Crossroad Technologies We Make Computers Work For You

Rollback Rx has an important role to play as a security system for your computer. Rollback Rx allows you to
rollback to the point where your system did not have any operating problems. When you have problems with your PC, you can do a pc restore to a snapshot. It is possible to protect you data by restoring a snapshot in Windows or below Windows when it crashed. Rollback Rx system restore software gives you the flexibility to rollback and roll forward between system snapshots. Restoring computers to a snapshot takes about ten seconds or less. Each snapshot you take is the complete system, programs, wallpaper and settings, data, registry, etc. You can take snapshots as per the schedule you set, from the options provided by Rollback Rx.

Activating Rollback Rx On Your Computer

RollBack Rx system restore software has software-based product activation technology. This means that when you install Rollback Rx, you have to activate it to use it, so that you can fix computer problems and restore computer settings whenever you need. This activation can be done either over the Internet or without one.

If Rollback Rx is installed in a computer that is connected to the Internet, then activation can be over the Internet with the authorized product ID that comes with the product, whether you’ve bought a copy of it or downloaded the demo version. The number of computers authorized by the product ID is the number of computers that can be activated. Once you restart your computer after activation, you will have your disaster recovery solution firmly in place!

Manual activation of Rollback Rx is possible without an Internet connection. All you need to do is send your Product ID and registration ID to Horizon DataSys Tech Support via email or Fax, who will send you a registration code. You can use this to activate your Rollback Rx and get started with using it to fix computer problems. Your user guide will help you in showing you how to take snapshots and schedule them, how to configure your Rollback Rx so you can repair computer problems quickly and so on.

System Restore With Rollback Rx Is Easy

System restore is very easy with Rollback Rx. You have different options to do this. It can be done through the application console in Windows, or the subsystem console, which loads before Windows boots your system. This means you can repair computer problems even if Windows does not load, since Rollback Rx operates below the Windows platform. You can also automatically set your Rollback Rx to restore on every reboot, log off or shut down at various time intervals.

Jacob Henderson
http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/the-quickest-recovery-with-rollback-rx-74415.html

Whether you’re a business or individual it’s more important than ever to be able to recover from it as quickly as possible and with minimum data loss.  Understanding this Microsoft Vista Ultimate and Business editions are now bundled with a good and easy to use Backup and Restore service.  However it’s surprising just how many people no so little about it and are not using it.  This article outlines this useful service and how to get the best out of it so you can feel secure in the knowledge recovering from a disaster is simplicity itself.

A pre-requisite to using this feature of Vista is buying the license for either Vista Business or Ultimate editions.  Unfortunately Microsoft have not made it available in other versions of Vista.   There are two types of backup you can use, and they affect how you restore the system:

1. Using the ‘Backup Computer’ it’s possible to write what’s called an image backup of your entire PC to a backup device usually a USB stick or external drive.  This snapshot of your entire system allows you to recover exactly to the same point in time.  However, because it is an ‘image’ of your system drive it requires the restoring PC to have a system drive of at least the same capacity.  Usually it would be the same PC so this is not a problem.  It is also the lengthier of the two backup options as it backs up the whole machine.
2. Using ‘Backup Files’ you can backup selected data files such as images, photos, music, documents, spreadsheets, emails and application data.  This type of backup is incremental i.e. it only backs up changed files and therefore is usually very fast taking only a few minutes.  However it will not enable you to restore a full system, only those backed up files.

Typically we advise you use both types of backup and blend them to cover all your data and system.  So for example you might take a complete backup weekly, but a file backup daily.  In the event of a disaster you would need to restore the system backup first, and then each daily backup (since its incremental) that contains changes that will not be on the full system backup.

The service has a scheduling function within it so that regular file or full image backups can be taken on a regular basis be that daily, weekly or monthly, whatever suits your needs.  With the speed of modern drives the backup of your entire PC can be done within an hour and in the event of a disaster be recovered in a similar amount of time.  

There are many options for backup devices but with the steadily decreasing cost of external hard drives and USB memory sticks these are looking like the consumer and very small business users backup device of choice.  You need a minimum of 80GB of space to backup up your entire system and that’s what I’d recommend you do. An external hard drive would normally be connected to your PC via a free USB2 socket, however in some instances you may also have eSATA, Ethernet or Firewire (IEEE1394) connections available as alternatives. The fastest connections to use for backup in reverse order are USB2, Firewire and eSATA.

