Retrospect 7.6 Professional for Windows

by dantz

Product Features

• Complete protection for Windows desktops and notebooks
• Secure, reliable protection for all your information
• Simple, yet powerful - start your first backup in minutes
• Fast backups and Smart Restores with unparalleled accuracy
• Automated Disaster Recovery

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EHPZVI
• Item model number: PU10A0075
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 7, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,197 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #7 in Software > Utilities > Memory Management
  • #88 in Software > Utilities > Backup

Product Description

Retrospect Backup 7.5 offers complete protection for the used in small and midsize businesses. Your home and home office computers contain more and more personal, family, and financial data than ever -- what happens if you inadvertently delete a file, are attacked by a virus, or your computer fails? Don't lose your family photos or the only copy of your tax returns. Recover your information quickly to keep your home office running smoothly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the LEAST intutive software made by mankind - but it works when it counts!, March 9, 2007

By 

B. Petty (Kingwood, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Retrospect 7.6 Professional for Windows (CD-ROM)

I am a high level geek and even I had a very hard time making this stinker work. I back up semi-regularly, thinking I'd never have to use the Retrospect backup. I use my laptop ALL of the time at work, and can't operate without it.

Then one day, I dropped my laptop HARD on my kitchen floor and the hard drive stopped working. The warranty would cover any damage to the laptop, but what about the data? Luckily, I had backed up ALL of my data using Retrospect just 48 hours prior.

The moment of truth was at hand!

Well, it took me 2.5 days of banging my head on the keyboard, and a lot of coffee and patience working with Retrospect, but I FINALLY got the hard drive restored EXACTLY as it had been at the time of my backup. It's as if nothing had happened.

HINT: you MUST install your OS _FIRST_ on your new drive before even attempting a DISATER RECOVERY with Retrospect. Don't expect to be able to just clone the image back to your new drive -- that would be too easy, and I think Retrospect is afraid of getting sued by Microsoft.

I had to learn about "backup sets", "recreating catalog files", "snapshots", etc. The wizards are awful -- not very intuitive in the least, and you have to go into "expert mode" to make it work right most of the time. Also, I had to fix a couple of boot errors along the way -- the computer thought it had two OS's on it. Additionally, I had to tell Retrospect to restore my registry and other settings (you'd think it would do this automatically being that you're doing a DISASTER RECOVERY).

Overall, a major pain in the [...]!

BUT, it works! It took me about 15 hours of work over 2.5 days, but I got it ALL back. So, the software does deliver a COMPLETE restoration when it really counts. Sure saved MY bacon!


Thanks Retrospect -- I think....

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best choice for home or small business, May 12, 2006

By 

David Arnstein (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Retrospect 7.6 Professional for Windows (CD-ROM)

Backing up is not fun, but it is crucial. For a business, the reasons are obvious. For a home user, consider that more and more of your information is moving from paper to bits. Your snapshots, your music, your bank records, the list keeps growing.

What sets backup software apart from other applications (such as word processing) is that defects are extremely damaging. When Microsoft Word weirds out, you just slam your fist down and start writing your document again. If your backup software lets you down during a restore operation, it is a genuine catastrophe.

So stable backup software is essential. My strategy has been to seek out backup software that is marketed to both individual users, and enterprises, the larger the better!

Backup software marketed exclusively to enterprises is too expensive. Backup software marketed to individuals is unstable, just like (for example) Microsoft Money. If your backup software is used by large, powerful companies, then you can hope that these customers will be able to get bugs fixed quickly. YOU don't have the clout to get bugs fixed, but other customers do. You have to hope that the bug you find is making life unpleasant for a large, powerful corporate customer.

I have found two packages that fit this description: Ultrabac and Retrospect. Of the two, Retrospect has a much better feature set. Retrospect has had a feature called "Progressive backup" which is unusual (perhaps unique!) and extremely useful. Recently, Retrospect added a feature called "pruning" which is revolutionary. Nice going Retrospect!

