Crash Prevention and Recovery
Nothing
makes you feel as helpless as a system crash. Unlike a freeze, from which
you can recover by closing the app or (at worst) rebooting, a crash damages
your PC in ways that rebooting can't fix. Fortunately, most crash recovery
utilities can reunite you with your data. In fact, all those we tested dealt
successfully with lost or damaged clusters, cross-linked files, and a corrupted
FAT.
Many of these products also claim to take preventive measures.
By performing regular system checkups, they can correct software conflicts
and warn you about potential crashes. Because many of the programs that do
diagnostics also do crash recovery, we rereviewed them, looking specifically
at how well they handled emergencies.
| SUMMARY |  |
|
First Aid 98 Deluxe
PRO: Easy interface, clear description of problems
and solutions.
CON: Somewhat limited disk recovery features.
CyberMedia
800/721-7824
www.cybermedia.com
|
|
First
Aid 98 Deluxe has the best interface here, a key reason it's our Best Buy.
The $40 utility's controls look and act just like a browser's. Its system
checkup provides clear descriptions of problems and their solutions. Recovery
tools are limited to Win 95's ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter, but the interface
makes them more usable. You also get a year of complimentary Oil Change service,
which updates First Aid automatically over the Internet--handy for getting
new crash recovery features.
| SUMMARY | |
|
Norton CrashGuard
Deluxe
PRO: Creates three powerful rescue
disks, includes video clips with useful how-to tips.
CON:
Complexity might overwhelm novice users.
Symantec Corp.
800/441-7234
www.symantec.com
|
|
Power users will marvel at Norton CrashGuard
Deluxe's tools. The $50 package's three rescue disks claim to manage any crash
situation, but the many options might intimidate some users. CrashGuard installs
background agent programs that scout out potential freezes, viruses, and full
disks. The antifreeze utility inserts itself in Windows' Close Programs dialog
box and lets you restart hung programs before you lose data. Finally, the
weekly error log can help you ferret out troublesome software.
| SUMMARY | |
|
Nuts & Bolts
PRO:
Good recovery routine and system info.
CON: You must
run all tools individually.
Network Associates
408/988-3832
www.nai.com
|
|
Nuts & Bolts has a good crash recovery procedure
with a customizable rescue disk, a wizard that explains what's going on, and
an undo feature. The program is also full of other handy tools, most related
to disk cleaning: TrashGuard tracks deleted files, the ShortCut Wizard finds
and removes (or fixes) orphaned Shortcuts, and the Cleanup Wizard removes
seldom-used files from the drive. Unfortunately, Nuts & Bolts requires
you to activate each of these routine individually.
| SUMMARY | |
|
RealHelp Extra Strength 1.0
PRO:
Good documentation.
CON: Poor rescue disk design.
Quarterdeck
800/683-6696
www.quarterdeck.com
|
|
A recovery tool
is only as good as its rescue disk, and that's where the $60 RealHelp Extra
Strength 1.0 fails. When you create its rescue disk, you must specify a volume
label for the floppy. If you can't remember that label during recovery, the
program grinds to a halt. Still, the well-designed documentation makes it
easy to understand the product's many features. A helpful service manager
monitors your system in the background. And like First Aid 98 Deluxe, RealHelp
allows you to update the software directly over the Internet.
| SUMMARY | |
|
VT Rescue 95
PRO: Least expensive.
CON: No crash prevention tools, spotty recovery.
VT Virtual Technology
011/41/21/729 97
12
www.vtvirtual.com
|
|
We can't recommend VT Rescue 95. It has no crash prevention tools and it nearly
failed our recovery tests. Our first attempts to create a rescue disk froze
the program. (A patch fixed the problem.) The $45 software's main screen simply
invokes Windows 95's tools, such as ScanDisk and the Registry Editor. The
few new tools CleanMan, which tracks and removes unneeded files, and WizCrash,
which attempts to reanimate frozen apps. In the end, VT Rescue 95 was more
trouble than it was worth.
