Roxio Roxio BackOnTrack 3 Suite

The Instant Restore module saves information much as System Restore does, but restoring occurs through a separate Windows PE (Pre-install Edition) OS that BackOnTrack installs--handy in case you can't boot into normal Windows. Unfortunately, it also means that whenever you start up your PC you have an OS-selection menu to wait on (it times out in 8 seconds) or click through. Instant Restore isn't compatible with System Restore and turns it off. This wouldn't be a bad thing, except that Instant Restore, while schedulable, lacks one of System Restore's best features: It doesn't hook into the OS, so when you install a new program, it doesn't set a restore point automatically.

The program's disaster recovery drive-imaging feature, which includes boot-CD creation, is effective if used sparingly. Since it backs up only entire drives (you may restore files individually) instead of individual partitions, and since it doesn't offer incremental backups, users with lots of data may quickly find their backup media overflowing. The individual file and folder backup portion of the program is straightforward, allowing either plain file copying or compressing everything into a single file. You can password-protect the compressed file if you desire, though you can't schedule imaging.