Comodo Time Machine is a free program that can roll your system back in time, on-demand, to a previous state. It provides the ability to “undo” any kind of undesirable event, such as a virus or malware infestation or any event or events that might have caused your PC to become too cluttered, slow, or unresponsive, by giving you the ability to revert back to a baseline state or to a snapshot of the system taken before the problem started. It also provides the ability to recover any data or files that may have been accidentally deleted, saved-over, or damaged in any way.
Comodo Time Machine is unlike Windows restore in that it doesn’t just affect the registry and system settings, but transforms your entire system including your files and everything on your hard drive. What is interesting is that if you do revert back to an earlier state, the software will still preserves the “future” point which you reverted from, allowing you to reclaim any files that had been changed or added if you need to. Comodo Time Machine takes regular scheduled automatic snapshots, making it possible to use the protection it provides while on auto pilot, so to speak, without having to be managing it manually it at all times.
[Update 3/24/2010: after publishing this review and reading some of the user comments I recommend that you NOT install this program without taking an image of your hard drive first. Some good imaging freeware are Paragon Backup & Recovery, DriveImage XML, and Easeus Todo Backup. ] If you do not know what a disk image is then definitely stay away from this program.
Imagine being able to restore yesterday’s version of a file that you had just accidentally saved over or permanently deleted; Imagine being able to install and test all sorts of software whilst having the option to revert back to a previous stater; Imagine being able to easily get rid of the nastiest virus or malware infestations, even those that would normally prevent you from booting the system back again. Comodo Time Machine makes all of this possible, but it does so at the potential cost of gobbling up a significant chunk of hard disk space.
To be clear, I find this program to be very compelling and extremely interesting, but would stop short from recommending it for every user. Comodo Time Machine can only do what it does given enough hard drive space that it can store and preserve all the different versions of files that change on your hard drive, including any large files that you might delete or move after use, such as videos or other media files. Everything will be preserved, at least across different snapshots. Which makes it more suited to some situations than others.
Here’s a list of scenarios where Comodo Time Machine might be an excellent fit.
- Users who have large amounts of unused hard drive space. Comodo Time Machine recommends 10 gigs of free space and 4 gigs at minimum; however, if you download a lot of large media files on your computer you may need multiples of that.
- Public computers: such as those in libraries, internet cafes, etc.
- Software developers and testers: will find this to be extremely convenient; they can rollback deployed software without uninstalling. Software reviewers like myself would also find it extremely useful.
- Computers used by novice users: i.e. you can put it on grandma’s computer or the computer used by the kids, etc, and know that you can restore files they accidentally delete or rollback any dubious software or malware that they accidentally install.
Cases where Comodo Time machine is not a good fit:
- If your PC is stretched for hard drive space: Comodo recommends that you have 10 gigs available, and I would strongly discourage you from installing if you have less. Moreover, do not install if you have these spare gigs but might conceivably fill them up at a later point after installation.
- If you download a lot of large files on a regular basis: because of its promise to roll back your system to any saved snapshot, these large files will in fact be saved into the snapshots and remain on your hard drive even after you move or delete them. On my system, because I download large media files (read: torrent movies) it took only 3 snapshots to fill the 10 gigs that this program had allocated for itself. Once I got to that point I could no longer do anything whatsoever on my PC until I had either (a) removed some snapshots and rebooted, or (b) reset my base snapshot to the current snapshot and rebooted. Both of these methods can end up freeing up gigabytes for Comodo Time Machine to work with.
With the above in mind, here is a list of PROs and CONs that can shed light on why this is a brilliant program but also why you should be careful if you want to install it:
What I like about this program:
- It can restore previous versions of files: i.e. files that have been accidentally deleted or even saved over. How cool is that?
- Snapshots are taken in manner of seconds: quite unlike, for example, a re-imaging of your hard drive, which can be involved and time consuming even when the images are put together incrementally. Re-setting the “baseline” snapshot to the current snapshot will require a reboot, though, and will take about 10 minutes or so.
- Very small memory footprint: the Comodo Time Machine process and its system tray process combined take up less than 7 megs of memory.
