EMC Retrospect 7.5 Professional for Windows Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)[the following is excerpted from my personal blog review]
Retrospect is an old name in Macintosh software. It was the "enterprise" backup solution for many educational institutions and some businesses in the early days of the Mac.
When the Mac was dying, sometime after OS 7, Retrospect went into decline. Towards the end time Dantz, who owned it then, created a Windows SOHO product called "Retrospect Pro" that ran on a Windows machine and backed up both Macs and PCs. I wrote about my use of it many years ago. Most of what I wrote there is still true, so if you want to get my opinion of the overall app take a look at that old page.
Dantz foundered, earning a reputation for miserly customer support and increasingly buggy products. They never really adjusted to OS X; the code base was probably too old to fix and they'd deferred a rewrite for too long.
EMC bought Retrospect, and I figured that was the end. It was indeed the end for the Macintosh product line, it's not been updated in years and it's hard to believe it will be sold after 10.5 is released. I've discovered, however, that they have invested in EMC® Retrospect® Pro 7.5 for Windows.
I found this out because Retrospect Pro 6.5, which I've been reluctantly losing because there is still no alternative for automated backup of a mixed Windows/Mac LAN had become very unstable. It was failing with cryptic error messages, it's a few years old, and I was using it in an unsupported fashion (with clients released for newer server versions) -- there was no sense trying to fix it. I had to either upgrade or switch to individual machine backup - a thought too painful to consider.
I'd held off upgrading for years because Dantz releases were so buggy an "upgrade" only introduced new issues - and left the old issues unchanged. EMC looked worse at first -- no user forums, no trials, nothing. In the past six months or so, however, EMC reinstated user forums and, above all, provided 30 day trial versions of all their products. They'd done enough to deserve a look, they'd dropped the price (buy on Amazon), the upgrade price was reasonable, and I was desperate.
So I tried -- without first uninstalling Retrospect Pro 6.5 (mistake!). The first thing I got were error messages and log entries like this one:
OS: Windows XP version 5.1 (build 2600), Service Pack 2, (32 bit)
Application: C:\Program Files\Retrospect\Retrospect 7.5\retrorun.exe,
Exception occurred on 6/22/2007 at 10:56:33 AM
Exception code: c0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 004093c3 0001:000083c3 (null)
and like this:
* retrospect elem.cpp-993
I fumbled around a bit, thinking 7.5 was choking on my complex scripts, but I couldn't fix the problem. The fix was:
* uninstall Retrospect Pro 6.5
* reboot (because Retrospect does ugly things to low levels of the host OS)
* uninstall Retrospect Pro 7.5
* reboot
* heck, reboot again
* install Retrospect Pro 7.5
* reboot
* look for updates
* update and reboot
The 30 day trial then worked. I ran the backups for a week and did a few random file restores and there have been no errors, though I admit that the only Mac I backup now is a PPC Mac running OS X 10.4. I'll soon be adding in the Intel laptop and I'm reasonably sure I'll have problems -- I don't think EMC has many Mac resources left. I run the Windows software on an old XP machine I'll run until it dies and is replaced by a new Intel iMac and an XP VM.
So I bought the upgrade from Amazon, thinking I should get the physical media. The price was cheaper too I think. What you get is a CD - nothing else. No documentation of course, but I know this immensely complex and completely unfriendly software very well. (They've introduced "wizards" to try to make it friendlier, but I disabled those. I've no idea if they help.) The upgrade process is a bit odd, but despite hanging for a bit at one point it completed. What you get with the CD is an "activation code". You enter that on the right page, your old registration code, and your address information to get a new code, which you'd better not lose (it is emailed to you as well as shown online).
In summary, Retrospect Pro is still a very unfriendly and complex hunk of software, and the clients probably don't work properly with a modern Mac, but it's an improvement on recent versions and if you want to backup a mixed LAN affordably and automatically there are no other choices.
BTW, don't expect to be able to do a "bare metal" restore on OS X. That might be theoretically possible, but I've never heard of anyone doing it using Retrospect. This is all about backing up your personal data.

