RollBack Rx is a system-recovery program that allows a Windows PC to be returned to an earlier snapshot of its operating system. When it works properly, it can be impressive. The user can turn the clock back to an earlier state of Windows in a matter of minutes, much better than Windows’ own system restore facility can.
RollBack Rx is not simply another backup program. It operates at a very low level of the computer's storage and boot system, using a special disk driver to maintain and recover snapshots. Consequently, when something goes wrong, the consequences can potentially extend beyond the application itself. The computer may be unable to boot. That is not merely a theoretical concern.
I installed RollBack Rx on a Windows 10 laptop in 2020. For some time it work perfectly well. I was able to create snapshots and use the program normally. Then when I needed to use it again, the computer failed to boot following the snapshot restoration.
Fortunately, I had a complete clone of the PC’s internal drive on an external hard drive and so I was able to use that backup to recover the computer. After that, I uninstalled RollBack Rx.
This does not prove that RollBack Rx catagegorically caused the problem. It is possible that some particular interaction between RollBack, the computer's storage configuration or Windows’ boot environment was responsible. But the sequence was sufficiently suggestive for me to conclude there was a connection. And subsequent reports from other users have made my experience considerably less easy to dismiss as an isolated incident.
RollBack Rx is not conventional backup software. This is the most important thing potential users need to understand. A conventional backup program normally creates a separate copy of your data or a disk image. If the backup program stops working, Windows itself generally continues to operate. RollBack Rx is different. Its whole purpose is to integrate itself deeply enough into the system that it can reconstruct an earlier state of the Windows installation. That requires considerably more than an ordinary Windows application.
RollBack uses a special disk driver and operates beneath much of the normal Windows software environment. Its snapshots are not simply ordinary folders containing copies of your files which you can browse and restore at will. The advantage is obvious. The disadvantage is equally obvious: the software has to be involved in the process by which the computer accesses and boots from its storage.
If that low-level machinery encounters a compatibility problem, corruption or unexpected interaction with the particular computer, the failure can potentially occur before Windows has even loaded. That is a very different risk from an ordinary application crashing.
There have been reports over the years of RollBack Rx users having boot or restart problems. A 2022 discussion on the Wilders Security Forums, for example, contains several particularly relevant reports. One user reported that after removing an older RollBack Rx version and installing version 12, the computer would not start and displayed only a blank screen. He had to use an Aomei boot disk to recover the system.
Another user described having used RollBack Rx for years, but said that on a particular Microsoft Surface Book 2 he experienced occasional total boot failures requiring a complete reinstall from backup files. He eventually removed RollBack Rx and suspected strongly that it had been responsible, although he acknowledged that he could not prove the precise cause.
Another user described a later version repeatedly failing during reboot and leaving him dependent on an external backup until a subsequent RollBack version release eventually worked.
These reports do not prove that every RollBack Rx is unreliable. Quite the opposite: some people have used the software successfully for years. But the problem appears capable of being machine-specific. A program can work perfectly on one PC and still have a serious compatibility problem on another—though in my case, RollBack Rx worked ok on the same PC until it didn’t That makes the usual “I've been using it for years and never had a problem” argument rather less reassuring than it might sound.
There is another issue which potential RollBack Rx users should know about. Modern SSDs use a command called TRIM to tell the drive which blocks of storage are no longer required. This assists the SSD's internal garbage collection and helps maintain performance and endurance. RollBack Rx's low-level storage architecture has historically complicated this process.
There has been a long-running dispute over exactly how RollBack handles TRIM. Horizon DataSys (the company that produces RollBack Rx) has described RollBack Rx as supporting SSDs and TRIM-related functionality. However, independent testing and discussion going back many years have questioned whether ordinary TRIM commands actually reach the SSD while RollBack's special disk driver is active.
A particularly striking statement appeared in a Wilders Security Forum discussion in September 2020, shortly before my own RollBack installation. An experienced RollBack user known as “Froggie” was asked whether a contemporary version of RollBack still prevented TRIM from reaching the SSD. His answer was unequivocal: “It still disables the TRIM command from reaching the SSD”.
The same issue was still being discussed in 2022. In another Wilders discussion, Froggie described the RollBack disk driver as “TRIM-incompatible” and explained that RollBack had to be deactivated and the computer restarted in order to replace that driver before performing SSD optimisation and TRIM-related maintenance.
This does not establish that TRIM caused my boot failure. The historical TRIM behaviour is a technical concern about how RollBack interacts with SSDs. My own problem was a failure to boot following a snapshot restoration and reboot. So there is no evidence that TRIM itself caused that failure.
The more general point, however, remains important: RollBack is operating at a very low level of the storage system, and its interaction with modern storage hardware is considerably more complicated than the words “backup software” might suggest.
Why haven't you heard these warnings before, you might be asking. This is perhaps the strangest thing about RollBack Rx. If you search for ordinary computer advice, you are unlikely to find warnings telling you to think carefully before installing it. There are several reasons for this.
First, RollBack Rx is a relatively niche product. Most Windows users have never heard of it. Second, when it works, it is genuinely impressive. A reviewer can deliberately damage a Windows installation, restore a snapshot and demonstrate an apparently miraculous recovery. Third, serious problems seem to be relatively uncommon and may depend upon the particular computer, storage configuration, Windows installation or RollBack version. Fourth, the technical nature of the program makes its potential risks easy to overlook.
A reviewer who thinks of it as simply another backup utility might not appreciate the significance of the fact that it installs a low-level disk driver and becomes involved in the computer's boot and storage processes. That distinction matters enormously.
It is worth making this clear. I am not claiming that RollBack Rx is malware, that it routinely destroys computers, or that everybody who installs it will encounter problems. There are many users who have had very positive experiences with it. Indeed, that is what makes the program interesting. It solves a genuine problem and can be extremely convenient.
The criticism is about risk and transparency, not about claiming that the software never works. A program can be useful and still deserve a warning about the consequences of failure. RollBack Rx belongs in that category.
If I had been given a warning before installing RollBack Rx, I would have understood the program rather differently. Something along these lines would have been useful:
"WARNING: RollBack Rx is not an ordinary backup application. It installs low-level storage and boot components in Windows in order to provide instant system rollback. Although it can work extremely well, failures or compatibility problems can potentially leave Windows unable to boot. SSD/TRIM behaviour has also been the subject of longstanding technical controversy. Do not install it without maintaining an independent, restorable disk image or clone".
RollBack Rx might be a brilliant piece of engineering. But the more deeply a program inserts itself into the machinery of your computer, the more important it becomes to have a way of recovering the machine without that program.
And that is the central lesson of my experience. Use RollBack Rx if you understand what it is. But never let RollBack Rx become the only thing standing between you and a dead Windows installation.
