ERS Backup utility
Review By: Dan "Pakman" Eisendrath
Posted On: Thursday, October 19, 2001What is ERS?
ERS stands for Emergency Recovery System. It comes in three different flavors. One version for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me, one for Windows NT and one for Windows 2000/Windows XP Pro.
I have been using ERS for the last five years or so. Within that time, ERS has saved me from having to reinstall Windows countless number of times.
What the program does basically in Win NT/2K/XP, is creates batch files which will backup your Windows registry, Profiles, NTuser.dat and all other vital files which are required in order for Windows to function and boot up properly.
The ERS 9X version allows you to create backups from the program while in Windows. If your machine should somehow get configured wrong or have it's registry corrupted. You simply boot your machine to a DOS prompt, type ERS and pick which backup that you would like to restore. Hit the enter key and ERS instantly writes all the files which you had created when the machine was running correctly back into their correct positions and your computer is restored to health again.
The ERS 2K/XP version requires that you create a backup disk using a few files from Win95 or Win98, since Win2K and WinXP both do not have DOS to work with. Your boot disk is then used to create your backups and restore them with. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature to use it.
One gripe that I had with Windows XP Pro was it's faulty restore program built within it. After using the XP restore function once, I found that I was forced into scan disk upon rebooting. Scan disk then found that the restore file that I had just executed was now cross referenced on my disk and would freeze scan disk dead in it's tracks. That's great, use Microsoft's restore utility and find that it locks you out of Windows, and forces you to reinstall Windows. If you think that your safe using XP Pro's backup and restore program alone, you may be sorry some day. That's when I found out that Backtec made a version of ERS designed to work With Windows 2000 and XP Pro.
In order to use ERS 2K/XP you must be using a FAT /FAT 32 format on your hard drive. NTFS formatted drives are not going to work with it. Luckily I had a FAT 32 format on my hard drive. Here's a look at what ERS 2K/XP looks like.
How many times have you had a program which you had just installed cause your Windows system to bitch on you? Have you ever had your sound setup go haywire due to a new program that you installed? Have you ever played around with settings, only to find that you now are getting blue screens of death? Many people believe that sooner or later, you just have to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows in order to get things working correctly. That's bull, ever since having ERS, I have never had to reinstall Windows and have always been able to get back into Windows with my shell intact and all programs operating perfectly.
That's the beauty of this program. It gives you the liberty of experimenting with new programs, shell enhancements and tweak utilities without the fear that you may bitch your system completely. That's a nice piece of insurance to have, freedom to experiment with peace of mind.
Over the years I have built many systems for people. The one program which I always tell them to use is ERS. When you get used to the habit of creating backups, you will not have to call for help and repairs. I cannot overstress the importance of this program. Some companies sell backup utilities that store your whole HD to several CD's. However, all most people really want to do is insure that they can get their computer running again if something ever goes wrong. Short of having a hard drive failure, ERS is going to do just that for you. I might add that it well do it for a lot less money and a lot quicker too.
The bottom line is that if a backup program requires you to burn a whole stack of CD's, you're probably are not going to use it much. With ERS, it takes about a minutes worth of time to backup and restore your system. Given the time it takes to try to diagnose and fix problems, which many times can not even be identified with utilities like WinDoctor or Fix-It utilities; doesn't it make more sense to have a program which can fix things in one minute? This is why I think that this is the most important piece of software on my machine. Anyone that can, should be using ERS.
If you run any version of Windows, I recommend that you download and use ERS. Someday, you may be very happy that you did.