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Data Recovery: 10 Most Effective Computer Backup Tools

Nick Kurentz — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:52:55 +0000

Despite my best efforts, this past week I lost both my primary and secondary computer systems. After losing my primary desktop several years ago, I vowed I would never let myself be caught without an operating PC. As they say, “the road to h*ll is paved with good intentions,” and I once again was caught with my proverbial pants down without an operating computer when my desktop, which had been exhibiting some problem signs in the last month, died suddenly and would not turn on.

I then went to my laptop, which I had admittedly been lazy about keeping updated, and turned it on. Immediately the Windows update process started, and asked me install Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. Having done that successfully on my desktop, I wasn’t too worried about any installation problems on the laptop. However, upon completing the installation, the blue screen of death appeared, which is NEVER a good sign with a Windows-based system.

After trying for about an hour without success to revive my laptop (which is only 8 months old and still under warranty), I knew that I was in trouble and starting looking for alternatives. Fortunately, my husband keeps a laptop on hand that he uses for gaming when we travel, and he generously offered to let me install my programs and files on it until I could repair one of my computers.

After finally acknowledging that there was no way I could have foreseen this situation, I decided that I needed to s*ck it up, get over, and move on. So, I’m making do with a partially customized laptop that will do until one or the other of my PCs is returned.

Despite having gone through similar situations previously, I still learned a few new things along the way about data recovery and computer backup. Here are the 10 most effective tools that saved my bacon during my recent computer meltdown.

1. Automatic backup software. I’ve been using 2 online backups, Carbonite and Syncplicity. I have had to restore from Carbonite previously, and I found the process to be lengthy and somewhat confusing. So, several months ago I began using Syncplicity because it offers online access to all backed up files as well as the ability to synchronize an unlimited number of computers. However, it has taken a week to restore 20 GB of data with Syncplicity, and some of the data was wasn’t really restored, despite what Syncplicity told me in my account. However, I can easily download this missing info to my computer from the online vault. One process that makes this backup system easier is that I store all of my data files in My Docs so I don’t have to hunt them down in Program Files, or wherever they are typically stored.

2. Email client software. I still use the dinosaur Eudora for my email client. Old habits die hard, I suppose. However, somehow I missed marking some key Eudora folders to back up, and so I was initially using my webmail access providing by my hosting company to access email because of this oversight with Eudora. I began to tire of that quickly, as I had no way to create additional folders in those systems, so I then decided to manually configure Eudora and open folders and emails as I need them in the program. This experience has made me very tempted to change all of my incoming and outgoing email servers on all domains to Gmail just to have access to everything online, come hurricane, flood, tornado, or computer crash.

3. Bookmark service. I’m an avid researcher and resource collector, so having access to my bookmarks, or favorites file, is vital to my day-to-day operations. I had been using Spurl, but because of frequent periodic outages of their service, I’ve changed to Foxmarks. I like that this service offers me the ability to access all of these online, as well as have them at my fingertips any time I need them from my Bookmarks menu as well as easily synchronize them to any computer.

4. Contact management. Even though I don’t use Outlook for email, I do use it for calendar and contact management. I had been using Plaxo as an online backup for my contacts, but it doesn’t permit me to store my notes about each contact. I’ve been using Airset now for several months, and it regularly syncs my contacts (with notes) and my calendar to their online service. I found this much more convenient than trying to restore a backup PST file to Outlook and then repeating that again when my primary computer is returned. Instead, I just make changes to contacts and my calendar on Airset, and I’ll just sync that to Outlook on my desktop.

5. Passwords. I’ve been using Roboform for years to help me manage my passwords. I’ve got my Roboform data in My Docs, so it was a breeze to reinstall Roboform and copy the data folder to the new computer and permit me to access all of the sites requiring a password and username. Finally, something that worked seamlessly!

6. Project Management. Smartsheet has been my project management service for the last few months. I love that it has the ability to create an item and allow you to attach a document and discussion to that item. Rather than having to hunt down information about a project, all I had to do was log into my Smartsheet account and there it was.

