Does using GoBack wear out your harddrive?

Hi
Any users of GoBack around here? Does using this product really wear out your hard drive quicker? Any comments on this issue?

 

Hi MM,

I don't use Go Back ... but doesn't Go Back basically continually write to your HD ... following my presumption ... I guess in theory it would.

Hopefully you'll get an opinion from a user, or someone more familar with the "process" of Go Back.

That's just my educated guess.

dog -

 

Hi MonsterMash,

I used to use GoBack on one of my systems, it was great for completely removing the occassional misbehaving (non-malware) application. My main complaint with it was the drag on system resources especially at boot up it would be churning the hard drive forever making a shadow backup. It would slow down my startup (old 1.4 GHz system). It also caused some complications installing some software (can't remember exactly, but had to turn off Goback, install software, Turn on GoBack). As for wearing out your hard drive quicker, yes, it probably does add some wear to it, but not enough to warrant not using it. My gripe was the drag on system performance and slower startups. I prefer a complete image like Norton Ghost, or maybe Acronis True Image. There is another thread here by Paranoid 2000 on an interesting software Drive Snapshot. There are other more expensive ways, like a RAID 1 mirroring array with removable mobile racks. With 3 hard drives (1 to swap out) and some of the newer RAID controllers, you can resynchronize the swapped out hard drive in the background. It is not cheap, but RAID controllers are now integrated on most motherboards and hard drives keep getting cheaper. Note that the resynchronizing period for the RAID array will churn the drive alot too, that happens with any type of intense backup or restore operation. RAID 1 offers the benefit of preserving your data if one hard drive fails. Sorry for the long post.

Devinco

 

I don't use GoBack either, but does GoBack CONSTANTLY keep track of every little file on your PC, or just the critical system files (registry, dll's, etc)? If it's the latter, I can't see how it would be any worse than what XP's restore does. I would also like to hear from a GoBack user. Interesting question.

 

Hi Dog

Thanks for your reply. I read on another site that someone burned out 3 hard drives already using GoBack! That's why i'm asking about it. 3 hard drives seems like an excessive amount to me. Even if it is constantly writing to your hard drive shouldn't your hard drive still last many years, normally, provided there are no other problems?

 

Hi D&C,
It is better than Windows Restore in that it would completely restore your hard drive to the condition it was before. Not just the Windows Registry and such. It would restore the programs as well. It is worse than windows restore because it tends to bog the system down. I haven't used it since version 2.x

Devinco

 

Oh, i guess i was posting at the same time as Devinco and Dazed_and_Confused.

I know this much, GoBack is similar, but much better than system restore in windows. What it does is it makes a complete copy of your hard drive (i think) so if you have any problems like getting a virus or trojan you just use it and it will get rid of the problem by going back to a time before you had any problems.

I hear a lot of people saying it slows down your system, but i don't seem to have this problem at all on my system.

 

My concern is that if you are infected, what is to stop the virus/RAT/Worm from infecting the GoBack image on your hard drive? When you restore you would be right back where you started. I've read this occurring with System Restore, but it could also happen for GoBack, Ghost, or other images that are stored on the hard drive. Couldn't it?

MonsterMash,
What version are you using? Maybe they improved it since 2.x. Do you have a very fast system and hard drive?

 

I would just like to add, that GoBack has saved my @$$ so many times i can't count them. When i deleted a file or program by accident it just completely restores your system to it's previous state. It will get rid of spyware/adware. All kinds of problems.

I like to use it to trial new programs and if i don't like the program i just get rid of it by using GoBack, and i'm back before i ever installed the program. It has many great uses.

Yes you can do this with programs like Ghost and True Image, but GoBack is just soooo much easier to use. But i'm not suggesting you don't do backups with a program like TI or Ghost, just that they are probably better for weekly or monthly backups and GoBack is better for day to day problems. Obviously if your hard drive fails so does GoBack, so system backups are always a good idea.

 

Hi Devinco

Yes you could reinfect yourself if you got a trojan and it was in the image backups of programs like GoBack, Ti, Ghost ect...that's why it is not a replacement for a good anti-virus/anti-trojan, but just another helpful tool. If you knew you had the problem you could then get rid of it.

My system is really not state of the art. It's a home grown. I have MSI k7n2 mother board with 333mhz fsb with athlon xp 2100. My hard drive is Maxtor 80gig 7200rpm. I have 512mb ram. Os is Windows ME.

The version of GoBack i'm using is GB personal edition v 3.11.59.

 

I have used GoBack for a t least 2 yrs with no HDD related issues from GoBack..with one exception I can recall it has worked perfectly..I hate system restore this has failed me numerous times....

I have a laptop ..trying to decide if I should use GoBAck or Acronis True Image 7.0 server with Secure zone/startup recovery manager instead...

any opinions

BTW..I am not aaware of GoBack 4 or 5..latest I know about is GoBack 3.21

 

Well, I don't think using goback will wear out your hard drive, but fragmentation will wear your hard drive out the fastest. You have to defragment your hard drive regularly. Fragmentation can wear your hard drive out quite seriously if you don't deal with it. By defragmenting your hard drive regularly, you can help to reduce wear and tear on your hard drive.