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Powerquest Drive Image 7 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is about the 4th version of Drive Image that I've run over the last few years and it is easily the most impressive.
I upgraded from Drive Image 5 to DI 7 a few weeks ago and have been steadily wowed by the new version.
Backups I've made with this software have now saved me twice -- once when I got a little too zealous with some file cleanup efforts, and once when an major software update failed in the middle. In both cases, I simply restored my previously saved backup image and within minutes everything was fine again.
The single most important new feature is the ability to backup and restore while XP is active so you have easy access to network drives, USB drives, SCSI drives, full DMA support, etc -- all items that used to be problematic when backing up under DOS in previous versions.
The DMA support (under Windows) and the new version boosted my backup speeds from one hard drive to another from 140MB/min to about 750MB/min. It's astonishing -- a 4 gigabyte backup takes 3 minutes on my 1.7ghz P4 machine with 2 IDE hard drives!
DI7 now has the ultimate backup feature that I've been lusting after for many years -- unattended scheduling of backups. Previous versions allowed for backups to be scheduled but they had to be done when Windows wasn't active, or they couldn't include the system drive. Both restrictions are gone with this version -- simply set up a backup schedule and the Drive Image service will "wake up" and perform your backup with the OS active, whether you are logged in or not. All you have to do is clear off some hard drive space on another drive, sit back, and your drive will just automatically back itself up! Fabulous!
Some of the other posters have touched on the downsides to the software -- DI is sensitive to the type of drives you are using -- it has limits with size and type (no Serial ATA yet, according to another poster). Previous versions were limited to 120GB drives, this one is limited to 160GB drives (I believe). Plenty big enough for me but it's something to be aware of.
I was a little surprised initially when I went to restore my backed up system drive because I had to restart the system and boot off the DI 7 CD -- but this makes sense as you wouldn't want to wipe out the disk image of your currently running system drive. That would be a bit like sawing off the tree limb that you're standing on -- it's hard to fault PowerQuest for this.
I also encountered a minor bug when backing up a drive to a CD after turning on the "maximum compression" setting -- it got to the final stages of burning the CD and then reported that an "unknown exception" had occurred. The problem vanished when I repeated this at the "default compression" setting.
I highly recommend this software. This has been the most exciting software upgrade for me for the last year -- way to go PowerQuest!

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StompSoft PC BackUp Review

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(More customer reviews)This program was difficult to use, with a counter-intuitive user interface, complicated scheduling sequences, and at least on my computer - faulty software altogether. Constant error messages, inability to restore individual files successfully, and time/date stamps that were reading the year 2047, and no way to change that, etc...
I bought this instead of Acronis True Image, because I wanted to save the $15 bucks. I figured as a single-computer, "home" use, I didn't need a program with advanced features.
So. The question is, was the 15 bucks saved worth hours and hours of head-scratching, and months of lacking of true backup protection?
Finally, I bought Acronis True Image Home 10, and set it up and had it running to my needs in under an hour. It works, it's professional-grade. Imagine your HD crashes. Imagine how much time you might have to spend to get up and running again. Is that worth skimping 15 bucks?

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PC BackUp for Windows protects your data simply and automatically, so you never have to worry about data loss again. PC BackUp uses an advanced virus scanning engine with up-to-date virus definitions to keep your backups free from infection. Command line options allow for PC BackUp jobs to be utilized from a command prompt and user created scripts. This quick method allows the user to input a single command into a command prompt to run the specified PC BackUp job. File Encryption protects all communications between you and the backup device or location. Your files will also be stored encrypted on the backup media providing the maximum in privacy and protection. Backups created with the Disaster Recovery option enabled can speed recovery of your system after a hard drive crash or similar failure. Just boot up using the recovery disk, recover the system backup, everything is back like you like it!Peer-to-Peer Network Backups enables you to protect data on your computer and other systems on your home or business network Automatic Scheduled Backups set your computer to protect your data at any time so you don't have to be reminded Email log delivery keeps you informed automatically on the status of all of your manual and scheduled backups

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FolderClone Professional Easy Backup, Synchronization, Replication, and Mirroring of Important Files on Most Storage Media for Windows Review

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(More customer reviews)Sadly too many times I have had harddrives die, or have had my windows system get so corrupted that I had no alternative but to reformat everything and re-install. There were many times in the past that this scenario left me sick, knowing I would have lost untold amounts of data or have many hours of work ahead of me.
Thanks to FolderClone my response is different! Now I always have an exact copy of all my important files. All my photos, videos, music, documents, graphics... I lose NOTHING!
Best part, FolderClone is so easy to set up (as Geico says, 'even a caveman can do it') Once you set it up you don't have to worry about a thing. It will work faithfully and even email you if there is a problem on any of your tasks.
I realize that this product is marketed to businesses and such, I love it so much that I think EVERYONE ought to own it and use it.

