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Norton Save & Restore
Price: £34.99 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 14/09/2006
Featured in magazine:
Issue 144
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Symantec
Web Address: www.symantec.com


Few people realise how essential the contents of their hard disks are until they've gone. From digital photos to albums you've purchased online, if your hard disk fails, your computer is stolen or a virus strikes and you haven't backed up your data, it's gone forever. No-one is immune – if it hasn't happened to you yet, it's probably only a matter of time. There's a simple answer to the problem though – back up your files regularly and you've a lot less to worry about.

Features
Norton Save & Restore is designed to make backing up your files and data as simple and efficient as possible. It's geared towards making regular, scheduled back-ups of your entire computer, and even more frequent back-ups of your My Documents folder, though you can configure the software to save as much or as little as you want, as often as you want.

Performance
The software comes pre-configured with a back-up regime that sounds like it's going to suck up all your spare time and disk space, though if you look at it in terms of how much work you're prepared to lose,
it doesn't sound quite so daft. Thankfully, back-ups will quite happily sit in the background and chug away while you work on something else and, if you find it's slowing your other software down, there's a slider that can be adjusted to ensure more resources are freed up for other applications. What's most annoying is that files aren't simply saved elsewhere in their native format – you'll need to use Norton Save & Restore software to unlock them again, so it's a little bit obtrusive if all you want to do is archive.

Ease of use
It's certainly simple to use though. The basic back-up options are installed by default, are thorough and can be used straight away. If you've got a second-hard disk and are using this to back-up all your data, there isn't really a simpler or more effective way of going about it. If you'd rather work out your own regime, simple wizards will help ensure you're collecting all the right data. You're provided with information for labelling your back-ups and restoring is also relatively simple, even if you need to do quite complicated things like find a specific file from a specific time.

Value for money
This is a sophisticated product and, if you ever come to need one of the back-ups you make with this program, you'll probably think it's been worth the purchase. However, £35 feels a bit steep to us, especially since most people can already make simple back-ups through Windows XP. Of course, if you've been stung with a hardware failure or such-like before, you'll probably be willing to pay the price for such comprehensive peace
of mind.

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