DEVICE: GreaseWeazle 4.1
DRIVE: TEAC FD-55GFR
SUITE: FluxEngine (decoder.retries=3, drive.revolutions=1.2)
ARCHIVER: Lee Smallbone
ARCHIVED: 2026-03-30 16:00 (GMT/UTC)
NOTES:
Disk purchased as part of an enormous bundle of 120 5.25" disks from eBay. Possible estate clearance?
Disk in incredible 'as new' condition.
100% media recovery.
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LIFETREE SOFTWARE INC
volkswriter deluxe rel 2.2 (1985?)
Serial Number 41209681
Distributed Free with Computer Shopper.
From Lobste.rs / Substack:
https://lobste.rs/s/ncq5km/volkswriter_deluxe_one_first_word
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/volkswriter-deluxe
"A fun fact about VolksWriter.
Long after it was largely obsolete and forgotten, a late marketing push was unexpectedly successful. A UK computer magazine ran
a demo version on its cover-mounted floppy disk. Lifetree crippled the demo version by deleting a few files.
Then they duplicated the disk and it was sent out.
(I think, from vague memory, the "crippled" version could not save documents or something. The idea was that people would try it,
like it, but find the cover disk version largely unusable for anything except trivial tasks, and so would buy the full version.)
But the thing is... block-duplicated disks contain every sector of the original. So the copies contained the deleted files, too.
Meaning that you could run a DOS undelete tool, undelete the files (which only meant guessing the first letter of the filename,
which is all that DOS actually did to mark a file as deleted). There were many undelete tools around -- notably it was one of the
selling points of early versions of the Norton Utilities -- and some were free.
Guess the letter -- I think it was "V" ;-) -- undelete the files, thereby un-cripple the program... and you had a full
completely-working version, entirely legally. You didn't steal it, or copy it, or anything. They gave the program to you on a cover
disk, complete with the files present but invisible. Reveal them, it works. No piracy involved: just changing filenames of something
you were given for free.
Once word spread about this "hack" the cover disk became quite sought-after and the app got thousands of new users in the UK.
TBH it wasn't an amazing app but it wasn't terrible either. But the company didn't make any sales of this small, understandable
but foolish mistake."
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Hey what do you know? There ARE undeletable files on the disk image ;-)
Left for the user to find!