- Snapshot scheduling: you can schedule snapshots e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or a one time event. You can also set it to take a snapshot on every system start (and even limit that to once a day if you like). This enables you to set scheduling one time and then essentially forget about the program, knowing you are protected.
Synchronizing files or folders: across snapshots, can be done via the right click context menu (simply right click on a file or folder and click “synchronize”) or via a search box in the program interface. You can overwrite the current files with files from stored snapshots or keep both versions.- You can set a rule for synchronizing files and folders: in other words, tell the program to always maintain the “new” versions of these files or folders even when moving back to a stored snapshot.
- The boot up console: allows you to perform all sorts of operations, such as booting into different snapshots, while booting. It also means that you will always be able to boot into your system.
What I do NOT like about this program: some of these are “wish list” items, although I realize some points are necessary for the program to deliver what it promises.
- Discrepancy between what Windows shows the free hard drive space to be, and the Comodo Time Machine free space: at one point Windows told me that I had 12 gigs free, while Comodo Time Machine had 0 space left and my system ground to a halt. This happened after I deleted a whole bunch of media files that were still preserved in the snapshot, and it was impossible to do anything except either delete snapshots or reset the baseline (and then reboot in either case). And although I could understand why this had come to be the case, it made me reconsider giving a blanket recommendation of this program to users who may not be tech savvy.
- No way to compare and edit changes across snapshots: I would have loved at least to be able to see which files changed. Also, the option to permanently “let go” and delete some of these manually. The ability to filter out system files in such a comparison would be great as well. What I have found, in terms of file synchronization, is that it is typically impossible to remember all the files that have changed during the course of a couple of days of normal computer use, let alone a couple of weeks, making the synchronization function somewhat of a hit or miss affair.
- Multiple boot systems: once you use this on your PC you cannot have a situation where you boot into multiple OS’s on that machine, unless you can install the program on all the different OS’s that you use on that particular machine (which limits you to Windows). If you boot into your machine via a USB or Live CD you are cautioned against writing anything to any partition.
- The uninstaller is awful: on my Windows 7 64 bit, I got an error message mid-way through uninstalling that gave me quite a fright. There was no text, just an image of an exclamation point inside an inverse yellow triangle and an “OK” button. It left me wondering whether something had gone wrong and whether I will be able to boot back into my system at all (and kicking myself for not have a created an image of my hard drive before testing this app). It turned out that the blank error message should have read something like “you now need to reboot to continue uninstalling” and it went fine.
- Excluding folders (or wish list item #1): I really wish I could exclude a folder or folders from being included in the snapshots. This way I could designate a folder for transient, gigantic media files that I do not care to have permanently fused into the snapshots. But I do think the likelihood of the developers allowing such a security loophole is probably zero.
- Unclear on why or when some snapshots are performed: despite not having scheduled any snapshots in the scheduler or the settings, the system periodically made these on its own. While such snapshots are typically very useful I would have liked more clarity on when and why these took place.
The verdict: this program provides excellent security and is fairly easy to use; however, it may be suitable for some situations but not others, as outlined above. The bottom line is that if you have a good chunk of hard disk space that you do not typically use Comodo Time Machine may work really well for you.
What is impressive about this software is that it is able to do what it does seamlessly in the background and largely without user intervention. This is not the case when it runs out of hard drive space (you are forced to intervene then), but is true in general.
I like the ambition and scope of Comodo Time Machine. As a software tester I install all sorts of crap on my PC that I typically test and live with for a few days, and the possibility of an instant “undo” function that Comodo Time Machine promises sounds really good. Alas, it may be the case that my 12 free gigs on my hard drive are not enough (esp with my downloading large media files). That said, I am now considering upgrading my hard drive capacity, if only to take advantage of this excellent program.
Before you install this though, make sure you have a backup image of your hard drive (see the top of this posting, in red font, for some good freeware disk imaging options). If you are unclear on what a disk image is then stay away from this program.
Version Tested: 2.5.129464.157
Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. 32 and 64 bit support.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 20.3 megs).
I must warn you about using this application.