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Memeo AutoBackup Review

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(More customer reviews)AutoBackUp Revisited - 19 January 2009
I wrote my original review about two and a half years ago and gave it four stars. The AutoBackUp product I reviewed at that time was version 1.6.xx. The software has since devolved... as opposed to evolved. Beginning with Version 2.0.xx it was completely rewritten and has never worked properly since. It would take excruciatingly long times (DAYS!) to create its initial backup files. Then it would hog CPU time while performing its updates. It also began creating enormous log files that would eventually fill all available hard drive space (gigabytes and gigabytes!).
I rolled back to the original v1.6 for a while but even that began to act erratically after several months of stability. Finally I removed the program from my system. I replaced it with the freeware XXCOPY. I wrote a couple of batch files using XXCOPY to create and maintain backups of my data files. Now when I'm done with a session, I start a batch file for each backup location and my ~25 gig backup files are updated completely in about 1/4 hour. It isn't instantaneous, but it is almost as effective and I haven't had any of the aggravation that I experienced with AutoBackUp.
I no longer recommend AutoBackUp; I give it zero stars and ask that you disregard my earlier review. --------------- Original review ----------------------
I bought AutoBackUp on a whim when I saw it for sale in a retail store with a hefty rebate attached to it. I thought when I was buying it that this was a total backup package, but it's not. The packaging doesn't really claim that it's a total system, but neither does it explicitly say that it isn't. That aside, this seems to be extremely good at doing what it was designed to do: back up your DATA files.
First, some things this software does NOT do:
1) Does not back up operating system files.
2) Does not back up installed program files.
3) Does not back up Windows Registry.
4) Does not compress backed up data.
5) Does not currently support backup to CD or DVD.
So you still need a utility like Norton Ghost in the event of a catastrophic system failure.
What good is it, then? Plenty good:
1) It creates and maintains backups of any DATA files you select. Selection can be made by folder, file type, or a few other criteria. For instance, you can tellit to back up JPEG files and it will search your drives to find all .jpg files and back them up.
2) It can simultaneously create many backups at various locations on your computer, or even at an internet site. You can have a backup on a separate partition, a separate internal hard drive, an external drive, etc. or send it to an offsite storage location via the internet.
3) Once the backup files are created, AutoBackUp maintains them in close to real time. For example if you created a backup file for photos from your digital camera then every time you download new pics to your master file, AutoBackUp automatically copies the new pics to the backup location(s) as well!
4) If your backup is to a device that is unavailable - say a USB drive - then AutoBackUp keeps a list of updates to the backup file and makes the modifications as soon as the device is available.
5) It maintains several layers of backed up files. If you make changes to a Word document and save it periodically, it gets backed up every time you save it. There is a user control that lets you select how many copies of a changed file to keep.
6) There is very little impact on system speed. When you perform an operation on a file that is being monitored for backup, the program saves to backup as soon as it detects low CPU usage. This usually occurs within a few seconds of your saving the changes at the master file level. If you are running CPU intensive tasks, however, AutoBackUp will wait until CPU activity has slowed down before performing backup operations.
7) Restores can be made from an entire backup file or from selected elements of the file.
8) Backup files can be encrypted and password protected.
9) It lets you know it is working. When sending files to backup, a small pop-up window is generated to let you know what operation is taking place. The pop-up goes away when the operation is complete. An operation log is also maintained for each backup file on the system. I found the pop-up window useful for the first day or so, but when I was confident the program was working it became annoying, so I disabled it.
Installation only took a couple of minutes. Set-up and execution for initial backups of about 5.5GB to two internal hard drive locations took about two hours with the backup creations running simultaneously. Updates to the backups are continuously monitored by the program and changes are almost instantaneous.
Two final notes: First, the software requires a unique activation code for each computer installation. Mine came with three codes, allowing use on three computers. Second, AutoBackUp is only compatible with Windows 2000 or XP.
If you want to investigate a little further on your own, a visit to the manufacturer's website should be helpful. Navigate to the support section for the FAQ and forum.
To sum things up, this truly is "set it, forget it" software. Once it's installed and functioning, you'll never have to worry about maintaining data backups. This software takes care of it automatically. Highly recommended.

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Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 Suite (old version) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using this application for desktops and servers since they first introduced it. With the addition of backup, this is an extremely useful package. It's a little technical, but wow is it useful and stable.

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Driver Genius Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll make this hopefully short.
1. As I said, this is the trial version of Driver Genius. The full version off the internet cost me (I think it was) $39 dollars.
2. You will be given 15 days to get free updates before you are cut off from updates.
3. I have both the internet download and the Amazon.com version. When I tried to install the Amazon version over mine (it appeared to have better control board and maybe easier to use) I was asked to sign up to purchase permission to use it--again. It would not take my licenes key and serial code numbers--I think I can find a way a around that problem.
4. My version works fine.
5. My version will track down all drivers my system needs to operate.
six. Neither version will tarack down drivers for games or other user added software for business programs and such.The bottom line: The full version (like I have) is worth it--but I think you should be aware this is the 'trial' version.
BYE!

