July 3, 2009

Less Than Fabulous Restore

Filed under: Main — Tags: , — admin @ 12:01 am

During my recent visit with PC disaster, I had the opportunity to put the PC’s Backup program to the test. Well, actually, I had the opportunity to the the PC’s Restore program to the test. The results were rather tepid.

Using a Backup program is a must for any PC user. It’s an insurance policy to have that spare copy of your stuff “just in case.” So most people, well most smart people backup their computer’s data and never give it a second thought.

When my PC died, I figured that I had lost maybe one day’s worth of stuff max. That’s because my system backs up all its files every day. Fortunately, I didn’t lose anything, as the system died after the midnight backup.

When the computer does die, or data is lost, that’s when you rely upon Backup’s ugly stepchild, the Restore program.

The Restore program is designed to restore files from a backup either to their original location or to another location, say a replacement computer. Ideally, you never lose anything, thanks to the ability of the Restore program to get your stuff back.

After my PC died, I set up my laptop as its replacement. I then went about restoring my work files from the backup disk (an external My Book drive) to the laptop. That’s when I recognized the shortcomings of the PC Restore program.

The PC Backup program backs up all your files, but apparently it doesn’t organize them or keep them synchronized. So when I went to restore my files, I got back some old, old files that I had long since deleted or moved from my work folder.

Now, that’s a minor complaint; I instantly recognized the unneeded files and deleted them after they were restored. Still, I think that the Restore program could be smarter. In fact, upon looking at the backup itself, I noticed that nothing is ever really organized: Windows just keeps backing up files and not really removing anything no longer needed or even deleting very old backups.

I contrast the approach Windows uses with what I’ve experienced on the Mac with the Time Machine backup.

Unlike the Windows Backup program, Time Machine works by synchronizing the files it backs up with the way your disk looks at a specific point in time. So when the file Enemies List appears in your folder for only three days at the start of June, that file is only shown on the backup for three days in June, not forever.

The end result of the Time Machine approach is that you restore your files to a condition on a specific date, not all the files as Windows does. I like that better.

Consider today’s rant but a minor quibble. The bottom line is that having the backup itself is what’s most important. Getting the files back with Restore is awesome and beats having to redo all that work. Yet it takes only a bit more programming and some insight for Microsoft to achieve what Apple has done with Time Machine.

Perhaps the programmers at Microsoft need to restore some files on a PC and a Mac, and then they’ll understand what I’m talking about?

3 Comments

  1. My father has told me that he sets a “restore point” before AND after every software upgrade. He believes that this will allow him to put everything back the way it was if there is a problem with the new software. I have not looked into doing this myself, and I am dubious that it could work all that well. Is this the same thing you are talking about or something different ?

    Comment by sean bernard — July 3, 2009 @ 12:23 pm

  2. No, they aren’t the same thing. Again, it’s Microsoft and their silly habit of using similar names for dissimilar things. Restore is the opposite half of Backup. System Restore is a utility that works like Restore, but only restores basic system components. Your father’s advice is good, and I’m a fan of System Restore, but it’s not the same thing as the Restore portion of the Backup program.

    Comment by admin — July 3, 2009 @ 1:14 pm

  3. I hardly ever *truly* backup my computer. yes, that’s being foolish, but i just don’t. only time i do so is if i’m planning to wipe my hard drive.

    ——–
    as for that windows 95 i was talking about in the windows 8 post… this comment was written from it 😛
    it’s amazing, windows 95 can do most stuff that xp can, you just have to know how to use the registry or a hex editor. i can even use USB flash drives under windows 95. plus on a p200 computer, i probibly should be reading PCs for dummies, 5th edition 😛

    Comment by linuxlove — July 4, 2009 @ 9:11 am

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