Don’t get me wrong, it is based on a great idea and quite nicely implemented but unless you want risk the possibility of ending up with your system totally messed up, you better be careful about using it. I had to reinstall my OS twice when testing this program.
The problem is, despite Comodo’s claims, this app is quite far from being compatible with HDD defragmentation apps and that is also the reason it reports your free disk space to be much lower than it actually is and this only gets worse in the course of time. Eventually, you begin getting non-sense error messages about insufficient disk space for backups. It can be partially resolved by defragging the backups themselves – within CTM – but the effect is negligible. If you then use a defragmentation app incompatible with CTM, you’ll find yourself “missing” important system files, your OS being unable to boot and blue-screens popping up on the screen.
I noticed that because the defragmented files are not actually missing, Win7 made the HDD go crazy and do stuff in the background (NTFS stuff I assume) when I somehow managed to run the OS again ande the partition slowly began “healing” itself and the OS worked again. This is however no excuse for such application interference and I reinstalled the OS afterwards nevertheless, just to make sure my system is clean and working. I am now waiting for CTM to develop into a more usable and less risky stage.
As I said, CTM will be great one day. It’s just not there yet. Be aware of it and use it at own risks. My unfortunate case with CTM is not unique.
Like the author said beware of this software. It ruined two machines for me as well. One i could repair after several hours of troubleshooting the other i had to format and do a clean install. Needless hassle if you ask me. Both developed problems when the machine started running low on disk space. Once your system runs low on disk space even deleting large files to free up the space doesnt seem to help and also, the software’s reporting of free disk space is quite different from Windows. A good software should notify you of impending problems instead of ruining your system because of a simple issue of disk space usage. Comodo will have to do a lot to make consider this software in future.
This is a terrific program EXCEPT if you need to restore your hd image with Acronis, Paragon, Ghost, etc. Even if you create the image after CTM, restoring the image will prevent you from booting. The data is still there, you just can’t get windows to recognize it because CTM installs itself into the boot loader.
So why would you need a disk image if CTM is installed? Because sometimes CTM fails and everything gets completely trashed. Is this fixable? It happened to me 3 times. Twice I was able to fix it with Paragon (not easily). Once, I couldn’t and had to reinstall windows, from scratch. It was not pleasant and I no longer use CTM.Fo
For what it’s worth.
@Slater
You surely can write a nice and professional looking review … but you don’t seem to understand yourself some basic principles of the concept imaging/snapshot/whatever it is called. If you advise not to use such software when you download large files, please READ some more instead of writing, you’re missing the point of organising a pc. And the so called need for huge amounts of harddisk space ? Ridiculous, unless you use it the wrong way.
I can only agree with one claim : that is, this program is not suited for beginners, there are more realible alternatives, but those don’t have the magic word ‘free’ in it.
I tried this program after reading up on it in other blogs.
Sounded good, But it wasn’t good. Luckily i keep a paragon backup updated. This program did not restore my pc at all when i tried to roll back a few days, after that attempt i had to bring back the paragon backup i use. I went back to windows restore.
I curse the day I ever laid eyes on this program. Be interesting to do a survey to find out how many people had to reinstall their OS as a result of it. I would imagine there have been plenty. I would like to flush it down the Comode-o.
Wow. I updated the review to caution readers from using this before making a backup image of their hard drive.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I am using this program on both my laptop (Windows 7 64bit) and my wife’s (Vista 32 bit), without major problems (except for the occaisional running out of space and having to reset the baseline image).
@ Seriously: did you have something to say about this software? Because if anything I feel that I may have been too charitable in my review. (And oh by the way my name is not Slater).
Installed on 7/64 and ran fine. Did fairly extensive testing but after reading the comments above I’ve had second thoughts. It might not be worth the risk.
@Samer
My mistake indeed, I inserted the wrong name. But I don’t feel like contributing to such a terrible review because, as I allready suggested, it’s not about the software, but about the review itself ; I only responded to be critical to you as a writer who clearly has the intention to educate other people, but … failed hard on this specific review.
