# Reimage your computer.



## Elvandil

This looked like another imaging application at first. But it's not at all. Apparently, these guys fix machines over the internet through some automated process. They even recommend that people who fix machines for a living could just run this service and take the credit for the miraculous results.

The review is revealing. After reading it, I'm sure you won't be able to wait to get started, having these guys work on your machine and those of your customers. After all, if we can all get rid of our "unhealthy clutters", we'd never have any problems in the first place.

Read carefully. They explain how it all works, even glossing over the part about how they simply delete things that the process fails to understand. And they must replace Windows files, too, or it might not just be too good to be true.

http://www.reimagereview.com/


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## perfume

Dear Elvandil,
I tried to run a "free scan for problems" and FF3.5.1, simply refused to open the site :http://www.reimagereview.com/reimage.php . I allowed the whole page under"NoScript" ,still no luck!


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## Elvandil

Not really. Right?


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## RonJr

Yes, reimage is a great tool to use. It fixes driver issues OS corruption and even scans for viruses. It also gives you stats about your computers overall performance. I used this several times a week at the shop that I used to work for and was very pleased.

You can even get there bootable disk and run it on systems that would not boot even with a windows repair. As long as the network drivers was available already on that disk.

When I was using it you had to use IE, FF wasnt supported yet.

I cant say it enough, this is a great tool. I think it was $50 for a single use and my boss paid $150 monthly for this. I think if you talk to them you can get a 3 day trial.


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## Elvandil

It is nothing but a remote registry cleaner and is just as much a piece of junk as any of them.


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## JohnWill

It's frightening that this kind of stuff even exists!

For anyone reading this thread, please do NOT try this, it is a total waste of time and has a lot more likelyhood of killing your computer than fixing it!


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## RonJr

Absolutely not!

I have used this for over 6 months and on many different computers (all with XP) and have never had any problems. 

I never liked any type of registry cleaners at all and I tell everyone to stay away from them but this software is so much more then that.


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## perfume

I ditto Elvandil's view.


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## Ent

I've read through the review (including some atrocious grammar, too much Black-box nonesense, and brainwashing levels of repetitition) but it doesn't hold water. 

I mean, Scans for Viruses? By sending me a "comprehensive" list of viral signatures inside its 30 minutes (plus all the other stuff it tries to do) or by uploading my entire disk to the server? I can't say I like either option very much. 

Same for everything else: it has to be much more than a remote registry cleaner if it goes addling around with OS and driver files, but within that time span I can't see how it does anything more than check hash signatures (probably does the same for viruses! Like how many viruses are still that primitive?!?) and download the (hopefully but not necessarily correct and wholesome) replacement for any files that fail the check. Perhaps it's legit, perhaps it's even useful, but my gut tells me it isn't worth risking any computer still healthy enough to get online anyway.

No, a decent disk-bound repair toolkit with antivirus, diskcheck, and some sort of command prompt is fine. But I'm definitely leaning toward John and Eldanvil: this thing sounds like too much magic and not enough brain to be effective for any real problem.


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## JohnWill

The site creator couldn't even be bothered to use correct spelling and grammar, so how good could this piece of junk really be?


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## Stoner

JohnWill said:


> The site creator couldn't even be bothered to use correct spelling and grammar, so how good could this piece of junk really be?


Attached is what one of his web pages looks like in FF3.5.1 with NoScript enforced.


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## Elvandil

This was supposed to be a joke. I really can't believe that anyone would read that article and then trust those idiots with their machines. Please heed the advice and never, ever use this or anything like it unless you want an expensive paper-weight.


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## Stoner

Oh....I took it as a joke......but curiosity got the best of me


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## Ent

JohnWill said:


> The site creator couldn't even be bothered to use correct spelling and grammar, so how good could this piece of junk really be?


Spelling and Grammar doesn't necessarily say much. Many geeky people can code quite well, but would fail if an angry virus pop-up said "spell 'donkey' or I'll fry your system." What REALLY got to me was that phrase "entire system, software, drivers or whatever you call it." As a general rule it seems unwise to let someone fiddle with your programs, drivers, or kernal if they quite litterally do not know the difference.


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## RonJr

Look all I am saying is I will put my 10 years of experience behind this. You guys can gripe and moan all you want but how many times have you read something and didnt believe it or maybe just refused to and something got you to try it and it turned out to be the next best thing or even something some what useful?

I have used this on many machines mainly because it will get so much more done than what could be done even manually to fix a non booting system or even a system that is plagued with software issues. You can run this software from anywhere between 20 - 40 minutes. So tell me, on a system that is having many software issues how long would it take to diagnose each issue and fix each one?

A lot of older techs are stubborn and will not accept change. Which is completely understandable. Its kind of like that old lady that has it in her head that she has people in her PC hacking all her stuff because of all the horror stories she has heard from the news. No matter how much you try to explain to her that is not happening she just has that mindset and its hard to get her to understand thats not the problem.

Ok, when I used this software/service at my last job I, well we, used this at least 5 times a week between 2 techs if not more. So we have 5 times a week for lets just say 4 months ( thats how long we used it till I left, Im sure they still use it and its been 2 months since I have been there). So thats 20 times a month x 4 months which equals 80 computers and never once have we had a problem with the service. Im just being generous on the numbers.

You can choose not to use it but you cant just down something that you have never even used. You all are making these assumptions that this will "kill your PC". How could you back that? You dont have first hand experience with the service, maybe something that you think is similar but this is not what you guys think it is. 

I just think this is a very handy service and you guys that have the experience are influencing or denying people that are looking for help or an opportunity to help their situation. Yes, obviously you should use this as a last resort, but I have used this enough to know that this is very legit service and should at least be tested by you more experienced techs to even think about giving your opinion. 

