Retrospect Desktop review: Reliable backup, cloud storage, and more

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Copious feature set
• Extremely powerful and granular selection criteria
• Support for legacy and modern storage — including online
• Excellent performance
• Anti-ransomware monitoring

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Minor bugs
• Pricey but with a perpetual license

Our Verdict

Retrospect 19 Desktop is one of the most versatile file backup programs you can buy, with ransomware protection, disaster recovery, and new support for cloud storage. But the interface and methodologies do take some getting used to.

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Longevity is a good thing when it comes to software, as it generally means it’s capable and reliable. Case in point: Retrospect. PCWorld’s art department relied on Retrospect (and tape!) back in the ’90s. I was the one operating it. I kid you not.

Obviously, with several decades under its belt, Retrospect has evolved functionally. At my last look, Retrospect 18 had recently acquired some very handy anti-ransomware features. This time, with Retrospect 19, it has added support for cloud storage — both via its own service and various third-party solutions.

Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best backup software for comparison.

What are Retrospect 19 Desktop’s features?

Retrospect is an enterprise-level backup program that is also sold to smaller businesses and end users. In its upper tiers, Retrospect 19 offers features well beyond the scope and interest of the average user. But everything that is of interest to us hoi polloi is included in the Desktop version I tested here.

By far the most salient new feature in Retrospect 19 (all versions) is its support for cloud storage. This includes third-party services such as Amazon S3 and S3-compatibles, Dropbox, Wasabi, Google cloud, Azure, and even Retrospect’s branded service leveraging the aforementioned Wasabi.

Missing in action are the popular OneDrive and Google Drive, which will disappoint many users. In my talks with various developers, it seems there are hurdles, albeit hurdles that others seem to have had little difficulty in overcoming. Also slightly disappointing will be the cost of Retropect’s own online storage. More on that in the pricing section below.

Another new, ransomware-related feature (more on that in a bit) is a compare function that let’s you see the actual differences Retrospect has discovered between your existing data set and a backup. This gives you a more granular picture of changes that might indicate suspicious activity. If Retrospect sees a troubling pattern, it will flag it as a possible ransomware attack.

The main features and options include: compression and password–protected encryption; extremely granular scheduling; pre- and post-backup operations; filtering (including a copious helping of presets for common file types); differential, incremental, full, and block-level (only changed portions of a file) backups; and deduplication (not backing up copies of the same file).

Additionally, disaster recovery (bare metal restore, aka driver installation for different hardware is part of a “premium desktop” version); backup from NAS or network location sources; the ability to back up using tape drives (yes, they still exist); and the ability to run four rather than two execution units (concurrent operations/threads) so you can fire off more backups at the same time.

Of course, Retrospect 19 Desktop’s greatest strength is arguably its support for an extraordinarily wide variety of backup media — everything from hard drives to optical discs to tape drives. Even more advanced backup hardware such as carousels are supported by the enterprise versions of the program.

Retrospect 19 Desktop’s greatest strength is arguably its support for an extraordinarily wide variety of backup media.

Note that Retrospect is file backup, not imaging, though as mentioned, there is disaster recovery boot media which does roughly the same thing as imaging.

I once scoffed at the notion of ransomware and someone hijacking my files. Then I noticed a flood of newly encrypted files on Dropbox (synced from my own NAS) in place of the ones that should have been there. Sure enough….

There was no permanent damage thanks to a daily local backup (hint, hint…) but it was a chilling, infuriating ride. If the perpetrators had been in the same room, I’d be in the hoosegow now.

Some advice based on that experience:

• Don’t host your website on your NAS box using an outdated version of WordPress. (Yes, I know.). If you do, make sure it’s on its own dedicated box without important data on it.
• Limit internet access to your LAN and/or computer or take steps to secure your home Wi-Fi network and router.

Retrospect’s local anti-ransomware features aren’t real-time like a true anti-malware, anti-data tampering background application (think Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect, or Windows Defender).

Instead, before Retrospect starts backing up, it checks to see how much the data has changed and how. If the number of new or altered files exceeds a user-definable percentage, it cries foul and alerts you, meanwhile not overwriting anything in an existing backup. This is referred to as anomaly detection.

