Rewind v1.0.3

is available for download from Power On Software normally for $90. A boxed version costs $100. However, from now until January 8th, Power On has a special offer on the download version for only $70. v1.0.3 finally implements all of Rewind's features, especially Rewind Disk which was disabled in previous versions to fix some major problems. Rewind constantly saves the hard disk's state and allows one to revert to archived previous states of the hard drive.

Hands-On Quick Test: I purchased a copy of Rewind v1.0.3 and downloaded and set it up. The installer allowed checking for an update via the internet or installing the existing version which, of course, is now the latest. The serial number had to be entered before installation. After a reboot, the configuration window appeared which allows creation of an emergency disk, selection of the hard drive(s) to be protected by Rewind and selection of "AlwaysOn" which allows Rewind to work even if extensions are disabled. It was all very quick and painless.

The Emergency Disk created by Rewind contained a minimal system folder, the Rewind application and several of my disk utilities (DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro 3, Disk First Aid, Disk Copy and Virex)--335 files in 100 MB of space. Rebooting with the "R" key held down caused the computer to start up from the Emergency Disk. All of the utilities included on the Emergency Disk worked.

Three extensions were tossed in the trash and the trash was emptied. Rewind Disk recovered the hard drive to the state just before the trash was emptied, recovering the three trashed extensions.

Finally, as luck would have it, the file containing today's update became corrupted as it was being saved and the file was blank. Rewind File recovered the state of the file to just before the save. The previous paragraph which was being saved at the time had to be reentered but that was all.

I worry most about my Outlook Express mail file becoming corrupted and losing all my archived mail. If it does happen, I am now very confident that Rewind will allow me to go back the file's state just before it became corrupted. I'm a believer!