Should your machine stop working for either software or hardware related reasons the Image backup allows you to return it to its last working state to and be confident that everything should work perfectly as it did previously. What this means is that should anything go wrong with your current installation like a faulty hard drive, corrupt windows file or Virus problems, all that is needed to be done is to enter the Windows Vista Ultimate or Business disc, plug in the backup device and start the PC. Once you have done so, follow the steps below to fully restore your PC to the exact state as it was at the last backup.

Keeping your back-up image up to date means you don’t have to worry about any problems caused by software errors, virus infections, hardware failures or corruption. Similarly, should your system hard disk fail entirely, all that would need to be done would be to get a replacement, install it and then follow the process of a system restore and you would have your operating system and software back as it was before.

Please note system restore points described in Windows are a different tool. They save operating system files as a snapshot at a given time in another directory (usually hidden) on your system disk so that without referring to a backup you can reverse a hot fix, service pack or driver update should it prove to cause instability or bugs.  This is obviously no use to you is the system disk fails or becomes corrupted.

Doesn’t RAID protect me from drive failures though?

Ideally if you have also selected our RAID1 or RAID5 disk storage configuration you can afford to lose one hard drive and simply ‘hot swap’ it out for a replacement without any interruption to the working system as it is able to rebuild the information that was on the missing drive on the fly, until you are able to replace the defective drive. Once the defective drive is replaced the RAID5 redundant volume set is rebuilt on the new drive and you have fault tolerance restored once again.

Remember your backup images don’t care whether it’s a RAID drive they are being backed up from or restored to so you can back up a RAID set and restore to non-RAID or vice versa.

How to restore Vista from a backup

Assuming you have your backups now to recover from your backup device (USB or External hard drive), and your machine is now back up and running (or you are using a similar replacement machine) and you have the same capacity hard drive space available it’s very simple.  Just go through the following steps:

1. Insert your Windows operating system DVD into the drive

2. Reboot your machine (or power on)

3. If you are asked whether to ‘Press A Key’ to boot from CD-ROM, then do so. The standard windows installation process will now begin with a progress bar along the bottom of your screen. Select your preferred language when prompted (i.e. ‘UK English’) and click ‘Next’.

4. Once the Windows setup DVD has started select the Repair option from the first screen. You will see the ‘Repair your computer’ option on the bottom left. Click on it and click ‘Select’.
On The following screen click ‘Next’ and you will get to a screen with an option o perform a ‘Complete PC restore’

5. Then select the option to ‘Windows Complete Restore’ to restore from your latest backup (ensure your backup device is already connected and switched on)

6. Windows will now look for backups on your device and allow you to restore your system from it, this will take a few minutes depending on how big your system disk was in terms of volume of data that has been backed up

7. Now remove the Windows setup DVD, and reboot your PC again

8. Your system will now be restored to the state of your last Full image backup

9. You can now go into Control Panel, System Maintenance, Backup and Restore, and select to restore any documents, images, music, email or data files that are backed up individually but were not in the last Full image backup

Please note running through this process WILL DESTROY any existing data on the disks as it completely overwrites it with your backup image including any new files that might be on the disk so you need to be sure you do want to restore from the backup.

Typically a full backup image will take up at least 10GB of space, and your restore will create a new volume of exactly the same size as your original volume so you must ensure that you are restoring to a volume at least as big as your backup volume was.

Backup and Disaster Recovery FAQ

What do I need to do to ensure backups are run?

Just make sure you machine is on at the time set for backups to run, the backup device is connected and switched on. We also recommend you make sure all applications are closed and its advisable to have nothing running while backups are being taken. We default the backup to be done every week, on Sunday, at 7pm.

Manually running backups

If you would like to run a one off backup because you are about to change your system configuration or add hardware or software and you want to be sure the system is safe this is a prudent practice and is easy to do. Go to the ‘Start’ bar (which has now been replaced with a Windows icon in the case of Vista) and Click on Control Panel, followed by System Maintenance and then Backup and Restore Centre. Select ‘Backup computer’ to make a full image backup of the entire machine and its configuration, or select ‘Backup files’ to make incremental backups of changed data files (the latter being much quicker and requiring far less backup space).

