Radix Protector PCI review

The Protector PCI from Israel-based Radix aims to provide PC restoration and recovery tools that can have a sick system up and running in minutes. It works by creating a secure, hidden area on the hard disk that stores information needed to restore the drive, such as the FAT (file allocation table), partition table and CMOS data.

The Protector isn't a new idea, as the PC Angel used a similar concept, although at the time support from UK distributors was poor, it was overly expensive and it seems to have disappeared into oblivion.

The card's BIOS is activated immediately after the system POST and requires a quick look at the supplied floppy disk to install itself, after which it displays a configuration screen where you can opt to protect all drives, only the system drives or everything except the last logical drive (which you may want to use as a data disk). From the Custom menu, you can select specific drives for protection, and a range of recovery modes lets you automatically or manually reinstate the drives after each reboot. The No Recovery option allows you to continue modifying the system even after multiple reboots, but if the temporary storage area exceeds physical disk space the data will be deleted. A timer can also set the system to be restored automatically when rebooted after a specified time period.

For testing, the card was installed in a Windows 2000 Professional system and the system drive state was saved immediately. We then loaded a pile of cover disc-related software that brought the system to its knees. Rebooting and selecting the Recovery option returned the system to its previous clean state in less than one minute. For the next test, we destroyed the primary NTFS partition and rebooted the system to ensure it couldn't find a system disk. As with the previous test, it took only minutes to recover the entire system to its original condition.

The uses to which the Protector PCI can be put are manifold: application removal; disaster recovery; anti-virus protection or public systems where each PC needs to be regularly returned to its original state. At £135, it's a tad expensive for the consumer market, but as a PC recovery solution it's extremely simple to use and will take some beating for speed.

Author: Dave Mitchell