BounceBack Ultimate Instant PC Recovery
BOUNCEBACK ULTIMATE INSTANT PC RECOVERY
Reviewed November 2010
What's It Do?

BounceBack Ultimate Instant PC Recovery creates a complete clone of the primary hard drive, enabling the user to start the Windows operating system from an external USB drive. It provides automatic backup of system changes; customized preferences in backup scheduler; immediate access to files; backup to any USB hard drive, secondary storage devices, network drive, or to multiple destinations at the same time; and, it synchronizes backup data between two computers.


Does It Do What It Promises?

Reviewer 1 - Dana Cardwell: Yes, BounceBack Ultimate does provide instant PC recovery from a main hard drive failure as well as providing continuous backup copies of selected data files.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: BounceBack Ultimate is essentially a "disaster recovery" application that makes a constantly updated clone of the computer hard drive on an external USB drive. In my testing, it does exactly this. Installation of this product adds an option to the start up screen called "Instant PC Recovery Drive" to either boot Windows normally or boot from the backup media.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Not really. BounceBack Ultimate is one of the easier to use backup programs that I have tried, and does a good job of backing up and restoring files and folders. All worked well until I tried to restore the System Drive. It did not turn out as expected (see below).

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: Yes. The developer, CMS Products, makes only a single claim: BounceBack® Ultimate Instant PC Recovery software creates a complete clone of your computer's primary hard drive and enables you to start your Windows operating system from an external USB hard drive. It does this easily, and more.


Was It Easy To Install?

Reviewer 1 - Dana Cardwell: Yes, the provided CD ran and installed BounceBack Ultimate without any problems or conflicts. Input of the key included in the CD box activated BounceBack Ultimate without any complications. It should be noted that BounceBack Ultimate installation and operation requires .NET framework. This did not pose any problems for me as my system has .NET installed on it. Registration was a little confusing as the link to register is to the home page of CMS (maker of BounceBack Ultimate). After finding product registration under Support I was able to register the program.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: Yes, the software was installed from physical media (CD). It installed quickly and with the provided key registration over the internet is handled during the installation process. On first run, it must be pointed to the chosen backup drive so have it ready.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes. Installation was done directly from a CD. The EULA (End Users Licence Agreement) can be printed and was short, without much of the legalese usually found in these documents. According to the EULA, "You may install and use one copy of the software on your computer. In addition you may install the software on any additional computers for the purpose of backup, restore or accessing data stored on your backup device only". I am not sure that this is true, as I was unable to activate the program on an additional computer which I thought was already registered.

Unlike most programs these days, BounceBack Ultimate did not allow me to choose where I would store the program and its files. Nor was I asked if and where I wanted to put any shortcuts. The version that we had on the CD also attempted to install a number of programs and services that would load when the computer is starting up. I object to programs that do this; at the very least, each and every start-up program or service should be announced and explained, and the user should be allowed to decide whether or not to have these programs and services running all the time that the computer is on.

The licence code had to be typed in; copy-and-paste does not work. Registering on the Web site was a process that I found rather too complicated, requiring that I answer many questions. Even though I thought that I had registered properly, when I needed to log in for an update, I had to reregister all over again. The Update process turned out to be onerous indeed (see Weak Points).

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: Yes. It is a relatively large 54.72MB file which was installed from a boxed CD which I would recommend unless using a relatively fast broadband connection. Installation and set-up was smooth and easy using a standard point-and-click Wizard with minimal configuration needed by the user, since in most instances the default settings will be appropriate. There was a rather standard EULA (End User License Agreement) allowing for use of the program on a single machine with a 30-day trial, and the EULA was written in plain English with a minimum of legalese. The program uninstalled easily, leaving only one folder and nine registry entries.


Good Points.

Reviewer 1 - Dana Cardwell: In the help file accessed through the program, BounceBack Ultimate provides easy to understand instructions of how to accomplish any task. Graphic displays of the screens in BounceBack Ultimate with designating arrows makes learning how to use the program easy even for a beginner. Specific questions that are not covered by the questions and answers in the knowledge base can be submitted on the Web site.

BounceBack Ultimate provides two basic types of backup: complete system or cloning (as referred to by some users) and data only. There are various options with each of these types of backup as well as different use for each type of backup. My experiences with each of these types of backup will be related separately.

