| NTI Shadow 3 Review |
| Written by Don Lee | |
| Monday, 26 June 2006 | |
      Shadow 3.0 is the latest version of NewTech Infosystems’ award-winning
backup software for Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and U3 devices. Their step-by-step set up process makes it easy for consumers
to make a backup copy of their important files and folders.
You can even set up Shadow 3.0 to monitor your system and to continuously check files for changes. I know after years of computer use on both platforms that a hard drive failure is inevitable. What makes it worse is that it always occurs at the worst moment. Then you have to spend hours trying to restore your lost files and then comes the realization that you probably won’t be able to recover some very crucial ones. My system has two hard drives with the slave drive used specifically for backing up data. The problem with this kind of set up is that I have to constantly move files manually to the drive to make sure I have a copy of the content that I want to save. While this way of backing up worked, I would rather have an easier and seamless way of handling this.  NTI Shadow 3.0 takes the effort and guesswork out of making a back up of your computer files. Let’s take a closer look at NewTech InfoSystems’ Shadow 3.0. There are four versions of Shadow available. You can purchase Shadow 3.0 for XP/2000, Mac and U3 drives. The fourth version is Shadow 3.0 with Dragon Disc, which adds disc-burning capabilities. Dragon Disc offers users the ability to backup their data to disc media. Some of the formats supported include Blu-ray, BD-R, BD-RE, BD-R DL, BD-RE DL, DVD-RAM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD±R DL, DVD±R, DVD±RW. Although Dragon Disc is not available for Mac and U3 drive users, Shadow does offer networked backups. This means that you can set up Shadow to backup data from other available network computers.  This was especially helpful in my setup because I have a Mac and Windows computer on my home network. Setting up Shadow 3 is very easy as it only takes a few steps where you need to decided on what you want backed up and how you want that backup to be handled. You can select from specific folders or files from the hard drive directory tree that you’re presented with. It is a very simple and intuitive interface. With just a few clicks, you can set up your system to monitor your files. During my testing, I found that you can also do a backup of your e-mail as well. If you find the location of your e-mail program’s Inbox, you can then locate it on your hard drive. Once you know where your Inbox is stored, you can navigate to it using Shadow. The next time a backup is made, your entire Inbox will be backed up and monitored. If you ever need to restore your e-mail Inbox after a system restore, you can just overwrite the new Inbox with your old one and your e-mail will be intact. I’m sure this will come in handy for some of you who dread the loss of your e-mails.  I discovered that restoring files is just as easy as backing them up. Since I was backing up my data onto my slave drive, all of the files were immediately available to me in their original format in case the primary drive failed. Just put them back as you wanted or just choose the files when you need them. Surprisingly, the program was able to continuously monitor my file changes on both the PC and Mac systems on my home network without slowing my computer operation. It just handled the process seamlessly in the background. Every single new file it discovered in those monitored locations was immediately backed up.  Shadow 3.0 is another excellent release from the people at NewTech Infosystems. With hard drive prices decreasing, you can set up a slave drive to save your data. With Dragon Disc (the Windows version only), you can make physical backups of your data. If you have a network environment, you can use Shadow to make backups from all available network computers (including Macs). NewTech InfoSystems’ Shadow 3.0 is a good, inexpensive solution to help keep your data safe and secure from hard drive failures and other issues that threaten your important files. It can even keep track of file changes even while you work. This program is a welcomed addition to my home network and I’m going to be very glad I had it the next time I need to do a system restore. Shadow 3.0 earns 4.5 stars out of 5. Highly recommended. Mac users will be happy to know that Shadow 3.0 comes as a Universal Binary for Mac Intel support. Dragon Disc capability is only available for the Windows version. Windows System Requirements: Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP IBM PC or Compatibles, Pentium III 900MHz or higher 256MB RAM Mac System Requirements: Macintosh with Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later 256 MB of RAM Shadow 3.0 also works with U3 Smart devices You can purchase NTI Shadow 3.0 for the Macintosh or Windows systems as a downloadable file from the NTI website. Just visit them online at https://secure.ntius.com/esdsoft/shadow_v3_full.asp About NewTech InfoSystems New Tech Infosystems ("NTI") is an industry leading developer of powerful, feature-rich, and easy-to-use software for digital media, and storage management. NTI has developed and delivered innovative recording and backup solutions since being founded in 1993. You can find them online at http://www.ntius.com |
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