Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid reliability, fast performance & topnotch help justify high cost, November 28, 2005
After reading the less-than-winning reviews by others, I tried several less expensive alternatives - with less than stellar results. So I tested the Retrospect trial version that came with my Dell. I was impressed - so much so that I shelled out close to a C-note. And believe me, after once having suffered an unrecoverable crash, it's worth the peace of mind.
If nothing else, the software comes with a well-written and illustrated printed manual (a rarity these days), and an equally lucid help section. True, some of the terms are arcane ('progressive' backup) and some are needlessly brought into play (like 'snapshots'). Yet the package does very well for beginners with it's outstanding wizards -- if you are willing to read just the introductory chapter to get familiar with the terminology.
The pervasive ease-of-use fell short only in the vital 'Disaster Recovery' section: 1) nowadays most PC's ship with a manufacturer-specific Windows reinstallation disc that is 'unreadable' to the Retrospect media handler; how to create a disc image from the hard drive should have been geared more to the beginner; 2) totally unclear is how to make a bootable CD/DVD from the image; it would have saved me a lot of grief if the manual had only made it clear that the disc image is created in bootable format. That said, and realizing that few big-name computers ship with the original Windows installation disc, the company ought to have created yet another wizard so as to burn the disc image direct to a disc. I'm sure many users would be put off by the (totally unnecessary) extra step of having to exit Retrospect, then switch to another package to burn the Recovery disc image to a CD/DVD.
With that caveat in mind, this is a solid, fast, highly reliable and well-documented piece of software. And, not the least, the Dantz company gives every indication of success - and thus the comforting reassurance that they'll be around for many years. Further, the website is informative and up-to-date, and the tech desk responds promptly and patiently. Retrospect fully earns its top-notch recommendations by PC-mag and PC-world.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Retrospect 7 Pro - Best Disaster Recovery Software There Is..., December 23, 2005
It is rare that I find a piece of software that actually does what it is supposed to do. Retrospect-7 is that piece of software.
I have 32 years in the IT field and work at it just as hard at home on my own projects as I do on the job. As a result, my home-based, primary workstation is a highly volatile computer system from all the work and implementations performed on it. I have no time for crashed systems or the variety of software tools that claim they can restore a system without a "re-installation".
When a virus corrupted my boot sector I had no choice but to go to my backup system. It is the only thing you can do once the boot sector has been damaged. Using Retrospect-7 after re-installing a clean version of Windows-2000 w\SP4, I re-catalogued my backup and set it for an overnight restore. The next morning my system was back up, alive, and ready to go without a single problem.
True, Retrospect-7 is not for the end-user. And, there are times when the user-created boot-cd won't work as a result of the type of problem that is being worked on for resolution. It did not work for me. It is a technician's tool with presentations a technician can understand. And it's excellent manual, which can be easily obtained from Dantz Corporation's web-site, demonstrates alternative procedures for when things don't go the way they should. And these procedures work.
If you want to buy this product I couldn't recommend it more highly. However, to use it most successfully simply follow my steps outlined below for a system crash:
1) Backup YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM OFTEN using a
successive\grandfather strategy
2) When a system crash occurs, skip the alternative nonsense
that software-only tools tout. You are going to most likely
just waste your time. Software today is too complex for a
software-only solution anymore.
3) re-install a clean version of Windows with the corresponding
service-pack that was installed during your backup
processes.
4) Re-install your Retrospect software.
5) Re-Catalogue the backup-set you plan to restore from, if
necessary.
6) Initiate the Retrospect restore process and select
"Rollback Everything" so you get all system settings and
files as well as your own files.
7) GO TO BED and wake up to a re-built system!!!
By the way, if you are using VCOM's "System Commander", Retrospect will take care of that as well if it was part of your back up process.
If you are a Windows user as I am, a crashed system is unavoidable due to all the viruses and worms out in Cyberspace. "Retospect Pro" is the best way I know how to protect myself from them.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Backup Software, March 2, 2006
This product performed well on two different systems where another well regarded piece of software wouldn't. It was easy to install and I have been using it for weekly backups on my two home systems for the last month. It comes with a very extensive manual, but I was able to install and use it with only a little reading from it.
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