Complete system backup is for those situations where the main HDD dies (the main HDD is the one with the operating system and programs installed on and from which one normally boots the PC.) Note that I did not say "if it dies" but rather "when it dies" because all HDDs will die if used long enough. What I especially like about BounceBack Ultimate over other backup software I have used is the Instant PC recovery. There are many other backup programs that can clone the HDD and transfer that clone image to a new HDD, but BounceBack Ultimate not only does that but also allows one to boot up from the clone and use the PC until a new HDD is installed. This is a nice feature as most users don't have a spare HDD and use of their PC is delayed until a new HDD is obtained. I do have spare HDDs and I tested this function on my system, simulating a HDD failure of my main HDD. BounceBack Ultimate formatted my external USB drive and transferred the 42.1 GB on my main HDD to this external USB drive in 1 hour and 23 minutes. I used a file comparison program to confirm that an exact clone was made with a few slight file changes for the recovery options that did not effect my operation or data. I booted to the USB external drive. My system performed just as the original HHD with a few slight exceptions. BounceBack Ultimate had replaced my background with a BounceBack Recovery background. The system took longer to boot up due to data transfer through a USB port rather than a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) connection. The limitation of the USB port data transfer did cause some performance hits, but BounceBack Ultimate does indicate this in their instructions and on their Web site. I also had Internet access and could edit and amend any data file. I installed a new internal HDD and performed the recovery from the USB external drive. The recovery took a little longer than the original backup. When I booted to the new internal HDD, my system performed as if nothing had happened at all.

Data backup using BounceBack Ultimate can be performed manually, scheduled, or continuously (similar to scheduled but in minutes rather than weekly or monthly). All data backups have the options of verification and encryption. Verification adds to the backup time but much less than the time taken to perform the backup. Encryption adds to the backup time but is well worth the extra time if the external HDD backed to could be lost or stolen. Encrypted files open slower due to the encryption process. Restoring backup data is a simple process and allows restoring only those files or folders desired.

BounceBack Ultimate backups all files in the format in which they were created. Unlike many other backup software that put backup files in a proprietary format that require the backup program to view the file, backup files by BounceBack Ultimate do not require BounceBack Ultimate to view the files. I could use BounceBack Ultimate to backup files to an external HDD, hook that external HDD to another PC, and access the files without BounceBack Ultimate being installed on the second PC.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: BounceBack Ultimate is a great way to set up a full hard disk backup system that can be truly "hands-off" and that runs automatically. It also makes upgrading a hard drive a very simple process by launching from the mirrored image and restoring the backup to the new drive. One of the things I appreciated was BounceBack's prominent warning: "The selected device will be repartitioned and formatted immediately. Any data on the drive will be permanently destroyed" although I found this caution technically incorrect. The backup drive device I chose, a 500 GB USB external drive, had already been partitioned into several segments. In using BounceBack, I had established a dedicated partition for its use and simply pointed BounceBack at that partition. It worked fine and did not repartition the entire drive or wipe any data contained in the other partitions. This particular process does require some knowledge and ability to implement that the average user may not have, so the warning is still relevant. Failing to heed the warning could result in unintended data loss.

BounceBack makes restoring the saved a backup fairly easy by adding an entry on the startup screen to launch the backup rather than launch from the internal hard drive. Additionally, it can be set up to run automatically to mirror the internal hard drive's contents every 60 minutes, providing a very fresh backup set that essentially eliminates almost any data loss due to a hard drive crash. BounceBack makes restoring the saved a backup fairly easy by adding an entry on the startup screen to launch the backup rather than launch from the internal hard drive. While this is a very useful function, it can also have unintended consequences which I discovered while testing it on my Vista laptop (see Weak Points).

BounceBack's user interface is very clean and intuitive. Easy to navigate, it has large clearly labeled buttons or tabs that were simple to understand. I did not need any documentation to figure out how to use it. It was pretty straightforward.

Many backup solutions create proprietary backup sets that contain all of the backup data crammed into one huge file that is not assessable without using the original software that created it. If one no longer has access to the original software, the backup created with it may be useless as well. With BounceBack, I can open the backup set on the external drive and browse its directory structure the same as if I was looking at the internal drive. Should I need a single folder or file, it is available without needing to do a complete restore.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: BounceBack Ultimate is very easy to use -- it is probably the simplest back-up program that I have yet tried. The GUI (Graphical User Interface: the program's Windows and Screens where you tell it what you want it to do) is simple, uncluttered and clear. My only suggestion would be to make the "www cmsproducts.com" button on the BounceBack Control Center window to be an active link to the website.

