OT: Windows System Restore vs Norton Go Back

[Guest ront1]

Hope you guys don't mind this question here,,but I am sure some of you will have an answer to my questiion. I have XP Home edition and last night I installed Norton Systemworks. I have not installed it yet but saw that the disk also contains a program called Go Back that appears to be similiar to Windows System Restore. Which is the better application to use? Also, I am wondering between the regular Windows Defragmentation application compared to the Norton Speed Disk. Do you all have a favorite here? Thanks for you help.Ron

[spotlope 0]

This may be a generalization, but I'll stand by it. For the sake of your system, for the love of all that's holy DON'T install ANYTHING by Norton that works on the system level. I use their anti-virus program, but I've had more trouble with PCs running their system optimizers and various other utilities such as SystemWorks than any other piece of software I've ever owned. And this is an experience that dates to my first 66mHz PC years ago. Maybe I'm the only one who had had Norton royally screw up my PC, and if so I'm glad for the rest of you. For me, they might as well replace that photo of Peter Norton with that of Jack Kevorkian. Only Peter isn't as compassionate while he does his job.Okay, rant over.

[Guest ront1]

Hi Bill, well I think I am pretty sure how you feel about Norton Utilities. Thanks for your input. Anyone else.Thanks, Ron

[Guest outtatimeiii]

I rather use Microsoft's products than Norton's products in this case. Microsoft built them into thier OS, so why not use them. I don't know if they are as efficient as Norton's counterpart (never used, never will LOL), but theres a far less chance of it thrashing your comp (thats my opinion), because its integrated into the OS.

[jcboliveira 1]

This is my case. I installed the Go-back and didn't like it. It's not like the windows system restore that takes snaps from time to time. Go back (at least the version that I tried) was always seeing what I was doing, so if something change it will backup it. sure, it's more safe but think what it does when you are using FS and it opens a lot of files. Another problem is that N SW version wasn't powerfull enought and an old problem remais: What if you want to revert to 1 month or 2 before? no more revert data.Norton utilities. The disk checker couldn't work on windows (Windows XP)if you allow it to recover the errors only on the next startup. Defrag. took a lot of time but it was nicer to work on background and compacted the files.Win doctor: I think jv16 is more powerful (of course the danger could be bigger) than win doctor.Clean sweep missed a lot of entries on the registry.So I forgot System works and use power quest drive image from time to time, windows restore and JV16 for cleanup.Jos

[Guest]

Sorry i cant comment on norton, have friends that used it, and there not happy with it, i used windows xp system restore many times before, so its good, i would stay with microsoft on this one for now.

[1mikel151 71]

I agree with Bill, stay away from anything that controls your system short of the OS. I had McAfee Office (same deal as NSW) and had to have my HD cleaned to get it off!! My old roomate had NSW and had severe problems with it discarding DLL files he used, needless to say he doesn't have it installed anymore. I use the Norton anti virus and love it, but XP has lots of good features that should do fine for ya, just my 2 cents.Regards, Michael

[cat 2]

I have XP Home, plus Nortons 2002 Utilities.I only use Speed Disk & Windoctor. I also useNorton Antivirus. Never had a problem.I use Windows Restore only.Peter Sydney Australia

[Cruachan 705]

>I have XP Home, plus Nortons 2002 UtilitiesYup, me too. There is a great deal of ill-informed nonesense spoken about Norton. Goodness knows what all those who have 'suffered' by his hands did to get themselves into so much trouble.I have used Norton Utilities for many years with Windows 98/SE/ME and now XP Home and I can state quite categorically that there is nowt wrong with it. I have NEVER experienced any problems and each of these o/s was (and still is) kept lean and mean. Indeed the W98SE and ME systems are still running after several years (One is in the hands of my daughter and the other is used heavily by my wife icw her work. I look after them all and honestly I don't know what I would do without Norton to help me. I have NEVER had to reinstall an O/S!!I am also using Norton Personal Firewall and Norton Antivirus and the marriage with XP appears flawless in my experience.Having said all that I would recommend that you use the inbuilt System Restore module in XP Home. I have had no experience with 'Go Back' so can't comment. System Restore appears reliable, at least it did the business without fuss on the one occasion I have had to use it since installing XP some 6 months ago.There is another useful and reliable utility you might like to consider and that is 'WinRescue XP' by Ray Geide. I have used the 98 and ME variants on many occasions with unerring success and have often blessed the day I downloaded them. So far I have not needed to use the XP version in anger but, like a good boy, I use it frequently to backup. Also, I have the added reassurance in knowing that should XP ever let me down, which so far seems unlikely, I have it to fall back on.Hope this restores the balance ;)Mike :-wave

