Others say...

"Imperfect Solution DO NOT use with VISTA"
Unlike a lot of reviewers I have had absolutely no issue with either installing or backing up my data - but then again I always log in as the ADMINSTRATOR on Windoze XP - I have used version 1.1 on XP PRO for nearly 3 years and upgraded to this version as a cheap solution - particularly if you don't buy from Amazon, for use on a new Vista machine.

To be fair this software works great under XP - it saved my bacon countless times over the last three years BUT it is next to useless with Windoze Vista ... sure the backup is efficient, incremental and scheduled backups work a treat BUT don't think for one moment it will restore Vista to a working state ..... I got nothing but errors after restoring a Vista PC. Fortunately I had a disc image created with Acer eRecovery management which I used to restore the OS plus applications and then restored my data from the Retrospect Express HD backup.

Consequently I have donated this software to my son for use on his XP Home machine, meanwhile I am in search of a better solution, i.e. Acronis or Norton .... there must be something better out there????


"Don't understand some of the reviews"
You can definately choose to backup more that just the entire hd. You can choose individual folders if you want. My friend uses it to just back up one huge folder that has all his business files.

I must admit that I've never actually used it to restore anything yet so I can't testify how well it would do that, but it's been backing up my hd faithfully for over a year every Monday morning at 6am. Installation was a breeze. However, the documentation and user interface is poor. The explanations as to how the program works is also insufficient. I'd like to see more of a well written explanation as to what it's doing and how it works.

"No matter what I do, I can't make it work!"
This program came with a hard drive I purchased, and I thought, WOW, backup software. That is, until I tried to make it function. I never saw anything so user un-friendly. I spent probably 12 hours, and still can't get it to save a system restore and the documentation stinks.

Why can't somebody come up with a reliable, easy to use back up program that works??????

"Warning!! No tech support for this product!"
When it works, it works great, but...

I've been successfully performing nightly automated backups of my C: D: and E: internal drives to my larger (750GB) F: internal drive... using EMC/Insignia/Dantz's Retrospect Express HD 2.0 purchased from Smith-Micro/Allume. Once a week I backup the F: internal drive to an external 750GB eSATA II drive using Memeo. All has been fine now since July (when Norton Ghost 10 hosed my C: drive so badly I couldn't boot without a reformat and re-install of XP Pro SP2). I have more than 800 good restore points on my destination drive.

Two weeks ago, Retrospect Express started generating an internal code error message every night while backing up my C: drive. I searched the EMC/Insignia/Dantz knowledge base, but the error is undocumented. No hints in the users forum.

Unfortunately, it seems EMC/Insignia/Dantz doesn't provide online tech support for this consumer product. I spent hours looking for a tech support question submission page, but instead found a circular link-to-link dead-end on the EMC/Insignia/Dantz web site. This lack of online tech support for this product was confirmed by what appears to be an EMC employee posting on the forum. You can purchase a commercial annual maintenance license, or pay $69.95 per incident for tech support, which is almost double what I paid for the original application. Although responsive, as the reseller, Smith-Micro/Allume's tech support is only capable of providing retail sales support or replacement of a defective install-CD.

Lesson learned: I need to do a LOT more research into an app's maker before purchasing, to figure out whether after-the-sale tech support is available and reasonably priced.

To its credit, during the period this app worked, it did everything promised: it saved me from my own stupidity several times (restoring individual files my fumble-fingers accidentally deleted). It also helped me reconstruct my entire hard drives' PC environ when my mobo toasted itself and I had to replace the mobo/cpu/DDR2 and re-install XP Pro SP2.

It appears EMC/Insignia/Dantz's main business is commercial backup/restore, and that's their focus. They've just created this stripped-down, simpler GUI version to then sell off to resellers like Smith-Micro/Allume to sell to consumers.

Buyer beware,... although, your mileage may vary. :)

"EMC Retrospect"
I don't understand all the negative reviews. This software won several awards from respected computer magazines. For me, it installed easily when following the documentation and it seems to be backing up the files and directories I selected. It's been running on my PC since April, 2007.

I just purchased and installed a network storage drive so I will be moving the backups to that drive.