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Ghost Solution Suite v.2.5 Review

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(More customer reviews)This product is excellent for me because i am A+,Network,and Security+ certified so It make my job much more easier. All i can promise you if your new to the "IT" industry is, "Buy it"

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Perfect Image Professional Review

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(More customer reviews)Does not support Vista 64-bit. I bought this at a retail store and the box says supports windows vista. I get the product home only to find out it does not support 64-bit vistas which is not on the box any where. Also if you need support over the phone its 24.95 the first 10 minutes and then a certain dollar amount for every minute after that. Doesn't look like a very good company.

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CMS BounceBack Essential 9.2 Backup and Instant Recovery Software Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently bought this program and started out using it by testing its features on two different PCs as I would with any program of this importance just to make sure it was in fact working as it was intended. I mean, this is a program that would be relied upon to backup my most important folders and files for safekeeping.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time typing my complaint about this garbage software from Bounceback. I've already spent too much time trying to get "Ultimate Backup" to work on two different computers with two different operating systems.....literally hours. If I could, I'd give it a zero star rating.
Just look at the other reviews at Amazon for their other backup products. This Bounceback company's(i.e. CMS) management should become carnival workers for their charade of producing anything that even resembles software that will "safely" backup computers.
I'm a very experienced computer user with many years of computer experience. I'm no IT guy, but I know how to get around most of the software glitches or quirks I encounter.
With that said, I finally had no choice and called their technical support about the unbelievable things I was experiencing with their product. They didn't have a clue what was up even though I'm sure I wasn't the first to call them about the same problems. I even let their tech support guy have remote access to my computer so they could see what was happening (remote access is where they can actually get into my computer from their location and use the computer as though they were sitting in front of it....prety cool). While I sat in my office and watched them remotely work on my computer and work on their failing software, they still couldn't figure out how or why their software was doing what it was doing. They finally gave up and said they would have to get back to me. Hey, at least the tech support person was very nice, I'll give them that.
Plus, it didn't fail the same way each time. Every time I tried to back up, or restore files, a completely different glitch would occur, and this was with both of the computers that I tried it on.
So, in summation, I've tried using this program on two very basic PCs, one using XP and the other(a brand new HP computer) using Windows 7. Well, If you want to lose files, if you want a program to tell you it backed up your files when in fact it didn't back them up, if you want a program to repeatedly lock up your computer while in the process of a "backup" attempt, if you want to have a software program in the middle of its backup process partition your external hard drive into two different drive partitions and then have the program tell you immediately afterward that there isn't enough drive space on your 500GB exernal hard drive when all you're trying to do is backup 43GB of files, If you want a backup software that backs up only some of the files in your folders even though you chose all the files to be backed up and even though it confirms your selection of files for backup and then tells you it backed up everything you asked it to when it didn't, If you enjoy trying to restore the files that you backed up(and the program confimed it backed them up) only to have the restore function tell you the folders don't exist on your external hard drive (In one instance, I could see all of the files sitting on my external hard drive using Windows Explorer after a backup. When I went to restore them using Bounceback, It said the file weren't there), if you enjoy restoring files and folders one-by-one instead of all at once because the program fails to recognize its own backup set, then go ahead. Buy it.
This thing is truly a joke beyond any program I have ever used, and I consider it the most dagerous software program to your computer and files I have ever encountered. I'd rather have a virus than this installed on my computer. Seriously.
Thank goodness for Microsoft's Restore capabilities. Unforunately, the Restore function can't undo the extra 5.3GB empty partition that Bounceback created on my external hard drive, but that's fixable.
Yep, it's definitely a Bounceback because I'm bouncing this garbage right back to these clowns that made it. I will definitely demand my money back from CMS.
I contacted CMS to let them know that I would like a refund for this software I purchased through Amazon. I told them that Amazon's policy for opened software returns is only 50% of it's value plus no shipping costs reimbursed and that I stand to lose $36 on the deal if I ship it back plus my cost of shipping it back.
CMS custmer service was very polite and refused to give me a refund and told me they have a NO CASH REFUNDS policy no matter what the circumstances.
Friends, you've been warned.

