System Recovery "chip"?

Hello, I'm new to wilders security forums. I have a question about this "chip" I saw (the Boomerang, www.oncallcpu.com) that I guess backs up your system somehow... I've never seen anything like this, so I don't know if I should trust it or not. Is this something that could be useful? And are there drawbacks to relying on something like this for system recovery, because it does not seem to actually back up anything physically. Thanks

 

I take it nobody knows anything about this?

 

It is interesting. Kind of like FreezX or First Defense ISR or System Restore but in hardware.
Data is stored on the HD, so it won't help for HD failure.
Since the "image" is on the HD, couldn't malware just delete or alter the "image"? What would happen in that case?

It could have some possible use in schools.

 

There are a few other programs available that sound similar- Symantec's Goback, Shadow Surfer, Deep Freeze ect.... If Boomerang just stores the data on your hard drive then I don't see how it is really that different than these programs. Except Boomerang doesn't seem quite as flexible and it says it is hardware and not software, so the only advantage it would have over the software programs is it couldn't be shutdown by malware.

There is no know malware (that i'm aware of) that can delete or alter the stored data/image on your hard drive when using Goback, Shadow Surfer, Deep Freeze, First Defense ISR ect.... Probably the same when using this Boomerang. But in the future there may be.

Sounds like it could be somewhat of a hassle to have to put in your password everytime you download anything such as a program update.

 

I don't think I'll bother with this thing. I need to back up my hard drive but I just haven't had the time to do it to CD and was looking for an (reliable) easy way out

Thanks for your replies

 

Looks like it would be a temporary solution to use this boomerang thing, but it doesn't look entirely useless. Perhaps along with a good backup program like Ghost or True Image, you could use this Boomerang and it may prove to be very helpful for day to day problems. I'm looking into it myself for a possible second backup solution and not too bad at about $30.