ROLLBACK RX PRO
Reviewed August 2006

What’s it do?

RollBack Rx is a PC system and data restore utility that enables users to rollback PCs to a desired point in time.

Does it do what it promises?

Reviewer 1: I could not tell, as it would not install on my system.

Reviewer 2: Not only does this program not deliver what it promises, the manufacturer’s claims and statements directly contradict themselves. On their Web site, http://www.horizondatasys.com/169620.ihtml  they claim that: “RollBack Rx eliminates the need for backups or carrying duplicate images of hard drives.” This is a misleading and dangerous statement in my opinion. Backups and images function for much more than restoring a corrupted system; they copy your programs and data to another media that is physically separated from the original so it can be restored in case of a fire, flood, theft, or hard drive crash. Rollback Rx is self-contained on the original hard drive and cannot replace the abovementioned functions of a backup or imaging program. Their claim above is contradicted in their User’s manual FAQ where they state: “Rollback Rx is not a replacement for backup software". Most backup software copies the backup information to a third-party media, either tape or network server. Rollback Rx does not need a third-party media to operate. It is able to protect and fix your computer problems locally on the hard drive. Therefore, Rollback Rx is not operable in the case of hardware failure. The backup of important data to third-party media is still encouraged.” The authors claim in the user’s manual introduction that: “Rollback Rx Professional allows users to create a snapshot of the entire system and data at a specific time. Then users can select a specific snapshot to recover files from or restore the entire system to. Based on a patent pending technology, Rollback Rx Professional only takes 0.07% of total hard disk space to create up to 60,000 snapshots. This is the least amount of disk space required to protect the entire system comparing to any software ever been produced.” Elsewhere they state that the 0.07% number is a theoretical one and that the actual space needed may be larger. One of the questions we are asked to address in this section is whether the claims contain too much “puffery”. The following statement is taken directly from the User’s Manual FAQ: “Rollback Rx is the most advanced computer system and data maintenance software ever been developed. It allows computer users regardless their skill levels to easily and quickly fix their computer software problems. It can recover lost, corrupted files or restore a crashed system to a desired working state within seconds; without any data loss. It is the ultimate computer maintenance program that no user should be without.” On its face, this appears to be “puffery”, but taking it at face value would be dangerous when you read the manual and find, for example that restoration of old snapshots will erase newer snapshots and data will be lost unless options in the advanced options section are taken. This is just one of the important issues which must be addressed when setting up or using this program. The user must read and understand the information in the manual in order to avoid data loss or corruption.

Reviewer 3: Yes, it does. At first, I was unsure about installing Rollback. That is because I have used similar programs that help put a computer back to a previous state. They run at a very “low level” – that is, at a very fundamental level of the computer’s operation. Although they have often “saved my bacon” – or at least, my computer’s bacon, I was hesitant about committing my system’s basic health to a program that I did not know at all, either by recommendation from people I know, or by reputation. However, I am glad that I have taken the plunge. Having used it now for some time, I now use it on my regular “working” computer, and am glad to have it there.

Reviewer 4: At least in part, yes. At each new boot, it captured a new image of my drive and did so in very little time, placing the images in a file from which any image could be recalled. Unfortunately, this is as far as I got in the testing. I was still in the initial stages of exploring, feeling my way around the application, when the problems began. As best I could determine, these problems were directly caused by Rollback Rx: I had not recently installed new programs new programs or configurations in recent time and was using Rollback Pro on a relatively new, uncluttered and defragmented drive.

Reviewer 5: Yes, it does, providing a functionally comprehensive package in a very well-designed user interface. However, its claims to offer virus protection is more puffery than substance; what it really provides is virus recovery post-infection.

Reviewer 6: No! While it does take “snapshots” of your system allowing you to return your computer to a previous point in time, it does not do so without a great deal of cost to the performance, configuration, and usability of your system.


Was it easy to install?

