Norton Save & Restore
Manufacturer: Symantec Part number: 10527549
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Despite a few cosmetic negatives and a general lack of technical support, Norton Save & Restore is a decent backup app.
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CNET editors' review
Norton Save & Restore price range: $27.99
- Reviewed by: Robert Vamosi
- Edited by: Rafe Needleman
- Reviewed on: 03/21/2006
- Released on: 03/01/2006
The good: Norton Save & Restore allows the same functionality as Norton Ghost, plus it offers individual file selection and helpful wizards.
The bad: Symantec does not offer adequate technical support for Norton Save & Restore and misleadingly pitches other Symantec products you may not need.
The bottom line: Despite a few cosmetic negatives and a general lack of technical support, Norton Save & Restore is a decent backup app.
Installation is similar across all Symantec products. However, this time there is a pause during the installation when a dialog box asks you to validate your hardware in use against the database of drivers stored on the Symantec recovery disc. This good because should you ever need to boot directly from the Save & Restore disc, you'll know that afterward your monitor, mice, and other peripherals will work properly.
This product also has the same look and feel as Symantec's Norton Internet Security line of products, so you'll see a link to the Norton Protection Center above the Save & Restore button. The Norton Protection Center will be confusing for some. For example, Norton had big red Xs over antivirus and firewall protection, yet our test machine was protected--with products from other vendors. Clicking any of the red Xs for "more information" simply delivers you to the Symantec online store and a description of the appropriate Norton solution (Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, and so on). While advertising one's own product line is legit, advertising under the guise of "protection" is misleading when adequate protection already exists.
As previously stated, Norton Save & Restore offers all the functionality of Norton Ghost, plus additional features we'd like to have seen in the last version. Like Ghost, Norton Save & Restore lets you create and restore a compressed image of all your data on your hard drive or any other storage media such as CD, DVD, or USB flash drive. What you get with Save & Restore that you don't with Ghost 10 is the capability to select individual files for either backup or restoration.
Another improvement is the addition of helpful wizards. Say you've never backed up your data before. A wizard within Norton Save & Restore automatically suggests a simple and straightforward weekly schedule, which you can alter to suite your work habits. Click the suggested time, the types of file formats to back up, and the location of the backup, and in a short while you'll have a customized backup schedule. Another wizard helpfully suggests drives available to store your backup and various compression options. We were able to start backing up our 11GB hard drive within a minute; our complete initial backup required 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, online FAQ support is virtually nonexistent for Norton Save & Restore, although there are free options for online chat and e-mail. Calling Symantec's technical support remains outrageously pricey. Live technician service is available 24/7, however Symantec will charge you a flat $29.95 per incident.
User reviews
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Works fine for me
by biglug on June 18, 2007
Pros: Multitude of options
Cons: None found yet
Summary: After losing a bunch of data because of careless manual back-ups and a blown RAID0 array, I converted to RAID1 and added a third internal and USB external backup drives, ...
Summary: After losing a bunch of data because of careless manual back-ups and a blown RAID0 array, I converted to RAID1 and added a third internal and USB external backup drives, created multiple partitions, and dual boot.
I saved full images of clean Windows installs and full program installs for both boot partitions on both back-up drives. I use the user log-on event trigger to incremental back-up to the internal hard drive, and leave the external drive at another address.
On several blue screen occasions I have recovered by rebooting to the Windows boot partition that still functioned and restored the other boot partition.
I don't do any other operations for the two minutes that the internal incremental back-up requires.
Recovering from the internal drive, the 13 gig boot partition takes 8 minutes and the 24 gig boot partition takes 12 minutes.
Using 3 new internal and one new external drives running XP PRO on a four year old Dell XPS this program has been flawless and given me peace of mind for almost a year. Too bad it took a crash for me to get serious.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Installation caused optical drives (CD & DVD) to be non-recognized by Win XP, making them useless.
by drjoempad on January 10, 2007
Pros: None, won't even install.
Cons: Everything, including poor tech support,
Summary: This is a very abysmal symantec product. It won't install properly, no tech support. I am an experienced computer user and take my word, this product will cause you ...
Summary: This is a very abysmal symantec product. It won't install properly, no tech support. I am an experienced computer user and take my word, this product will cause you many headaches. I had to reformat my drive, re-install all my software to get my OS (WIN XP) to recognize my CD and DVD again. Product is basically useless. INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!!! I read all the poor reviews, but thought that I could get it to work right using my experience and knowledge-----WRONG. Truly Abysmal.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Symantec's worst software yet.
by MelNakahara on September 4, 2006
Pros: Easy install and uninstall. Chat support was quick and responsive but ultimately not helpful.