7. Software licenses. Roughly 99% of the new software I install is downloaded and I don’t get a physical copy on CD. Therefore, I make sure that I have the downloaded version in a My Downloads folder that’s a part of My Docs file, which is backed up regularly. And, I make a PDF copy of the software license that I get by email and store in a Software folder, also in My Docs. Lastly, I purchased a very inexpensive program, Registration Vault, that lets me store all of my software license and purchase info and permits me to back up my data to My Docs. As I had to reinstall software on a new computer, it was easy to restore the Registration Vault files, get my software license number, and have a fully functioning piece of software within minutes.

8. Accounting. I use Quickbooks for my accounting needs, and while they do offer an online version, I haven’t yet moved to that. Instead, I back up Quickbooks after every use in the My Docs folder. When I needed to invoice consulting clients at the beginning of this month, all I had to do was reinstall Quickbooks and restore my latest backup. I instantly had everything I needed again at my fingertips.

9. Alternate free services. Some software I use, like CuteFTP and TraxTime, don’t permit data backups. So, I really do have to start all over with my FTP info and my time tracking info when my computer dies. Rather than installing these programs on the new computer, I just used some free alternatives to get me through. FireFTP, a Firefox add-on, has worked quite well for me as my FTP client, and MyHours.com has stood in fairly well for TraxTime, although it requires a few more steps for operation than TraxTime.

10. Email marketing. While not a tool, I discovered that both text and HTML versions of email broadcasts matter in email marketing. I wasn’t initially able to get my normal email client up and running, so I was reading my email from my webmail systems. I’ve got 2 hosting accounts, and the newer one has a fairly sophisticated webmail system and let me read HTML emails with no problem. The other, however, doesn’t permit HTML viewing. So, those emails sent only in HTML were ones that I was unable to read. If you’re wise and your email marketing program permits you to send emails out in both plain text and HTML, do it, even though it might seem like a needless pain. You just never know how members of your list might be forced to ready your emails.

As you might gather, I’ve discovered that online services have provided me with the greatest backup to help me through this computer crisis. My lesson? Duplicate as much as you can in online systems. In this way, you’ll have access to your data when you travel, when you have a computer crash, or when you’re faced with a natural disaster.

Carbonite vs Mozy: Which Online Backup Is Best?

Nick Kurentz — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:24:27 +0000

bestonlinestorage.com Carbonite backup vs Mozy-which online backup service is best? This review compares the two companies and provides a recommendation as to which computer backup solution is best. You can read the full Carbonite review here: bestonlinestorage.com You can read the Mozy backup review here: bestonlinestorage.com

Quitting Backup Software results in Stop Error Messages

Nick Kurentz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:12:20 +0000

Backup software installed on an operating system like Windows XP or 2000 enables you to create a backup of your critical data such as emails, digital images, documents, address books, bookmarks and other records. While backup software benefits you with a secure backup, it can sometimes result as STOP error message. The error message can make the system unbootable and data inaccessible. In such situations, backup created on some other storage media allows you to restore your lost data. However, in absence of an updated backup or backup falling short of restoring required data, you will need to recover the data by using advanced

data recovery .

As a practical scenario, when you quit your backup software in Windows XP or 2000 operating systems, you may receive any of the below STOP error messages:

“0×00000076 (PROCESS_HAS_LOCKED_PAGES)”

“0×000000CB (DRIVER_LEFT_LOCKED_PAGES_IN_PROCESS)”

The data saved in the hard drive becomes inaccessible after you encounter any of the above error messages.

Cause :

The root cause behind these error messages is the holding of locked user pages by the redirector driver ( Rdbss.sys ) when the original I/O (Input/Output) request packet (IRP) is canceled.

Resolution :

To troubleshoot and resolve both the error messages and access the data, you will need to use hotfix solution provided by Microsoft for both Windows XP and 2000. However, before applying the hotfix solution, make sure these conditions are true:

In case of Windows XP, you must have Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed.

In case of Windows 2000, you must have Windows 2000 Service Pack 3(SP3) installed.

