard disk without any chances for its recovery. hmm gutmanns algoritm isnt fast as it uses 35 passes and the gutmann algoritm is the only software shredder algoritm that can prevent recovery

Per my previous comment (#8), this program has turned out to be malware, where it can't be uninstalled even when in Admin-mode. Makes having a Linux Distro installed on another partition come in handy as it was the only way I could remove this software. IMHO, don't install this unless you really want it and want to keep it!

Decided to give it a chance, even if only to evaluate the erasing capabilities of this program.
Upon installing it prompts one to restart computer to finish installation, however, it only gives the one option to restart, and not the option to restart later. This smells of malware to me, so it will immediately be wiped from my computer. I'm more apt to follow the advice of comment #2 for this software and go with the freeware.

Looking at the home site has left me with the norion that it would most likely do me more harm than good. Better luck next time.

Hmmm...my comment didn't stick the first time, but gist of it was a clearly Chinese corporation (read, government) wants me to encrypt and "protect" my most valuable files with their software? Call me paranoid, but I would never trust an unknown entity with my most valuable data, much less a communist one that's not friendly with Western nations. Do a little research and you'll see their public declarations of intended dominance in information operations, to the point of having created entire government and military agencies to that end. I'll pass, tyvm, and recommend you do the same.

#3
Did you ever try to make a translation into Chinese...? ;-)

The way a program does its job and a poor translation are two totally different things.
Remember folks this program is free also.Just take it or leave it!

well, at least on this one there *are* some things the demo version won't do according to the website, torpedoing the usual 'download the trial, it'll recover for free' that applies to most of the offerings of this type.

OTOH, if you look, the program is only supposed to "retrieve EFS - encrypted files from NTFS partitions. To retrieve the files, encryption password must be known or SAM database must be present (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, VISTA). User must have administrator privileges", not actually encrypt files or filesystems. The black box encryption is microsoft, which doesn't recommend it that much to me...

The good
- They have a detailed site
- They aren't shy as to actual state clearly who they are, where they are, how long they have been around, etc. Which is something rare to see of companies that offer programs on Giveaway which have to do with possible sensitive issues.

The bad
- Their command of the English language is not bad but even I, a non native English speaker, find the mistakes portraying a lack of being meticulous.

A couple of examples:
"..we firmly believe that we are top-grade professional service provider."
"...most cost-effective and ease-to-use software..."
"...can recover files and folders which are deleted accidentally recently."

- the mock-up of the product boxes has been so overdone that nowadays instead of looking professional it looks cheesy because anybody and everybody has been using it to flog about anything.
E.g.: http://www.emanuelblagonic.com/2007/07/19/how-to-use-photoshop-to-create-product-box/

- The selling price. It reeks of taking advantage of someone's misfortune.


Conclusion

The program itself is clearly targeting pro users because when it comes down to it you need 3 drives. 1 that has failed , 1 that has the program on it and 1 to which to write the recovered image on. That is not a bad thing in itself. However most users on here will only use it to recover some accidentally deleted files or folders and not crashed hard drives.

I'm looking forward to see the review by BladedThoth and what he makes of it's recovery skills.

This $70 program is merely a 3-in-1 of:

1. TrueCrypt (CNET)
2. Eraser (CNET)
3. Restoration (try searching google)
All of the above are freeware.

As always with encryption software, it does bother me that after a system crash I would have no choice but to then pay for replacement install and of course the priviledge of opening my own files again. I'll pass thanks.