New PC utilities want to save your data
by Alan Zisman
(c) 1999. First
published in Toronto Computes,
May
1999
PowerQuest Lost and Found, US$70 (approx
$105 CDN)
PowerQuest DataKeeper, US$50 (approx $75 CDN)
www.powerquest.com
Here are two more utilities from PowerQuest, the PC
utility company
known for innovative products like Partition Magic and DriveCopy:
Lost & Found is designed to quickly recover lost
data on your computer.
I suppose you could use it if you just forgot the name or folder where
you saved a file?but Windows users already have the Start Menu?s Find
option
for that.
But if you?ve deleted the file and emptied the Recycle
Bin (oops!),
suffered from virus infection, had a hard drive crash, or even
reformatted
your hard drive, Lost & Found may still be able to recover your
critical
data.
While other programs, like Symantec?s Norton Utilities
or anti-virus
programs can help with some of these problems, Lost & Found doesn?t
need to be running in the background all the time, sapping system
resources.
In fact, you don?t need to install it until you actually need it.
When run, it analyses your drive and reports on the
chances of data
recovery, and then, if you choose to proceed, saves your selected files
to another location. It runs under DOS, though it can be used on
Windows
9x or NT systems running FAT16 or FAT32 file systems (though it doesn?t
support NT?s NTFS file system). As a result, it can work on systems
that
are too damaged to load Windows, as long as they can boot to a DOS
floppy.
Note that it while Lost & Found can seemingly work
miracles, if
you?ve written over your data, it?s gone for good. But short of that,
the
program does the same work that previously might have required sending
your drive away to a data recovery centre.
DataKeeper aims to take most of the pain out of data
backups. Backing
up is one of those ?trip to the dentist? things? we all know we should,
but most of us put it off until it hurts?and then it?s often too late.
DataKeeper offers real-time backup?it runs in the
background, and backs
up data files as you work. It compresses files using standard pkZip
format,
so files can be restored using any zip-compatible utility. When
you
simply zip a bunch of files to a floppy diskette, a single bad sector
can
ruin the zip-file, an especially aggravating problem if your zip-file
scans
multiple floppies. DataKeeper protects against this problem, retrieving
all files except the one actually residing on the bad sector. It can
backup
to any device recognized with a drive letter?ruling out most tape
drives,
but allowing use of removable drives like Iomega Zip or Jaz drives or
recordable
CD-Rs.
Originally developed by HighPoint Technologies, the
program is now up
to version 3.0. While it doesn?t replace a full-fledged backup program,
it is a great way to painlessly backup your critical data. It is
available
as a modest, 2 meg download from Powerquest?s web site.