Cons: Slow, Many more
Summary: Compared to NGv10, NSR is about 10 steps back. Although the NSR's interface is similar, it does not have all the features of NG as you're led to ...
Summary: Compared to NGv10, NSR is about 10 steps back. Although the NSR's interface is similar, it does not have all the features of NG as you're led to believe. Because I needed the ablility to backup specific folders that NG does not do, I 'upgraded' to NSR. NSR runs very slow, 2 hours for a task that took NG 20 minutes. NSR's backup is also are at least twice as large as NG. On the initial and all subsquent attempts to do a backup, I recieved a persistant program error a couple of minutes at the start or the end of a backup and never was able to complete a back up task. The tech from Symantec's chat support was friendly but not helpful in that the two I spoke chatted with appeared not to be familiar with the error code given and bottom line remedy, as always, was to uninstall all of Symantec's products and do a complete reinstall.
I finally uninstalled NSR and reinstalled NGv10 again. Don't be misled into thinking that NSR is an upgrade to NGv10, it's a different program that still needs a lot of work.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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deadlocks programs, and doesn't work
by docbillwho on August 19, 2006
Pros: do not have to reboot to cause problems
Cons: hopeless product., I will be uninstalling...
Summary: Like most Symantec products, it is not compatible with older products. So I had to say goodbye to my 2004 version on Norton Ghost. Unfortunately, this product does not work ...
Summary: Like most Symantec products, it is not compatible with older products. So I had to say goodbye to my 2004 version on Norton Ghost. Unfortunately, this product does not work as expected. First off, the full backup, does not backup partition information. So the special boot sector on my e-Machine needed for booting the OEM windows version is not backed up by Norton Save and Restore. Next off, because this product runs while Windows is still running deadlocks are the norm. Most of the time my backups freeze at 94%. Attempt to write or update a file while the backup is in progress may also freeze that program. I have had Firefox, IE, and Install Shields all freeze because a backup is in progress. I have not even found a clean way to reboot once these deadlocks occur, since even killing the process trees has no effect. Finially, forget about using the event triggers for autobackups. (This is enabled by default.) For example, I tried coping a DVD and the event trigger started an automatic backup while the DVD copy was in progress. Ultimately, this deadlocked Nero.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Total Disaster
by rbryan1357 on March 17, 2007
Pros: Symantec Product
Cons: Beta Release
Summary: Failed to read the warning flag!
This caused the destruction of a 40 gig and a 160 gig hard drives, loss of all data and a week of manually reloading ...Summary: Failed to read the warning flag!
This caused the destruction of a 40 gig and a 160 gig hard drives, loss of all data and a week of manually reloading all files and programs after installing a new hard drive.
THIS PROGRAM WILL ONLY BACK-UP TO THE DRIVE IT WAS INSTALLED FROM!!!!2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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DONT BUY S&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!
by CoJeff on September 21, 2006
Pros: I can't seem to find any.
Cons: Totally full of bugs, can't have other software installed.
Summary: I bought it to move my 40gb drive to a 320gb drive. I'll admit I had a bunch of trouble doing this but after spending an entire afternoon I ...
Summary: I bought it to move my 40gb drive to a 320gb drive. I'll admit I had a bunch of trouble doing this but after spending an entire afternoon I was able to switch drives. After that I went to conduct a backup but the funny thing is S&R is still reporting my 40gb drive. So being a Release Engineer by trade I uninstalled the proudct, deleted the symantec folder and then checked my registry. Once I thought it was clean enough I reinstalled S&R and it still listed the 40gb drive. This to me suggests the Symantec writes registry entries that can't be removed or modified once there. These registry entries are also hidden and won't come up using the search function.
This is when I contacted support, well the turnaround time for a response is 48 hours which I find unacceptable since our own Tech support department doesn't do that. Well over several emails that had the strong impression they were following a script that was made from keywords. Well I made the mistake of mentioning that I had itunes installed. Well that is all they needed. Symantecs reponse to me now is to install some gear security drivers. I asked what these drivers are for and was told that third party apps use them to access the cd/dvd drives. The strange thing is I use my cd/dvd drives everyday for viewing and burning of both formats and no problems. I've also never had a problem using itunes. Well its to the point now that they won't move the support any further unless I install these drivers. Its strange that backup software would have conflicts with applications that aren't running, with devices connected to the usb ports and need drivers to access drives it shouldn't be during a backup. One of supports first suggustions to me as to why I can't complete a custom backup job is my harddrive must be below 1mb of free space. Hmmm its says I have 50gb free.