Reviewer 1: No, it would not install at all because my drives were compressed. I contacted the company about an error message I got when I tried to install the software: Error: Some compressed volumes have been on this computer, the installation cannot continue. They responded with: That error message indicates that some partitions are compressed. To check this, you can go to My Computer, right click the drives and select its Properties. There is a compression button on the properties page. RollBack Rx cannot be installed on compressed drives. The setup detects the drive compression and reports that error. However, RollBack Rx has no problem with folder and file compressions. This should fix your issue. Let us know if you have any other questions(sic). Horizon DataSys Support. Of course, that did not fix my problem, the problem is that it will not install on a compressed volume.

Reviewer 2: Installation was a bit complex and confusing. The initial part of the installation may have been a bit too smooth in that a screen flashed by which had a couple of checkboxes including the one which was checked yes to the option to overwrite files. I could not read the second choice due to the short time it was on the screen. Before I got a chance to read it, that part of the installation was already done. It seemed a bit odd to see a screen that gave checkbox options but gave you no opportunity to choose the options. Then it displayed a screen that gave a “Thank You For Choosing Rollback Pro” message and displayed 4 icons, each of which gave a description of what it did when you moved your cursor over it. The first icon gave you the options for setting up Rollback Rx While it would be natural to complete the tasks in the first icon before proceeding to the second icon, I opened the second icon to find that it was the User’s Guide and was accompanied by a recommendation to read this manual before doing the setup steps allowed by the first icon. [Note to programmers: if you want me to do the second step first, consider making the second step the first step!] The third icon gave the option to explore the CD’s setup files, user’s guide, and support tools. Since I was installing from a downloaded file on my hard drive, clicking on this icon only opened Windows Explorer and displayed the contents of my C: drive. I chose to do a customized installation that gave reasonable options for where and how the software was installed as well as which drives should be backed up. Each partition was treated as a separate drive as would be expected. By default, it selected only the drive with the operating system. It gave no indication of, and no control over, where the roll back data would be stored. After the system rebooted, it opened a configuration window. This gave a nice assortment of options for the frequency of system snapshots and gave the option to automatically delete snapshots over a chosen number of days old.

Reviewer 3. Yes, the installation is quite straightforward. You are presented with three choices: default, custom and advanced. Probably many people would go ahead with the default, and allow the installation to make all their choices for them, and that would be fine. My own preference, though, is always to see what is happening, and, usually, to make some choices on my own. So I went with the custom option. You would only need the advanced if you are operating this on a number of computers with the same program settings. In the case of many other software programs, I have not found it critical to read how to do an installation before embarking on it. However, in this case, I would suggest that you do look at the Rollback Users Guide (a .pdf file separate from the Online Help), and read over the sections dealing with installing and uninstalling the program. Then when you do start, you will have a clear idea of what you are doing. Once you have done the installation, you need to reboot your computer. Rollback will appear almost immediately, and will build (or take) its first “snapshot” of your system. This will be the “baseline” snapshot. Until you change this baseline, this is the furthest back that you could bring your computer, if ever you needed to. After the boot process has finished, and your other startup programs have loaded themselves, the Rollback configuration wizard will appear. This takes just a minute or so, and does not appear again. One other recommendation that I would make is that, since you will set your first “baseline” here, you would probably like to be able to “rollback” to a pretty clean and stable hard-drive state. So do your best to clean up that drive as best you can. Have your Recycle bin empty, for example. Arrange your Desktop the way you want it to be. Get rid of those old temporary files and other junk. It would be a good idea to run such programs as your Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Registry Cleaner, and defrag the disk. Once you are happy with the hard drive’s state, do the Rollback installation.

Reviewer 4: On my first attempt to install, I got caught in a loop alternating between two steps of the installation. I emailed the company and within two hours got a response advising me to download again and it should install without difficulty, which it did.

Reviewer 5: The process was straightforward, but its opening Professional Setup screen is one of the worst, least-informative installation screens that I can recall: a simplistic, non-standard opening tile without buttons to minimize/maximize, just a delete (X) button. Setup defaults of Default/Custom/Advanced are displayed only on mouse rollover of an unlabelled button, and the informative text disappears unless the mouse cursor is kept over the button.

Reviewer 6: No. While it was a rather straightforward (if somewhat large 10.6MB download) installation, and does offer a default startup setting, its opening setup screen is non-intuitive and not user-friendly. It is an absolute necessity to read the Rollback User’s Guide to have any idea of what you are doing.

