Backup Exec's Intelligent Disaster Recovery Option (IDR) is designed to speed up the process of disaster recovery. It removes the requirement for installing the operating system before restoring from a backup. It integrates with the ASR functionality of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

IDR is a great option…

…in theory.

For anyone considering the IDR option, consider carefully the following:

• Do you really need it?
• How often do you perform a disaster recovery?
• The IDR option might save you an hour during the recovery. Is it worth the expense?
•  Have you got the time and resources to test it?
• You should of course be performing regular disaster recovery tests anyway, but it's strongly recommended to test IDR.
• Will it work at all?
• Some configurations simply won't work with IDR. Search the Symantec forums for IDR problems to get an idea of what doesn't work.