Symantec's LiveState Recovery Suite 3.0

Backup for One

I installed LiveState Desktop on two desktops and a laptop. The program's main window has two panes. One displays status information, links to common tasks and links to the help file; the other depends on the view selected: basic or advanced.In the basic view, one of the panes displays five icons that, when clicked, start wizards to guide the user through the selected task. The advanced view presents more detailed information about the software and its status, including available drives, current backup jobs, a backup history and an event log.

This version lets desktop users schedule and perform backups--useful for road warriors and remote workers who don't store their data on the enterprise server. I attempted several kinds of backups: real-time, scheduled, to multiple CDs and across a wireless network. All worked without a hitch.

Once I selected which partitions to back up, the program prompted me to choose a destination disk for the backup image. The software lets you write to local hard disks, networked drives and CD or DVD burners. You can select the compression level, the file size and whether to split the backup image into multiple files. The images can be secured with passwords or encrypted using three levels of encryption--standard, medium or high--and the software can verify the backup image after it is written.

Restoration of files and partitions went smoothly using the wizard. Once I selected which file/partition to restore and gave the target location, restoration proceeded without any problems and all files were recovered. If the hard drive is not bootable, the system can be booted from the LiveState installation CD.

Backup for ManyThe Advanced Server edition performs the same functions as the Desktop version, plus it allows for centralized management of the backup functions on remote machines, deployment of the LiveState Remote Agent to these remote machines and remote recovery.

I installed the Advanced Server and from there deployed remote agents. A remote agent can be sent to machines within a domain, across domains or in workgroups, but you need admin credentials on the remote machine. All worked fine.

The remote machine can act as a Symantec pcAnywhere host when booted using the LiveState Recovery disk. In my tests, remote restore using pcAnywhere was simple--perfect for nontechnical staff members who may be assisting with remote-machine recoveries.

The Advanced Server also lets network administrators centrally schedule and control backups on remote machines.What's Missing

Symantec LiveState Recovery provides a great deal of functionality, and the different editions are perfectly suited for their audiences. However, wireless NIC drivers are not available on the Recovery CD, so you can't recover a wireless system when booted from the Recovery CD. Any wireless machines on which the LiveState suite is installed should have a wired NIC, too, or allow one to be installed. And though the user interface is well-designed, many dialogs don't have a help button.

Pete Payne is a software programming consultant with a nationwide consulting firm. Write to him at [email protected].