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FarStone RestoreIT 6 Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Sunday, 13 January 2008 |
Since the day you brought home your first computer up until about 5
minutes ago, you’ve probably heard, been told or even seen an
infomercial about how important it is to back up your computer’s hard
drive. From losing those precious photos of junior to that family
recipe, there’s something on that trusty computer that you’re going to
need access to some day.
You’re probably thinking that backing up gigabytes of data would be monumental task and would takes hours and hours of time to maintain it and keep it up to date. This is when you need FarStone Technologies’ RestoreIT 6.0.
Now I’m one of those people who never backed up my data ever. Yes, I’ve also lost lots of important files over the years for being so over confident in my old computer. I would guess that most of you reading this article right now don’t have a back up copy of your hard drive and you’re one crash/virus away from starting over from scratch.
What is RestoreIT 6.0
Now according to the RestoreIT 6.0 packaging, I should be able to roll back my system to a stable point of usage with a single click. Retrieve those accidentally deleted files quick and easy. Restore your entire hard drive content to your currently failed drive or onto a brand new drive without having to go through the hassle of reinstalling all of your applications and even the operating system. Now that all sounds too good to be true but I’m willing to give it a shot.
RestoreIT 6.0 has contains four main functions in protecting and restoring your data. The quick backup, complete backup, restore your computer and file-level restore. Let's take a look at what each of these mean.
The quick backup is the one click backup of your hard drive's data. When you open RestoreIT 6, you are shown the quick start menu that has these four options available. By selecting the quick backup, you make an incremental backup to the time you pressed the button.
The complete backup is the way you can fully restore your entire system including the operating system, all files and even applications.
Restoring the computer feature which restores your computer back to the last quick backup which includes the files, programs and operating system.
The file-level restore retrieves previously backed up files in case of an accidental deletion, overwritten or altered file. Just select the file from the RestoreIT's GUI interface and press the Restore button and your file will be replaced to your hard drive again fully intact.
You can even schedule RestoreIT to backup your system on its own. Imagine never having to worry about whether your data is being protected or whether you still have a copy of last week's business proposal. This program sounds almost too good to be true but I was willing to give it a shot and see if it can live up to its billing.
The Results
One of the tasks I have always wanted is the ability to restore accidentally deleted files. I’ve used other commercial programs to handle this task but the retrieved files would either be restored as partial files or corrupted. To test this in RestoreIT 6.0, I created a Word document called “DELETEME.doc,” then I clicked on the Quick Backup button from the RestoreIT 6.0 Quick Start menu to ensure the newly created file was captured in a backup.
I then sent the “DELETEME.doc” file to the Recycle Bin and emptied the trash bin. Usually, this would mean the end of that file forever but I then selected the File-level Restore button which displayed the entire file structure for those files that were captured in a backup.
As you see in the image below, the File-level Restore shows exactly where the file was deleted from based on the file tree, the backup time when it was captured and its last modified time and file size. I selected the “DELETEME.doc” file and pressed the Restore button at the bottom of the window. It then prompted me to restore it back to original location or to select a new location. I selected to restore to original location and VOILA! It was there, fully intact and usable in Word with no issues. I was not only very surprised that it worked but in how easy it was to find the file in the program and restore it.
One of the first things I wanted to learn about this program was how I could manually configure it to usage. After entering the RestoreIT Manager’s window (AKA QuickSetup), I went up to VIEW>OPTIONS to see all the settings I could modify to better utilize the program. One of the items you may be interested in is the Scheduler. You can set RestoreIT to automatically backup your system, set up a password to ensure that you will be the only one to access the program's capabilities and even set which files or directories to backup.
The Final Word
In chapter two of the manual, it provides a pre-installation checklist to do before attempting to install RestoreIT 6.0. I would strongly suggest you heed this checklist before attempting to install the program. By following the checklist and instructions properly, the program installed flawlessly and I was up and running in RestoreIT 6.0 in a matter of minutes. You will have to reboot your PC after installing so make sure you have any open files saved. I can’t emphasize the pre-installation checklist enough because any minor problems
After running my Windows computer through the program’s functions, I definitely feel more comfortable and confident that the next system crash will not be the end of me. RestoreIT 6.0’s one click backup capability worked flawlessly and I am no longer worried that I will be stuck looking at a blank screen during boot up. I found RestoreIT 6.0 to be extremely easy to use right out of the box. Within minutes after its installation, I had already completed a quick backup of my system.
Another great feature of RestoreIT is that you can also make backup copies of your entire hard drive and burn the backup to various forms of media such as DVDs and CDs. FarStone covered every situation a computer user would face daily whther it was a virus attack, hard drive failure or even having your entire system stolen. RestoreIT 6 is your data savior. You can save yourself countless hours of recreating, reinstallation and especially frustration just by using RestoreIT.
RestoreIT 6.0 does everything as advertised and at the suggested retail price of $39.99, I found it to be one of the most useful and important utility programs I’ve ever used. Just one full restore of your system will have already paid for itself. Whether it’s just a file, the operating system or an entire failed hard drive, RestoreIT 6.0 is an excellent low cost solution for those computer problems.
System Requirements
Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
Intel Pentium 133MHz or higher
32MB RAM
20MB for RestoreIT 6.0 installation
CD-ROM / DVD drive
* You will also need about 5-10% of your hard drive capacity for back up purposes
About RestoreIT 6.0
RestoreIT 6.0 is a utility program that protects against data loss, viruses and Windows operating system crashes. It can restore your PC to a previously usable state and also retrieve accidentally deleted files quickly. You can learn more about RestoreIT 6.0 from the product’s webpage http://www.farstone.com/home/ensite/products/rit.shtml.
About FarStone Technologies
Located in Irvine, California, FarStone develops a number of utility programs for the Windows environment. You can visit them online at their official website located at http://www.farstone.com.
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