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Rebit ?SaveMe Express" Automatic Backup and Recovery Software for Single PC Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently switched back to Windows 7 for my primary computer after 4 years on Mac OS, and was looking for something similar to Apple's "Time Machine" backup software--one that would back up files continuously and reliably with minimal need for user intervention.
I'm no newbie to backups; as early as 1993 I was using QIC (quarter-inch cassettes) tapes to do whole-computer backups; when I last used Windows on my "main" computer I had a system based on Windows' Scheduler feature to do nightly backups onto a hard drive using Windows XP Pro's built-in backup software (ntbackup). It worked but it was still a bit of a hassle, so coming back to Windows I really wanted to find a simple solution.
The first solution I tried was Genie9 TimeLine. It did pretty much what I wanted (full system backups on a continuous basis), but performance seemed poor. Specifically after reconnecting my laptop to the backup drive after being disconnected overnight (the backup drive being situated at my office at work), TimeLine seemed to churn away on the backup drive for hours as it tried to "catch up" with the fairly few changes that had occurred overnight.
I then looked to Altaro Oops!Backup, but quickly learned that it only backs up user data, not the whole system, so "disaster recovery" is not possible. Anyone who's spent days setting up Windows and applications just the way they want knows this is a non-starter.
Now I've come to Rebit SaveMe Express. I had read horror stories about the initial backup taking days, but hooked up to a USB 2.0 external drive, the initial backup of the 250GB or so of contents on my laptop took about 4 hours. "Incremental" continuous backups seem fairly quick and even after being away overnight, SaveMe has "caught up" fairly quickly. The software seems designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and I've noticed that it goes into a slower "stealthy" mode when I interact with the computer, to avoid creating any slowdown in performance of apps I'm using. If I turn away from the computer for a few seconds I hear SaveMe start writing to the backup drive at a faster pace.
The software is extremely simple and easy-to-use. You install it, point it at the backup drive you want to use, the drives you want to backup, and that's it, it will start backing up everything. There are very few options and settings you can change. For example I would have liked the ability to exclude certain directories (temporary files) and file types (virtual machine drive files) but SaveMe pretty much just backs up everything. I saw a posting on Rebit's support forum about SaveMe does not back up temporary directories (e.g. C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\Temp) but I have not found that to be the case. At least it does it fairly quickly.
I haven't used the restore function much but it seems straightforward; you browse the backup like you would browse a folder in Windows. You can select a file and view its history and choose to restore a version from a certain point in time, including files that have since been deleted.
In summary, so far I'm pretty happy with Rebit SaveMe Express and though it's not perfect, it's the best backup solution I've found for the price.
One quick tip: a little-advertised fact is that Rebit's software is available for a free 30-day trial period. Go to Rebit.com's support forums and look for the "latest version" discussion thread, where you'll find download links for Rebit's software.

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Rebit 5 Auto Backup Software Review

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(More customer reviews)I wanted to backup to a local ESATA drive. I have about 500G of data, mostly HD videos from my camcorder. Using online backup for that would be a pain.
I've used three different backup solutions in the recent past (Novastor is the latest). This one is the simplest and the best for local backup. There's not much to configure: What do you want to backup and where do you want it. It took over a day to backup the 500GB even over ESATA (Note to self: get a 7200RPM local drive for faster backup instead of the 5400RPM). It continually backs up the data and I've noticed no performance impact on my PC.
A PCWorld review indicates that you have to monitor the backup disk to ensure it has enough space. So far, that's not a problem for me.
Thankfully, I've not had to restore the complete PC yet, but being able to browse the backup repositories and see the different versions of each file that has changed is reassuring. I can restore single files easily. I am partly going by faith here since I didn't test the full system restore, but so far, I am very pleased with the ease of use.

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Rebit 5 Auto Backup Software Review

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(More customer reviews)I wanted to backup to a local ESATA drive. I have about 500G of data, mostly HD videos from my camcorder. Using online backup for that would be a pain.
I've used three different backup solutions in the recent past (Novastor is the latest). This one is the simplest and the best for local backup. There's not much to configure: What do you want to backup and where do you want it. It took over a day to backup the 500GB even over ESATA (Note to self: get a 7200RPM local drive for faster backup instead of the 5400RPM). It continually backs up the data and I've noticed no performance impact on my PC.
A PCWorld review indicates that you have to monitor the backup disk to ensure it has enough space. So far, that's not a problem for me.
Thankfully, I've not had to restore the complete PC yet, but being able to browse the backup repositories and see the different versions of each file that has changed is reassuring. I can restore single files easily. I am partly going by faith here since I didn't test the full system restore, but so far, I am very pleased with the ease of use.


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Acronis True Image Home 2010 Review

