Posts Tagged ‘Free Backup’

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Backup Solutions for the Busy Stay at Home Business Mom

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Walter Stevens is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular Amazon S3 based tool for online remote backup — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/backup-solutions-for-the-busy-stay-at-home-business-mom.html

Backup and the Busy Stay at Home Business Mom

For any computer user backup is important, but for the busy stay at home business mom it can be vital. Business moms not only need to keep their family in order but also have a home business to run, and if they use a computer for their business it is vital that they have access to the files that are essential to the running of their business. Business moms have no time to waste with the loss of important data due to a computer crash or virus, and for them backup is of vital import. Fortunately there are many possible solutions to your backup needs.

Online Backup

One of the growing tools with the growth of the internet is that of online backup. Online backup allows you to store your files online in reserve apart from your computer in case the worst happens. Then, you will be able to download your files just as you saved them and restore your computer to normalcy with all of your files returned.

This is a very powerful backup method, and also has the bonus feature of allowing you to access your files from any computer in the world by downloading them onto whichever system you are currently using. With new features being added to online backup systems all the time, and with storage amounts and uploading ease increasing as well, online backup can be a powerful solution for all of your backup needs.

CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and Your Computer Backup

New technologies are being created all the time that can prove very powerful for your backup needs. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are two of the most powerful backup tools invented yet. While it used to be that floppy disks used to be the most common tools for backup, they are quickly becoming obsolete. After all, why bother with a floppy disk that can hold just over a megabyte of data when you can use a CD-R or a DVD-R which can hold hundreds or thousands of times as much data all on a single disk?

It is not uncommon to walk into a computer store these days and not even see a single computer which even has a floppy disk drive on it.

CD-Rs have been a round for a while, and there are now even CD-RWs which allow you to write your disk more than once. One drawback to using a CD-R or a DVD-R is that once you have written information onto your disk, the disk is finished and nothing new can be added to it and nothing can be taken away. This is not true with CD-RWs or DVD-RWs, which can be theoretically rewritten as many times as you require.

While they have not yet advanced to the stage of manipulability that a format such as the floppy drive can boast, this is a great advancement and allows for the far greater storage space that a floppy drive can never hope to obtain. You will find that DVD-Rs and DVD burners are more expensive than their CD burner predecessors, but this price is falling all the time and in the future will come to overtake CD-ROMs, so it is a good investment to make if you are serious about your backup.

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The Principles of File Recovery

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Andrew Whitehead is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular tool for windows online backup — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/the-principles-of-file-recovery.html

Why File Recovery is Possible

File recovery is nearly always possible, if you spot the mistake and do something about it fast enough. Luckily, if you do mistakenly delete a file, the file has not been physically removed, the operating system just doesn’t know where it is anymore. This is easier to understand once you realize that there is more to storing a file on your hard drive than just finding space for the information and writing it there.

The operating system must also keep track of where it put the file, without this it would be unable to find it again. When a file gets deleted, this record is altered and the disk area containing the information is marked as free space. The information itself remains intact until some other information is written over it.

The effect is similar to rubbing out the name of a video tape – you know you can use that tape now, but the original film is still on there until you do it, and should you change your mind you can do your own ‘file recovery‘ by writing the name on the box again. Commercial file recovery programs do exactly the same trick with computer files.

File Recovery Programs

There is no shortage of file recovery software to help you out if you delete the wrong file. There are numerous commercial file recovery programs, DOS has its own ‘Undelete’ command, and Windows has the familiar Recycle Bin. Except for Recycle Bin, they all work on the same principle of searching the hard drive for files that have recently been marked for overwriting. More advanced ones will also tell you how much of the file is recoverable by checking how much has been written over.

The seemingly simple Recycle Bin has one advantage over any third party file recovery program: it doesn’t allow any overwriting of deleted files stored in there. This means that files from here are recovered in their entirety, and will function exactly as before once they are restored.

