Goback Software History

Norton GoBack, previously known as WildFile GoBack, Adaptec GoBack, and Roxio GoBack.

GoBack today is an end-of life product. GoBack is a Microsoft Windows based disk utility, that monitors and records up to 8.3GB of disk changes. When the disk activity is idle, it tags these as safe checkpoints. GoBack then allows the hard drive to be restored to any of the checkpoints. It does this by effectively undoing all changes made to the disk since the checkpoint point was created. GoBack replaces the MBR Master Boot Record, and also replaces the partition table with a single partition. Because of this change to the partition table, this can cause problems when dual booting other operating systems on the same hard disk.

How GoBack Worked

GoBack software replaces the Master Boot Record, and also replaces the partition table with a single partition. This allows a hard drive to be reverted even in the event that the Operating System is unable to boot, while also protecting the filesystem from alteration so that the revert information remains correct.
GoBack is compatible with hardware RAID drives.

Goback Incompatible products

Due to the changes made to the partition table, this can cause problems when dual booting other operating systems on the same hard disk. It is possible to retain dual-boot compatibility, but can involve saving the partition table before enabling GoBack, and after enabling GoBack, re-writing the partition table back to the disk (after booting from a different device, such as a Live CD). It may also be necessary to disable GoBack prior to using certain low level disk utilities, such as formatting.

Replacement for Norton GoBack

GoBack has since been replaced with products such as Reboot Restore Rx Professional and RollBack Rx. These alternative solutions provide PC restoration in the industry.

Administrators of public access computers would prefer Reboot Restore Rx Professional as it is designed specifically to automatically restore a PC after a certain event or period of time – ie. Restore on Reboot, Restore on Logoff, Restore after 20 minutes of being idle and much more.

For more advanced PC users and IT administrators, RollBack Rx is the ideal replacement for their legacy Norton GoBack product. RollBack Rx is an instant PC time machine – and as the name implies it allows you to go back to any previous snapshot (checkpoint) within seconds. It is also known as the Instant recovery software.

GoBack Comparison to RollBack Rx

Norton GoBack, formerly known as Roxio Goback, Adaptec Goback, as well as other names. GoBack has been sold and transferred frequently from company to company. Currently, Norton GoBack is the only competitive rollback solution close enough to be shown on the RollBack Rx radar screen. GoBack’s comparison and competitiveness is limited.

GoBack is a Dynamic Complete Solution. However limitations in the GoBack architecture has many limitations that prevent it from becoming a proven disaster recovery solution. Please read our PC maintenance evolution for more details on this topic

GoBack uses a buffer space for storage of its change files using the FIFO method of storage (First In First Out). This limits the amount of data and eventually – how far back you can actually go back to restore. Thus when the buffer space becomes full, GoBack starts to delete its earlier checkpoints and storage of earlier data.

How Does GoBack Compare With RollBack Rx?

GoBack’s technology is based on a file level monitoring and logging technique. It needs to consume a large chunk of the hard disk space to create a history change file. The monitoring system is picking up every little bit of file changes regardless of whether or not, it is worth to know or see. A simple system restart will generate 100s of file changes to log. It really makes one wonder if more truly is better. In GoBack’s case more is definitely not better. The details file change history logging consumes the hard disk space quickly, not to mention, the tremendous pressure it puts on system resources.

RollBack Rx’s snapshot-based continuous backup solution delivers added security by allowing you to store the state of your PC more often, while using less drive space. Should the need arise, you could easily restore your PC to any of its unlimited number of snapshots. This could potentially be months or even years ago. These snapshots could be automated silently in fixed intervals such as 1 hour ago, or whenever the system is turned on or a particular file is executed.