The combination of these two features is simply outstanding. Each of my backup disks contains a "rolling" history of my data, going back over the last two monthes. I do a backup every night, and it requires no intervention on my part. Retrospect automatically deletes old backup data from my media ("pruning"), to prevent filling it up. Retrospect also avoids writing duplicate data to the backup media ("progressive backup"), thus extending the useful capacity of my backup disks.

The sophistication of this backup scheme motivates me to use multiple backup disks. The backup jobs on each backup disk are interdependent, so if there is ever a problem with one of them, all subsequent jobs on the backup disk are at risk. In my opinion, anyway.

So I alternate between two backup disks day by day. Each of these two backup disks contains a history of the state of my computer, going back 60 days, in increments of two days. So if I wish, I can restore the state of my computer to the way it was on any of the last 60 days. I can also retrieve individual files from those 60 days.

The latest version of Retrospect is rock-solid, the way backup software should be. It executes while I sleep, and it has not called attention to itself for as long as I can remember.

This is the backup system that I have dreamed about since I started buying my own computers.

I do have a few reservations about Retrospect. First, it is not that easy to learn how to use. No, it is not a nightmare, but it could have been simpler. As an experienced user, this does not bother me. Your mileage may vary. Second, I was not happy about the 7.0 version of this product. It lived its entire life with some non-trivial shortcomings. I won't go into details, because this is now ancient history. However, I don't think that this is reasonable for a backup program. Finally, it may be the case that EMC is losing interest in the product. There have been layoffs and rumors. You can find these yourself on Google (<cough> The Register <cough>). This is a bit speculative, but it is worth mentioning.

Do these sound like major complaints? That's right, they are not! Retrospect is as good as it gets for the home or small business.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Choice for Small Businesses or Home Users, August 19, 2007

By 

J. Wm Seabrooke CPA "Tax Man" (Atlanta GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Retrospect 7.6 Professional for Windows (CD-ROM)

These comments are closely related to David Arnstein's review and comments below with which I fully agree.

I am a CPA who requires accurate, reliable backups for all of my programs and files. There is no margin for error. Since December 2006 I had been using the backup software that was bundled with my Buffalo Technologies TeraStation. In early August this software stopped working reliably after issues that were created by Microsoft Technical Support. I remembered a favorable write up on this product by Consumer Reports and started my investigation. My other planned alternative was Symantec's Backup Executive. I contacted Dantz/EMC2 Insignia Technical Support (866-362-1111 or 800-225-4880) for pre-sales information after seeing the Professional version of this product on Amazon's website. The information that I received was outstanding. They provided me with the following recommendations:

1) Go to the EMC2 Insignia website and download the fully featured 30-day (really 45 days) trial version;

2) Go to this website for a movie/video tutorial for every feature of the software http://www.emcinsignia.com/supportupdates/video/ and spend the required time learning how to use the software. It takes several hours, beats reading the 400-page user guide, and is time well spent. You won't regret it. You can view all 54 separate tutorials or just the ones that you require;

3) Call EMC2 Insignia T/S at any time during the 45-day trial period for FREE T/S from professionals who are located in CA;

4) If you like the product, buy it from Amazon at the end of the trial period insert your license key code and continue to use the application without having to uninstall/install the software which drives the Windows Registry nuts. This is a Microsoft issue!

There are too many options that are available to you in the software to go through in these comments. I am continuing to use my Buffalo Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. To keep this simple I'll cover the three back up strategies that I use:

Backup #1 - back up your entire system whenever you change hardware or software and create a new disaster recovery CD. I also run this program weekly.

Backup #2 - I save all of the files that I create in separate folders (not in the Program folder)on my HD. I back up all of these files daily.

"Duplicate" Back Up. This is a Restrospect option. Backups #1 & #2 require the use of Retrospect for a Restore. The "Duplicate" option allows you to do the same as Backup #2 and then retrieve a separate file to drag-and-drop it back to your HD without the need to use Retrospect.

I can't speak for everyone who reads these reviews or address even most of the individual back up requirements that you might have. My only recommendations are for you to do your own investigation of this product and then spend the time to go through the video tutorials from the Internet. Afterwards make your own determination as to whether Retrospect 7.5 Professional is an excellent solution for your own requirements. It is working perfectly for me.