Fixing computer problems is not a new concept. Over the years, a variety of products have been developed and marketed to address PC problems. Some are piecemeal solutions; Some are slow imaging based solutions; Some are static Reboot-Restore solutions. Then there are some that cause more problems than solutions...
Below, we have displayed a “PC Maintenance Evolution Path”. The timeline separates the various solutions in four categories, each representing the era and scope of the PC maintenance solutions. We have listed a few of the major product types in the market.
Some of the comparisons might appear to be comparing apples to oranges. But we have listed them anyway to give you a complete market scope.
At the lowest end of the PC maintenance software spectrum are Partial Solutions. Due to the low technology requirements and the nature of its purpose, there are many products in this category. Products assigned to this category are designed to address a specific computer problem. These solutions are “piecemeal” solutions. However, in a case of a Windows crash, these programs become helpless and of no benefit. That is why they are considered partial solutions to common and/or simple problems.
Examples:
| Registry Cleaners | Backup Utilities |
| Uninstallers | File Recovery |
| OS Tweaking tools | Undelete Apps |
| Optimizers | PC Medic |
SCSS is a big step forward from Partial Solutions. There are significantly less products in this category available on the market. First of all, they are complete system solutions. Software products in this category fall into one of the following classes:
| Imaging Solutions |
| Reboot and Restore Solutions |
Imaging Solutions allow users to backup the entire system into an image file and later restore the system to the image. These solutions such as Ghost etc. require a tremendous amount of disk space and time to create a system image file. Users can only statically create images once in a while. In a case of recovery, the system will be set back to months or even years ago. All the applications and data created since the image is lost. SCSS generally requires much higher technology than Partial Solutions.
Imaging Solution Examples:
| Ghost |
| Image Cast |
| Acronis True Image |
Reboot-Restore solutions streamline the imaging process by preventing any “save” operation to the hard disk. All the programs, files and data that users have created are kept in a temporary buffer. Once the system is restarted, all that information is discarded, and the system is reset back to the last known good configuration.
When compared to the aforementioned imaging solutions (Ghost and the like), these “Reboot-Restore” solutions are a quantum leap forward in terms of space and time. These solutions do not require creating and restoring a system. Therefore, they don’t require additional drive space to store the system image. A simple restart is needed to reset the system. Products in this category are a good option for publicly shared PCs such as Kiosks, Internet Cafes etc. However, they are not a viable enterprise solution because, they are very inflexible and do not easily allow any changes to the system. The systems literally become “read only”. Such limitations offer very little to professional PC users.
Reboot-Restore Examples:
| HDD Recovery Cards |
| Rapid Restore |
| Drive Vaccine |
| FD-ISR Freeze |
| Revovery Genius |
| "Reboot to Restore" type solutions |
DCSS is a break through from traditional PS and SCSS. Due to the very high technology requirements, there are only very few products in this category. This group of software generally employs a patented technology, such as Norton Goback®. It allows users to create a system recovery point in seconds, and it helps users to restore a system to that recovery point in minutes. DCSS sounds almost like a perfect solution for users that are easily satisfied. Even though DCSS allows users to dynamically and easily create new system restore points, there is still a fundamental problem in the differences in time. Once you restore a system to an earlier restore point, all the data created after that point is lost or inaccessible. Such a condition is a big problem for users who put emphasis on data.
Goback by Symantec is the only competitor software close enough to be shown on the RollBack Rx™ radar screen. Based on a file level monitoring and logging technique, the concept has its merits. However, in reality - GoBack consumes a big chunk of the hard disk space to create a change history file. The monitoring system is picking up every little bit of file changes regardless of whether or not, it is worth keeping. A simple system restart will generate 100s of file changes to log. The detailed file change history logging consumes the hard disk space quickly, not to mention, the tremendous amount of pressure it puts on system resources.
Complete System Restore Examples:
| GoBack |
| FirstDefense ISR Freeze |
| Restore IT - Farstone |
Can we really redefine the laws of physics? Allowing users to restore the system back to the past and still have access to the data from the future – As in Hollywood’s ‘Back to Future’ type of fiction... With RollBack Rx™ this fiction is now a reality! Based on a patent pending approach, RollBack Rx allows users to restore their complete system back to a healthy condition and retain all the data created beyond that point.
RollBack Rx™ is the most advanced PC maintenance solution ever. It is the pinnacle of PC system and data recovery and there is no other competitor that can match what RollBack Rx™ can do. And because of it’s extremely intricate and state of the art technology, we don’t expect any competitor emerging in this category any time soon. RollBack Rx can do everything that all PC Maintenance applications can do… Plus a whole lot more…
See our whitepaper for more information on Disaster recovery
You can use RollBack Rx to:
Recover deleted or corrupted files.
Cleanly uninstall any botched software installations
Restore systems to an earlier version of a file.
Restore systems to a clean slate after a virus attack.
Restore crashed systems.
Restore public shared systems to clean, configured slates after each reboot or log-off.
Remove unwanted software installations.
Back out failed software deployment processes.
Fix daily user or program problems.
Test software products before actual deployments.
Complete removal of “Trojan Horse” or hacker software.
And much more...