Good points

Reviewer 1: Unknown.

Reviewer 2: Restoring individual files from old snapshots went smoothly. There are a wide variety of options for choosing when to take snapshots. It seems to me that one of the best applications for this program would be for public access computers, such as in schools and libraries, where the computer is set up ideally by the system administrator and a snapshot is taken. The unknown users would be allowed to use the computer to surf the Web or do other potentially dangerous activity. At the end of the day, or at logoff, the snapshot of the ideal setup is restored and the system is “as good as new” automatically. This functionality would be enhanced by the program’s features that allow the controls to be hidden, and activities such as low level formatting to be blocked.

Reviewer 3: Rollback is an excellent addition (not, I believe, alternative) to backups, anti-virus and other system utilities. It is highly configurable – that is, you can set it to be completely automated, in which case it will act similarly to the other programs that do somewhat the same kind of thing. Or, you can decide to create your system snapshots manually, in which case, you have complete control over what it does, and when it does it. It runs in your system tray, with a small pop-up menu, so you can have easy access to system snapshots or system restores. Unlike others with which it competes, you can keep system snapshots going back for as long as you like; the others usually offer no more than a day or so. You also have control over the snapshots that you have taken, rolling them together, deleting them or even defragmenting them. Even more interesting, you have the choice of recovering individual files, groups of files, or a complete system-wide recovery. This flexibility is much greater than that offered by the others of its class. I used Rollback extensively when testing other software products. I was able to set up my computer to a certain state, install a program and test it thoroughly. When done, I simply rolled back to the state that I was in before the installation, and all was gone. This provided me with much greater control that I had ever had with any other restoration program. I also noticed that the space that is reserved for the restore snapshots is significantly less than that taken by the competition. And, in spite of what I mention in the “Weak Points” below, it can be uninstalled. With one of the other programs in the same category, not only could I not uninstall it – I could not even reinstall Windows, so completely lost the hard drive. In my experience, the flexibility of Rollback, the control that it offers to the user, as well as the more mundane features such as the help files and the interface (clear, uncluttered and easy-to-use) puts this program at the head of the class.

Reviewer 4: Rollback Rx seemed to do its image capture effortlessly and quickly, using only a few seconds at each new boot (this can also be done manually or at scheduled intervals). It initially sat quietly and unobtrusively in the background, without causing any noticeable impact on system performance.

Reviewer 5: One of the most significant advantages of RollbackRX – and a unique capability in my experience - is its ability to restore the system to a snapshot at a certain point in time, then synchronize with its data from a later point in time. Also, a small but commonly needed function that it provides is recovering a prior version of a file or directory, which one can restore to the current or a different directory. RollbackRX's price of $60 is competitive with Norton GoBack and a bargain for the level of advanced functionality delivered. Its Users Guide (121 pages) is thorough and comprehensive, even though becomes rather mechanical towards the end. The 2-page “10 Quick Facts About Rollback Rx” is a real gem and would make an outstanding Overview section for the Users Guide; unfortunately, I discovered this document very late in my experience with the program.

Reviewer 6: An excellent idea. An excellent User’s Guide. An excellent price.


Weak points

Reviewer 1: Will not install on systems with compressed volumes.

Reviewer 2: This program does not support compressed NTFS drives and states such in their documentation. If you attempt to setup this software on such a system, you may get the following situation described in their troubleshooting section of the manual: “Subsystem fails to load, computer freezes with a black screen. After running setup in the Windows, the system is restarted. During restart cycle, the computer freezes on a black screen before Subsystem Console even loads. To fix this problem, boot up the computer with a Windows 98 startup disk, run FDISK /MBR at the command prompt and then restart the computer. The computer should start up now. Once you are back into the windows, check to see if the NTFS drive is compressed. If so, decompress the drive and try setup again. If not, contact the technical support for assistance.” I had my MBR compromised shortly after installing Rollback Rx. At the time, I attributed this to Partition Magic, a program I had used without problems for many years, since the trouble became apparent when I tried to resize partitions. In hindsight, I strongly suspect that Rollback Rx was the culprit. I attempted to fix this problem with a solution suggested on the support site for Partition Magic, but the problem cascaded to compromise multiple partitions and I eventually had to restore my partitions from saved images. Fortunately, I had a backup system other than Rollback Rx to protect my system and data. Unfortunately, it took many days for this problem to evolve before settlement.

