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

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.

Retrospect uses catalogs, i.e. indexes, for the backups and these are stored separately (locally with the program data) from the backup. These catalogs are part of backup sets, aka different jobs with the same destination. This has a great advantage in speed when retrieving data from a slow medium such as tape. Remember, Retrospect is venerable and enterprise-centric.

You can, of course, rebuild the catalog from the backup should you somehow lose the original — however, this can be a rather lengthy procedure. As such, the company recommends that you back up these catalogs to external media for access in case you need to perform a full system recovery from a crashed computer.

All that I’ve just discussed is workable, if a bit labyrinthine, but adding a network location as a source volume for backups was particularly odd. First, you must add a My Network container, then after you add that, you must double-click on it, and select from a number of network protocols.

Adding a cloud destination is the usual sign-on-to-the-platform deal, or provide keys generated by your online storage provider, but this must be done for every different backup. Most programs retain your connection info for later use. Bummer.

So to answer the question posed by this section, Retrospect 19 is a bit of a handful to learn, but easy to use for the most part once you know it. It is extremely versatile and powerful, but if you’re looking for something quick and simple, Retrospect 19 Desktop is likely not your cup of tea.

How does Retrospect 19 Desktop perform?

To confirm that Retrospect’s backup engine hadn’t tucked and run after 30 years (it hasn’t), I executed numerous backups: full, differential, and incremental targeting a 10Gbps USB SSD, network locations, and internal NVMe SSDs.

As I’ve come to expect, Retrospect purred along without hint of distress during those backups and the subsequent restores. Even with four backup jobs going at once. Indeed, the only times I’ve ever had an issue with a Retrospect backup, it was a problem with the tape (venerable, remember?).

I also tested the anomaly detection with various percentages of altered and renamed files and it functioned as advertised. It’s a nice safety net to have, though as I’ve already chastised about, regular, rotated backups are the real key to recovering from a ransomware attack — assuming you discover an attack in a timely fashion, that is. I was kind of lucky in that regard.

All told, operationally, Retrospect 19 Desktop was solid as a rock. When it came to user interaction, however, I found at least one issue. When trying to add a folder from the network, there’s an option to browse the network, but it returned an error. I was forced to use Advanced, where you type in the URL (e.g., \192.168.1.105Public).

Not fatal, but not friendly, and apparently the company is aware of the issue as tech support told me about this. (Well, fix it then.)

Regardless of some irritations, the speed and integrity of backups are the main thing — with those, Retrospect 19 Desktop was aces. Uber reliable, providing accurate feedback on the progress of backups, and fast — all things important to Moonbeam and I.

Should you buy Retrospect 19 Desktop?

Retrospect 19 Desktop is a great file backup and recovery program for users or businesses that require the extremely granular control and legacy media support that few other backup solutions provide.

If you are such, and don’t mind the initial cost or the time it takes to wrap your head around it, then by all means kick the tires (there’s a trial). If it suits you, it will serve you well. I can attest to that from decades of use.

On the other hand, the average home user will get better value and ease-of-use in some of the worthy alternatives in our roundup such as R-Drive Image, Aomei Backupper, and Easeus Todo backup. Look around.