System software is the platform that connects our computer’s hardware with our computer’s applications. It is the first thing we see when we turn our computers on, and has been around as long as computers have been in existence. Most people don’t think about system software until something goes wrong. When hardware breaks down, or data becomes corrupted and we are forced to think about system software because our computers are not running like we are used to. When this happens part of repairing the problem often includes restoring our computer’s system software back to a known good state from a known good backup. A backup of system software is called restore media.

Since I have been following Apple over the last three decades I have seen restore medium charge forms many times to meet the needs of the computers it’s restoring. The very first Apple II used audio cassettes to restore applications and user data. Later 5.25 floppy drives made reading and writing system software faster because you didn’t have to play back the entire tape to get where you left off. The 3.5 inch floppy disks introduced with the Macintosh revolutionized data delivery and restoration by offering higher capacities in a more durable format. It wasn’t until the amount of 3.5 inch floppy disks required to restore a system got so numerous that computer operating systems began shipping on CDs. Optical discs, including DVDs, carried system restore media through two decades before computers got too small to accommodate optical drives. Apple’s latest MacBook Air notebook computer lacks an optical drive and instead comes with 8GBs of solid state USB system restore media standard. The future of personal computing is never certain, but as long as computers contain volatile system software our need for restore media will continue. If solid state devices like the iPad and MacBook Air are the way of the future I can see three possible candidates for the next evolution in system software restore media.

Media Card

The most probable near term system software restore solution is memory cards resembling the current MacBook Air USB drive. Memory cards come in a variety of shapes and sizes that can accommodate the smallest of computer form factors. As iOS devices like the iPad come into their own and no longer require a host computer to perform a system restore the media card looks like a suitable cheap substitute that can be mass distributed quickly and easily.

Swappable ROM

Swappable read only memory has always been an expensive way to upgrade a computer’s operating system. Just ask MessagePad 2000 owners that opted to have their Newtons upgraded to the OS and memory specifications of a MessagePad 2100. The process involved replacing a chip in the Newton that contains the operating system with a newer version. The upside is that the system software on the chip is non-volatile and therefore never needs to be restored improving reliability. The downside is every major software update requires a chip replacement which can quickly become expensive. Swappable ROM system software is best used for embedded appliance computers which won’t require foreseeable updates. A lofty goal for the future of personal computers.

Network

The most probable long term system software restore solution comes from the cloud. Instead of having to go to the store to pickup the latest major update of an operating system why can’t our OS updates come to us? In many ways they already do. The world of personal computers is never done and Apple like many other companies is constantly pushing out patches over the internet. Not too long ago ago the size of patches were restricted by internet bandwidth, but in the modern days of broadband internet patches equaling over one gigabyte in size are becoming common. The problem with network restore media is the requirement of having a network connection. What happens if the computer is too badly broken to connect to the network? What happens if the end user is unable to establish a network connection on their own? In order for network system software restoration to become a suitable alternative for physical restore media networking has to become more reliable, and computers have to contain the basic functionality to join a network even when the system software is compromised. We are already seeing network restores coming to always connected cell phones, and it won’t be long before similar restoration processes make their ways to the portable devices of the future.

We have come a long way from the magnetic tape backups of the past. As computers become more reliable and easier to use restore media will become less of a requirement and software restores will correct our computers problems in the background and over the air.

Tape Cassette Photo Credit Grant Hutchinson.