I know what you're saying, and if the dreaded Starforce was still in play I'd agree with you. I think SH4 will come with the useless securom though.

I thought submariners were courageous ! [WHAT can you 'install' that can't be cleaned up/off with a Re-Format... in a worst possible case?]

Right, 'cause reinstalling all of my software would only take a week or so (unless I take time off from work for it), and time is cheap, right? Wait ... no it isn't. Not to mention losing whatever music/graphics/video/sourcecode I might have been in the process of creating and hadn't backed up yet, going through all of the possible headaches of contacting a ton of various companies to attempt to re-register all of my audio and/or graphics plugins, etc. If my system were only a game system I wouldn't care, but that's very far from being the case.

My apologies, Mate. I took

" risk messing up the many thousands of dollars worth of existing functionality of my computer"

to mean harming your equipment.

'A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do'...

COB

No, I do not mean pirate copies:D

Here in Germany one can:
- rent a game at video/dvd rental shops for one day or more
- rent a game online for one week, it will be delivered to your house and after the test week you must sent it back
- or you can test games before purchase in special game shops like EBgames/Gamestop

That's okay. No, the lion's share of the money that's gone into my system is in the software and data on it. I think I've got about $5K worth of audio sample sets on it alone, which is about three times as much money that went into the hardware. And getting that stuff registered and working can be tricky - I don't relish the thought of having to go through it again.

Glad to hear that - thanks for clarifying!

G'day,

Based on this thread, concerns for the copy protecting (CP) scheme Ubisoft will install on SH4 seems pretty valid. It has invoked several strong reactions not to buy on the relesae date, but rather wait a month or so to determines "bugs in the game". Another very valid concern is "when CP installs stuff onto a machine that can cause other programs or hardware to work abnormally or not at all."

I have found FirstDefense ISR eliminates that fear. When FirstDefense is installed, you can instantly:

recover from a corrupted registry or other critical Windows files
recover from a virus-infected operating system or program application
renew your system when it gets bogged down by memory leaks, uninstalls,
temporary files, etc. with all your data intact
recover from bad driver or operating system upgrades


In addition, FirstDefense-ISR gives you easy way to quickly roll back your system to a prior service pack in the event of a problem with the new service pack. And, it installs without the need to create additional partitions or other modifications to your system.


I know there are many softwares with similar claims, but this one actually works. Both my wife and I use it. I have one recovered once and she used it about 6 times now and it aways works perfectly.

You would be doing yourself a good deed to check out FirstDefense.

Cheers

MYSTIC...Forgive me, again..but with that much valuable stuff on your machine, do you NOT have one of these nice 500GB USB External Drives that you copy everything to once in a while..AND THEN UNPLUG..? Gosh, I'd certainly think so. I do that with a few GB of pidly personal JPGs... I don't mean to push you further, but I actually feel some sympathy if your work is in jeopardy...

I don't think that would be of any benefit with the enormous quantities of sample sets ... I'm under the impression that they won't work anymore if they've been copied to a different device and then copied back. Nonetheless, even if only for the actual data files I create, you're right - I really ought to get one of those USB backup drives.

MYSTIC... I just bought mine last week. This machine is 250 GB and my Bride's is 160.. Through the router she backs up on mine; I back up on hers. But I have been afraid that something could come in on either...web page with script writing, kind of thing... and since the two machines are mapped together, my drive appears on hers as a Network Drive and her's on my machine as a Network drive, and some Malware could jump between happily. So I bought the 500GB drive. It just shows up as a new, hard drive...when plugged in. Very fast writing... I had tried a cheaper one some time back, lousy. I can plug the External into my daughter's lap-top... or ANY machine and it works fine. I currently have 87GB on it... and, unplugged.. it IS safe!

Sorry to detract from the theme of the thread, but it really sounds like you might gain from thinking about it. If I understand your posting, I have never even HEARD of such a problem. Same Named files or folders over-write, as usual, so it pays to watch your naming, etc...

Apologies again, to The Thread... but I guess if maybe this talks you into SH4 sooner, it WAS applicable ??? [grin]

COB

I preordered SH3 but I think I will not buy SH4 on release. Too many games I bought have been rushed to release and UBI is not my spelling for QA... But then again, maybe I just cannot walk by when I see it at a local store :)

i just couldnt come on here on the first few release days and listen to everyones excitement at the latest addition to our genre. torture! ill have this game the day of release and then you won't hear from me for a few days !

Hehehe, That will most of us as well. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../thgen1211.gif Let-me-atum!!..I want to sink some JAPS!!!!