The first two lines tell you the Current Mode that the HD Guard Pro is in, and the amount of Resources Free. When HD Guard Pro is in Protected Mode, it watches your Windows session in the background, and will make note of any changes on the hard drive partitions it has been assigned to protect. When Resources Free shows 100%, it means that there have been no changes on your system since HD Guard Pro recorded the last virtual image snapshot. Anything less than 100% indicates changes recorded since the last snapshot.

Pressing any of the highlighted keys on the menu initiates the action next to it:

<Enter> continues booting the system with the HD Guard Pro in whatever mode is displayed (normally Protected by default).

 

<Esc> initiates Supervisor Mode, which prevents the HD Guard Pro from tracking any changes to the protected hard drive partitions, whether it is set to Protected mode or not (password required).

 

<9> Recover System manually restores the current virtual image of the system, to the protected partitions. This erases any existing data on the partitions. Although not enabled by default, you can go into the next option below and set the password option for Recover System, if you choose. If selected, you’ll be prompted to make sure if you really want to perform the function. Once complete, the system will reboot.

 

<8> Set Parameters takes you to the sub-menu where you can configure the card's settings. Requires the password. The following keys are used to navigate the sub-menu:

<Tab> key to move. You can also use the <Arrow Keys>

 

<Space Bar> or <PgUp> <PgDn> to modify the setting.

<6> Backup System creates a new virtual image of the protected partitions. Note that this erases the previous image. Requires the password. You’ll be prompted to make sure if you really want to perform the backup. The computer will reboot once the backup is complete.

 

<5> Set Protected Partition allows you to select which hard drive partitions are protected by the card. By default, all partitions on all local hard drives installed in your PC, are protected. Requires the password.

 

<0> Uninstall completely erases the virtual mirror image of the protected partitions from its EPROM before prompting if you really want to Uninstall. When the procedure is complete, you’ll be prompted to turn off the computer so that you can remove the HD Guard Pro (don’t forget to unplug your PC first before removing the card). Requires the password.

You’ll find the default password, which is function (lower-case) for performing most of the operations and changing the settings of your HD Guard Pro, on the Quick Install sheet inside the box. It is recommended that you change the password as soon as possible. Be careful not to lose the password. If you do, you’ll have to follow the procedure in the User’s Manual to get a new serial number from Eksitdata.

Let’s take a look now at Set Parameters.

Under Recovery Interval, you can adjust the intervals when the card restores the most current image to the protected partitions on boot up. Under every boot up, you can change the number of boot ups from 1 to 99. Manual puts you, rather than the HD Guard Pro, in full control of the process. You can also change the interval to every half day, once a week or x-number of days from 1 to 99.

Booting Display allows you to adjust whether or not the HD Guard Pro menu appears on boot up, and for how long when it does. Selecting none hides the HD Guard Pro menu on boot-up, although it will still perform as configured. The menu will appear again if you press the <8> key right after the HD Guard Pro’s number “1” and “marching dots” string at boot up. This setting is perfect for computers used in public or in businesses to hide the HD Guard Pro menu from prying eyes. The amount of time the menu remains on the screen before continuing boot up, can be adjusted by selecting the option with the <Arrow> and using <PgUp> or <PgDn> to change from the setting between 1 and 15 seconds.

Selecting the Change Password button allows you to do just that. Passwords are case-sensitive. Enter the new password at the prompts twice (the second time to confirm), and you’ll get a confirmation that the password has been successfully changed. If the two passwords don’t match, you’ll receive a dialog box that the password was not changed, and you’ll have to start over and try again.

Under the Advanced section, checking off the manual with password box will then require you to enter the HD Guard Pro’s password when you select the number <9> Recover System option on the main menu. Protect CMOS makes a copy of your current CMOS/BIOS settings. If you change and save them, on the following reboot, HD Guard Pro will present you with a menu of the following options:

Yes – the changes you made to the CMOS will be saved.

No – your original CMOS settings will be recovered.

Cancel - your PC will reboot several times, where you will have opportunity to go into the CMOS and make any changes you want and save them.

Finally, checking the box next to WITHOUT RECOVERY option will add the Boot Without Recovery Option to the HD Guard Pro’s main menu, which is activated by pressing the <Ctrl><Enter> keys. Pressing them puts the HD Guard Pro into what Eksitdata refers to as Keep Mode. This means that the card will ignore whatever Recovery Interval you have set for the card, while retaining the last good snapshot of your system in its EPROM. It will, however temporarily save any changes to your hard drive, based on the Recovery Interval settings. To update those changes to the HD Guard Pro, you’ll need to enter into Supervisor Mode on the next reboot.

Testing

Rather than just add and delete a few folders to see how well the HD Guard Pro works, I decided to expose the test system to a typical scenario of basically mucking up the desktop from its previous pristine condition, and installing a bunch of programs. I also deleted the NTLDR and BOOT.INI files—both critical system files required for Windows to boot. For the grand finale, I blew away the partition on the RAID array to see what the HD Guard Pro would do.

The HD Guard Pro worked as advertised by recovering all the "customizations" I made to the desktop, programs I installed, and, and the two system files I deleted.

As I half-expected, the HD Guard Pro can't recover a drive whose partition has been wiped, either by a virus or in this case "user error."