I haven't used any Symantec products in a long time because I got very tired of working around their conflicts but wanted some backup software and boy was it a mistake. I will never ever use another Symantec product again.2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Actually does work
by BlueFJR on August 6, 2006
Pros: Works when you use it properly
Cons: Minimal documentation and support
Summary: The first time I tried to back-up my hard drive with Save & Restore, it didn't work. Then I defragmented the hard drive (which was not very fragmented) and ...
Summary: The first time I tried to back-up my hard drive with Save & Restore, it didn't work. Then I defragmented the hard drive (which was not very fragmented) and tried again. Save and Restore worked perfectly.
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Atrocious !!!
by traveller10003 on September 1, 2009
Pros: None i can think of. It does not work!!!
Cons: A total waist of time. Hundreds of dollars in wasted hours trying to recover my data. The worst program I've used in the last fifteen years.
Summary: STAY AWAY FROM THIS CRAP
Summary: STAY AWAY FROM THIS CRAP
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BE WARNED: ON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT! NORTON SAVE & RESTORE
by George-M on August 24, 2009
Pros: It might work -- if I could get the GD thing installed (NORTON SAVE & RESTORE)
Cons: Norton's service is a JOKE. The only reason you would want to experience it is to see just how incmompetent tech support can be -- and then you'll have that reference point.
Summary: I spent four hours in chat and on the phone, and more hours uninstalling and reinstalling this gigantic POS. I wouldn't purchase a coat hanger from these incompetent, untrained, ...
Summary: I spent four hours in chat and on the phone, and more hours uninstalling and reinstalling this gigantic POS. I wouldn't purchase a coat hanger from these incompetent, untrained, mismanaged neanderthals. Save yourself the trouble -- BUY SOMETHING ELSE, ANYTHING ELSE. Unless you are really lonely and want to chat with someone 1000 miles away who doesn't understand anything about computers, computer logic, software, etc. If you are into self abuse, you might like this, otherwise, DON'T BUY IT.
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Norton save and restore (NSR) sucks! Rating is 0!
by wamacher on March 5, 2009
Pros: It has nothing to recommend it! It does more harm that good!
Cons: It is hopelessly bad!
Summary: I bought Norton system works and installed save and restore. I finally realized that my computer had s--l-o-w-e-d down badly whenever NSR was runing. So I reset the scheduling in ...
Summary: I bought Norton system works and installed save and restore. I finally realized that my computer had s--l-o-w-e-d down badly whenever NSR was runing. So I reset the scheduling in NSR and ran an initial backup again. That backup had run for about seven hours when I chatted with Norton (Case Number 491926484, followed by case number whoops they did'nt give me one). Jose at Norton confirmed that what I was seeing was nothing unusual. That's the way it works. Wow!!!! I let the backup continue running all night. It had completed the next morning. It trashed all the previous backups in my backup file and DID NOT create a new backup! I uninstalled NSR and installed my old copy of Norton Ghost 9.0 which I had been very happy with. It would not work because it was no longer registered! When I chatted with Norton the second time with all my woes they could not help me with Ghost 9.0 because they no longer supported it.
I had already turned off Norton Go-Back in System Works because it was more of a pain in the neck than anything else. Other vendor's programs seem to do the rest of the System Works features better. so I asked Norton to cancel my subscription to System works and give me a refund. They agreed!
I am going to avoid Symantec and Norton products from now on. I think that they have lost their edge. Putting out a product like NSR and having the gall to charge for it is unconsionable!!!!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Symantec
- Part number: 10527549
- Description: Built on Norton Ghost technology, Norton Save & Restore safeguards photos and important files; schedules automatic backups; restores from system failures; automatically monitors and optimizes backup disk space; encrypts backups to help keep them secure.
General
- Category Utilities
- Subcategory Utilities - desktop backup / compression / archiving
- License pricing Standard
Software
- License Type Complete package
- License Qty 1 PC
- License Pricing Standard
- Platform Windows
- Distribution Media CD-ROM
- Package Type Retail
System Requirements
- OS Required Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition,
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,
Microsoft Windows XP Professional - Software Requirements Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
- Min Processor Type 300 MHz,
300 MHz - Peripheral / Interface Devices CD-ROM
- System Requirements Details Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,
Microsoft Windows XP Professional - RAM 256 MB - HD 160 MB,
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Symantec products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Symantec
- Address:
20330 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014 - Phone: 1-408-517-8000