I’ve tried this program and reading all the above scared me a bit…
Although I didn’t experience any problems with my PC, I’ve uninstalled this application (better be on the safe side…) Uninstalls with no problem (Revo)
There is nothing wrong with the review. I would agree that it may be too charitable, but it is a review not an in depth user analysis report. Overview, likes, dislikes, recommendation and even post publishing feedback are included. While you may not agree with the review itself, I fail to see what it is missing.
As for CTM itself, I don’t like it. On my 32 bit systems I still use RVS 2008 (Returnil. I don’t care for the 2010 version too much because of the AV component but the 2008 free version still rocks) and True Image to image the disks every so often. Any imaging software, and there are a bunch of good ones free, is going to take up a bunch of space if it is storing even a compressed single image. Unfortunately there is no way to avoid that and keep the images physically on site.
I read here all the time, although I don’t know that I’ve ever posted anything before. It’s a great site Samer, with sound reviews and great apps. While I don’t like them all, I do read them all. I wouldn’t give “Seriously” too much thought, although I do think it’s awesome that you updated the post from the other feedback. I suspect that “Seriously” just likes to argue. Otherwise, why return to a post (which you refuse to contribute to) almost twenty four hours later and post again? One thing is for certain. “Seriously” is serious about the refusal to contribute anything besides complaints.
If you defragment a whole drive with CTM running it will attempt to catch EVERY change the defragmenter (combining scattered file fragments to whole files) makes. These changes are stored on your disk in a hidden area every time so of course over time, disk space WILL get low UNLESS you delete old snapshots.
It is essential that people understand how CTM or RollbackRX work in order to properly use them.
How do you expect to go back a whole month without sacrificing some disk space to hold that information? I noticed that hourly snapshots could easily exceed 250Mb in size so you need to have ample free space availabe to use CTM or similar programs.
I tried CTM using a clean install of Windows 7 on a virtual machine (Sun’s VirtualBox)and after a couple of days it ruined that system.
Here are a couple of explanations
http://forums.comodo.com/help-ctm/lost-all-my-snapshots-really-weird-problem-please-read-t51435.0.html;msg369168
The danger of having a guru-status is that even if you behave as responsible as possible against your anything believing public, there will allways be “Rush”-kind of guys who defend you though because of the wrong reasons (the review is indeed grammatical correct and consistently build, but if the basics are wrong, then all the rest based upon that, must be so too), but the majority who never say anything, follow your advise anyway. It is a coincidence that this freeware has possible some dangerous effects, but my comments would be exactly the same if you would have reviewed a well known shareware and reliable brand.
I’m pretty sure that if you would write a likewise review, say 10 years from now, you probably would begin talking about a global (re)organisation of a complete pc, before you start ANYTHING else, followed with the remark that users must be and keep being consistent in using it. Right now, you just don’t see the relation and thus use the software very inefficient. You may blame that partly on behave of some softwarepublishers, because the core imagingsoftware allready exists for many many years, BUT they still want and must sell (or giveaway) their ‘new’ products, so they introduce stupid things that distract people completely from the very serious reason they should use this strange but wonderful kind of software.
@ seriously: I have strained to understand what it is that you are trying to say in your 3 comments without success.
This is a personal blog and is provided as a free service. Nobody is being forced to read what I write and I don’t think you need to worry about whether people will make up their own minds (they will).
As of right now this non-issue is closed and over with. Any further comments on this (from anyone) will be deleted.
*snip* – ed
I have used another program called “Rollback” by Horizon Data Systems. It does all the same things that Comodo Time Machine does except that it’s not freeware.
Rollback has never caused the problems on my computers that the others have commented about and I defrag the snap shots about once a week. Occasionally, “Rollback” will pick out several snapshots to defrag at Bootup which you can cancel if you wish by hitting escape.
Rollback has never messed up my system and I never have received even one error message. Perhaps Time machine just needs to be reworked to be safe. I have no complaints with “Rollback” and have used it since version 7.1 and I am now using version 9.1 and have used it for several years.
I occasionally (about once a year) uninstall Rollback and Defrag the HD and then reinstall. This program has saved my bacon numerous times because my grand children have smoked windows to the point of not booting directly into Windows. When this happens, you just need to boot into “Rollback”, pick a snapshot from the log and reboot. Problem solved.
