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Originally published at Internet.comWe've all been through the drama of losing data. At first, we try to remember where we saved that missing, all-important document. Next, we browse other likely folders - still nothing. Finally, we resort to using Windows search functionality, and continue coming up empty. As we start cursing, suspicion falls to those around us: Was our little nephew using the computer last?
Sure, setting passwords and other routine security measures helps prevent unwanted people from messing with your computer - but it does not protect the user from themselves, nor from the accidental. You could be surfing the Internet and get your PC infected with the latest breed of virus, or you could unintentionally delete important files.
Similarly, you or someone may be playing around Windows system folders and next thing you know, your PC now boots into a blue screen of death.
It may be too late to save that lost piece of data, but there's always next time. If these situations sound familiar, then Centurion Technologies' Smart Restart might be what you're looking for to stop these dire occurrences from happening again - or, if you're one of the few lucky ones who have never suffered data loss, for the first time. 
"Restart to a perfect computer" being its motto, Smart Restart essentially works by creating a "snapshot" of your Windows XP PC at the time it's installed, and restores your system back to this snapshot every time you turn your computer on.
In theory, at least, this way, no matter what happened to your computer while you were working with it, you can always "restart" to the PC state that you had when you installed Smart Restart.
Let's take a closer look to see how well Smart Restart does its job.
Table of Contents • Introduction • Features and Installation • Performance • Conclusion
Software Features
As we discussed, Smart Restart works by creating an image of your PC's OS configuration and hard drive files, and reverting to it after every restart - theoretically ensuring that every time you boot your system, those areas revert to fresh states.
More specifically, the program divides your NTFS hard drive (not RAID arrays or other formats, which it doesn't support) into three areas:
* The Protected Zone, which contains all your files and the software you installed before using Smart Restart - and which Smart Restart will automatically restore to their original condition after every system reboot. * The Keep Zone, a group of folders exempt from being restored automatically. Here, you can store newly created documents and other files so that they can survive system reboots. * The Temporary Zone, an area where users can save files confident that they'll be deleted on reboot. This area is also used for system and applications' temporary and swap files.
Of course, this setup means you should make sure you have your computer (at least, the portions in the Protected Zone) configured the way you want it before installing Smart Restart - otherwise, any future changes to these files will be lost!
That also means installing all needed drivers and software, and you should additionally scan for viruses and defragment your hard drive before installation.
Installation
While installing Smart Restart, you'll be asked for a password that will be needed to turn the application's protective features on and off.
After this, you are prompted to restart your PC. The next time you boot to Windows, Smart Restart will take a few minutes while it prepares your computer and makes an image of the Protected Zone files, which will include important folders and files related to Windows operation. 
Once that finishes, another pop-up appears, asking you to turn on Smart Restart's protection: 
Smart Restart's protections are enabled. While protection is on, remember that any changes you make to your computer (to Windows and the Protected Zone, specifically) will disappear next time your restart it.
Smart Restart allows you to select which folders are part of the Keep Zone, and therefore, will not be deleted on restart: 
On the other hand, the Temporary Zone keeps track of everything the user does while protection is turned on - such as housing downloaded files. It will be emptied every time the PC is turned off.
You may also modify the amount of hard drive space used for the Temporary Zone: 
Table of Contents • Introduction • Featuress and Installation • Performance • Conclusion
Performance
Configuring Smart Restart's Protected, Temporary and Keep Zones proved simple enough. However, this process did raise our first concern with the program: The Program Files folder is not shown on the list of possible Keep Zones.
Even though a normal user wouldn't save files in this folder, games tend to store saved games and other configuration settings there, by default (a setting that's often impossible for users to change.) This makes Smart Restart unsuitable in some cases for gamers - but we do understand its authors are not necessarily targeting this kind of audience in the first place. 
Additionally, we noticed another quirk about Smart Restart.
While writing this article and listening to music, checking email and sorting through some old files, this friendly little error pop-up appeared: 
According to Smart Restart's accompanying documentation, "If the temporary space becomes full, a 'Delayed Write Failed error will appear on your screen. The computer must be rebooted at this point, to empty the Temporary Zone, and all unsaved data will be lost. Therefore, it is very important to ensure enough storage space to accommodate normal computer activity between scheduled reboots."
The issue happened more than once, this time while using Photoshop: 
While we understand that Smart Restart needs virtual memory to operate, one would think that 2GB is more than enough for what we were doing - simple, commonplace PC tasks. You can increase the amount of memory Smart Restart is allowed to use, but some may dislike the idea of wasting more than 2GB of their hard drive just to use the PC for casual tasks.
Plus, users may often not know how much space to allocate to allow for applications' swap files. Also, application swap files are not always user-customizable, which means users can't tweak their applications' behaviors to work smoothly with Smart Restart from the onset. (Often, swap files grow or decrease in size according to need - Smart Restart could perhaps learn a lesson from this behavior with regard to its own Temporary Zone.)
It's also something of a pain to have to abandon the task at hand to reboot and reconfigure the Temporary Zone.
Actually, modifying the Zones requires a number of restarts - three in a row! - for what seems like a relatively simple operation. (Once to deactivate protection, second time to change Keep Zones, and a third to reactivate protection.)
Table of Contents • Introduction • Features and Installation • Performance • Conclusion
Conclusion
All in all, Smart Restart does what it's supposed to: It provides handy protection against the dangers of accidentally deleting important data, and against wider data losses due to a corrupted system.
It also protects your computer from experiencing big changes that might bog it down, or even damage it or your data. Imagine if your PC booted up each morning with the same speed and efficiency that it did when you first got it?
But we also believe Smart Restart could do its job a bit better. For example, the application only works with NTFS partitions and it's not compatible with RAID configurations.
It seems to unexpectedly require a lot of hard drive space, as we saw from our pop-up message about a "Delayed Write Failed" error. Speaking of which, the interface could be a bit more intuitive or friendly, since errors like this make it sound like whatever went wrong is somehow the user's fault, and are pretty unclear.
And finally, asking a user to restart their computer three times in a row - for any reason - is unheard-of in our experience.
Nevertheless, Smart Restart works as advertised, if heavy-handedly. It's slightly cheaper than some disk-imaging utilities like Norton Ghost. Additionally, once it's working (which may take some time, after numerous restarts and getting your Temporary Zone properly adjusted) it works behind the scenes transparently and doesn't require constant user maintenance. This makes it a good choice for PCs used in kiosks, public libraries, or demonstration environments, for instance.
As a result, even with its limitations, Smart Restart could be a helpful tool for some users worried about data loss or system corruption. SysOpt Product Info
Product:
Smart Restart
Category:
System Maintenance
Avg. Price:
$50
Manufacturer:
Centurion Technologies
512 Rudder Road
Fenton, Missouri 63026
800-224-7977
Availability:
Now
Ratings: (Best of four stars)
Features: 
Performance: 
Value:
Best for:
Kiosks and public access PCs
Table of Contents • Introduction • Features and Installation • Performance • Conclusion
Author: Theo Cevallos
Read article at Internet.com site