Some weeks ago I was approached by Diskeeper and asked to review two products: Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier and Undelete Professional 2009. I’ll talk a bit more about Diskeeper and how defragmentation relates to backups in a future Backup Reminder. Today’s subject is Undelete.

The first thing Undelete asks you when you install it is whether you have any files that you need to recover right now using the Emergency Undelete function. (You can make an Emergency Undelete CD for this, too.) I actually did, and said “Yes” to test it.

I’d accidentally dragged “My Received Podcasts” (containing a number of MP3 files in subfolders) into “My Pictures” by accident, gotten confused because Windows Explorer hadn’t caught up to it, and deleted the podcast folder from the pictures folder instead of dragging it back where it was supposed to be. Only the next day did I discover the problem, and I’d already emptied the trash.

Emergency Undelete managed to partially recover most of the files, but a partially-recovered MP3 file isn’t much good. Fortunately, all I had to do was download them again. Knowing I can get another copy easily is why I don’t include the “My Received Podcasts” folder in my regular backups.

Undelete replaces your Recycle Bin with a Recovery Bin. You might wonder why you would need one, since your computer already has a Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac) from which you can retrieve things if you decide you don’t really want to get rid of them. The Recovery Bin is more sophisticated, and designed to allow you to restore your whole file, not just part of it. But it’s not immediately intuitive; this is a program where it’s a good idea to read the manual.

The Diskeeper website has a handy chart comparing Undelete to backup software. Naturally, it’s designed to favor Undelete. What it never mentions is the fact that Undelete guards against one cause of data loss—human error—and doesn’t do anything to protect you from drive failure, at least when the drive that fails is the same one on which you’ve installed Undelete. (By default, Undelete creates Recovery Bins on all your attached drives, though it didn’t seem to notice my network drives, or at any rate to show them with the rest.) Nor, of course, will it get your files off-site in the event of a fire or other natural disaster. And I don’t know that it really does much of anything with files you haven’t deleted.

If you understand those limitations, however, there’s still potential for Undelete to be useful to you. One interesting new feature is the SecureDelete® function, which lets you completely wipe files away (so that even Undelete can’t retrieve them, presumably). That might have some value if you deal with sensitive data or are preparing to give your machine away and want to remove all traces of yourself from it.

I had problems with Undelete that went beyond the need to RTFM, however. On fairly frequent but unpredictable occasions, Undelete would start to suck up 90% or more of my CPU. That meant I couldn’t use any other software, and there was no way to turn it off. (I could attempt to stop the UdServe.exe process from within Task Manager, but the darn thing wouldn’t stay off.)

Tech support at Diskeeper attempted to help me with this, and seemed to think it might have something to do with the InvisiTasking function in both Undelete and Diskeeper. They talked me through running “CACLS * /e /t /c /g Administrators:F System:F” from the command line. Don’t ask me what exactly that means, because I never understood DOS, but it has something to do with file permissions and open file support. (You can check the Wikipedia entry if you’re interested.)

I kept running into problems with that, most of which reminded me just how badly I need to reinstall this computer, because the errors frequently occurred in files relating to programs I no longer have installed. But I did finally manage to get it run on most of the C drive, and at first it seemed to help somewhat.

By the next day, or at most two days, the problem was back, just as serious as before. At that point, I gave up and uninstalled Undelete, and I’ve been deleting the Recovery Bin folders from my other drives as I discover them lurking. The whole thing was a frustrating enough experience that I don’t even feel especially guilty about writing a bad review, though I do want to stress that the employees at Diskeeper did their best to be helpful. Whatever the root cause of the problem, it isn’t customer service.

And I don’t really think I can put this one down to the anomalies that seem to come up when I test backup software, because the Ur-Guru reported similar problems with earlier versions of Undelete some years back.

Even if it had worked perfectly, however, I would still reach the same conclusions. When it works, Undelete Pro 2009 can be a useful supplement to backups, but not a substitute. The truth is that most of the time, when we delete a file, we do it on purpose. And human error only accounts for 12% of data loss, according to a recent survey of data recovery companies. (An earlier study put it at 29%, but that’s still a long way from 100%.)

So if you’re prone to deleting the wrong file, you might want to try Undelete 2009. (You can fill out a profile and get a free trial.) But get a backup system put in place first.

Yes, I was bad. I missed last week’s Backup Reminder. It’s those pesky clients again.

I did want to mention that last week I had the opportunity to visit United Layer’s data center in San Francisco, and was impressed. For most SOHO users, colocation (that means paying someone to store, power, and maintain your computer hardware in a secure location) is overkill. Even the Ur-Guru hasn’t seriously considered it, though when he heard about the megawattage going into the building, he was tempted to move his whole office there.

