BestReviewsToday.info

Overall Rating

Great concept, but read about the poor execution
Rated 3 stars.

Overall Rating

So easy, my mom could do it!
To save some folks time - if you are using anything other than Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, this is not the backup solution you are looking for and you can stop reading now.

My first exposure to the Seagate Replica was when my 75-year-old mom asked me if it was an appropriate backup device for her. When I bought her PC a few years ago, I had it configured with a mirrored hard drive plus Norton Ghost to do regular backups. But she found Ghost too confusing (I agree - I prefer Acronis True Image) and I had bugged her about the importance of doing regular backups in case of disaster or even the accidental deletion of an important file. I had urged her to look for an external hard disk with built-in backup software, and she ran across the Replica and asked me if it would work for her.

At the time, Amazon was not yet selling the Replica so I looked up some reviews and decided that it looked like a good bet for her and bought one for her. A few days later, she sent me an email exclaiming how easy it was to use and she was delighted with it. Well, easy to use is no help unless it really provides protection you can use, so when I was offered the chance to review a Replica for Amazon, I was thrilled.

First Look

The Replica is deceptively simple looking. The basic 250GB unit is a small, lightweight device which is silver on the rounded front and has a rubberized flat bottom - that model just comes with one USB cable and is intended for a single PC. The 500GB model which I tested comes with a dock that the Replica proper slides onto; the dock has its own USB cable with two plugs (more on that in a moment), plus an additional USB cable that is handy for use with other PCs. Also included is a CD that is NOT an install disc but rather an emergency rescue disc, and a small instruction leaflet. (An ISO image of the rescue CD can be downloaded from Seagate’s web site should you lose it.)

The dual-plug USB cable may be confusing. The main plug (at the end of the thick cable) is the primary USB connector for power and data. A second USB plug comes off a short, skinnier cable and is embossed with “Power Only” on the bottom. The idea is that some PCs may not provide sufficient power from a single USB jack and the second one plugs into a second jack to get additional power. The only reference to this in the instructions is the tiny diagram showing both plugs connected to a PC. In reality, you may not need both - I didn’t on either of the systems I tested it with, but it can’t hurt. Amusingly, the separate USB cable included has only one connector, so I wonder what people are supposed to do if they find they need the extra power on an “additional PC”.

I tested on two PCs, one a Dell Mini 9 netbook running Windows 7 (not officially supported at this time, but it worked) and an older Pentium 4 desktop running Windows Vista. At the time, Seagate’s documentation and web site did not claim support for 64-bit systems, but I tested on Vista x64 and it did work.

Hooking it Up

When you plug the Replica into your PC, Windows will discover it. Depending on which Windows version you have and how it is configured, it will either automatically run the setup routine or you’ll have to manually start it by double-clicking on the device icon in My Computer (the instructions cover this.) The Replica has a blue LED which flashes while it is “doing something”, which seemed to be all the time.

The first thing it does is check to see if there is an updated version of the software on Seagate’s web site. In my case there was, so it downloaded it and then restarted the installation. I was delighted to find that it stored the new copy on the Replica so that it would not have to repeat this in the future. A registration screen is displayed which you can skip if you want, and then.. you’re done - not even the appearance of a normal setup program. When it’s finished, a screen comes up saying that you are now protected - this screen has a link to the manual (help), which I recommend you read as it provides lots of useful information.

Getting to Work

When the Replica is connected, there is a taskbar tray icon which shows the current status. If you hover your mouse over the icon, a small window pops up telling you what the Replica is doing now and the date of the last “restore point” if any. Right clicking on this icon provides additional options, such as setting a password, getting help, and “safely removing” the Replica.

A shortcut labeled “Seagate Replica” is installed onto your desktop. If you open this, the Replica “opens” and you see the names of the PC(s) you are protecting. Opening these will let you see the folders and files that are backed up. If you open one of the files, you will see one or more dates showing the version(s) backed up. This lets you easily retrieve a previous version of a file, even if you had deleted it.