Bear in mind that you need to rename your backup image file names manually so you can identify which one is which when it comes to having to restore them, otherwise each successive backup will simply overwrite the last and you cant recover to a given point in time. To change their folder names simply use file explorer as you would on any other windows file system device.
All backups are stored in a folder on the backup device named ‘Windows image backup’. The default name for the folder will be the PC’s computer name. Here, simply right click the folder with the new backup you have made (the new one will be identifiable by the date) and select ‘rename’. If you then need to restore to any given point you will be given a choice of folder names identifying all your backups you can restore from.

Do I need to backup anything else?

I recommend you also periodically (say once a month or quarter) backup your full system with a complete image backup. This is the only way to ensure the whole system in its complete working state is backed up and can be restored to. If you don’t mind the wait for it to finish its better to run a Full backup as often as possible, but it can take some time (several hours).

Can I restore my system even if its still working?

Yes! If you want to revert to a previous working state of your system at the time of an earlier backup then even though your system is working you can go through the same procedure above to restore it to that earlier point. This is sometimes useful if a software or driver installation or a virus has infected your machine and you would like to safely revert to an earlier known working and secure state.

If the Windows DVD/CD wont boot on my machine what should I do?

Most likely your CD/DVD drive isn’t set as the first priority boot device so the PC is scanning the disks and trying to boot from them first and failing. You need to check your boot priority setup in the machines BIOS setup. You can usually enter the BIOS by pressing <Del> at start-up (PC start-up, not Windows start-up, if windows is starting up its too late), usually there is a screen to accompany this to tell you when to press <Del> or another prescribed key). Your BIOS will usually give you three or more options for priority order of boot devices for installing windows or recovering from a backup this needs to be set as [CD-ROM] or [USB] first, it doesn’t matter what follows it in second priority but ideally it should be your system disk to minimise boot-up time. This is exactly the same process as if you were about to fresh install Windows onto the machine

Protecting backup media

Don’t forget your backup is only as good as the medium it’s on.  In business its good practice to dummy run a restore of your system every now and again to make sure the process and the media are working properly.  If you have the time id recommend you do the same.  Its also advisable to protect the media especially if all your backups are on a single external drive or USB device.  Consider storing the device in a fire safe in between backups to ensure it doesn’t get destroyed in the event of a building fire, flood or collapse.  To be doubly sure buy two backup devices and rotate them on and off site (at a friends house or different business location) that way if an aeroplane hits your house (hopefully while you are out!) your friend still has one of your backups for you…

Alan Johnson
http://www.articlesbase.com/data-recovery-articles/recovering-your-pc-from-disaster-with-vista-backup-restore-726990.html

No sound business large or small can afford to loose their data or the ability to use their computing assets without a potentially heavy reputational, opportunity or financial loss.  Usually in the event of a disaster you lose a bit of all three.  The recent panic about on and off line security of data is testament to the risks and consequences.  Though it seems worrying about security is fashionable and protecting from disaster is not and therefore often forgotten.  However I would urge you both are just as catastrophic and perhaps disaster is more likely these days! 

More and more people are now realising just how much protecting against disasters applies equally to individuals as well as businesses.  Could you do without access to your bank account, reference to that critical email correspondence, access to your home budgeting finance software or spreadsheets. At the very least it’s hugely inconvenient at worst it could lead to heavy financial losses or liability.

For the purposes of very small businesses or home users protecting and managing disaster scenarios really merges the three industrial IT fields of Disaster Recovery, High Availability and Backup.  Using best practice from industry and modern desktop PC’s with sophisticated hardware and software it’s amazing just how much we can do.  Protecting against disaster essentially comes with two key strategies:

• Disaster Prevention – by using redundant components so that a single critical component failure doesn’t compromise the whole systems ability to function i.e. extra power supplies, redundant disk arrays (RAID1, RAID5 etc), protected uninterruptable power supplies, dual network cards (NIC), dual processors, even dual machines (clustering) etc.
• Disaster recovery (Backup & Restore) – periodically taking snapshots of the whole system and changed parts of it are the as ‘old as the hills’ way of being able to recover from any disaster scenario.  This used to be done to an offline media like tape or cartridge but now online media are becoming so cheap and far faster its more convenient to perform online backups to a low cost per GB data store (i.e. external hard drive or USB stick for domestic or home professional users).

