Storage World

With so many users backing up to hard drives, it’s a wonder EMC didn’t start selling its supereasy-to-use EMC Retrospect Express HD 2.0 backup program sooner. Previously available only when bundled with Maxtor’s OneTouch hard drives, Retrospect Express HD has been redesigned and released on its own.

The shipping version of the $50 application and found it as simple and intuitive to use as its full-blown Retrospect Professional cousin is complex. Unlike the Professional version, Express HD is single-job software: It does one full backup, and then provides incremental backups of a single data set.

Express HD makes getting into a backup routine a quick process. You configure your backups via an attractive step by step wizard and manage them through a system tray menu. I found that the lack of a traditional, option filled configuration dialog box took a bit of getting used to; but in the end, Retrospect Express HD’s keep-it-simple, set it and forget it philosophy rapidly won me over.

The program allows you to schedule backups up to once a day a sufficient frequency for most users as well as to manage backups in a timeline as restore points. The version I tested reliably handled the backup chores I threw at it.

The biggest problem I had with Retrospect Express HD is its price: $50 is awfully steep for a program without disaster recovery. But cost aside, I have no qualms about recommending Retrospect Express HD to all who want to back up their systems with a minimum amount of fuss.