Retrospect 6.0 Desktop Mac

Other products by dantz

Product Features

• Complete protection for networked computers
• Designed for use in home and small offices
• Fast backups with 100-percent accurate restores
• Proven automated technology provides easy administration
• Intuitive, user-friendly graphical user interface

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001G6Q2E
• Item model number: BU10A600000
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 29, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,484 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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  Software > Utilities > Backup

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Designed for use in home and small offices, Retrospect Desktop provides protection for one local Apple Macintosh desktop or notebook and two other networked desktop or notebook running Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, or Red Hat Linux computers. Retrospect Desktop can be expanded with additional client licenses. Desktop utilizes proven automated technology to provide easy administration, complete protection for networked computers, and fast backups with 100-percent accurate restores. The Retrospect 6.0 product CD provides bootable Mac OS X disaster recovery and includes both Retrospect 6.0 for use on Mac OS X computers and Retrospect 5.1 for backing up to Mac OS 9 computers.

Key Benefits

Easy to use: Retrospect makes it easy to implement a backup plan. For simple backup needs, just answer a few questions, and Retrospect creates the required backup scripts and schedules. Or utilize Retrospect's intuitive, user-friendly graphical user interface to create a customized backup strategy. For small networks, Retrospect's adaptive scheduler automatically adjusts backup operations to capture data that was not backed up as a result of time constraints, network problems, or computers that were unavailable. And notebooks are automatically recognized and prioritized for backup when they connect to the network.

Get fast backups and avoid flawed restores: Only Retrospect performs the fastest backups while avoiding flawed restores. Retrospect protects the maximum amount of data in a limited amount of time by backing up only new and changed files after the first full backup. When other backup software uses incremental or differential backups to save time, flawed restores result, because the entire contents of the full and incremental/differential backups are restored, bringing back unwanted files and folders that were deleted, renamed, or moved between backups. With each backup session, Retrospect creates a list of all of the files and folders being protected. Retrospect uses the list to select only the data required to perform 100-percent accurate restores to any day that you backed up.

Protect all your computers: Retrospect provides best-in-class backup designed specifically for use in homes and small offices to protect your individual computer or a small network of desktop and notebook computers. Unlike backup strategies that rely on drag-and-drop, Retrospect backs up more than just files and folders. It protects all your critical data, including operating system files and settings as well as applications and their settings. And the Retrospect product CD provides bootable Mac OS X disaster recovery. Whether you need to recover a file or folder, take a computer back to a prior point in time, or restore a computer that has failed completely, Retrospect has you covered.

Largest variety of backup devices supported: Retrospect automatically recognizes a large variety of backup devices and eliminates the need to load and configure device drivers manually. Back up to a wide variety of tape drives or an FTP server, or span your backup across multiple USB and FireWire hard drives.

Product Description

RETROSPECT 6.X DESKTOP MAC CROMBOXED W/DOCS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's not easy to use., November 21, 2004

By	Mark Robison (Reno) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like other reviewers, I used to swear by Dantz backup software. I used its DiskFit for years. When I upgraded to OS X, I got Dantz's Retrospect and have had a fair number of problems.

1. Dantz gives you one free tech call in the first 30 days and then charges like $70 if you have a problem after that. I think they should give you one free tech call ANYTIME. Most users won't have a problem in the first 30 days -- and when you have a problem after your first hard-drive disaster, getting hit for $70 just adds insult to injury.

2. In order to use an external hard-drive as a backup location, you've got to select this option inside a couple of screens in preferences. This should be the default, especially since this is the favored way of backing up an entire internal hard drive. And even if you've selected it in preferences, if you crash and have to restore from the original CD, you've got to remember this minor selection or your restore won't work, causing much panic as I found out.

3. The program has behaved differently with different backups, causing confusion. For months it performed the backup simply to my external hard drive, then one day it required that my external hard drive be erased to do the backup.

4. When I did experience a problem that required a restore, the program crashed AFTER erasing my hard drive but BEFORE restoring anything. This was distressful.

5. I've had to use the manual many times in my backups because the program simply isn't intuitive.

I give it two stars because I was actually able to restore my data and the thing grudgingly does its job. But, man, I wish it worked more simply for the average user who doesn't give a darn about scripting and network backups.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Retrospect wants you to buy expensive support and for what?, September 28, 2004

By	Vandora Mack "V Mack" (IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I use to swear by retrospect and it never let me down until OS X. Since Dantz started to support OS X its been "You can purchase Retrospect Support, for $xxx a year...." and how good is this support? Not very I have a very common DVDR Drive that they still don't support, I wouldn't complain if I owned the express back up, but I own the Pro package and the support is lousy! so many $$$ a call to find out that I need to update to their new software after I had just purchased an upgrade and then they still can't say they know if they support a Pioneer A107 DVDR!? $150 plus a year for support I don't think so..

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bad thing to start, December 29, 2005

By	D. Meriwether (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're not already a user, Retrospect for Mac is not a product you want to buy into. The interface hasn't been substantially updated in over a decade. In this decade Dantz (EMC) has charged it's users half a dozen times for "upgrades" which should be free updates as all that was added was the ability to actually work with the current operating system.

The interface is obtuse and backwards. For example, in a slap in the face to anyone with usability experience, Retrospect demands, in a modal dialog, that the user approves and affirms the desire to back up. Gee, let's see, I just got through booting Retrospect, selecting "Back Up" and about 45 other steps directly involved with only one purpose: backing up my hard drive... maybe now is the time to reconsider?!?

Retrospect is also exceedingly fickle and fragile. Exactly what you don't want in times of emergency. For example, I was backing up on a 4x SuperDrive, then I bought a new Mac and wanted to back up to a 16x SuperDrive. Retrospect would not allow it, complaining that the "device was too different." The slightest scratch on a DVD and Retrospect gets sick and dies--sometimes taking the DVD--and sometimes the entire DVD drive--with it. One time after Retrospect crashed, the drive wouldn't spin down: even after restart. I had to reset the OpenFirmware; a process not many Mac users do or should have to know about.

Retrospect is S L O W. I've got a Quad G5 backing up to aforementioned 16x DVD drive. The drive sits idle about 80% of the time. I get no speed improvement over the 750 MHx G4/ 4x SuperDrive. The bottleneck isn't the processor or the SATA chain or the DVD drive, the bottleneck is built into Retrospect.

Retrospect transforms your data from being readable anywhere into their undisclosed proprietary format. This means that when Dantz finally folds (any day now) you won't be able to retrieve your data.

The problem is, of course, alternatives are few and far between. Basic HD to HD backups can be done with Carbon Copy Cloner. But they're not incremental and cannot write to DVDs. iBackup has so little info on their site, I can't tell you what it does. Dobry Backuper looks promising. Intego Personal Backup X4 might merit looking into as well.