Re: Norton Go Back vs Win XP System Restore

From: Darrell (Dumwid_at_fox.com)
Date: 07/02/04 

Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 15:53:14 -0700

GoBack is much more inclusive than Restore. If you load a new program and
it screws up your computer GoBack can go back to the point before you
installed it. When it goes back it will remove anything added since the
time of your GoBack date/time selection and will add anything deleted since
that date/time.

Restore just makes the new item uninstalled. You still have to remove it
if you don't want it. You would still have to install the replaced program
since the Restore date.

XP Help file comment:
"If you restore to a restore point before a program was installed, that
program does not work after restoration. If you want to use the program
again, you must reinstall it.
a.. System Restore does not replace the process of uninstalling a program.
To completely remove the files installed by a program, you must remove the
program using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel or the program's own
uninstall program. To open Add or Remove Programs, click Start, point to
Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add or Remove
Programs."
a..
a.. GoBack takes care of all that stuff. It's GREAT but it IS somewhat
invasive and uses a lot of hard drive space. It also has the capability to
find a previous version of a file and overwrite the newer version (if you
wanted to) or you can recover the file with a slight name change to have
both the old and new version available. All this within the memory range of
the amount of your hard drive you dedicated to GoBack's memory. I don't
have any association with GoBack. I just like it. But you have to
understand that it is a very "jealous" program and pukes when you use any
program like Partition Magic, etc, since it conflicts with what GoBack is
doing. It would be necessary to disable GoBack if you wished to use an
interfering program. Then you could re-enable GoBack but you would have
lost its memory base. It will build a new one.
a..
a.. GoBack is no substitute for an occasional full backup. I use DriveImage
7 and image my hard drive to an external USB 2.0 hard drive for full backup.
But most of the time I am able to handle problems with GoBack. 

-- 
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"*Vanguard*" <reply-to-newsgroup@do-not-email.invalid> wrote in message
news:Vu6dnSeO2uZ-3HndRVn-uA@comcast.com...
> ECLiPSE 2002 said in news:75p6e011fh1nadelee6qarhqhmjiumho5g@4ax.com:
> > I have read numerous articles about the merits of  the recovery
> > utility Go Back. Win XP has a system restore utility built in.
> > Can someone explain what the basic differences are and what
> > features/advantages Go Back has vs System Restore.
> >
> > Thanks for any insights,
> >
> > Mary
>
> System Restore monitors installs and lets you revert to a state before
> the install or change.  GoBack usurps the bootstrap program in the MBR
> (master boot record) on the first physical hard disk found by the BIOS,
> so Goback is far more pervasive (or invasive) to your system as it can
> affect any OS installed in any partition.  As such, GoBack displaces the
> standard bootstrap program or anything else that also wants to usurp the
> bootstrap code in the MBR, like disk overlay managers (for an old BIOS
> that doesn't support large capacity drives), like Ontrack's or Maxtor's
> utilities, boot managers, like Bootmagic, some security products, like
> SafeBoot, that provide encryption security before the OS even loads, or
> anything else that wants to become the bootstrap program.  That means
> you must make a choice between these mutually exclusive utilities.  I
> hear SafeBoot will move the current bootstrap code, usurp the MBR for
> its bootstrap code, and then chain to the moved old bootstrap code (so
> it is not mutually exclusive with anything currently in the bootstrap
> code portion of the MBR).  GoBack doesn't do this so it is mutually
> exclusive of everything if it is the last MBR-usurping utility
> installed.
>
> I realize "backups" is an alien concept to most consumer-grade computer
> users.  But if you perform regular backups (file backups for logical
> recovery and disk images for physical disaster recovery), especially
> before performing some major surgery, like adding or changing hardware
> or installing a major or invasive program, and along with using System
> Restore, then you really don't need GoBack.
>
> GoBack is useful to those users that are too lazy to perform backups and
> tries to automatically cover their butts.  Obviously the GoBack restore
> information has to go somewhere.  If it supports removable media, like
> CD-Rs, then what would be the point of using it since you could then
> perform a disk image yourself?  If you have multiple disk drives then
> obviously the safe method would be for GoBack to save its restore data
> on a physical drive different than for the partition that it is
> recording the changes; otherwise, if the hard drive goes bad with
> defective sectors or dies then so, too, does all your Goback restore
> data.  If GoBack is saving its restore data within the same partition
> (i.e., on the same drive) as for the partition it is recording then its
> restore data is just at risk as any other file in that partition or on
> that same drive.  At that point, just use System Restore instead of
> GoBack.
>
> According to
> http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=22945, System
> Restore will NOT let you recover document files but GoBack supposedly
> monitors and records incremental change data for all disk activity
> (which would presumably mean GoBack usurps more resources and will
> probably get more in your way of using your computer).  Well, guess what
> is the purpose of the NT Backup utility.  File versioning is a mainframe
> concept yet to filter down into consumer-grade operating systems, like
> Windows.  You can read a test lab report of GoBack at
> http://www.etestinglabs.com/clients/reports/roxio/default.asp?visitor=X.
> Roxio has since sold off Goback to software predator Symantec.  Also,
> the report compares GoBack against Windows ME's System Restore (among
> other products) rather than against Windows XP's System Restore.  If you
> look at the table at
>
>
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/whyupgrade/featurecomp.mspx
>
> supposedly Microsoft improved System Restore in Windows XP over what was
> provided in Windows ME, and although
>
>
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/app_system_restore_hss_understand.mspx
> and
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.mspx
>
> describe System Restore in Windows XP, I don't know what the
> improvements would be other than I hear System Restore is less a
> resource hog under Windows XP than under Windows ME.
>
> Since System Restore comes free with Windows XP, and since you have NT
> Backup for document backups (yes, you can even get it for Windows XP
> Home off its CD or from
> http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/ntbackup.msi), why waste the
> money on GoBack?
>
> -- 
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