AAUG Reviews

by Bruce Herman, AAUG Member

Data Backup v 3.0 by ProSoft Engineering is a highly versatile backup utility written for both Intel and PowerPC Macs. Data Backup is THE backup utility if you want the maximum control of your backups.

When you first open the software, it asks for your user name and the license number for the software. The interface then opens with a statement that the target drive has not been selected. When I first installed Data Backup v3.0, the interface was not complete. It also requested the registration information each time I logged in. I called tech support and received a very prompt response. They suggested uninstalling the software with the uninstall utility that is provided with the software. After rebooting, I reinstalled the software and the interface worked properly. However, it continued to request my registration information upon starting for the next several starts. For whatever reason, it finally stopped asking for the information. This unexplained behavior is one of the reasons that I could not give the software 5 moose.

Data Backup’s interface logically ordered, but information entered at the top does not seem to trigger appropriate default responses lower on the interface. The top-most line is a drop down menu with a variety of backup options. These include backing up your entire internal drive, which would be the choice for typical users. A number of other useful options are also presented, which adds to the power of this program, but may overwhelm the typical user. Unfortunately, selecting “Entire Internal Drive” does not automatically select “Clone” in a drop down menu below. Instead, the default appeared to be “Simple Copy.” So most users would have to manually select “Clone”. (more…)

By Carlene Brown, AAUG Member
Reviewed 7/06

WOW! It actually works. I had taken photos at my nieces wedding two years ago, and was only able to download a portion of them. I tried three different computers, but no matter what I did the rest of the pictures refused to budge. When I found “Picture Rescue” by Prosoft Engineering, Inc. I was a bit skeptical, but thought it was worth a try.

Installing Picture Rescue is a breeze. You just drag the icon into your Applications folder. After installing version 1.1.0 I discovered there was a new version 1.2 available. So I went to the website and downloaded the new version, the update was free, did a drag and drop into the Applications folder and it replaced the one I had installed.

Picture Rescue is as easy to use as it is to install. Connect a camera or media card reader to your computer, insert a memory card, and launch Picture Rescue. A scan window opens. It automatically detects the media attached, but there is also a pull down menu to choose the media card or camera you wish to have scanned. Then click the Start button. Quickly it starts reading the card and places thumbnails of the recoverable photos in an Image Recovery Window. You may then save all the photos or select the ones you want to save and (more…)

By Rob LeFebvre, AAUG Member
Reviewed 6/06

Data REscue II, by Prosoft engineering, Inc., is one of those un-sexy applications that you’ll nevre know you need until you need it. It is a data recovery application, built to scan your drive for deleted files, and restore them. it will also get data off of a hard drive that has stopped booting, or is mangled beyond recognition. It cannot fix hardware problems, or recover from physical damage to your hard drive. But, nine times out of ten, in my experience, hard drives don’t physically degrade before they are unrecognized by the system, or stop booting my mac.

Installation is a simple drag and drop affair, and opening the application is a snap. The program comes with two documents, one a PDF user’s manual; the other, a rich text “quick reference” card.

Once opened, you are asked to activate your copy of the program, by typing in the serial number and your name/company. ONce this is completed, you see a screen with a progress menu down the left side of the window. Starting with “Introduction,” the program tells you that it focuses on data recovery rather than hard drive repair. This sets Data Rescue apart from typical hard drive repair utilities, since it will ignore bad blocks and/or corrupted directory entries, letting you get the data that IS still good on your drive.

After reading through the informational section, you choose which drive to scan. You must then select a working volume to put your recovery files on. This makes sense, as you are recovering files from one hard drive that may be corrupt, or in the process (more…)

By Rob LeFebvre, AAUG Member
Reviewed 6/06

Here’s another application that we all should be using. There are many backup apps out there for the Mac, and I’ve tried many of them. I use Retrospect at work, which is a fully robust, network enabled backup system for small to medium networks. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make boot-able hard drive images from specific machines, in case of system failure. I use .Mac Backup software for quick home folder and personal data backup, and I’ve been using BackityMac for home folder backup.

It seems there are two types of backup system: one that requires the application for both backup and restore (Retrospect, .Mac Backup), and one that backs up data into a finder-accessible format (Carbon Copy Cloner, BackityMac). Prosoft’s Data Backup is firmly in the first camp. It does let you create a clone as a boot-able backup, however, which is a plus. It also lets you schedule your backups (great for those of us with busy schedules already), and to do both application-centric backup or clone an entire drive, to make a boot-able disk image. It’s a fairly robust and customizable application as a result.

The install is simple, through a basic installer process. You choose what hard drive to put it on, and the installer does the rest. Once installed, open the Applications folder on your hard drive, and open the app. There is a Manual and an Uninstaller included in the Data Backup folder. Upon opening the program, you need to put in your name, and the serial number of the app. It also then asks you if you want to check for updates.
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