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(More customer reviews)True Image 2010 worked reliably for me, including 2 actual bootable hard-drive restorations. I've been using Acronis True Image in several versions over the years, and the previous 2009 edition was the nadir of their product line. For me at least, Acronis has redeemed themselves after the erratic and dangerous-to-your-data behavior of their last edition.
Pros: Disk imaging for TOTAL disk restoration capabilities, full and incremental backup, selective directory/file type data backup, editing capability of the backup image, back-up image mounting as a logical drive for easy viewing and cut & paste from image to other drives with Windows Explorer, live backup (use computer while backing), recovery manager in conjunction with Acronis Secure Zone (restoration of operating system drive while still having use of computer), bootable CD with backup and recovery capabilities, bootable from image of disk.
Cons: None that I could find so far. I am suspicious that uninstalling may be an issue, as it was in the past.
Major improvements from the past:
1) The Try & Decide feature now works even if a reboot is required for the newly installed application or system change. The Acronis Try & Decide can truly undo a change in its entirety, even if critical files are over-written, something window's System Restore could never do. But, System Restore could survive a reboot, which in the past Acronis couldn't. Now, all situations are covered by True Image 2010, and I have been able to fearlessly change, upgrade, or install on my system and effortlessly reverse the changes if I don't like the results.
2) USB/multi-boot support is robust. In the past, forgetting to remove a flash drive while using True Image could result in dangerously wacky behavior such as corrupting the master boot record or deleting the C:\ drive. Having a complex computer system, say USB drives and multiple operating systems, was a recipe for disaster. Legacy FAT32 application software also clashed if the Acronis Secure Zone was installed. All these past issues appear to be resolved. I did a backup and fully-bootable disk-image restoration for a Windows XP/Windows 7RC-64-bit multi-boot system using an external USB 2.0 hard drive for storing the images, with other USB flash drives plugged in, and 2 internal SATA hard disks in 4 partitions.
What I didn't test: I didn't make backups to DVD media; Acronis states it is possible make images spanning several DVDs.
Other Thoughts: A reasonable person might wonder why anyone such as myself would give Acronis another chance after the problems of the recent past. There are 2 things about this addition of True Image that I find very valuable compared to other imaging software I've tried: 1) The Try & Decide feature was always useful, but with the improvement to survive reboots it's now the single most important feature for me; I like to try a lot of new configurations, and completely undoing experiments can be easily accomplished. 2) I have use of the computer while backing up, which makes it unobtrusive to do frequent backups.
Backup speed on my system is about 3 gigabytes/minute, so a drive with 120 gigs of data took about 40 minutes to image (and I could still surf the net during the process). Restoring a drive goes at 3 gigs/minutes based upon compressed image size, so a 9 gig image took 3 minutes to restore to the uncompressed size of 20 gigs.
Now, some general words of caution for would be users who are new to the disk imaging game. This type of software works with and independently from the host operating system. By its very nature it is a law unto itself, and the operating system can't really protect you from rogue behavior. The potential for trashing your system is very real. That's why I did extensive testing of True Image 2010 on a fully cloned system. I can't suggest strongly enough that BEFORE you install True Image to your computer's HD you should attempt to make a back up by simply using the bootable True Image CD in your optical drive. If you can't make a back up from the bootable CD, things may go badly should you choose to install True Image 2010 on your computer. Since this sofware interacts directly with the BIOS, be cautious about BIOS upgrades. Keep current with upgrades from Acronis. Finally, it's just a plain good idea to have partition management software (such as Acronis Disk Director or Active @ BootDisk) available for emergency use to recover deleted partitions. Sorry to make it all sound so scary, but any disk imaging software (acronis or not) is powerful stuff. And when things go wrong, the results can be quite bad.
My system as tested: Dual boot Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit/Windows 7 RC 64-bit; Acronis True Image Home 2010 software installed to 64-bit Windows 7 RC partition; Acronis Secure Zone (FAT32) partition installed; Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard w/Intel P45 + ICH10R Chipset and Award BIOS version F7; Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 processor.


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Acronis True Image Home 2010 provides home users with reliable and timeless backup and recovery of systems, applications, settings, and personal files. From an intuitive graphical interface, users can easily define where, locally or online, and how often to back up a PC. In addition, Acronis Nonstop Backup delivers continuous system and data protection, preventing data loss. Acronis True Image Home 2010 meets home user needs with a simple, yet comprehensive, backup and disaster recovery solution. The variety of backup and restore capabilities, including disk imaging, file backup, local or online backup, and continuous data protection provide ultimate protection for private systems and data. This unique consumer software offers a full set of advanced features in an affordable and easy-to-use solution.

Easy and Fast Backup and RecoveryAcronis True Image Home 2010 provides home users reliable and timeless backup and recovery of their operating system, applications, settings, and personal files.
Friendly, Windows-style User InterfaceFrom an intuitive graphical interface, you can easily define where, locally or online, and how often to backup a PC based on your needs.
Acronis Online Backup to a secure locationOptional Acronis online storage services are available to automatically backup valuable data or files over the Internet to a secure location.
Continuous data protectionIn addition, Acronis Nonstop Backup provides continuous system and data protection, preventing data loss.

