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FirstWare Recover Pro 2004: System Recovery in Seconds
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1. Manager's Sudden Death

Luckily, a virus scan was able to avert the worst - this time

Who among us hasn't experienced a disastrous scenario like the following? You're on your way out the door to the airport and just need to make a couple of last-minute changes to the presentation you're about to give for an important client in a few hours. Suddenly, your system emits an unsettling noise and crashes irrevocably, obviously having fallen prey to some virus making the rounds that your rather stale virus scanner failed to catch.

You just didn't have time for all those daily updates of your virus definition files, which is why you had recently decided to simply deactivate the whole update process. You regret that now, of course, because you find you have a fine mess on your hands. It's times like these when you wish you had a super-fast backup and recovery system that could restore the system to its "original operating state" in just seconds without needing to call in an administrator. Even better would be a halfway up-to-date backup copy of your current system settings, which you could use to restore the most recent functioning state.

2. The Agony Of Dealing With Restore And Backup CDs

Some readers will surely say, "What do I care about a virus or worm attack? That's what my restore and backup CDs are for!" And they would be right - as long as the incident occurs at home. But if you're on the road a lot with your laptop, chances are you don't always have your restore CDs with you. And even if you do, you've probably found that they often don't work as they are intended to. Worse, most recovery CDs only enable the system to be restored to its original factory settings, which means that all user data, custom settings and installed software is lost. This is usually not acceptable to most busy computer users.

Now let's be honest for a minute, folks. Who among us is actually disciplined enough to backup our data every single day? And even if you do, depending on the amount of data you're talking about, restoring can take up to an hour using one or more recovery or backup CDs.

Phoenix FirstWare Recover Pro 2004 will help save time in reconstructing your drive under most circumstances. There are two situations that it can't help, such as when the entire hard disk goes south or if you have made backups that include the seeds of your destruction (virus, OS corruption). For these situations, or where you want to do backups of servers, you might want to take a look at our review of three "bare metal" backup solutions . Let's show you how Recover Pro works.

Is the situation hopeless? No, because we have found a product that meets the needs we have described above, in terms of providing both automatic, regularly scheduled backup and fast recovery. Read on to find out more.

3. Installation

Installing Phoenix FirstWare Recover Pro 2004 is pretty simple. Just pop the installation CD into your optical drive, click the mouse a few times, restart your computer twice when prompted, and your system is all set to back up data.


Here, in detail, is what happens during the installation process. Prior to the initial boot, any existing partitions on your hard drive are reduced in size in order to make room for a hidden partition. The process took just under ten minutes for our 80 GB hard drive. Then the software installs FirstWare Recover Pro 2004, something called a "Core Management Environment" and various security components on the hidden partition before the system reboots.


The Core Management Environment, or cME for short, is a type of user interface operating under Linux. You can run Recover Pro 2004 from this pre-boot environment even if your operating system has been irreparably damaged and won't reload. To cognoscenti, a cME is also known as a pre-Windows operating system application, or "pre-Windows OS app".

While the computer is booting a second time, Recover Pro 2004 automatically creates an initial restore point. Once this is finished we recommend that you create a complete backup copy to record the pristine, error-free system state. We describe this process and the available options in more detail below.

If you check the hard drive capacity in the system disk manager after installation, you'll see that the hidden partition eats up around one third of the capacity of the original primary partition, which in our case had been 65 GB. Both the backup program and data are stored here.


In our test case the hidden partition is nearly 23 GB

According to the manufacturer, the size of the hidden partition depends on the following parameters:

  • The total size of the hard drive
  • The size of the part of the hard drive where the data is currently stored
  • How much free space is on the hard drive

We noted no discernable difference in the time it took the system to boot after the automatic restore point was set - our test system took all of two seconds longer to fire up! Surely we can all sacrifice that much time in exchange for protecting our data.

Now let's look at Recover Pro 2004's GUI, functional scope and modes of operation.

4. Optional Easy Backup

Backup novices take heed: All you have to do is click on the FirstWare Recover Pro icon on your desktop and you're all set to back up or restore a single partition or a whole drive.


The Quick Start Mode is perfect for users who are inexperienced with backup procedures

Wizard mode gives you the standard interface featuring three options:

  • Quick Backup,
  • Complete Backup or
  • Restore your Computer.

If you select Quick Backup, an incremental backup and corresponding restore point are created nearly automatically. Complete Backup lets you back up your entire system or individual partitions.

You can back up just one or all of your partitions

If you already know a bit about system backup and want to avail yourself of the software's full functionality, you can click on the button Advanced in the Wizard to go to the expanded custom settings.

5. ....Or For "Experts"

The Advanced mode features numerous setting options. The status window lets you see how many restore points have been created, and which type each is.


Advanced mode display

You can name or delete the restore points at will. You can also stipulate when restore points should be created.

The Scheduler enables automatic backup

In the default setting, a restore point is created every time the system boots or at least once every 24 hours. This setting offers very decent basic security for your system.

6. Test 1: Complete System Backup

For this test we used the widescreen notebook M460XLb from Gateway, the HDD of which is divided into two partitions.


The test system hard drive configuration

Besides the OS, also stored on the approximately 46 GB primary partition C is a complete MS Office package and a smattering of other standard apps. All told, this amounts to around ten percent of the total storage capacity. On the 6 GB second primary partition, D, we stored an additional 2 GB of data. Thus we had a total of around 6.5 GB of data to back up for the test.