It's not like I am mad or offended, I just think that something should be tried before you give an opinion. You guys have a lot of pull around here and your word is pretty much carved in stone for a lot of the people that come on here. At least contact reimage and try to get a 3 day trial to test out. 

Thats all I have to say.


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## Ent

As someone who is NOT an older techie I must defend the decision of my betters. Looking at it this way, that system is completely closed source, indeed it boasts in the fact. The spelling and grammar, though not indicitive of poor coding, does reveal that the author may think less than necessary of proof-reading (and perhaps too debugging.) The time taken to complete the process is tiny compared even to a single standard Virus or Corruption scan with no explenation given as to why. And the deal, the "pay me a cut and take your customers fees" sounds fishy for some reason.

Now many people ARE sceptical of new ideas, which I'll acknowledge is quite crushing for entrepreneurs and inventors. But such scepticism is often a very real self defence measure, and the knowledge of a proffesional techie is trusted with a fairly expensive system, a trust that cannot responsibly be shunted onto a closed source panacea of which their first impression (though not you say the results) leaves much to be desired. Perhaps they should give it a go on their own machine, but a three day surface trial is highly unlikely to show up lurking issues anyway, so if they don't want to risk it that too is understandable.


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## JohnWill

RonJr said:


> ...
> 
> At least contact reimage and try to get a 3 day trial to test out.
> 
> Thats all I have to say.


Not a chance!  There's no way I'd let this thing get anywhere a computer that I own, or any of my customers own! Quite frankly, I can't believe you're serious!

This sounds like Internet _*Snake Oil*_, harkens back to the Wild West here in the US! The notion that you can take one application and fix all the ills that a computer can exhibit is so far-fetched it's hard to imagine anyone actually believing it!

I have to believe you're somehow associated with this site, because I can't see anyone pushing something like this so hard with no interest in the product.


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## Elvandil

JohnWill said:


> Not a chance!  There's no way I'd let this thing get anywhere a computer that I own, or any of my customers own! Quite frankly, I can't believe you're serious!
> 
> This sounds like Internet _*Snake Oil*_, harkens back to the Wild West here in the US! The notion that you can take one application and fix all the ills that a computer can exhibit is so far-fetched it's hard to imagine anyone actually believing it!
> 
> I have to believe you're somehow associated with this site, because I can't see anyone pushing something like this so hard with no interest in the product.


That was my take on it, too. As soon as I read the first post, I checked the IP's to see if they were related. They weren't, but the chance of an association with the vendor still exists since I can't believe that any professional would say (or do) such things.

This is snake-oil, and anyone who would trust a customer's machine to something like this has no right to be working on them in the first place. If they haven't been burned yet, it is right up there with the most well-known miracles and maybe the Pope should be called in.

If there are enough customers that they could form a mob, something along the lines of the witness relocation program should be seriously considered.


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## RonJr

lol Im not, in any way associated with the company.

I'm just trying to say that this is a great service. I mean I really could care less if you all dont want to use it. Everybody is entitled to their opinions.


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## JohnWill

Sorry *RonJr*, but no sale here. There are so many reasons to distrust something nebulous like this that I don't feel like taking the time to enumerate them all.


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## 2old

OK,
Tested this on three computers that had some serious issues. Made a copy of the drives first.

1) First computer the user did a repair install last year. Not knowing how to do it correctly the user inadvertently install the OS on the third partition which was a hidden partition. Now he was infected and would not boot. Tried Reimage and it trashed the system.
2) Took the original drive copied the windows directory from the hidden partition and copied over to the C: partition and changed the boot.ini
Did the reimage repair and at least it booted, but many problems
3) Did step 2 above and did my normal repair process and repaired it in about an hour.
The point being, that Reimage cannot take in all the possibilities of problems. This may be great for 30% of the computers that are out there if they are generic enough and do not have a variety of different hardware or software. They also make many assumptions that everything must have been correct to begin with. Think of it a wiring in your car. If the wiring was done correctly from the factory then when thay plug in their diagnostic computer it can give you the correct answers. But what if the wiring was incorrect? How can the computer actually give you the correct response?
I did 2 other computers that had some serious issues and the results were similar.
I have been doing computer repair for only 23+ years and my not know what I am talking about. But I think that repairing about 100+ computers a month should be some indication as to what I can do.
All I am saying is "Buyer Beware"


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## JohnWill

2old said:


> All I am saying is "Buyer Beware"


Yep, no surprise there. Just looking at the home page is enough to convince me this one is a loser!


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## Elvandil

It has been quite a while since this thread was first posted. I am very interested in what anyone has experienced since then. 

One thing that concerns me is that they claim to repalce system files that are "damaged" (something that is almost impossible since Vista due to extensive hard-linking of system files, such that sfc does not even need an external source any longer). I know that MS takes a dim view of their files being transferred around unless it is by them. They simply want to keep them clean, spare their customers, and not be responsible for corrupted or infected files that they had nothing to do with. It's hard to believe that these people are doing this legally, if at all. 

They claim sometimes to be a "partner", which really means nothing other than that they paid their dues, and does not mean MS sanctions or necessarily approves of their service, but at other times the partner and Windows logos are completely missing from their home page.


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## ekim68

Hmm, three and a half years between the last two posts could mean that it's not relevant anymore, eh?


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## Elvandil

ekim68 said:


> Hmm, three and a half years between the last two posts could mean that it's not relevant anymore, eh?


Could be. Maybe discussed elsewhere. But I have been seeing a lot of ads lately and getting them in SPAM, so they must still be going. Someone is buying it.


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## ekim68

Ads are everywhere, even here....I see a lot of the ads and a lot of them are tech-repair related, search rules of course, that would distract and detract from TSG, IMHO...


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