But if you use an online backup service, chances are they rent space in a data center like United Layer’s. If it’s possible, you might want to inspect the data center before committing yourself to an online backup service or a web host. Even in a building with uniformly controlled power supplies, temperature, and security, some setups are better than others. Do you really want to entrust your data to people who set up their server racks haphazardly, leaving the network cables hanging over the hot air vents to form a fire hazard? Maybe not.

So that’s the summary version of what I was going to write last week.

This week it occurred to me that my Faithful Readers might be able to help me deal with the backlog of backup software makers and service providers who want their products or services reviewed on this blog. If these hapless people have to wait for me to investigate all of them, it’s going to be a long time before anything gets reviewed. So I thought I’d list them and see whether anyone wanted to try one out and write a review of it. In some cases, you get a free copy of the product for indefinite use; in others just a trial version. If you see something you like, e-mail me at sallie[at]fileslinger[dot]com and I’ll get you set up.

Backup Software in Search of Reviewers

(In roughly the order that the companies or their PR people requested the reviews.)

1. SugarSync, “a web-based backup, storage and synchronization software/service from Sharpcast. SugarSync gives people an easy and simple way to keep their digital media and files automatically in sync across multiple computers, backed up online and remotely accessible from their mobile phones or through any web browser. A one-time download is all it takes to make sure your information is securely stored and always accessible.”
2. Multiply “gives users a comprehensive solution for sharing and discussing their personal media while providing peace of mind by automatically backing up valuable content in its original high resolution. While other social networking sites typically only save low-resolution copies of photos or grainy, flash-converted versions of videos, Multiply Premium users will have the confidence of knowing that their media is being backed up automatically, and archived in their original highest resolution.”
3. Memeo AutoBackup (PC) or Memeo LifeAgent (Mac). This software now ships with all of Buffalo’s consumer drives. I have used it, but don’t feel I should be the one to write about it, because I had a strange experience with it. (It was unnaturally slow, something perhaps caused by interference from one of my numerous other backup programs, and I think an honest description of my experience would be unfair to Memeo.)
4. FileEngine, “the only server that includes everything for less than $8/day.” This is actual hardware, a server in a bright red case that you rent for your company to use. “FileEngine includes standard installation, monitoring, maintenance, unlimited support, unlimited users, remote administration and an integrated backup & disaster recovery solution.” It actually sounds pretty cool. I’m not sure I need a server for my two-person, three-computer network, but if you have a small office and keep files on a central server—or you want to—you could be a good candidate for this product. For those who don’t know, buying your own server runs about $10,000, and of course any support would be extra, so it does seem like a reasonable deal. ($8 x 365 days is $2920, a veritable pittance.) I am actually quite curious about this one.
5. PutPlace, “a new way to think about backup. We back up all your content on all your PCs to a single place, with automatic duplicate elimination at our back end so you only pay for a single copy of all your unique data. So no more paying for 4 copies of the same set of iTunes on 4 PCs.”
6. Elephant Drive, “unlimited online backup and storage. It’s very big, it never forgets, and it works for peanuts.” They have a blog full of customer testimonials and other useful information. There’s a home version and a business version, and you can get 1 GB of storage for free.
7. Titan Backup. I have the installation program and reviewer key for this one. I was thinking of testing it on my mother’s computer, but didn’t have time. (How about it, Mom? Want to try Titan?) The marketing manager has offered an impressive discount to readers of this e-zine/blog. Titan’s clients include Johnson & Johnson, the DEA, and the Hong Kong Police. The program’s feature list is pretty impressive, and I might in fact want to try it myself to compare its performance on my overloaded machine with that of Memeo.
8. VisionWorks’ NullFTPClient and NullFTPServer. Both come in Free and Pro flavors. Strictly speaking, these are file transfer tools, not backup tools, but you can use them for manual backups over the Internet. Is there anybody out there not already wedded to a particular FTP client? Or maybe you want to set up an FTP server so you can exchange large files with a client. Step right up and claim your review copy.
9. Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier and Undelete 2009 Professional Edition. Diskeeper is “most known for speeding up PCs with defrag software.” Seriously effective defrag software, not the basic version that comes with Windows. Undelete does what it says—recovers files that you’ve deleted. Actually, given the performance issues I’ve had lately with Enna, maybe I should handle Diskeeper myself. But I bet one of you out there who has hit the “Empty Trash” button too soon and lost something important would like to try out Undelete 2009!

Wow. There’s some really cool stuff there. (Well, it’s cool if you’re into backup, anyway.) For writing a clear, honest, and thorough review, you get the same payoff I would: a free copy of/license for the product, either permanently or temporarily, and in many cases, a chance to interview the CEO or another prominently placed person at the company if you want some background information. So…any takers?