Reviewer 3: After I had been using Rollback for some time, it became necessary for me to uninstall it. Unfortunately, I ran into some serious trouble with the uninstallation process, and found myself in a “loop”, both unable to uninstall the program, and unable to operate the computer properly. I cannot completely attribute the problems to Rollback, as there were other issues that I was running into with that computer at that time. However, the uninstallation process did not work as expected, and I got myself into some difficulty. Unlike most other programs, which simply start to uninstall themselves, Rollback will ask you to choose a snapshot that it will go back to, before doing the uninstallation. So please realize that if you go back to a previous snapshot, rather than, for example, the current snapshot, your computer will have gone back in time. After the uninstallation has finished, work and data that you may have done since that old snapshot will be gone. So it is very important to read the help file about the uninstallation, before doing it. I am not exactly sure why the program requires that you rollback to a previous state. It seems to me that it would be better if the current system state were the default. At present, the original baseline is highlighted, and if someone is tired, inattentive or reckless, they can get into a lot of trouble. If the uninstall option is chosen, by whatever method (out of the three possible), the current system state (not even the most recent snapshot) should be the default, with other rollback options being offered. Although this process has recently been greatly improved, I do think that it needs a bit more attention. The Rollback User Guide is good, but a bit overwhelming. Since it is important to do the installation correctly, I think that there should be something easier to get at that would explain this process in a clear and accessible fashion. Perhaps it could be integrated into the installation wizard, or be part of a Quick Start Tutorial.

Reviewer 4: After a few days, this application caused a total system crash, seemingly using up every shred of space on my hard drive, all partitions. I was unable to delete or transfer files quickly enough to save much of anything or to keep up with its unrelenting, seemingly accelerating pace. Ultimately giving up on all recovery efforts, I needed to reformat the drive and reinstall the XP Home operating system with loss of some of my data.

Reviewer 5: Rollback Rx's technical support function is lacking. They direct you first to their FAQs and troubleshooting sections of the User's Guide, which contains useful but lightweight information. Then, they request you submit a case through their online support forum, for which no information is supplied about its hours of operation, or, more importantly, no stated turnaround time. Lack of specified and committed technical support would preclude my adoption of this program for serious production use. Throughout its Web site program description there are shallow statements that diminished my regard for the program, e.g., "RollbackRX only takes 0.07% of total hard drive space"; "Takes less than 3 seconds to create a new snapshot"; "...eliminates the need for backups..."; and "Rollback Rx can do everything that all PC Maintenance applications can do...". All of these statements are generally untrue. The License limitation, "You may install only one copy of the software under one license." seems overly restrictive to me in the current environment where it's most common to have a laptop as well as a deskside machine, only one of which would be in use at a time. The media on which the software is distributed should be warranted for more than 30 days.
In the User Guide, I would have liked an explanation about the program’s design structure and its limitations, i.e., the kind of situations that it could NOT handle. Also, its CYA statement, "Horizon Datasys Corporation assumes no responsibility or obligation of any kind for any errors contained herein or in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this document" certainly got me started on a sour note.