Features and Benefits
Acronis True Image Home 2010 meets home-user needs with a simple, yet comprehensive, backup and disaster recovery solution. This is a unique consumer software, providing a full set of advanced features in an affordable and easy-to-use solution.
Get Ready for Windows 7Planning on moving your system over to Windows 7? Make a full backup image of your system before beginning the upgrade or migration process. If something goes wrong during the installation, simply restore your full system from the backup. Once Windows 7 is up and running, use the full backup image to move files and folders into the new operating system.
Virtual Hard Disk SupportConvert Acronis' backup images (.tib) into virtual hard-disk files(.vhd) and vice versa, providing compatibility for Microsoft Windows 7 backup.
New Powerful SchedulerIn addition to the scheduling tools found in previous versions, the new scheduler expands the amount of scheduling options available. Use the new calendar view to build schedules and tasks. Suspend and enable tasks, specify dates to run tasks, and copy tasks to new dates.
Continuous Data ProtectionAcronis Nonstop Backup automatically creates incremental backups every five minutes allowing users to roll back their system, files, and folders to any point in time in the past.
Acronis Online Backup CapabilityOptional Acronis online storage services are available to automatically backup valuable data or files over the Internet to a secure location.
Boot from Windows 7 imageWindows 7 Ultimate users can boot from a backup image (.tib file) containing a backup of their system partition. This will allow the ability to test a backed up system without actual restoration. If the operating system boots from the .tib file, then it will boot when the need arises for a system recovery.
Core Features and Technologies
Backup
Live Backups: Keep working right through your backup for maximum convenience.
File Backup: Backup individual files, folders or file categories.
Disk Imaging: Backup and restore the entire system on-the-fly.
Incremental and differential backups: Acronis True Image Home 2010 gives you alternatives to performing full backups. You can also choose incremental and differential backup types. Both capture the changes made since the last backup, and with Acronis data compression, both save disk space.
Exclude files and folders: Back up only the data you want in order to save disk space.
Image Encryption with AES: Protect your backup data by encrypting with industry-standard security tools.
Set&Forget Backups: Configure once and perform backups automatically.
Smart Scheduling: Run backups automatically at preset or elapsed time, when the user is idle, on user long/logout, on system startup/shutdown, or in coordination with other events.
Reserve Backup Copy: Store multiple copies of the backup in another pre-defined location in a pre-selected format.
System Protection
One-Click Protection: Create a backup strategy of the system and implement it with just one click.
Acronis Secure Zone: Protect your system by saving an image to a special partition on your hard disk where it can be accessed when the system needs to be restored.
Try&Decide: Safe environment for risk-free testing of new software or visiting Web sites with potentially dangerous content.
Privacy tools: Thorough system cleaning and reliable data destruction of files, partitions, or volumes.
Recovery
Acronis Startup Recovery Manager: Boot and restore a system without using an additional boot medium.
Recovery of the entire PC
Recovery of individual files and folders
Selection or exclusion of files and folders
Acronis Startup Recovery Manager: Boot and restore a system after a failure. Start the recovery process simply by selecting the F11 key, even if your operating system has failed.
Mount images in read/write mode
Create bootable media using BartPE
User Interface
Windows-style interface: The new, sleek interface of this product works on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.

Supported Systems
Storage Media
Hard-Disk Drives
Networked Storage Devices
FTP servers
CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R (NEW! Blu-ray)
ZIP, REV, and other removable media
PATA (IDE), SATA, SCSI, SAS (NEW), IEEE1394 (FireWire), USB 1/2.0 drives
Supported Operating Systems
Windows 7 all Editions (x32/x64)
Windows Vista all Editions (x32/x64 SP2)
Windows XP (x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
Windows XP Professional (x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
Supported File Systems
FAT16/32, NTFS
Raw Images support

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Genie Backup Manager Professional V8.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Many programs do backup, others do System Recovery. But the ones that do both with comforting reliability, speed, and simplicity are very few. Out of the 3 I tried; Genie Backup Manager Pro 8 stands out with shiny stars.
Save and Restore made my CD drive disappear. I had to uninstall and use Window Restore to get it back.
True Image Home 2009 trial did the job, but it was a bit slower than GBM, and I could not test the system restore functionality in trial. GBM is more user friendly, but I guess this is a personal preference. With GBM Pro trial you can try the whole thing for a month. This gave me assurance and reflects the company's confidence in their product. If you decide to try GBM Pro, make sure to download the right file for your computer; 32-bit or 64-bit.
I tested GBM Pro on 2 laptops; XP Pro 32-bit, and Vista Premium 64-bit. I created Disaster Recovery on USB HD in 3:42 hrs (250 GB/90 GB used), including Integrity Test. It did the same job on 6 DVDs in 4:18 hrs. I created initial full backup and scheduled incremental backup. It ran successfully on schedule even with Sleep mode. It defaults to backing up typical documents, music, and pictures, and also critical system files, and any additions or exclusions you want. All jobs are completed within Windows while I was working.
I had some inquiries and wanted to test the company's support. I used ticket system on the company's site and I got courteous knowledgably responses in less than 12 hours. With that kind of service and with such a reliable product, I did not wait for the trial period to end and placed my order on the company's site. I receive my license in less than 1 minuet, and all I did to register my trial version is to paste it on the registration window.
Genie Backup Manager Pro 8 is definitely worth trying, You virtually have the full functionality for 30 days to get to the confidence and comfort level you need to commit to buying a utility that is a must have for every computer.

