Russ Aaronson July 12, 2003

In my recent review of Prosoft Engineering's Data Backup X, I related the tale of the downtrodden trail of teachers who darken my doorstep with sad Macs and dearly departed data. Though I found Data Backup to be a stunning combination of remarkable simplicity and industrial-strength flexibility, I had some misgivings about backup software in general. Just as "The Club" is useless if you leave it sitting on the passenger seat of your Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce, backup software is no good when the user doesn't actually use it. Couple that with the fact that this is "The Year of the Laptop" and you get a situation in which even scheduled backups can be a problem. Somewhere in between the legions of backup programs (designed to prepare you for the potential loss of your data) and the cadre of recovery programs (made to save your sorry hide because you were too cheap or lazy to bother with a backup program), there is a need for an application that stows away critical data and scans your hard drive for signs of problems on the horizon.

Data Recycler X fills this gap quite well, but it does so much more. By keeping a cache of deleted files, Data Recycler X (or DR. X, as I will refer to it for the rest of the review) allows you to quickly resurrect files without sifting through backup disks or pummeling your entire drive with something like Norton System Works, hoping the data hasn't been overwritten since you trashed it. In addition to its robust data recovery tools, DR. X provides you with a nifty file-shredding feature for all of that data hidden on your company-issued laptop that you didn't want your employer to see. The fact that all of these diverse features are rolled into an elegant program that won't grind your Mac to a standstill explains why I think you'll grow to love this nifty little application.

Before going any further, I should point out that DR. X is no substitute for the full-bodied flavor of recovery software like Norton SystemWorks, Drive 10, Tech Tool Pro, Disk Warrior, or even Prosoft's own Data Rescue X. Those programs do contain various and sundry components designed to predict disk corruption; but for the most part, you should place them in a glass box with one of those cool little hammers emblazoned with red letters screaming "IN CASE OF EMERGENCYONLY!" With DR. X, you're getting software that helps you manage data in a very deliberate, specific way. Either you knowingly (or, as is more often the case, quite absent-mindedly) deleted a file and you need it back, or you have a file and you want to get rid of it – and for good.

Purchase and Installation

You can always buy a DR. X CD from a variety of locations, but I like the idea of just going online and downloading the program direct from Prosoft (you can even use it on a trial basis for thirty days, and then pay for the registration code to keep things working). The installer weighs in at a scant 8 megs, and the attached PDF manual is only eighteen pages long, so there's no real benefit for the extra cost.

After that, just crank up the installer and you're ready to go. Upon installation you'll be greeted with a dialogue box used to identify and set up local volumes (a true no-brainer process,), and you'll be prompted to enter your administrator password to enable access to all the really good stuff like browser caches. Once the introductions are out of the way, you'll be greeted by the main screen.

And with the exception of a few dialogue boxes, this is it. Everything you need (sans one feature to be discussed later) can be accessed from this very window. As was the case with Data Backup, Prosoft has done a remarkable job of reducing window clutter and keeping things so wonderfully minimalist that you'll dust off your Talking Heads Fear of Music LP and revel in the beauty of that which has been omitted.

The best way to explain how DR. X works is by breaking things down just as the main screen is organized.

Part One: Drive Selection Window

In the top portion of the main screen you'll see a pull down menu allowing you to switch between the local drives you assigned to DR. X in the setup screen earlier. The capacity and free space is provided in this area, and if you mount or remove volumes while the program is running, just choose "Refresh Volume List" from the file menu and everyone will be back on the same page.

One picky note: this is the only option in the program without a button in either the main window, or in a dialogue box, which really doesn't make much sense. One little change and you'd never need to use the menu bar, right Prosoft?

Part Two: Protection Options

Here's where the action begins, because there are enough security options here to make (head of HomeSec) weep.

First there's the Early Warning System (or E.W.S.). Unlike the Emergency Broadcast System (or E.B.S., which pops onto your TV and radio with that shrill noise everyone used to joke about before 9/11), EWS works silently, monitoring the chosen volume for signs of trouble ahead. You can set EWS to hop into action by any time increment between one minute and 999 hours, and if you own Data Rescue X, that program can use the EWS scan files to assist data recovery. Of course, I'm quite glad that EWS had no urgent messages for me during the testing process, but that also means I can't verify whether or not it works. Given Prosoft's track record so far, I'm quite optimistic. It should also be noted that this feature is turned off by default, presumably to avoid sucking precious system resources in the middle of your day-long Maya render.

