Lokie has a new review up on an amazing little PCI backup card which will keep your data completely protected. Wow, another Elite Gear Award?! We've been reviewing some sweet gear lately!


Check it out here.

Nice writeup! I can see a lot of uses for this little card, especially on a firewall machine or in an office setting. It might be a bit of a pain for regular home use unless you already have multiple drives or partitions, but even still that's a nice product.

Quote: Originally Posted by GlitterKill Wow, another Elite Gear Award?! We've been reviewing some sweet gear lately!

Looks like the manufacturers are pulling out the big guns in time for the holiday season

I first read about the card in Maximum PC a while back and was shocked at what it claimed it could do. Lokie worked hard on that review to ensure it could back up the claims, and as you can see, it does. Great review.

very nice. definatly a grab for my parents who can never keep their computer alive and crap free for more than a few months.

Lokie
Another fine review!

This is an excellent idea combining all these into one. Do have a few questions:
1) Can you configure the Armor card to do updates automatically, and not just for the card but all the software apps?

2) When updates are done to the card do you get them free to a certain version, or do yuo pay for upgrades?

3) How long did the setup take?

I might be wrong, but I doubt the card itself has much to upgrade, since it just stores your programs in a buffer. I assume if you upgrade/install new programs you need to tell the card that it shouldn't remove them when you reboot.

This is definitely something my parents need on their computer. Great review, I'm definitely going to look into this for their computer.

Quote: Originally Posted by Foe Lokie Another fine review! This is an excellent idea combining all these into one. Do have a few questions: 1) Can you configure the Armor card to do updates automatically, and not just for the card but all the software apps? 2) When updates are done to the card do you get them free to a certain version, or do yuo pay for upgrades? 3) How long did the setup take?

Card doesn't update, what you have is untill repleaced...Maybe if Jackson Backup had an upgrade policy....
If you are to update anything in the protected partitions you have to reboot and do so in Keep mode...problem with this is that you would have to reboot again back in Restore mode.

Set up can be done as fast as on can power down the PC, open case, plug in card, close case, boot up and BAM the PC is protected. But what might take time is what do you want to protect? An allready existing install? Are you happy with the performance? If someone was honestly going to use this card I would recomend a fresh install, that way it stays that way reboot after reboot.

Bottom line...this card doesn't look at what is on the hard drive.....once installed it records the changes done to the drive, upon reboot the card removes all the changes. SO the drive is as it once was again and again.

Wow. I'm going to look into this one, it could prove very useful.

Awesome job on the review.

Looks like a winner. I have to get one of these for myself to try it out.
Great review.

Very nice review! I now have an answer to that dreaded "what do you want for Christmas?" question. I'd be a happy boy come Christmas morning to find one in my stocking.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lokie Card doesn't update, what you have is untill repleaced...Maybe if Jackson Backup had an upgrade policy.... If you are to update anything in the protected partitions you have to reboot and do so in Keep mode...problem with this is that you would have to reboot again back in Restore mode. Set up can be done as fast as on can power down the PC, open case, plug in card, close case, boot up and BAM the PC is protected. But what might take time is what do you want to protect? An allready existing install? Are you happy with the performance? If someone was honestly going to use this card I would recomend a fresh install, that way it stays that way reboot after reboot. Bottom line...this card doesn't look at what is on the hard drive.....once installed it records the changes done to the drive, upon reboot the card removes all the changes. SO the drive is as it once was again and again.

If you want to update anything in the protected partitions, all you have to do is reboot and press the “ctrl+s” hot key at the configuration screen, and this will (update) save the changes to the drive, even under automatic recovery mode.


The Armor Card Provides 3 different recovery modes:

1.) Automatic recovery: Automatically restores the hard dive to the original (image) configuration on every reboot, with no user intervention.

2.) Keep mode : Automatically captures and stores a new image to restore back to on every reboot, but allows user to make permanent changes to the computer.

3.) Open mode: unprotected, but saves a base image to restore back to. Users can update this base image as often as they like.

Thank you, Jackson Armor, for clarifying that.

WOW, I missed that and now that i look back there is so much more that this card does for protection.....I could have went on with another page full.

You can use your own start up display.

The boot up screen can be hidden to unknowing users, I knew this but didn't put in the review.

And yes, Thank you Jackson Armor for the heads up on the Hot keys as well.

I ordered mine a few days ago right after I read the review. If this thing works it's well worth the money.

Thanks for the review!

Looks like a sweet tool for any soft tweaking on your computer, anything goes wrong *BAM* you back in business...

take the time to throughly scope this review. I'm configuring an elementary school lab and bet this would be a LIFESAVER for the tech - no more kids nuking everything twice a day, just reboot and go.

Hmmmm - wonder do I get a price break at 32

-MF

Quote: Originally Posted by Monsignor Funkibut take the time to throughly scope this review. I'm configuring an elementary school lab and bet this would be a LIFESAVER for the tech - no more kids nuking everything twice a day, just reboot and go. Hmmmm - wonder do I get a price break at 32 -MF

Yes, you get a 10% discount if you buy more then 10 cards. Another way to look at it is you get 1 free card for every 10 you purchase.

They also accept purchase orders. www.jacksonarmor.com/po.php

I also heard that they are offering bigger discounts if you purchase before dec 26th, but you have to call them on the phone.

certainly wouldn't purchase beofre school's out for summer. I gotta get off my fat fanny and write a grant to get some money first.

The problem I see is in 'rogue' software. Let's say I've got an educational app. Kid takes a series of tests. App stores test results in protected partition. I can't control WHERE app store results. Somebody reboots. All test results gone.

Also not sure if technical personnel at school up to snuff at using this EVEN IF it would make their lives alot easier. They'd install some patch, reboot, the patch would be gone and they'd freak because they forgot to turn off protect mode.

Heck of a product though. I needed this BAD in 1988 for a computer lab at Georgia Tech I was managing and there was just nothing like it. I looked.

-MF

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Quote: Originally Posted by [/color The problem I see is in 'rogue' software. Let's say I've got an educational app. Kid takes a series of tests. App stores test results in protected partition. I can't control WHERE app store results. Somebody reboots. All test results gone. Also not sure if technical personnel at school up to snuff at using this EVEN IF it would make their lives alot easier. They'd install some patch, reboot, the patch would be gone and they'd freak because they forgot to turn off protect mode. -MF

With the 'rogue software' you could use the 'open mode' option that stores a base image to go restore back to. This would help you from rebuilding the computers if the somebody destroyed the OS.

The other option would be to partition the drive and install the 'rogue software' on an unprotected partition and protect just the C: drive (operating system) with the armor card. With the Armor Card you can select what partitions are protected.

We plan to release the Armor Card version 11 in mid January that will help in some of those areas.

By mid January we are launching our Armor Card v11 which will allow you to administrate all of the computers that have armor cards in them from one location. Crash proof your network and manage it from one computer.

The Armor Card version 11, has windows based Admin software that allows you to see what modes the other cards are in over the network (open mode, keep mode auto recovery), and reboot them into the different modes to do software updates.(windows service packs).

The admin software also has the ability to check the computers assets to see what updates need to be done.

Once the updates are completed the computer will automatically reboot back into protected mode.

Additional features of the new Armor Card version 11 are: remote reboot, remote control, disable internet, change cards password, disable keyboard / mouse, recover the computer, save a new restore image, and distribute new software to the other computes over your network. (Up to 500 at the same time)

We are working on this new version 11, a USB laptop version, and a linux version. Buy a card and support the development. -- :-)