[Guest]

jerrycwo4I have GO BACK installed of two computers, Windows 98SE and windows XP Pro and would never installed anything without it. I use it at least once a week to get rid of things that I didn't like or for some problem. My GO BACK is made by roxio. It is: GoBack 3 DELUXE.jerry

[Guest gasebah]

I can only 2nd your opinion 100%. I have used Norton System Works for many years on different systems and never ever had the slightest problem with it. It is IMHO perfectly save (and therefore maybe also less powerful in cleaning up the system).However stay away from GoBack if you want decent performance. While the program works 100% as advertised it blows itself up pretty much and is always backing up the slightest changes in the background and thus slowing down your system in an unacceptable way. That might be OK for office users but I would not recommend it to the gaming community.Alex

[Guest]

I have tried Norton's products over the years and had good luck with the defrag and antivirus utilities. The doctor utility messed up a computer so bad (by just installing it) that I had to reformat. Admittedly, the last time was a couple of years ago and I haven't used anything from them other than defrag and antivirus since.I tried XP for the first time while it was in beta (I had nothing to lose: problems galore and another format on the near horizon). It solved most of my problems but wouldn't support a printer and scanner so I eventually went back to Win98 on that machine. While I was trying XP I was VERY impressed with the 'system restore' feature.After reformatting to Win98, I installed Roxio's GoBack 3.0 to get back the 'system restore' feature of XP that I liked so well. It saved my bacon a few times and I now have it installed on 4 computers. (Ironically, the only one it ISN'T installed on is that original problem machine that now has XP on it again with 'system restore').GoBack (Roxio's) is installed on this, my flightsim computer (2.4GHz, Radeon 9700Pro, 256MB RAM but 768 by next Monday, see the thread on "...anybody using the 9700 Pro?"). I have disabled XP's system restore on this machine as GoBack works so much better IMHO. It does not slow down my flying and some stutters I mention in that other thread aren't changed by closing the program or stopping it from monitoring. It does exactly as advertised and has never failed. If I make a lot of changes, you can hear it writing to the hardrive furiously but it doesn't seem to slow anything down even then. Why do I think it superior? GoBack gives you the option of reverting your hardrive BEFORE you boot up which XP doesn't. I picked up a worm at work once. Just reverted the hardrive before bootup and it was gone. No, I can't go back more than a couple of weeks, but I've never needed to. If I get a problem (and I've had my share, some my fault some the fault of some program I installed just to "check it out") I will revert to a system boot time usually just hours before the problem or new installation. One time while attempting different settings all day long to get our LAN working with a new DSL line, everything was so messed up I simply went back to 8am that morning and all was fine again (and I called in a tech to get the DSL/LAN thing working, which he did in 3 hours with firmware updates, driver updates, and throwing out SBC/Yahoo's browser and connection manager).Also, GoBack shows you which files were changed after it reverts your hardrive and allows you the option of selecting any that you want put back to where they were BEFORE you reverted. And that option comes up after the next two reboots so if you have reverted, but didn't "go back" far enough and want to revert farther back in time, you'll still have an opportunity to recover work (or planes) that you didn't want changed.You asked for opinions of people using GoBack and that has been mine. I don't know if Norton bought it from Roxio or if there was a merger or if it's a different program altogether, but the one I use is GREAT.

[spotlope 0]

Mike,I'm not too pleased about having a post in which I attempt to give advice based on my experience termed "ill informed nonsense", but I can assure you that I know now and knew then what I'm doing. I simply have had a different experience than you using Norton products. I'm happy you haven't had to put up with the problems I've had over the years using these products, but that hardly invalidates my viewpoint. If you're experienced in working with PCs, then you know that each and every system is quite different and any number of factors can influence stability and performance. It's just that when I loaded Norton problems started, when I removed it problems were resolved. Doesn't get any simpler than that. With XP I've felt no need to use third-party optimizers as my system is running quite well, knock on wood. Here's wishing you and me both well-running computers, regardless of what software we choose ;-).