Our laptop required 27.5 minutes for a complete system backup. Backup time will of course vary depending on how full the drive is.

Test 2: System Crash And Recovery

In our test, we deleted both partitions using a DOS boot disk and FDISK; it took just a few seconds to restore the C partition. Although it took around two minutes for Windows to boot completely after the recovery tool was launched, if you consider that the shutdown and boot processes alone require 90 seconds, then the actual recovery process and restore-point creation take just shy of 30 seconds!

Complete Control Of Backup Even Without Windows: Here's How It Works

Surely you're wondering how you can restore a system that de facto no longer exists - after all, the partitions were deleted. The answer to this question lies in the fact that Recover Pro 2004 and the cME are not stored on either of the two Windows partitions but are instead installed on the hidden partition. Thus, pressing hotkey F4 after the Power on Self Test (POST) during startup launches the Core Management Console despite the removal of the regular partitions.


System Lifeline cME

You can launch Recover Pro 2004 and start the restore process from this pre-boot GUI.

7. Does Recover Pro 2004 "Immunize" Systems Against Viruses?

Let's get one thing absolutely clear: FirstWare Recover Pro 2004 cannot protect your system from virus or worm attacks, so it's no replacement for a virus scanner or anti-spyware software. However, because the recovery software, backup file and incremental backups or restore points are stored on the hidden partition, they are extremely safe from typical virus or worm attacks. These generally wreak their nefarious havoc by invading Windows partitions and mail programs or even by deleting the Master Boot Record and the hard drive directory along with it, but they have no access to the hidden protected partition.

Once you've created a system backup with Recover Pro 2004 and configured it for automatic incremental backup at preset intervals - like every time you turn it on - your system is well protected against data loss caused by viruses. If the worst-case scenario ever does occur and your system gets attacked by malware, all you have to do is reboot the computer and launch the Core Management Environment. From there you can use Recover Pro 2004 to restore your system to its last operational state, including all user data.

Is Recover Pro 2004 Idiot-Proof?

True to the old saying that "every light hath its shadow", even Recover Pro 2004 has a downside. If you delete both partitions under DOS and replace them with a new one, for example, and then subsequently write data to it, the recovery process can take up to half an hour. That's still a whole lot faster than having to set up your whole system again from scratch including all of your applications and personal files. But neither does this scenario ensure that all data from both partitions can be restored completely, since you can only do a static restore; i.e., any changes you may have made after a static system backup are lost in such cases.

Another issue is that under DOS, it is possible to delete the hidden partition, which removes everything associated with Recover Pro 2004. Then again, there's no (software) antidote yet for that kind of foolishness.

Note however that in Windows the hidden partition is protected from deletion. You can see the hidden partition in the disk manager but if you try to delete it, the protection driver will stop you, as shown in the screenshot below.


The protection driver prevents you from deleting the hidden partition under Windows
8. Better Safe Than Sorry: Backup With CD/DVD

Finally, we should point out that the software also supports backup with CD/DVD. We highly recommend using CD/DVD for backup in addition to the use of the hidden partition, because a mechanical hard drive defect would result in the loss of the entire disk including the Recover Pro partition. The only thing that will work in that case is recovery from CD/DVD.


Practical: Recover Pro provides the required bootable image file

To back up a system to CD or DVD, select Create Recovery CD/DVD in the Core Management Environment and follow the Wizard instructions. For this to work, however, you must have a burn program that supports the creation of bootable CDs/DVDs. Interestingly, the cME creates the required boot disk image on a virtual storage medium when you activate the Create Recovery CD/DVD setting.

Product Manager David Huang told us that it's not yet possible to create backups to external USB or FireWire drives with Recover Pro 2004. The manufacturer gave us two reasons why it cannot offer this feature to customers right now. The first is that not all systems support booting from USB, let alone FireWire; the second has to do with current incompatibilities between the boot managers of individual systems and the external drives currently on the market. He added however that this feature was at the top of the to-do list for Recover Pro 2004's successor.

9. Conclusion: Never Again Without It

With Recover Pro 2004, Phoenix Technologies has developed a user-friendly, highly secure and fast-working backup and recovery tool for Windows XP/2000 PCs that takes the sting out of virus and malware attacks. Best of all, it's a veritable bargain at just $40.

Put all of these pluses together and we believe this software product has earned our Recommended Buy Award. Recover Pro 2004 is definitely one tool that no computer user should be without, whether mobile laptop or desktop PC, at home or in the business environment.

There is one function we would like to have seen included, namely the possibility of backing up to and/or via external drives. On that front all we can do is hope that the manufacturer quickly manages to get down to checking off the items on that priority list mentioned above.

Note: Phoenix Technologies also offers a version of FirstWare Recover Pro 2004 designed especially for the requirements of system builders. It stores the backup and recovery software, corresponding utility programs and backup files in the HPA (host protected area) instead of on a hidden partition. The ATA-5 standard defines the HPA as a protected area of a mass storage device, the size of which can be determined in all ATA-5-compatible storage devices using a low-level tool. Because this area is only accessible with special tools, this version is not intended for consumers, but that also makes the HPA partition especially secure, because it can't even be accessed from the DOS level so deletion is not an option. In practice, system makers use the HPA to store a factory backup of the PC, although manufacturers can throw in extra utilities, too. The HPA is generally a few GB in size.