This is a personal post to a man who I thought was a good friend. He has been my friend from the time I was introduced to his ‘workgroup‘ back in 1993. I grew with him over the years, both personally and professionally. He was the source of knowledge for me. I was really fond of our friendship, except when he was in his ‘ME’ phase.

He helped a lot of people. He is a savvy business man. The fact is, he ultimately helped me start my own business in 1998 and has been helping me ever since.

It all started when a piece of software that his company makes decided that I wasn’t allowed to have as much stuff stored in it as his company thought it should, so it locked me out of it. My business lives and dies by having access to this information. Let’s just say that my ‘outlook‘ on life was bleak.

So, I went searching for a solution. Every place I came to said there were two possible solutions; slice the file up or delete some of the data in it. Slicing it up was my first choice.

I went hunting for a utility that would do it. After coming up empty handed on Open Source programs, I went looking for the alternative; stuff I got to buy.

I found a company out of India called RecoveryFix. The software that they provide gives you a free demo which allows you to install and run the program. It takes the file that you want to fix, in this case a .PST file, reads and compiles the data stored in it. It will even display the folder tree and let you select the data you want to keep. But you have to buy it before you can restore the file.

So I went through the rigmarole and the four hours to restore the file, twice; once on the demo and once on the paid version. To my dismay the software did not work for me. I was disappointed to say the least. Not so much about the $69.00 I spent on the software but for the time it wasted.

I then used the free utility that Bill’s company mentions in their Knowledge Base. It did cut the file and made me lose data. That was disheartening, but the worse part was that after I did all of that it crashes my whole computer system and wasted another four hours.

You see, I still have a business to run, so I started working from my old laptop that throws more heat off then a five liter engine running for ten hours in 120 degree weather with no coolant. Yea, I know, the thrill is in the drive. Right!

My wife said, “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell.” So, I packed up the family and took a drive to Podunk, Maryland to a computer show and bought a new PC and laptop for less than what I paid for my old PC. Both of these babies came stacked to the gills. [I do not know who is smiling more, because, my wife got the laptop.]

Now, I am back up and all systems are a go. Things are looking up. I am re-supporting my buddy Billy G. My system runs smooth and quiet. I am once again a happy camper.

Bill, if you are out there listening, or reading, remember the little guys who helped you get to where you are. Take off the file limitations and let us run free!

- D

My lovely wife bought me a really cool Trio MP3 player and voice recorder last summer. It triples as a jump drive, too. It has a red case is sleek in design, fits easily in your pocket or purse (not that I have a purse) and comes with a clasp on a tiny, yet abnormally strong string.

This is what it looked like.

The sound quality is phenomenal from this tiny gadget powered by a single AA battery and the memory capacity is 512 MB (although some models go up to 1 GB).

I started carrying this around in my pocket in lieu of my old Lexar 256 MB jump drive (which was cool in it’s day).

After only three months of carrying it around, my Trio is banged up, the crystal screen is dead and will not work in my USB port anymore. Imagine my frustration when I needed to pop it in my PC and nothing happened. The files I had on it are lost. I had some good stuff on it too! Funky Latin and Reggae beats along side my favorite classical songs, not to mention an audio book and several business docs.

So, I am sad that I lost my Trio.

Someone cheer me up!!!

- D