Customer Reviews

Stomp Backup My PC 2005

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased this software to do readily-restorable image backups for disaster recovery, if ever necessary. I immediately encountered a problem because the program asked for a 16-digit Product ID and Serial Number of my Windows XP installation CDs. Like many people who have purchased systems (mine is a Compaq Presario), the operating system was pre-installed, and I did not receive any Windows XP installation CDs. The recovery CDs supplied with the system had no Product ID or Serial Number.

E-mail from StumpSoft (which was returned in 24 hours) indicated that this was a common problem -- with Dell, HP (others?) -- major computer distributors. The alternative suggested was a more elaborate restoration process, which would involve my recovery CDs, file backup, and a "system stamp." It was not the one-step disaster restoration that I was looking for. I might say too that this significant limitation was documented neither in the manual nor in the advertising material.

So, I decided to uninstall the software. The uninstall process did not work properly. When I rebooted, Windows was now looking for a missing file for the StumpSoft Update Manager (which supposedly was uninstalled). I was able through Windows Add/Delete Programs to do a "Change," reinsert the StumpSoft CD, and get the missing file back -- fortunately.

I give two stars (instead of one) for the prompt E-mail response with a clear explanation of the situation.

No support. "Support" takes the form of a professional looking but wholey dysfunctional website. There is no phone number so don't expect to get a human on the line to fix a problem quickly. I filed a support case 3+ months ago for the software not being able to read disks that IT wrote and VERIFIED. 2 months after a full backup my harddrive crashed, and when I needed the software to finally come through it failed me. And when I needed the software company to come through for me, they failed me. 3 months after filing the incident I recieved an email stating that the support case answer was on the site. I went to the site (albeit once it was functioning -- took a week to actually be able to log in) and there was no support response. Zippo. To be kind, I've always thought the software worked well but I can't abide this insulting trend of every software company penny-pinching by throwing up a lame "support" site and calling that customer service. In lean times like this for software companies you want to do what you can to keep your loyal customers loyal and happy so they stick with you. They've lost me as a customer of over 6 years.

Have used BUMP (formerly top-rated) for many years with complete satisfaction. But the new ("2005") version is nothing short of a disaster -- starting with lack of even minimal istallation instructions, about the worst online manual I've ever seen, a 'knowledge base' that's been "coming soon" since before July 2005, an utter lack of response to email and ... sin of all cardinal sins ... utter failure of the medium-compression scheme so that the verification reading showed - literally - dozens of files corrupted during compressed writing. [To be sure, either zero or dense compression worked just fine - but even so!] Worse yet, when I finally got throught to a live techie, this turned out to be a "well-known bug" that would be "fixed in the next edition"; in other words, not even an acknowledgement of the defect on the website or - as one might expect at the very least - a downloadable fix. That's simply unacceptable customer care for a utility as vital to computer maintenance as backup software. This company has the feel of being on its last legs - either about to be bought out, or on the brink of failure. Better get something more reliable before your PC gets in trouble! [Though expensive, Retrospect has a fine reputation, consistent top rating, a thorough and well-illustrated printed manual in the box, a responsive website, and a knowledgeable and prompt tech team.]

It doesn't tell you it doesn't work with XP Home. In fact, each time I would try to do a backup it would restart my computer. Then I would get a message from XP saying it had recovered from a serious error. Following that I would get a Microsoft Crash Analysis Report. The program scares the crap out of me. SUPPORT-- NON EXISTANT.

V6.0 of the software is buggy in both compression modes, posting the following error "Compression information mismatch [4886-1316]"

Very poor Support...

Hi all,
Backup software that originated from Veritas Simple Backup can make compressed backups, but cannot restore them. The error message
"Compression Information Mismatch [4886 1316]" means,in essence, your data is gone for good.

I have this information directly from the product manager for Simple Backup/Backup My PC when I complained about this more than a year ago. He was extremely annoyed with me and asked the question "what do you want us to do about it?" Duhh...perhaps either fix it or stop advertising compression? "No". There are no plans to fix it.

So, while the product is pretty good, if you want to recover your data, do not use compression with *any* Roxio or Sonic product or wherever else they sell the code.

dan
p.s. I used ISOBUSTER to rip the tracks off the compressed CD and then tried a wide variety of tools to "decompress" the data. I was not able to, nor would "Support" tell me what compression scheme was in use. Sheesh.

Received runtime errors. After two attempts with online automated support (open ticket), I have never received a reply from them.

Have uninstalled and purchased a competing product that supplies support.

I use scheduled backup's of "My Documents" and it's excellent.

Stomp have introduced some excellent features but the program is too slow for practical purposes.