In my utter disorganization of life I have lost my Rosetta Stone language CD (Portuguese I).

1. Has anyone had experience in getting a replacement, and if so, what were the experiences? I searched elsewhere and found several that had problems. Of course they are closed until Monday.

I have the original CD cases and the application CD, and am registered with them. I should be able to get a replacment, I hope.

2. Has anyone figured a way to backup the language CD, it is copyprotected. I just found out that my simple copy of the files and recreation of the CD does not work, and a search on the web did not yeild much information other than suggestions on possible ways to copy.

If they won't help you then do a search for Bittorrent. You can get all of the Rosetta Stone series there.

Found it, downloading slowly now. Do you happen to know if the .rar files will actually create the copy protected CDs that Rosetta Stone uses? if not I will report back, about 20 hours more for the download to complete..

rar files are just compressed files. You will need a program like WinRar to open them and inside you will either find the regular files or a CD image file that you will need to burn to a CD. That will then be your master disk.

Downloaded and running...
the .rar file was a compressed .iso file, image of a DVD.. you now run Rosetta Stone from the DVD and do not install like before..

Thanks.. happily progressing on my course..

Glad to help, although I prefer the Pimsleur Language program myself. Much more intuitive if you ask me.

I've been very happy with Pimsleur, have seen lots of Rosetta Stone kiosks in malls and so on, and was wondering how they compare. Has anyone else here used both, or does anyone know of an article comparing them? Being able to use it in a car while driving is important.

Crikey, that's cher. I have Rosetta Stone French (a gift from Mr. Tb) which I don't particularly like. Wish there were a way to see snippets before you buy (like sampling music CDs on Amazon.com). I'm tired of being surprised by new software.

For me, Pimsleur wins hands down. I found the Rosetta Stone process to be like shoveling water. Lotsa work and you get nowhere fast. If the Pimsleur method has a fault it would be the total lack of written material. I think they should add it in the level 2 and 3 comprehensive packages. Leave level one alone.

I used Rosetta for Mandarin and found the technique 'unique', but somewhat draining on the 'noggin'....I heard better things about "Power Chinese". Does anyone have experience with a good Mandarin product?

To DrDaveEXPLT,

I lost my Rosetta Stone CD during a move. I called the company and they replaced it for $29.95 and FedExed the new CD to me. They told me if I lose this one, I'm out of luck. So while I'm not happy to have to pay for the new CD it is cheaper than shelling out another $400. I just gave them the credit card number and address that they originally shipped to and they sent a new one.

If anyone has a method that they have successfully used to make a backup of their Rosetta Stone CD can you post computer-moron proof instructions? Having to carry the CD with me to do every lesson is a guarantee that I will lose or damage it at some point. I don't think it's right to prevent users from making a perfectly legal backup of such expensive software.

While I'm not in a position to give step by step instructions, there are programs out there, alcohol 120% comes to mind, that should make the process rather painless. I'm sure there are plenty of forums that would be helpful. My laptop battery is fading or I'd dig one up.

I do not condone it but there is torrents sites which you can download a compressed copy of the whole cd. If I was to purchase an expensive program and CANNOT copy it then I will feel it is ethically alright to download a torrent copy.

... but each to his own.