Replica from Seagate has quietly revolutionized the backup business for PCs. There are few products that receive “Must-Have” status, but no PC should be running today without a Replica backup system attached. It is cheap, simple to operate, and nearly foolproof. Replica not only backs up you documents – it provides complete image restoration if your computer is hit by virus or hard disk failure!
If you’ve never had a hard disk crash or had an important document deleted by mistake or virus, you’re not lucky – you’re living on borrowed time. Even if your system doesn’t crash, every six months or so it would receive a significant performance boost if you would just reinstall everything. But that takes time; on my production system going from a freshly formatted hard disk to a working computer with all programs installed can take over a day of solid work (and lost time).
So, everyone would benefit from a good backup system, but almost no one worries about it until it is too late.
For years Seagate has manufactured external drives that make backing up “easier” to do. They even have drives where you press a button and everything in your documents folder gets written to a backup. The problem with these devices is that they don’t save your system files: suffer a virus or a crash and you need to reinstall all your programs and operating system.
My solution has been to backup documents using an external drive, and to also create an image backup (that will restore my programs and registry) using Norton Ghost. It’s still not a bad strategy, but it is a bit pricey. Also, as Ghost has evolved, in Symantec’s attempts to make it easier to run, they have made it more intrusive and difficult. Plus, it requires “installation”; I can’t just tell my mom to “run Ghost”. I have to go set it up and then make sure it is working on schedule.
Welcome to the Revolution
Seagate’s Replica is a 500 Gigabyte hard drive stores in a slick shell smaller than a paperback book. It has no buttons or switches! You just plug it into your computer using the supplied USB cord and it starts backing up your computer! Everything – including the programs and registry.
You’ll hardly know it is there. Only a small reminder in the bottom right of your screen will occasionally inform you that your system has been backed up. If you leave it plugged into the system, it will continuously backup as you work. Alternatively, you might use it to backup your system, disconnect it from your computer and use it only in the event of a major crash, thus restoring your system to a pristine state.
Replica comes in two versions. The smaller unit is $130, weighs in with a 250GB hard drive, and can back up one computer. It is perfect for most laptops.
I tested the $220, 500GB Replica that can backup multiple PCs.
Downsides – there are a few: First, the Replica doesn’t support Macs and it won’t work with older XP drives that are formatted as FAT32. Chances are if you’re working with a new PC the Replica will work perfectly for you.
Wish list: Since the Replica is “only” 500GBs it may not be big enough to backup your entire system. To its credit, it is smart enough to let you know that up front. The solution is to store your documents on a separate partition and use a different type of backup (like the “One Touch” drives) to make file-by-file copies. I wish the Replica had a secondary port, so that you could chain back-up drives off of it, letting you backup even the largest home systems: music, movies and more.
Finally, it would be great if you could backup a “pristine” copy of your system with the Replica, and then have a second backup set on the same drive for your day to day work. That way, if you lost a document you could always just restore the single file, but if your system was getting sluggish you could restore a clean copy of the system, the way it was when you first installed Windows. I believe you could obtain this result by copying the first backup you made with the Replica to another external hard drive and using it for emergency restore purposes, but I have not tested it as a solution).
It doesn’t get easier to use than the Replica. Plug it in, click OK, and you’re system is protected. Don’t wait until your system crashes. You need Replica today!