Impressions and Conclusion

The HD Guard Pro is an impressive little device that’s easy to install and configure. The toughest part for a novice computer user is probably going to be digging into their motherboard manual and BIOS to find and decipher the Boot from LAN settings necessary for the card to work. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem though, particularly if they have a more experienced friend to help out.

I think the CMOS recovery is pretty slick. It will certainly benefit older PCs that do not have any kind of BIOS recovery feature. Most modern motherboards—particularly enthusiast-level boards for overclocking and gaming—already utilize CMOS recovery technology in one fashion or another. On the other hand, the HD Guard Pro’s CMOS recovery is certainly going to be a faster and easier procedure for someone less experienced with PCs.

The card will really save both large and small I.T. Departments a lot of time, money and aggravation maintaining software licensing compliance and reducing unnecessary support calls, by keeping unauthorized software installations and damage done by buggy drivers and updates, downloads and user “tinkering,” under control. Anyone who operates a school, organization or business with computers used by students and the public, should definitely have the card at the top of their short list if they want to save on support costs.

It’s also an affordable bit of “extra insurance” against viruses, spyware, excessive downloads and problems caused by improper or unwanted software installation on home computers shared by family members. The card can be configured to protect partitions that contain the operating system and applications. Data partitions can be left unprotected (but backed up by other methods), so that the HD Guard Pro will not inadvertently restore over important data that is frequently updated and needs to remain current. And a special download partition can be created for the kids with HD Guard Pro enabled. This is a good way to gently “nudge” them into downloading and archiving only what’s really important to them, rather than filling up the drive with everything they see on the Internet.

Still, the HD Guard Pro is not without its weaknesses, nor is it necessarily the best choice for everyone.

One limitation of the HD Guard Pro is that you can’t specify different recovery intervals for different partitions. I was slightly disappointed but not completely surprised that I could not recover the RAID array on the test system from my little staged “accidental destruction test.” Fortunately I had the system re-imaged and up and running again in short order, for the remainder of the review. The best bare-metal disaster recovery solution is still a good imaging program (and a spare hard drive or two).

Another is the minor but noticeable impact on system performance, which becomes apparent as soon as the card performs a roll-back operation. The more changes are made while the card is operational on a partition, the longer it takes for it to roll those changes back while Windows is booting. However, longer Windows loading times during the recovery process is an acceptable trade-off to having your system up and running again as quickly as possible—compared to a restore via conventional methods that are more time-consuming. Whether or not the overhead that the card imposes while it’s keeping tabs on your system during normal use becomes an "issue," will undoubtedly depend on on the overall performance of the system, the applications, and the level of multi-tasking involved. A user who does a lot of multi-tasking, video editing or uses Photoshop a lot, might notice more of a hit on performance than someone who is only performing a single task at a time—like surfing or reading E-Mail.

Disk utilities will probably be a different story. With the HD Guard Pro enabled on the test system, the “post-processing” that the Acronis True Image backup utility performs ran for nearly 5 minutes before finally launching the Create Backup Wizard (I was about to kill it with the Task Manager). When I disabled the HD Guard Pro by launching it in Supervisor Mode and tried again, the post-processing was finished in less than 15 seconds! You should temporarily disable the card when any disk utilities are used. It should be uninstalled and removed if you’re performing a clean or upgrade OS install, using partitioning software or installing boot managers.

Gamers are also the least likely to benefit from the card. They probably spend more time than any other group of computer users tweaking and tuning their systems for maximum performance. It goes without saying that they won’t appreciate any performance penalty (real or perceived) that the HD Guard Pro imposes—even on powerhouse dual and quad-core rigs with 10,000 RPM SATA drives. Especially when the appetite for system resources of today's and tomorrow’s games is growing geometrically with each new release. Gamers without the latest-and-greatest gear, or expensive high-end systems who are already struggling for that last FPS or getting a game’s level to load while they’re still young, are even less likely to add anything to their systems that even has a remote chance of slowing it down a little bit.

Handling saved games is going to be another sticky point. Although some games save to a “My Games” folder under the My Documents folder, there is unfortunately, no standardization of where to store a player’s saved games on the PC. Microsoft’s Games for Windows initiative might change that in the future. But for now, gamers who are serious about protecting the hours invested in playing their favorite titles are doing so the “good old-fashioned way.” This is finding the folder that the game stores the saves in, and manually backing them up. Even if most gamers were sold on the HD Guard Pro, they’d still have to backup up manually with it at intervals of their choosing, to avoid losing any progress that would be wiped out on the next reboot. Also, the number of PCI slots on enthusiast motherboards definitely ain’t what they used to be. The few that are left are increasingly being consumed by double-wide dual SLI or Cross Fire video cards invading from neighboring PCI Express slots—and being jammed with sound, physics processor or “Killer NIC” cards. Most people in the enthusiast and gaming community tend to be more disciplined and diligent about frequent and regular backups, than the average computer user. And they tend to jealously guard their pride-and-joy systems to prevent anyone from messing them up.

For its simplicity, price, and primary audience the HD Guard pro does an admirable job. It's not a substitute for a more comprehensive backup or disaster recovery strategy, and may not have much appeal for more experienced users and enthusiasts who are comfortable and content with their existing backup solution. But for those who are looking for all the help they can get in the never-ending, frustrating and often costly battle against computer down-time, the Eksitdata HD Guard Pro can be a most welcome ally.

Barry’s Rigs n’ Reviews would like to thank Michael at Eksitdata.com for providing the sample used in this review, and making it possible!