Hi Sasha,
Yes the HALion Sonic 2 (trial) 2 x ISO downloads takes about 3 x hours for disc one and 2 x hours for disc 2. Maybe the Steinberg site is understandably busy this weekend. When I upgraded (for free) from Artist 7 to 7.5 last year I tried over 20 x times because of such congestion. I would not be surprised if (tomorrow) Steinberg announce that they are EXTENDING the sale til the end of this week !!
Regarding the ‘free upgrade’ you mention, I think it is if you have a ‘trial’ version dvd of HALion Sonic 1, you can purchase the Activation Code for it and automatically qualify for a free update to HALion Sonic 2 (they call it a ‘grace period’). When I purchased Artist 7, I qualified for the free update to Artist 7.5 because I bought it during a certain week/month.
Paul