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Today I received two 8 GB SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash cards. As has become custom lately, they came with a CD that has some file recovery software on it should you, I dunno, format your card before you import your images or something. I've never had a need for them, but since the apps tend to be small, I install them. I think Lexar gives you ImageRescue - that's the only other one of these types of apps I have installed.

Turns out I really, really shouldn't have bothered with this one, "RescuePRO."

The front of the CD has a big Windows logo, but says "Macintosh OS X v10.1+," so I put the disc in.

The root level of the disk contains three autorun files (.inf, .exe, and .apm), a readme, and a few folders. The "DATA" folder has nothing useful, and "INSTALL" and "RescuePRO" have .exe files in them. The last is named "MAC," so I open it.

The MAC folder contains another readme ((It's the same as the one at the root level, and it just tells you where recovered images will be saved: C:\Documents and Settings\ <your user name> \RescuePRO or, on a Mac, /Users/ <your user name> /RescuePRO. Wonder if it'll put those spaces in there. :-P)) and a .bin file named "RPMAC-Deluxe-Installer.bin".

I double-click RPMAC-Deluxe-Installer.bin and am told it's unable to be un-archived. StuffIt Expander unpacks it before complaining that "RPMAC-v40SN Installer" doesn't appear to be compressed. But at least I have what appears to be an installer.

The installer asks me for my language (English), displays a splash screen (hey, it's in English!), shows me another screen with the word "Welcome" in black text in a large red rectangle (isn't that kind of the opposite of "welcome"?) which tells me that it's going to install RescuePRO Delux onto my computer. I click "Continue."

The ReadMe file appears in the next window. The menacing red rectangle displays the black text "Read Me." I click "Continue." Repeat for the License Agreement and menacing red rectangle (MRR). I click "Continue." Then I click "Agree" on the sheet that slides down.

The next screen shows "Select Destination" in the MRR. All six of my disks - including my iDisk - appear in a view that shows only three of them plus a scrollbar. I select my main drive as it's first in the list and fail to notice "Select a folder" buried at the bottom. It's well below the fold, as they say, and I assume SanDisk knows to put things inside /Applications. I click "Continue." The MRR re-appears and says "Easy Install." The instructions tell me "Click onto the install button to commence the installation." I click onto "Install," but not before noticing that the "Custom" and button is disabled.

I was wrong about /Applications. A window "Powered by MacInstallerBuilder" displays a progress bar as it installs nearly 400 files, most of which seem to be GIFs and .htm files. The MRR returns to say "Finished." I click "Close."

I open my main disk to find that, inside /, I have a RescuePRO folder ((Hey, I thought I was getting RescuePRO Deluxe! Where's my Deluxe?)). Inside of that, an installer log and RescuePRO, an application. I peruse the installer log text file and am relieved to discover that the 400 or so items were all installed inside the RescuePRO app bundle. I move RescuePRO to /Applications and delete the folder and installer log file.

I launch the app. I'm prompted for my language. I choose the default - English - and enter my registration code from the back of the CD envelope. The app launches and presents six buttons to me. Being a capricious fool, I click the one labeled "Wipe Media" with a trash can on it. You get this:

There are no menus, and no way to go "back" to the main screen. The only menu item is the application menu "RescuePRO." My capricious foolery has limits, so I don't click "Start." I quit, pleasantly surprised cmd-q works.

Some time later, I open a new Finder window only to discover that RescuePRO - the "Deluxe" part is still up for debate - put a file in my home directory named rpdeluxe.properties, the contents of which are:

#Thu Jan 29 12:14:54 EST 2009
SerialNumber=RPRID-0400-xxxxx-yyyyy-zzzzz
LocaleCountry=US
LocaleLanguage=en

Moving this file to any other location, predictably, breaks the registration and forces the application to re-create the file the next time you launch the application. (Hint: if you want to keep it around, SetFile -a V rpdeluxe.properties will at least hide it from your sight.)

Who develops this shit?

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