If you’re not familiar, most ransomware attacks involve encrypting your files (creating new ones), deleting the old ones, then ransoming the decryption key, which may or may not follow payment. It’s these wholesale changes that Retrospect is looking for.

Note that pre-backup anomaly detection is less resource intensive, but it doesn’t actually stop the ransomware. It simply protects your backups, enabling a successful recovery.

The entire efficacy of Retrospect’s anti-ransomware feature depends on your backing up regularly so you can restore the un-ransomed, unencrypted versions of your files. I suggest daily.

Part two of Retrospect’s anti-ransomware solution is interfacing with the immutable data option offered by services such as Backblaze, Wasabi, S3, etc. Immutable data is data that a storage service won’t allow to be altered or deleted for a set period of time — even by known entities, unless specifically disabled first by the administrator (you).

How much does Retrospect 19 Desktop cost?

Retrospect Desktop charges a hefty $169 for a perpetual license, covering one computer with five networked clients, and including a free year of Annual Support and Maintenance.

Given that some of the high-profile competition such as Acronis True Image and Macrium Relfect X are now subscription-only (they go into restore-only mode if you stop paying), Retrospect can be a bargain over time. Forgetting that there are much cheaper perpetual license programs out there.

Note that perpetual licenses retain functionality forever and still receive dot upgrades. You’ll also see a Premium option in the image below for $209. The main difference being the support for “dissimilar hardware.”

Dissimilar hardware is industry speak for the ability to restore to a machine other than the one you backed up by providing assistance with drivers. However, Windows has developed a huge collection of generic drivers that basically make this feature, if not moot, less important.

I just proved this by moving PCWorld’s software testbed Windows 11 installation from an AMD Ryzen motherboard to a newer Intel Core motherboard. Some post-transfer maintenance (removing old drivers, installing new ones, etc.) was required, but in the end it worked fine.

If you want a more detailed breakdown on the differences between the cheaper (and less effective) Solo and Desktop, as well as info on some of the enterprise versions, check the comparison chart on the Retrospect site. This chart was rather confused and not totally accurate at the time of this writing, but Retrospect promised fixes.

As shown below, Retrospect’s online storage is available for $21 a month for 1TB, $92 monthly for 5TB, and $174 a month for 10TB. If that seems a bit pricy, it is. In fact, it’s far pricier than Wasabi, the online storage service Retrospect leverages, which was $7 a month per TB at the time of this writing.

So while Retrospect 19 Desktop will become a bargain over time, the company’s cloud storage, as currently priced, will not. I’d shop around, for sure.

How easy is it to learn and use Retrospect 19 Desktop?

Retrospect functions a bit differently from most backup programs — a rather bold understatement, if I do say so myself. It all makes sense in the end and the power and versatility are worth it for many, but the program’s approach makes the learning curve steep. Especially if you’re used to something else.

Hint: A good long perusal of the Retrospect 19 users guide will save you a lot of frustration. IMHO, Retrospect could use a user interface and workflow overhaul. However, it’s unlikely you’ll ever see it because of the vast existing user base. As to some of the particulars…

First off, the program’s vernacular will be peculiar to many, as well as terse. Data sources to be backed up are defined as “Volumes.” While this can be drives per normal nomenclature, they can also be clients on other computers, or files and folders, which are added under “Subvolumes,” and “Defined as volumes.”

Destinations are “Backup sets,” which makes sense when it comes to sets of media you might rotate, but isn’t intuitive to the average user. In case you’re not familiar, rotating means swapping out multiple discrete media according to a schedule — e.g., employing seven hard drives, optical disc/tape “Devices,” and using each only on a specific day of the week. The latter is really an enterprise deal where carousels and tape libraries that feed in the different media are still common.

“Selecting” is where you find the filters that skip or include various types of files. This is one area where Retrospect really shines — you can apply any number of rules or criteria about what to back up and what to skip.

Jobs are “Scripts,” which aren’t created until you schedule a job created with “Backup Now.” Extremely efficient but not entirely intuitive. Scripts are not found under the Backup, but the Configure section of the function tree at the left of the main window.