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Easy Cd and Dvd Burning 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)i used to have nero. nero is probably a little better but costs much more. i'm able to burn dvds no problem. when i insert into my laptop a dvd that i want to burn a window pops up asking me if i want to burn it using roxio. i say yes, then a little roxio window pops up, then i press read. when it's done reading my dvd it opens my dvd drive and asks me to insert a blank dvd. when in insert it, it starts to burn the image to the blank dvd. i can't say whether it will burn all dvds with copyright protection but it will burn dvds with copyright protection at least some of the time. otherwise, use dvd shrink to create an image and then use roxio to burn the image to a blank dvd.
my only complaint is that i wasn't able to burn home videos (avi format) to dvd; whereas, i remember nero was.

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Roxio Easy CD & DVD Burning is an invaluable software program for copying and burning discs. Burn share and preserve files and projects on CD or DVD. Roxio Easy CD & DVD Burning features include data back up tools and instant CD mixes. Photo features allow you to organize edit and share your digital memories in stunning slideshows. Convert analog audio into digital formats--great for expanding your MP3 collection. Import and edit home movies and share them on DVD. All this plus drag and drop disc burning and copying right from your desktop makes this a must-have piece of software.System Requirements:Microsoft Windows Vista Home/Business/Ultimate Windows XP Home/Pro/MCE (Service Pack3) Windows 7 Home Premium Professional and Ultimate (32 bit and 64 bit) For burning music and data discs: 500 MHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent; 128 MB RAM. For DVD slideshow or video authoring: 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent; 256 MB RAM. 7200 RPM hard disk drive recommended for video projects. 1 GB of free hard disk space for typical installation of all components. 1 GB of free hard disk space for every 5 minutes of video for video capture. 1024x768 16-bit color graphics card; 24-bit or 32-bit true color recommended. DirectX 9 or higher compatible sound card and graphics card. Windows Media Player 9 10 11 or 12. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or 8 or higher. CD-ROM drive to install the software. Optional For burning: Multimedia compliant CD DVD recordable drive. For audio capture or playback: 16-bit Windows compatible sound card and speakers. Format: WIN XPVISTAWIN 7 Genre:PRODUCTIVITY Age:687967132199 UPC:687967132199 Manufacturer No:249000

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DriveClone Pro Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am updating this review, and changing it to one star. One of the things that Fartsone can install on your computer is a 'snapshot' feature which can perform restore points similar to Windows restore points. This will install a splash screen boot program that can be invoked right after your computer's BIOS splash screen. WARNING, this can cause serious blue-screen-of-death errors that may not be recoverable. The ONLY reason I was able to recover from this is because I was also able to invoke an earlier Farstone restore point, which put everything back the way it was. Another reviewer who reviewed version 5 says that the snapshot feature installs it's own Master Boot Record, which is the problem. Also note the blue-screen-of-death errors reported by user "Backbutton" on this same page. I uninstalled the snapshot feature, and the problem went away. Farstone support was unable to provide me with a fix, or even own up to the problem. Speaking of Farstone support, they get a "F". They *might* respond *one* time with some one-sentence response. Any follow-ups questions from you are ignored. =========================
Edit update (Nov 30th,2009): My computer's motherboard died in October, which caused me to buy a new Dell computer with Windows 7. So now I've had a chance to evaluate Drive Clone 6 across two computers. Some bad news. I've learned AGAIN to NOT install the snapshot feature which installs bootable software between the BIOS boot screen and Windows. On both computers, this caused random blue screen of death errors. In both cases, when I removed this feature the problem went away.
Also, before getting my new computer (with Windows 7) I emailed Farstone and asked them if DriveClone was compatible with Windows 7. I was told it was. At the time I asked that question, Drive Clone 7 was not on their website. When I installed DriveClone 6 on Windows 7, I found out I couldn't make a DriveClone boot disk . When I emailed Farstone, I was told I should upgrade to Drive Clone 7 (another $29.99). All further questions from me were ignored.
As of the time I'm editing this (Dec 09), Farstone has a "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau. Based on my experience, this is well deserved.


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