Reviewer 6: RollbackRX insinuates deeply into your system. Its proprietary usage of your MBR (Master Boot Record) makes it nearly impossible to use any disc imaging software such as Acronis True Image. It cause file corruptions that bring up the critical errors warning message on reboot and forces you to run chkdisk to repair (14 errors in one example, 9 in another). In several random “snapshots” it deleted the system critical files in the System32 folder that, had they not have been preserved in another snapshot, would have totally disabled my system. Contrary to its claim of only taking “0.07% of total hard disk space, it can and will easily and rapidly fill your entire disc if not reined in. What the developer does not tell you is that the “0.07%” represents only the snapshots themselves, not the data stored in the snapshot! RollbackRX enables (and continues to re-enable even if you manual disable) the remote desktop process in your Windows OS and that is a BIG security risk. You cannot defrag your hard drive as the defrag utility (or such third party software as Diskkeeper or Perfect Disc) cannot read inside the “snapshots” or the constantly changing and evolving MBR. You cannot disable RollbackRX without losing all of your snapshots. If you want to make a disc image or do a complete defrag you must uninstall and reinstall RollbackRX. RollbackRX slows down your system performance: my boot time went from 28 seconds to 87 seconds after installation. The RollbackRX rollbacks are very slow. While Rollback RX adds a minute or so to your boot time, after boot and login has finished it then synchronizes the “anchored” files and folders and this process takes about 15 minutes and prevents you from doing any effective work with your computer until this process finishes. RollbackRX does not support RAID setups. RollbackRX poses yet another very large security risk: Anyone can have access to any information even if it is password protected; however, any password can be accessed with RollbackRX. Finally, support in non-existent, the knowledge base is virtually useless, and the support forum is non-active and there never seems to be any response from the developer to the few questions found there.


Other comments

Reviewer 1: This is the first software that I’ve encountered that will not install on a compressed volume. My experience with windows XP is that compressed volumes are virtually indistinguishable from non-compressed volumes. (Exceptions probably exist with slow systems and/or disc drives; but those are not my experiences.) This problem needs to be addressed by Horizon DataSys.

Reviewer 2: While using this software, my hard drive became compromised. Since I was using Rollback Rx from a downloaded copy, the instruction manual as well as the program were on the hard drive which I could no longer access. I would strongly suggest that users either print out the instruction manual or copy the instruction manual to another media so it is accessible when it is needed. Alternatively, the manual is in a downloadable .pdf format on the manufacturer’s Web site.

Reviewer 3: Support is as important – indeed, if not more so – as the program itself. This is particularly true of programs that deal with critical data (for example, your financial affairs) or with important computer system functions, such as Rollback. If you get into trouble, you need to have quick, efficient, attentive and courteous help from the developer’s support personnel. I found the Rollback support to be excellent. In my case, the developer himself, Mr. Eric Sun, took charge of my queries, and gave me direct access to him at any time. As it was, my difficulties were ironed out without my having to resort to middle-of-the-night phone calls. For support, Rollback gets a “superior” rating.

Reviewer 4: For a program purporting to be a lifesaver, it is currently ill-prepared. With improvements over time, I can see lots of value for all user levels. I know it would be a godsend to me because I have some lazy, bad habits. If Rollback Rx Pro performed well, its advanced capabilities would be of valuable use, since I like to experiment with new software.

Reviewer 5: I found RollbackRX an excellent, highly useful program accessible thru a well-designed clear user interface, accompanied by thorough documentation. Its caution (User's Guide, Chapter 4, page 49): "To ensure the new snapshot's integrity, it is recommended you save all the files and close running applications before taking a snapshot of the system" causes concern. My system at any time has approximately 80 running background tasks, so this kind of request is impractical if not infeasible. Probably it's just some system programmer's extra caution, but taken at face value it severely shakes my confidence in the integrity of the Rollback images and makes me wonder if I can really depend on them. Requiring the user to restart the computer to complete user registration is cumbersome. The developers should find a better way to accomplish this mundane task. RollbackRX's Setup.exe triggered a PestPatrol warning on my system, cautioning that it was adware from DesktopMedia released 4/28/2006.

Reviewer 6: I have reviewed or tested in these pages as well as elsewhere well over 500 software programs. Rarely have I found a non-beta program with so much promise but so buggy as to be potentially dangerous to the very health and stability of one’s operating system. The developer’s Web site promotes RollbackRX with these words: Turn Back Time and return your computer to the way it was before any changes were made to you PC. I would add to those words: by uninstalling this terribly written piece of software!


Will you continue to use it?

Reviewer 1: No, I cannot use it at all.

Reviewer 2: No.

Reviewer 3: Yes, it is now installed on my main “working” computer.

Reviewer 4: No.

Reviewer 5: Yes, but in a supplemental, not a production manner, due (as far as I could determine) to its apparently casual commitment to customer service, as well as the concern with snapshot integrity as mentioned above.

Reviewer 6: No. It has been uninstalled!

 

OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home

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