Backing Up is good -- even essential. If nothing else, one should back up his own data such as photos, research projects, and other written work; otherwise, this will vanish if the drive fails. But backing up is not too useful unless that data can be restored in case of loss. BounceBack works well in restoring files and folders. On my first Restore test, I copied a file from one folder on the original disk to another location. Then I called up the BounceBack Quick Restore from the System Tray. I clicked my way through the first few choices, then was presented with an Explorer tree, showing my two partitions as two new drives on the target drive where everything had been backed up. The file that I had moved showed up in its correct, original location except that it was marked "deleted." I retreated out of BounceBack and, using the "real" Explorer, went to that backup drive, found the undeleted file, and was able to restore the "deleted" file to its original location or to another location as desired. I could also password-protect files that contain confidential information in the backup.

I found support to be very responsive during the normal workweek. Unfortunately, responses to support requests were delayed over the weekend, delaying my ability to resolve a system problem at that time.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: While there are many good points with this software, the one that really matters to most is ease of use. Those who have not yet backed up their system have not done so because of the confusion from complicated programs and unanswered questions:: What files should be backed up, how often should backups be done, can the computer be used while making backups, if the computer crashes or the hard drive fails, can the system be restored from the backups, if the computer won't boot can it be booted from the backup, is a backup or a disc imaging program needed, is disc imaging the same as mirroring or cloning, and so on. All too frequently, disk imaging backup programs are not bootable or require creating a bootable disk using an .ISO image or something called "Barts PE". Fortunately, BounceBack Ultimate does not.

BounceBack Ultimate ends the confusion and risk. While expensive, it makes the entire process simple. Purchase an external hard drive (now readily available for under $50.00), plug it into a USB port, install the BounceBack program, allow it to make a full back up when it prompts, leave it running in continuous data protection mode if desired, and, in about one minute per the amount of GB used, a complete copy is made of the entire operating system. If it becomes necessary to replace the hard drive or the hard drive fails and the computer can't be booted into Windows, one or two clicks will boot up from the external hard drive and it can be used to restore the entire operating system on a new hard drive. This worked in my testing every time using a variety of external hard drive brands. I would recommend using a new external hard drive for this purpose because BounceBack Ultimate will reformat and partition an existing external hard drive, erasing anything stored there. With a minor investment, one can create what BounceBack describes as a "spare tire" for the PC so that, if anything goes wrong, it can be restored and running with all data in a matter of minutes.

There are other features to this program:

point It has one of the simplest-some people make fun of its "cartoonish" look-user interfaces I have seen. It is rather like looking at a car radio from the eighties. With only five large, fully labeled buttons, it is very easy to use and no help manual is needed.

point It uses a "throttling" technology that holds down the use of one's CPU while it is running so that the computer can be used while the program is running without any serious slowdown. I noticed no slowdown on my system and only increased CPU usage when it was backing up the Windows Registry, a very intensive operation.

point There are a variety of user specific configurations that can be made, including incremental backups, scheduling backups, making backups of only specific folders, versioning by allowing the program to running continuously for backups of any changes as often as once every minute if desired.

point Free support is available via a support ticket/email procedure as well as through a user manual that can be downloaded as well as a FAQ. Direct support is promised within 24 hours, but my requests produced a response in a matter of a few hours at most.


Weak Points.

Reviewer 1 - Dana Cardwell: While the continuous backup is a super safety feature and the makers claim that BounceBack Ultimate will throttle down the backup when the PC is in use, I did see a performance hit with this feature enabled. The continuous backup also posed some conflicts with other scheduled tasks such as defragmentation.

The scheduled backups need a daily choice to fill the gap between continuous and weekly. Because I read my email daily, my current backup program is scheduled for daily backups.