The next two options concern file deletion recovery assistance. The first enables DR. X to cache and provide undelete capability for everything but the Trash, and the second option is just for the Trash itself. Either or both options may be deactivated, though it's hard to imagine why, as they represent the core purpose of the program itself.

The fourth option allows you to designate how much space is allocated to the recovery cache, with the default setting at ten percent of the available space on the volume. If you regularly work with files larger than your average Word document you may wish to increase this (it should be almost obvious that DR. X can't cache deleted files larger than the cache itself), and if the cache size limit is reached, the program will delete older files to make space.

If there's anything remotely entertaining about this data protection utility, it's the shredder preference. When you really want to get rid of a file, just choose between Clear shredding (overwrite the file with a single character), Sanitizing (overwrite the file three times), or Secure (be your own Donald Rumsfeld with shredding capabilities that supposedly exceed U.S. Department of Defense standards!). Of course, you can just turn off shredding entirely, but where's the paranoiac thrill in that?

DR. X even lets you turn on a shredding sound effect (which, unsurprisingly, sounds just like a paper shredder, but I found it delightful), and it even places a shredder icon on your desktop for those times when the trash can just seems so pre-Enron.

Finally, for those of you who can't imagine what a spaceship would be like without a self-destruct mechanism (my favorite is the one from the Nostromo in Alien), you'll be glad to know that deactivating all the settings in this window will result in the immediate shredding of every protected file. I ask you, how freakin' cool is that?

Part Three: The File Viewer

Ugh! This is the dull part, folks, so I'll make it fast and painless. You get a list of files, then you check the files you're interested in, and then you either shred ‘em, or you undelete ‘em. If you happen to know something about the file you're interested in you can search by name, size, or date within the main window, and there's always the "Update" button if you've trashed a file since opening the DR. X window.

This area prompted my only considerable gripe with the product. The file viewer window is very, very small. I understand that we're trying to reduce window clutter here, but one itty bitty window is no good if you have to scroll five times to see what you're looking for. It would be better if DR. X used something like the column view in the Finder, or some other less-vertically-challenged browsing technique, or even a separate window, because this just doesn't work very well. Nevertheless, the attempt to keep everything together is appreciated.

Performance

In the time I used it, Data Recycler never failed to recover a deleted file. In fact, Word.X mysteriously froze as I was working on this review (note to Don: can I change my Office.X review rating from last year?), so I just went to DR. X, peeked in the trash, and resurrected one of the work files from an earlier save. I can't possibly imagine how often this would come in handy at my job, where people are always losing files they didn't recently save. It's easier than using any of the other recovery programs, and even a novice could learn to use it.

As for shredding; well, those files sure look like they're gone. None of my disk utilities could find them, and that should be good enough for a guy whose nickname isn't "Mr. Excitement." I suppose that'll be good enough for you, too.

Data Recycler X ran without flaws for the entire review period, on multiple testing machines, with no noticeable decline in system performance. It seems to do everything it's supposed to, and it does those things well.

The Verdict

As I was putting the finishing touches on this review, I noticed that Panther, the newest iteration of OS X due in December, is set to include FileVault , which looks an awful lot like the shredder in this package. Does this mean you should just wait for Panther's release and decide for yourself later?

I wouldn't. Data Recycler X does far more than shredding, it's relatively cheap, and if past cases of Apple's forays into the realms established by third-party developers are any indication (think Watson, for instance), users who are serious about these features will appreciate what Data Recycler has to offer. Whether purchased alone, or as part of Prosoft's data protection package, Data Recycler does a job that no other application matches with simplicity and elegance.

Product	Data Recycler X
Company	Prosoft Engineering
MSRP	$49 (Available with Data Backup and Data Rescue in a bundle for $149)
Hits	Undeletes even things you didn't know you had. Shreds any document beyond rescue. Incredibly organized, intuitive interface. Lets you back stuff up without effort.
Misses	Tiny file viewer window. Shredding to be included with Panther fairly soon.
Rating	(5 possible)
Requirements	Any Mac capable of running OS X v. 10.1.5 and up.

Russ Aaronson

English Teacher, Pompano Beach, FL