BackOnTrack architecture

[Ski]

Bought and Installed BackOnTrack yesterday (March 13). Number of problems with archtitecture

 

- Only one restore point. This makes no sense, since there is no way to guarantee the restore point is free from problems. Problems sometimes are only noticed after days/weeks have elapsed. Many people (like myself) install new software on a daily basis. So can't create a new backup image after every install, or even daily because of the risk. No matter how well backup/restore works, it is useless with only one restore point.

 

- Windows Restore Point is disabled. Didn't see that coming. Now there is no way to restore to a specific point-in-time

 

- Documentation doesn't explain what happens to changes to network (e.g. USB) drives. Is that changed data also backed up and restored? I change tens of gigabytes daily on my network drives.

 

- Documentation is unclear about registry changes. When I monitor my registry, it is being changed by various programs on a regular basis. Is that being backed up, and subsequently restored?

 

- Can't find any way to monitor what changes have been recorded since snapshot. Does not give one a warm fuzzy.

[Joli]

You are absolutely right. Which version are you using? Make a new folder for example directly under C:. Try to right-click on it - do you get a "BackOnTrack" option? There you should have an option to set the folder as User Data. This will make BackOnTrack ignore the folder.

 

As a business user you could also use the more advanced Professional version I guess. This allows you full control of what to monitor and restore, including which drive. Less defaults, more control.

 

I do recommend however to store things where XP wants you to, like put images in the My Pictures folder etc. It makes life easier. The problem is that some apps don´t follow those guidelines. Some digital cameras tend to save stuff directly in a folder under C:, which is pretty stupid.

[Ski]

Forgot about another important item. A business user is not expected to change the way he/she does business in order to accommodate a technology product. This should hold true for this product. Expecting everyone to place their documents in a particular place in order to accommodate the software is unreasonable. There should be a feature to exclude various folders from backup/restore. The user should have the ability to choose. This would also reduce a lot of unnecessary backup.

[Joli]

Hi!

 

I´ve used the software quite a bit and here are a few answers:

 

- Only one restore point. This makes no sense, since there is no way to guarantee the restore point is free from problems. Problems sometimes are only noticed after days/weeks have elapsed. Many people (like myself) install new software on a daily basis. So can't create a new backup image after every install, or even daily because of the risk. No matter how well backup/restore works, it is useless with only one restore point.

The idea behind this software seems to have been a very quick and lightweight solution. The way I have used it is to create a snapshot when the machine is set up with all the basic apps, like Office, your Adobe Suite, and other trustworthy and heavy software. That way I can quickly get back to a state that at least works. Sure, I´d miss out on the last few days worth of gadgets and stuff, but at least I´d have a good clean machine that works and I don´t have to reinstall Office or the Adobe CS2 suite which would take me hours. Once in a while I feel it´s been a while since I moved the snapshot, and if the machine works nicely I set a new one.

More snapshots would meen more disk space I guess. Having said that, the new Vista version coming out soon has multiple snapshots.

- Windows Restore Point is disabled. Didn't see that coming. Now there is no way to restore to a specific point-in-time

It´s in the docs loud and clear: "Windows XP System Restore is automatically

deactivated". System Restore does not get you far anyway, not if your OS crashes for instance. You´re better off without it. ;-)

 

- Documentation doesn't explain what happens to changes to network (e.g. USB) drives. Is that changed data also backed up and restored? I change tens of gigabytes daily on my network drives.

Quoted from the documentation: "Instant Restore only affects the drive where Windows is

installed (usually the C: drive)." Basically, what BackOnTrack monitors and restores is your Program Files, Windows files and the registry. Plus probably some more stuff.

 

Documentation is unclear about registry changes. When I monitor my registry, it is being changed by various programs on a regular basis. Is that being backed up, and subsequently restored?

You´re right there. It does not mention registry settings. But they definately ARE monitored and restored, otherwise none of this would work.

 

- Can't find any way to monitor what changes have been recorded since snapshot. Does not give one a warm fuzzy.

It´s all stored in a hidden folder somewhere. I guess you´re not supposed to interfere in that data... ;-)