If you want an app that has the bugs worked out, go to: http://www.horizondatasys.com/169620.ihtml. It is worth every penny.
I am definitely subscribe and confirm with all of the aboves that have ruined their Win 7 OS. I also had to reinstall to laptops’ OSs because of using that crap OS backup application! Stay away from it!
I have used Comodo Time Machine for 6-9 months now without a hitch.
If I could have only one aftermarket program on my machine, it would be Comodo Time Machine. While it does not protect against hard drive failure, it does provide unmatched protection against viruses, malware, (your own stupidity), and etc. Time Machine has saved my bacon repeatedly and it likely will save yours too.
It installs without a problem and is very easy to use and intuitive. It should be noted that it is wise to defragment your drive and then disable defragment before installing Time Machine. I don’t think defragmenting provides much if any benefit anyway. Also disable Windows System restore before installing. Windows System restore is a sorry peace of work anyhow and you won’t need it or want it after installing Time Machine.
Price/Value is obviously excellent. Free doesn’t necessarily indicate good, but in this case free is beyond excellent. I used similar (but not as good) products RollBack RX ($50) and AyRecovery ($69) for several years and Time Machine is far superior at zero dollars!
No, I’m not a shill for Comodo. I just know a great thing when I see it.
Don’t be foolish and risk losing your valuable data over a screwup or someones hateful virus or malware. Download and install Comodo Time Machine NOW!!
Oh, by the way – image your hard drive first just in case!
@ RMZ: I had installed Comodo Time Machine on my wife’s Vista laptop (that, incidentally, had tons of free hard disk space) and it worked really well. However, it didn’t work so smoothly on my hard-drive-space challenged Windows 7 laptop; I eventually uninstalled it there. So, ultimately, CMT may work well for you; but you’d better have a lot of hard drive space, and I am unsure as to how friendly it is with Win 7.
nothing beats Rollback RX – Comodo is just a copy of Rollback and actually works on the technology rented from Rollback, If I am not mistaken. There’s a couple of patents out there describing how it works, if you’re a geek
Thank you for one of the more helpful discussions of Comodo Time Machine that I’ve been able to find.
I had used Roxio’s (not Norton’s) GoBack with XP for years and I found it to be extremely useful utility. For some time I have been trying to find an acceptable alternative and just recently became aware of CMT.
Most of these system rollback utilities seem to function very similarly to the object journaling on the midrange business systems (POWER 7) that I develop on, and they track or journal changes to the sectors in a volume.
I mention this because while some rollback utilities are friendlier than others, I have yet to find one that was entirely a “fire and forget” solution – each one required you to eventually have some awareness of what “the little man behind the curtain” was actually doing.
GoBack was a more “Grandma friendly” affair in that older tracking history was automatically dropped as it was pushed out by newer tracking. It was not friendly in that “Granny” could, in practice, produce so much disk activity that there was only 30 minutes of history on the system.
Additionally, GoBack had the following caveats:
1. It did not play nice with disk imaging solutions (makes sense – volume sector history is next to useless when restored to a different volume and is potentially disastrous).
2. It did not play nice with disk defragmentation solutions (also makes sense – trying to track volume sector changes and simultaneously modifying almost every sector is a bit of a challenge).
3. It occasionally turned itself off when there was so much disk activity that it was pointless to continue attempting to track the changes (see point about disk defrags).
It sounds as if CMT is more “Granny friendly” in that Granny cannot unknowingly overwhelm her tracking history, but less friendly in that when the history is overwhelmed her system will halt (a family tech support 911).
While looking for a new rollback utility I require support for solid state drives and NTFS junctions and links. I hesitate to bring this up, but I use junctions and links heavily to organize my drives. For example, the contents of “My Videos” folder is actually a partition on a separate drive mounted to an empty folder (would this setup help eliminate the issue that you had with CMT and large media files?). This is not worth doing on every system, but sometimes it does facilitate scanning, defragging and imaging.
Thanks again.