The developer's VP of Engineering, Les Kristof, replied: There were several comments regarding the Continuous Data Protection mode having a max selection of 60 minutes. In the newer version of the software, this has been extended to allow 8 hours in between backups.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: When BounceBack is running in its scheduled mode, it prevents the computer from remaining in standby mode. This may not be a big issue on a desktop but could have disastrous consequences on laptop. There is a provision that can be set to close the program at the end of the operation and also to shutdown the computer. Unfortunately, there is no provision to put the computer back into standby and therein is the problem on a laptop. One possible solution might be to provide the ability to set the backup frequency to a longer time period. Currently, the longest time block is 60 minutes. That is too short for a laptop that needs to travel as laptops are meant to do. I think this is an oversight that could be easily corrected and should be. This might sacrifice a little "freshness" of the backup set but when compared to destroying a laptop because it came out of standby and continued to run in a fully awake state while closed in a computer case or backpack, it is a worthwhile sacrifice. I also did not like that the program ignored my default browser selection and insisted on launching Internet Explorer for the registration process, which in my case required installing Adobe Flash Player for IE, a browser that I rarely choose to use or keep updated. This is an annoyance and an unappreciated waste of time and resources.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: When first using the program, one needs to be aware that the target drive (the one that will be used to store a System Restore backup on) will be used exclusively for BounceBack. This is made clear with the following warning: The Drive, to which you will send all your data (the one where your backup will be stored) will be reformatted, repartitioned and any data on it will be destroyed. This required that I make a drive available specifically for this program. Additionally, as far as I can understand, BounceBack can only clone one physical hard drive, with all its partitions, of course, but it is still just one physical drive.

Following the recommendations on the first run of this program, I accepted the defaults for a full system backup and found that all the partitions on the drive that I was backing up would be included and both my partitions would be copied onto the USB drive. This is not what I had expected and one of the partitions has no information on it that needs to be backed up in this manner. More explanation of the results of my choices needs to be provided. The full backup took about an hour and a quarter. At 95 GB, it is, by today's standards, a relatively small drive. Some now have much larger main drives - 250 GB or more - divided into several partitions. If one's hard drive fails, only the partition that actually failed need be restored.

When I tried to do a System Restore, I had to first boot from the BounceBack CD, and from then on I followed the prompts. I selected the USB drive, with its two partitions as the Source Drive, and the C:\ and F:\ drives as the two that needed to be restored. The restore process took about the same amount of time as the System Backup had taken. When BounceBack announced that the restore had been successful, I rebooted the computer as instructed. When it finally appeared, I was puzzled to find a new desktop, with a large "Instant PC Recovery" sun-like icon in the middle of the sky, over a kind of metallic ocean. I found myself running under BounceBack in "Recovery" mode. My C:\ drive was no longer named "Main" as before, but "BB". A window appeared now, allowing me to "Continue" in this Recovery mode, or to "Launch the Recovery Process." I though that I had already done that. When I selected "Launch Recovery Process", I find that the only drive I could "recover" to was the other drive installed in the computer, which acted as my data drive. I had to continue running the computer under the BounceBack Recovery mode.

The developer's VP of Engineering, Les Kristof, replied: Unfortunately, Mr. Royle did not follow suggested procedures. Obviously, Mr. Royle's actions were influenced by what appears to be his favorite competing program's methodology. What he should have done was to boot from the external USB hard drive, then select restore option from the menu and rebuild the existing or newly installed drive in his PC. What he ended up doing was "cloning" his external drive and using that for the internal. Since it was a clone, it presented itself as the "Recovery Disk", asking him if he wanted to restore. The only effect of this mistake was the system's display of the recovery wallpaper, which is very easy to change.

The main Help file has a couple of weaknesses: In the Section describing Backup and Restore, there is the following statement: For creating a Full System Backup (recommended) upon installation, please refer to the Quick Start Guide. However, there is no Quick Start Guide (or I could not find it) in the Main Help File. But is located in the Web site. There should be a hyperlink for the Quick Start Guide and the BounceBack Ultimate Disaster Recovery Guide. References to features that were either present or lacking in the other versions were distracting. The Help file does not need to tell me what is missing or available in the other versions that I have not purchased. If, for example, I have the Express Version, instructions about doing a System Backup that is not available to me would be annoying. At the same time, if I have the Ultimate Version, I do not need reminding that a System Backup is not available in Express.

While I was testing the program, I had to update it from the version I had received on CD to a newer version that I had to download from the site. To have access to the downloadable version, I first had to go to the Web site and download the most recent trial version and I had to complete a long online form. Actually, I had to do this more than once, as my original effort to register seems not to have worked properly, in spite of a confirmation email that I had registered successfully. Once I had downloaded the file, I had to completely uninstall BounceBack from my computer. While this may have worked, it provoked one of those "Send Error Report to Microsoft" windows. Then, I had to reinstall the program from the beginning, including entering the activation code. Finally, I had to do a new, complete system backup. I hope that the developers will take a careful look at this procedure, as it is far too complex for a simple update that did not seem to make any significant changes in the way the program operates.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: I found no particular flaw in the program itself. It would be nice if the program might allow in the future the ability to transfer back-ups between external drives, and it does need some type of compression which it now lacks. A 100GB image/backup takes up 100GB of space on the external drive and these files will get unwieldy to say the least.