On your PC, if you hover the mouse over a file, a box will appear showing the date of last backup and how many versions are saved. In my experience, this box took some time to appear after the individual file was backed up, so patience is a virtue. Assuming you leave the Replica connected all the time, it will be there when you need it.

Making Friends

If you then connect the Replica to another PC, you’ll be given the option to either protect this PC too (installs the software) or to get access to the saved files on the Replica. This latter choice doesn’t require any installation and is a great way of copying files to another PC.

Unlike many of the backup solutions I have seen (True Image excepted), the Replica intelligently manages its disk space so that it is “never full”. As the disk fills up, it automatically drops the oldest saved versions of files so that you always have at least the current files protected. No configuration of this is needed.

By default, the Replica backs up all partitions and disks on your PC that have the NTFS file system. This point is NOT called out in the product description. Most users are unaware of what file system they are using. Older PCs that were upgraded to XP might have one or more FAT32 file system partitions, and Replica will not back these up. The manual says that it will back them up “during initialization”, whatever that means, but my testing showed that not to be the case. If you want to know what file system your partition uses, open My Computer, right click on a partition name (say, C) and select Properties. On the General tab, look for “File System” and you want it to say NTFS. The Replica software will NOT warn you that a partition is unsuitable so make sure you check yourself. What you can do, after install, is right click on the Replica tray icon and choose the option to set which disks are protected. (Yes, you can do that!) If there is no checkmark by the disk name, then it is not protected.

Uh-Oh!

Ok, so now we’re backing up the PC - what happens when disaster strikes? Remember that CD I told you about? Here’s where you use it. You want to get your PC to boot from the CD. There is an instruction leaflet in with the CD with an overview - in some cases you may need to press a special key at the initial PC boot screen to get to a place where you can tell the PC to boot from the CD. Assuming you manage this, the CD boots into a Linux-based application which leads you through the process. After asking you to make sure this is what you want, it has you select the name of the PC you want restored (assuming there’s more than one) and then which disk it should restore to. Here’s where I ran into my first problem.

The PC I tested restore on had three hard disks, two of which were the same size and same brand and model of disk. The Replica shows you only the size, brand and model number - not other information that might be helpful such as the names of any partitions that may be on the disks. So if you have more than one hard drive, you may need to very carefully look at your PC’s BIOS setup screens to see which one is first, second, etc. Most people won’t have this problem, I’ll admit. If you’re really paranoid, you may want to disconnect disks you don’t want restored, if any. The disk I had backed up had only one partition - I don’t know what would happen if there were multiple partitions, especially if not all were backed up.

Oh, there was a second, minor issue. Before I shut down the PC to test the restore, I checked to make sure it had completed saving the “restore point” and it said it had that morning. But when I went to do the restore, it found only the restore point from the previous night. It seems that it takes a while for it to record what it did, so you might miss some recently created or changed files when restoring a backup. Again, this is only for the “disaster” scenario where your disk is damaged or corrupted, and you’d probably be happy to lose only a few hours of work in that case.

Once everything was selected, the restore was done. This took an hour or more, not unreasonable. When it was finished, you clicked an on-screen button and the system reboots. I found that it had done the restore perfectly (albeit, as I mentioned, missing some late changes.)

Summary

I highly recommend the Seagate Replica. It truly is simple to use and provides worthwhile and accessible protection for not only individual files, but the whole system image. I do strongly suggest that you read through the entire help document available after you install, as it provides tips and pointers and clues to features you might not have suspected.

Everything worked the way I expected and it’s an ideal choice for Windows PC users who like simplicity. Experts, or those who like to be in control might feel better with a different solution, such as an external or Network Attached Storage drive and software such as Acronis True Image. There are also online backup solutions such as Carbonite (which I also use), Mozy and Norton Online Backup, though none of those will restore your entire system.

Everyone, though, should have at least some sort of backup solution, and the Seagate Replica is a near-flawless execution of it’s intended goal. I am very impressed! Just hook it up and it will be there when you need it. My mom agrees!