Obstacles to File Recovery

The biggest obstacle by far is time. The longer you wait, the higher the chance of a deleted file being written over, unless it is safely in the Recycle Bin. Once this has happened file recovery is still possible but it will take a lot more than a bit of commercial software to do it.

Operating systems are continuously creating files, every web page you visit does the same, and so does every application you open. With this in mind, the time to start your file recovery process is the instant that you realize you needed that file.

If you are extremely security conscious enough to be running encryption software this will also reduce your chances of file recovery, as the majority of file recovery programs need to read the file to know it is there. If the encryption utility doesn’t offer its own built-in undelete function then file recovery is going to be very difficult and very expensive.

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Backup Power for Your Small Business

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Walter Stevens is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular Amazon S3 based online backup service — Back2zip. This article available at http://free-backup.info/backup-power-for-your-small-business.html

What is Backup Power?

Backup power is a power supply which will run the power for your computers or business office in the case of a power outage. This can include a generator, which will actually generate power for your company or an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) which works essentially as a large battery that will keep your office online for a certain length of time, then shut down in stages to maintain the most vital elements of your business during a prolonged power outage.

Why do I Need Backup Power for my Small Business?

Power is vital to any small business, and damage can be great if you lose power for days, or even only hours. Having backup power means that you will be able to stay online no matter what happens to the power, and this can save your business greatly.

One of the greatest power outages to hit the North American continent hit the Northeast, causing power outages across the Northeastern United States as well as much of Southwestern Canada. This power outage lasted for days, and resulted in the loss of billions of dollars for small businesses. This is a big problem, and one that can easily be solved through the use of backup power supplies. However, 60% of small businesses do not use any sort of backup power for their business use.

If you are trying to keep your business ahead of the herd, you do not want to be one of the 3 in 5 businesses that will go down in a power outage, then you would be wise to purchase a backup power supply for your small business.

How Does Backup Power Work for my Small Business?

There are two primary types of backup power for computers. The first is a generator which will actually generate backup power for you. This mean that no longer how long the power is out, you will constantly be having new power generated to operate your business. Normally there will be a trigger switch which will connect you to backup generator power in the case of a power outage in your area. Having a generator can literally save your business in the case of a major power outage, such as that of 2003.

The other type of backup power supply is similar, but rather than actually generating power, this large battery will only hold power in reserve. The amount of power that this will give to your business depends upon the size of the backup battery. These systems are referred to as UPS systems, as mentioned above. While they do not offer as much as a generator, they can still greatly assist you business in times of need.

There are many different companies which offer backup power solutions for your small business. Emerson, American Power Conversion, or Energy Technologies Inc. These companies offer many different backup power solutions for your small business. While it is admittedly a large investment to purchase a backup power supply for your business or office, it can make a world of difference in the event of a major power outage in your area.

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Wonderful Ways to Have a Handy Backup of Your Files

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

James Fohl is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the best online backup software — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/wonderful-ways-to-have-a-handy-backup-of-your-files.html

Wonderful Ways to Have a Handy Backup of Your Files

Do you always want to carry a handy backup copy of your website, photos or music collection? Let’s face it, some users want to have the ability to have a backup copy of their files so that they can show their friends their latest photos wherever they maybe. Whether it’s at an internet cafe or the local library, a lot of people wishing they had their files don’t because carrying around a large CD-R just isn’t very handy.

Luckily, the recent years have lead to an explosion in handy little ways to allow you to always be able to carry a backup of your files.

First off are the little flash memory sticks that are being produced by literally every computer company on the face of the earth. Most are smaller than a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum, but have the ability to store tons of data. Talk about handy!

Handy flash memory based keychains starting at around fifteen dollars are perfect storage mediums for backup files.

Starting at around fifteen dollars, a user can go out and buy a 128 megabyte memory keychain. Plug it into your computer’s USB port and boom; easy access to your files.