The developer's VP of Engineering, Les Kristof, replied: Mr. Snyder suggests compression for files, but this would eliminate one of the best features of the product, instant access to the files on the backup drive without using the backup software. One should keep in mind that it's possible to take the BounceBack external backup disk, install it in the host PC or laptop and use it as the new main drive. Compression or other adulteration of the files would preclude this option


Other Comments.

Reviewer 1 - Dana Cardwell: Backup speed with BounceBack Ultimate depends mostly upon the speed of the external HDD. One of my external HDD is faster than the others and I backed up 58.9 GB in 1 hour 9 minutes while it took 1 hour 23 minutes to backup 42.1 GB to another external HDD.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: BounceBack can be set up to run in automated mode with a maximum duration of 60 minutes between backups. That would require a continuous connection to the backup media and that BounceBack be running in the system tray. There is a selection in the options menu to "Launch on connection" that might be a workable solution to the laptop problem noted in Weak Points, but launching a backup application on connection and running for 30 minutes or more in the background consuming resources is not a great idea. In combination with software that monitors disk load and CPU use continuously, the impact on resources is quite noticeable.

On the upside, I did find BounceBack's user interface very clean and intuitive. It was very easy to navigate, with large clearly labeled buttons or tabs that were simple to understand. I did not find myself needing to dig into any documentation to figure out how to use it.

The CMS Products Web site offers a number of solutions for backing up data including several "complete solutions", with kits containing an external hard drives and any necessary cables as well as the program itself. They also offer a number of business solutions including encrypted backups (AES 256 bit - on the fly) and server system backup solutions.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Perhaps I had a mistaken idea of what a System Restore would do; I expected that it would restore the Main boot drive to the exact same status as it had been when the System Backup had been created. I did not expect at all to be running at all times under the control of the BounceBack program. To be fair, all the programs were there, although a few had lost some of their settings. The computer still functioned as the print server for the others on my local network. In order to get my computer back to its original state, with all my drives in their normal, functioning state, I had to use my usual backup program, and restore its image of the C:\ drive.

I found a few other drawbacks as well. I have a Drive Restore Program that can rescue a mangled drive and recover most of the files that seem to be irretrievably lost. It costs $20 more than BounceBack Ultimate, and they provide 24/7/365 Support, including direct connection with support staff, amongst other methods. BounceBack support, while it is alright, does not match that. I also use another imaging backup program that allows me to back up complete drives and/or partitions, and with a Recovery CD, rebuild a crashed system drive either to the original drive or a new one. Using that imaging program, I do not need to set aside a dedicated specific drive. I can use any drive with enough space on it for both backups and images, system or otherwise, and have all sorts of other data on that same drive that is totally unrelated to that backup program.

Although I am clearly not happy with the System Restore, it is important to say that BounceBack Ultimate does provide both a system backup, which can be used to restore ones bootup drive to a functional (though strange) pre-crash state, as well as a robust backup program for one's data and other important files. So, it does provide an all-in-one set of features. For myself, I will continue to use my current imaging program for system recovery purposes, along with some very good backup programs which do just that - make extra sets of and keep good track of all my data files.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: I am totally at a loss why everyone does not know of this software. If they did, I am quite sure other backup programs. would have all but disappeared. This is the program that everyone is always looking for: an instant recovery of an entire hard drive that is also fully bootable from the external drive. I know of no other programs that do this as completely and as easily, if at all, at any cost. This is a must-have program for every computer and I highly recommend it.


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1- Dana Cardwell: I still am undecided. I definitely like some of the features of BounceBack Ultimate, but I am concerned about the daily backups and weekly full system backups that I currently do.

Reviewer 2 - Dana Bostick: Yes. I have used quite a few backup solutions and BounceBack Ultimate is one I will continue to use primarily due to the clean user interface, ease of use, and the full availability of the individual files and folders in the backup set.

Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: No.

Reviewer 4 - Mark Snyder: Absolutely. In fact, it is going to be a Christmas gift for some family members.

OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows Vista Home Premium, XP Pro, Home, XP Media Center Edition

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