Surprisingly some of these industrial IT tools and techniques are now available to the home user or professional.  High quality desktop computers all now come with RAID providing redundant disk drive support.  So how come you have never heard of any this or many of the other techniques?  Not many PC vendors can be bothered making it available as an option, configuring and supporting it or understanding how to do it right.  For the average risk adverse PC vendor this just open’s up a can of worms that seems like more cost or risk of cost on the wafer thin bottom line.  So they just cross their fingers and hope you don’t ask about it…

Practical things you can do to reduce your exposure

The following is a five step list of inexpensive things you can do to protect yourself from disaster and minimise the impact in the event it happens, roughly in priority order:

1. Protecting your live data – The most unreliable piece of equipment in your PC is the only bit that moves, an awful lot, the mechanical hard drive.  Almost everyone will at some point experience one failing and lose data and time as a consequence.  An extra disk in your PC need cost no more than US$40 these days, even an extra terabyte is only US$90.  Almost all good quality desktops support RAID levels that will protect your data.  The most basic of these is mirroring (RAID1) which simply copies the contents of one disk directly onto another simultaneously, should one fail the other can take over.  This all happens automatically in the RAID controller (either on your desktop motherboard or in a separate controller card).  More sophisticated is RAID5 which uses parity across a minimum of three drives (so an extra two are required but you can add more to increase performance).  RAID10 (1 + 0) expands on the RAID1 mirroring concept combined with RAID0 striping to improve performance but requires a minimum of four drives.
2. Backing up your data – Windows Vista Business or Ultimate come with effective backup software for both a complete image backup of your PC (a snapshot of the whole machine and its configuration) and to backup your individual data files incrementally.  These editions of Vista only cost about an extra US$50 or so over the basic edition and are well worth the extra if only for Backup & Restore.  They have a number of other professional and business features worth having.
3. Feed your PC clean reliable power – for around US$20 you can get a simple surge protector and filter for your mains supply.  In the event of a brown out or lightning strike this might save your PC.  For US$100 or more depending on how sophisticated you get you can have a full clean uninterruptible power supply (UPS) which will keep your machine running for a few minutes even after the power has failed by switching to the built-in battery and a power converter circuit.   This few minutes allows you to shutdown your system in an orderly fashion saving files, closing applications and finishing work off neatly and without risking any corruption that a sudden power off might.
4. Keep your PC cool – it never ceases to surprise me where people put their PC’s, under the desk, in a cupboard, next to the heating radiator are all bad places.  Largely gone are the days where computers need air conditioning to function reliably but you do need to make sure they get adequate ventilation and are sited in a generally cool location.  Not doing so will likely shorten its life and worse still reduce its reliability.
5. Preventative maintenance – to keep its insides cool your PC sucks in cool air at the front and blows out hot air out the back.  When we get PC’s back for upgrades or maintenance it’s not unusual to find a thick layer of dust and dirt over the fans, grills, motherboard and key components.  This radically reduces their cooling effectiveness and can at worse actually seize fans up or short out components.  You really will do your PC a lot of good if you periodically blow the dust out and vacuum it up with one of the pointed flexible plastic hose attachments.  Also make sure your filters on your case if you have any are regularly cleaned.

Security

Not really in the list as it’s a whole topic in itself (and its covered by another article) is general security and virus protection.  Many tools on the market today are way over the top for what you need.  You want something basic and unobtrusive so that it gets the job done but doesn’t interfere or hog the performance of your machine.  In my opinion many of the small niche security software suppliers and not the big market players are the better tools in this regard.  You should be able to get something completely FREE that does all you need.

Standby machines

Another option to consider is what the industry would call a ‘warm standby’ machine.  Have another similar if not identical machine ready to take over your critical work if your main machine dies.  Using an image backup or a hot swap disk from the dead machine to the new you can be back up and running in minutes.  With the low cost of commodity machines these days you could quite inexpensively have a reduced power [cheaper] machine ready to take over the vital work in an emergency.

Conclusion

All the ideas I’ve described in this article are all best practice that industry has been doing for business for years.  Now modern PC hardware and software within the reach of the domestic and home professional opens up some powerful options to make any pain due to hardware failures or data corruption completely unnecessary.  Do yourself a favour and get it done for your own data no matter much you think it will never happen to you, you will sleep more easily.

Alan Johnson
http://www.articlesbase.com/hardware-articles/is-your-critical-pc-data-adequately-protected-from-disaster-727102.html