The Trouble-Free PC

Disaster Insurance

What do you do if you empty the Recycle Bin and then discover you accidentally deleted the wrong file? Or what if Windows doesn't boot? Though most of the suites can help you a bit in the former situation, in the latter, worst-case scenario, all of them disappoint--at least for users who are running Windows 2000 or XP with NTFS-formatted drives.

File undeleters: If you've inadvertently deleted a file, Windows' Recycle Bin is a good safety net, holding files until you choose to empty it. However, it's not a perfect solution. If the file was too big for the Bin, if you deleted the file in a way that bypassed the Bin, or if you just emptied the Bin, then you'll need another way to restore the file.

Norton SystemWorks offers a slightly improved Recycle Bin that catches files Windows misses, but it can't do much else on NTFS drives. Both SystemSuite and System Mechanic can often restore files that are not in the Recycle Bin, even under NTFS, though there's no guarantee. (Sometimes a deleted file is beyond rescue--if the space it was on has been written over, the programs can't do anything.) SystemSuite offers an extra layer of protection in the form of the Deleted Files Bin, where files go when you empty the Recycle Bin, or when you delete them in a way that the Recycle Bin can't catch. And System Mechanic can restore the file to a different drive--a useful precaution against further accidents. System Mechanic also provides another nice touch: It can restore deleted e-mail messages from four programs: Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, and Eudora.

Emergency boot: Few things are worse than having a PC that won't boot when you need it. And the situation is pretty tough to fix with Windows XP. Though a genuine Microsoft Windows XP CD-ROM contains a useful but difficult repair tool you can boot to, most systems today don't come with this CD, and some offer no option in times of disaster other than restoring your hard drive to its original condition--wiping out all of your data.

Windows XP has one recovery tool that doesn't require a Microsoft CD-ROM: System Restore, which backs up and restores your principal system files. Norton SystemWorks and SystemSuite provide similar backup tools that offer better disaster protection than System Restore. SystemWorks' GoBack Personal installs itself into the drive's master boot record, loading before Windows and giving you the option to restore the operating system to an earlier condition before Windows-based problems stop the boot. Of course, if the problem is in the master boot record itself, you're out of luck.

SystemSuite's Recovery Commander has a better solution. It gives you an option to create a bootable CD that will let you restore from any Recovery Commander backups on the hard drive (including NTFS drives). What's more, you can copy files from the hard drive to a CD-R or to a USB drive--very useful if you need to move your data to someplace safer.

However, none of the suites has the tool that all Windows 2000 and XP users need--a bootable, easy-to-use CD loaded with NTFS-aware repair tools. Such a tool exists in Winternals' ERD Commander 2003, which creates a bootable CD with a special version of Windows XP (licensed from Microsoft). Once you boot your PC with that CD, you can run System Restore, scan your drive for errors, and copy files onto another computer on the same network.

If you have a very big network, ERD Commander is reasonably priced: $600 for 100 computers. For one computer, however, the emergency download price is $200. If you find yourself with a downed mission-critical computer, the tool might be worth it. But your bank account will hate you in the morning.

We think Windows should have these recovery tools itself, especially since ERD Commander uses a good deal of technology that is already built into Windows XP; and barring that, all of the suites we reviewed should have them. Until that happens, your best bet is to buy and use SystemSuite 5, back up regularly, and keep your fingers crossed.