We've all done it. A moment of inattention, the wrong keystroke, and there goes that important document, disappearing into electronic limbo. Imagine, too, having your computer infected by a virus or making some change to your system and now it's locked up. Don't you just wish you could turn back time and start all over again? Well, with GoBack you can. Sceptical? So was I, but it really works.

When GoBack first landed on my desk, I installed it and returned to work on other things for a couple of days. Then, my 3 year old got into a file I had unwittingly left open, filled it full of gobbledy-gook and saved it all just for me! Time to see what GoBack could do. Within 5 minutes I had recovered my file and was waxing euphoric about GoBack! Still, recalling past disasters caused by my over-confidence with software (PC Update, May 1999), I did my best to reserve judgment for the time being.

If Disaster Strikes!

If something has gone wrong and your computer won't boot, its time to call upon GoBack. The GoBack boot screen, which appears briefly during startup and before Windows loads, offers access to GoBack's emergency functions. Among these functions is the option to revert your hard disk to an earlier time. GoBack suggests a suitable time, but you can choose an earlier or later time instead. If Windows doesn't start successfully, you continue to access the emergency revert function, choosing times further and further back. If all goes well, you'll eventually reach a point where Windows successfully starts. If you're still unable to start Windows at the earliest available time in GoBack's memory, you'll need to resort to your usual backup media.

Once you have Windows operational, you can access GoBack through Windows and use the detailed information screens to choose a better time to revert to if necessary. The Disk Revert window displays periods of inactivity and boot points while the GoBack Drive window displays a detailed view of computer "events" and safe points (Figure 2). Safe points are times in which your computer is idle for several seconds. From either the Disk Revert window or the Drive window, you can revert your hard disk to whatever time you have chosen. If you make a mistake, you need not worry as you can usually still revert forward again.

In the GoBack Drive window you can create a virtual drive in GoBack's buffer, which mirrors your hard disk at a specific time. You can then view the contents of the drive in Windows Explorer and either revert to that time, or copy selected files across to your actual drives.

If disaster has impacted on only a few known files, right click on each file name in Windows Explorer, then choose Show Revisions from the drop down menu to view and recover old versions of the file. Alternatively, you can use GoBack's File Recovery window to view a list of all recoverable files.

GoBack warns you if it considers you're taking a risky action, such as reverting too far back into the past or to a time which is not a "safe point" . If you're not sure what to do, you can invoke the Assistant to guide you through a process.

Normally, when you boot from a floppy GoBack doesn't activate, but if you still prefer to have GoBack's protection, you can choose the `Boot from Floppy' option on GoBack's boot menu. A warning, though - whenever GoBack is disabled, its buffer empties and you lose the ability to revert.

My Own Experience

GoBack took over 420 MB of my 4.3 GB hard drive. After my initial euphoric experience with recovering an overwritten file, I started testing GoBack in earnest. From deleting and recovering single files, I progressed to deleting whole directories and finally gained the confidence to delete most of the contents of my WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory. A successful recovery from that encouraged me to deliberately corrupt my FAT. Another successful recovery, and I went mad and deleted some partitions of my hard disk (including the partition containing the GoBack files and buffer). Each time, I successfully recovered.

GoBack's first chosen time didn't always repair my computer, but the second invariably did. Sometimes I reverted to a time prior to saving some important documents. However, I easily retrieved the latest version of my documents by creating a virtual drive for a time I knew the documents were safe then copying them from the virtual drive. The only time I noticed performance degradation on my computer was when Norton System Doctor warning messages popped up they appeared more jerkily than usual.

While testing GoBack, I encountered a real-life, uncontrived, problem with my PC. Specifically a DLL linked to Norton Utilities' Image became corrupted and made my PC unusable due to repeated error messages. It appeared that the corruption had evaded GoBack's watching eye, as despite reverting my PC back in time to some hours prior to the error occurring, the corrupt DLL continued to cause problems. I finally had to uninstall and re-install Norton Utilities.

During my test period, I did a lot of graphics work and my children spent some time playing a graphics-intensive game. I found GoBack's reach ranged from zero to 4 days. Zero recovery ability resulted not only when I temporarily disabled GoBack, but also when GoBack itself suspended logging "due to massive file activity". These suspensions occurred twice; once while my children were playing A Bug's Life and once while I was defragmenting my hard drive. Obviously, GoBack doesn't have the ability to discriminate between "important" and "unimportant" processing, but simply logs all activity!

The only other problem I encountered with GoBack was occasional "Cannot write to Drive D:" messages while installing and using Norton Utilities.

Since I had over 700 MB of free space on that drive, I presume Norton was attempting to write in GoBack's buffer on the drive. The error messages didn't recur when I temporarily disabled GoBack, but I did then lose my ability to revert my PC beyond this time.

When GoBack Doesn't Help  

GoBack doesn't replace a traditional backup procedure, but it does help you to recover data in the time since your last backup, as long as that time is still within its reach. GoBack's reach depends not just upon how much space you have allocated to it but also how hard your computer has been working. Disk-intensive work such as graphics and large databases use up GoBack's buffer more quickly than word processing or spreadsheets. If you don't run graphics or play games, you'll find that GoBack's reach goes back much further. You can check this via GoBack's calendar and back up any potentially desirable files if necessary.

GoBack can't help if you exit an unsaved file. Nor will it help if your hardware breaks down; however, it should assist in data recovery once any hardware problems are corrected. As I write this review, GoBack works only on Windows 95 or Windows 98. It doesn't support multiple operating systems, hard drives which rely on disk manager software (e.g. Ontrack), compressed drives or networks. A network version should be available soon, however. You'll have to temporarily disable GoBack if you're altering your partition table, changing operating systems, installing an additional hard drive or using the emergency boot disks provided with various utilities. According to GoBack's documentation, older computers may experience performance degradation when running multimedia applications, and in such cases it recommends you temporarily disable GoBack.

GoBack needs a buffer of around 5 seconds to distinguish between two events. For instance, if you save a file then quickly make a change and save it again, GoBack may not detect the first save and thence may be unable to recover to that point. GoBack's documentation states that the chances of this happening are quite rare. Still, it is a possible explanation for why GoBack didn't notice the silent corruption of my Norton Utilities' Image DLL (ref. My Own Experience above).

Assessment

Every now and then I come across a product that impresses my socks off. GoBack is one. It's easy to use, and you don't have to have the foggiest idea what has gone wrong to be able to fix your problem. Since it requires no technical knowledge, it's ideal for beginners as well as more advanced users. Based on my experience, GoBack won't work unconditionally in all circumstances but it will greatly enhance your chances of recovering from a disaster. I love it! And it's staying on my computer!

Cost and Availability

US$69.95. For further information and online resellers, visit www.goback.com.

[Editor's note: GoBack is also available from the Australian distributors Wiseware for AUS$120.00.]