Since the memory keychains utilize the USB port for their power, users do not need to worry about carrying a power pack, or replacing batteries. The small flash memory units are extremely handy because you can literally take your backup files anywhere you go. If you are saying to yourself that 128 megabytes is simply not enough for your backup file, then continue to read on.

The handy size of the keychains allow users access to gigabytes of space for their backup files.

In under the size of a pack of gum, flash memory keychains exist that have the ability to store gigabytes of data. Not just megabytes, but gigabytes. Although one gigabyte units start at fifty dollars, they are extremely handy when compared with large CD-R discs.

Business card sized CD-Rs are another handy media for transporting backups of your files.

If you are against the whole flash media brigade for whatever reason, and wish to stay with good old CD-Rs, then business card CD-Rs are for you.

Business card CD-Rs are handy little CDs that are kept in a small protective case the size of a business card. While they can easily be stored in a wallet, they have a limit of around fifty megabytes for your backup files.

Also, users utilizing the handy sized CD-R discs for their backup needs should also be very cautious about using the media in their CD drives. A lot of CD burners, as well as normal CD-ROM units do not support the disc. Always check the manual of your CD-ROM drive to see if it supports business card sized CDs, otherwise you may loose your disc in the unit.

While business card CD-Rs ultimately look cool, they just aren’t as handy as flash based memory keychains. While the keychains are more expensive, they are more durable, have much more space for your backup needs, and are supported in a lot more computer systems than the card CD-R counterparts.

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Do-It-Yourself Diagnostic Tips for Hard Drive Recovery

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Lison Joseph is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular tool for personal online backup — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/do-it-yourself-diagnostic-tips-for-hard-drive-recovery.html

Read on if Hard Drive Recovery sets you sweating!

The first thing that you should know about hard drive recovery is that not all hard disk crashes are fatal and in most cases, recovery of data is possible with fairly good data accuracy rates. However, you will be able to decide on recovery options only if you know what exactly is wrong with the disk.

So, if ever you are that unfortunate computer user to face a hard drive recovery scenario, here are a few tips that might come in handy before you start knocking on the doors of a hard drive recovery expert.

There are a few things you can do which would give you a fair idea about the nature of the hard disk problem and more importantly, these will put you in a position to bargain with the data recovery expert, if you are forced to go to him!

Get into the hard drive recovery expert’s shoes!

Ask yourself what is the problem. It could be a logical problem, meaning there is something wrong with the boot sector of the hard drive rendering it un-bootable. In worse scenarios, it could be an electrical problem where the circuit board on the hard disk has been damaged due to a higher than allowed electrical current passing through it. In the worst scenario, it could be a physical problem where the head that reads the data stored on the different platters arranged inside a hard drive has been damaged or the alignment of the platters themselves could have been affected.

Depending on whether it is a logical, electrical or mechanical problem, you will be able to make a realistic assessment about the success chances of a paid hard drive recovery effort.

Do these yourself before you go begging to a hard drive recovery expert

Boot from a floppy and do a read only scan of the disk. This would tell you if it is a logical error. Therefore, you will be able to decide on an appropriate strategy for fixing the master boot record. If the boot sector is lost then you should be able to decide how to go about recovering the data. If there are bad sectors in the master boot record, then attach the hard drive to another working computer as a secondary hard drive and try to recover data using data recovery software.

Open up your system’s ATX cabinet box, take out your hard drive, and closely examine the circuit board under the hard drive. Do not touch the board as static discharge can damage the disk’s head. If there are tell-tale signs of a burnt circuit board or burnt components, then you can decide for sure that its a board problem. Now that you know its a board problem, you must consult your hardware supplier or service agent to decide what to do about it.

The sure sign of a mechanical problem is the clicking sound that you will hear from the hard drive when it is trying to spin up or spin down. If this click sound is coming, then the problem is related to mechanical trouble inside the hard disk platter assembly. This, more often than not is beyond repair. If a hard drive recovery expert claims it can be repaired, then make sure that is a “no data, no pay” agreement!

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