An issue that has come up in blogs and forums lately is, there are loads of free utilities for recovering files, so why use Selkie? Selkie costs $100, versus a Linux live CD which costs nothing.

Hm. Let’s add up the costs of “nothing.” Here are a few elements:

A typical Linux live CD is roughly 700meg. Selkie is 20meg. Your download takes 35 times longer to get a live CD than it does to get Selkie. How much is your time worth?

A live CD comes in the form of an ISO, a CD image. There are technicians out there who are familiar with burning CD images to a disk, but most users in my experience are not. Selkie includes a utility which handles the process of putting Selkie on a CD. This means you, the end user, don’t have to figure this out and spend time learning to use your current software to do this or track down a utility online which can do the job. (See above: how much is your time worth?)

Selkie has been optimized for simplicity. If you have a typical network, or one that uses static addresses (Ie: you need to manually enter the numbers) or you’re using a direct cable connection between your failed computer and your recovery machine, Selkie guides you through this process. Now if you have trouble with setting up a Linux live CD such as Knoppix, you can go online and track down information on how to configure it for static addressing or using a direct cable connection. Brew a pot of coffee; you’ll need it. The question comes up again: how much is your time worth?

We built Selkie so that it was smart enough to do its own setup. In the overwhelming majority of cases, you don’t need to configure anything even on your recovery computer. For example: suppose you plan to use Selkie with a crossover cable connected to a Windows computer. Odds are very good that your Windows computer is set up to work on a typical network, one where a DHCP server (such as a router) hands out an address to the computers on this network. Typically when you use a direct cable between two computers, you must manually set a unique address on each computer, but one which is in the same address range–otherwise the computers can’t communicate.

When you select Selkie’s “direct cable connection” mode, it turns itself into a DHCP server. This means your Windows computer will get its address from Selkie. Selkie will even usually detect the workgroup your Windows computer uses, and add itself to that group. This means you don’t need to alter any settings in Windows to make it work with Selkie. Selkie adapts to you; it doesn’t require you to adapt to it.

When it comes to recovering files, you use your Windows computer to pull files back from the broken computer running Selkie. This means you’re in an environment you’re familiar with: Windows. If you’ve never used a Linux CD before, you’ll find there is a learning curve. You must spend time figuring out what you’re doing and how to do it. (And your time is worth how much again?)

If you have experience with copying files in Windows, you may have encountered the issue where Windows for whatever reason cannot copy a particular file. If you select 1,000 files and Windows cannot copy file #100, Windows will halt at this point. This means if you leave your computer with the expectation that all your files will be copied over while you go for coffee–nope. You’ll get 99 files and a complaint from Windows.

This is why we had our development team assemble the Selkie Rescue Center. This utility, part of the Selkie package, manages the recovery of your files. It preserves the folder structure on your broken computer and it doesn’t stop when it encounters a file that cannot be copied. Instead it logs that file and carries on. So if there is one file in your 1,000-file selection that is a problem, you will find–when you come back from coffee-that you have 999 files copied and a log telling you the name and location of the one file that was problematic.

Perhaps you have an astronomical number of files on your computer. Perhaps Selkie needs two hours to recover them all. Go spend time with your family, or go for a walk, or read a book. Do something you’d rather be doing; you don’t need to sit and stare at Selkie while it does its job.

Oh yes; what if you do run into a problem? What if you can’t figure out how to put Selkie onto a CD? Or what if you’ve done everything right and Selkie tells you you’re ready to recover your files–but you can’t see them from your Windows computer, and the Selkie Rescue Center tells you it can’t find a computer called “Selkie” on your network?

Pick up the phone. 1-888-688-9199. A live human being–with technical knowledge, and experience with diagnosing your problem–will help you through it. This typically takes half an hour.

Or you could have the fun of several hours on the Net trying to figure out why the Linux CD you downloaded last night won’t boot, or won’t connect with your network.

But it comes back to the question: How much is your time worth?