After applying the hotfix solution, you need to restart your computer system. However, if you encounter the same errors after restarting your system, then you should go for Windows reinstall for the sake of system stability. A clean reinstall of Windows (XP or 2000) will erase all data from the selected hard drive partition. For absolute and systematic recovery and restoration of your lost data after reinstalling Windows (XP or 2000), you will need to use efficient

data recovery software . Such Data Recovery utilities comprehensively scan your formatted hard drive partition by using powerful scanning algorithms. These recovery tools are user-friendly tools designed to provide largely automated recovery where you just need to start the recovery process after selecting the affected partition. You can also select certain preferred file types that you are looking for or an instant recovery operation using application’s advanced features.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most reliable Data Recovery Software. It is compatible with more than 300 vivid file types that can be further extended. This read-only Data Recovery application supports FAT16, FAT32, vFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems based Windows partitions and volumes. It supports Windows Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000.

Quitting Backup Software results in Stop Error Messages

Nick Kurentz — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:16:57 +0000

data recovery .

As a practical scenario, when you quit your backup software in Windows XP or 2000 operating systems, you may receive any of the below STOP error messages:

“0×00000076 (PROCESS_HAS_LOCKED_PAGES)”

“0×000000CB (DRIVER_LEFT_LOCKED_PAGES_IN_PROCESS)”

The data saved in the hard drive becomes inaccessible after you encounter any of the above error messages.

Cause :

The root cause behind these error messages is the holding of locked user pages by the redirector driver ( Rdbss.sys ) when the original I/O (Input/Output) request packet (IRP) is canceled.

Resolution :

In case of Windows XP, you must have Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed.

In case of Windows 2000, you must have Windows 2000 Service Pack 3(SP3) installed.

Data Backups Are Nothing Without Software

Nick Kurentz — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:11:56 +0000

There’s nothing that will work without the right parts and that goes for data backups as well. For those of you that already know, the online backup software that any remote backups company uses is the engine that drives their success. Without the right software nothing good gets saved. Remote Data Backups And that’s what these remote data backups are really all about. They want you to feel safe using their services and the best way they can do that is to reassure you that their brand of online backup software is the one that will get the job done and keep all of your mission critical data safe. Safe Location You need to be sure that the company you’ve put your trust in can in fact do the job and save all of you data in a safe location where it wont be corrupted or stolen, and some of the best places in the world that do this kind of business swear by two names that are big brands in the IT field. The top companies like Cisco and HP provide the firewall and server technology. It’s essential that any of the remote backups companies have a plan to show clients that can impress them. After all, this companies are asking people to trust their most valuable asset, their information, to them. For that reason their website should have detailed explanations on them about what the firm can offer. Look for a section on the online backup software that’s being used and the security features as well. Affiliate Testimonials It’s also helpful to have a look at what they have to offer their affiliates and what kinds of accolades they get from them if any. You can tell a lot about a company by the way they treat their resellers and how many of those people are willing to testify on the website. All in all, you need to consider a few factors when you’re looking for a company to handle your data backups. It’s a simple process that you need to turn over to a trusted set of professionals who can take data protection worries off your hands.

Getting The Best Online Backup Services

Nick Kurentz — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:44:18 +0000

Anyone in business will be able to tell you that there are numerous possibilities on the Internet as far as new profits are concerned, but those same people are also the first to tell you that one of the pratfalls of this new business model is the threats that can destroy all of your stored data quickly. That’s why you need to choose the best online backup services that you can find and like anything else, there are both good and bad companies to choose from.

What To Look For.

And it stands to reason that there are several things that you’ll want to look for to ensure that you get the best in online backups. When you keep in mind that these places are all about saving your mission critical data in a safe secure location, you’ll understand right away why there’s a need for the best software. That means that you’ll need to have some understanding of what the best of this software does.

Software Features Look for user friendliness at the top of the list. And there are quite a few things that entails but most of the experts agree that having the right automatic file back up feature is essential. The reason is simple.

The more you work the more you’ll need to save and the busier you get the slimmer the chances that you’ll remember to go through all the necessary backup procedures that you’ll need to follow if you’re on your own. Here, all the smart money points toward getting the best in online backups so that you can get the piece of mind that comes with knowing all of your mission critical data is safe and secure.

Remember too that it’s great to have email backup alerts that tell you when you haven’t been in touch with your online backup subscription recently. What it comes down to is the fact that you need an online backup system that has the best features in their software to take the burden of worrying about the backups off your hands.

You’ll want to make sure that you get the company that’s got the best reputation as well. Look for the testimonials on their site so that you can make an informed decision. As well, you can ask friends and colleagues about who they’ve used in the past or who they think might be a good choice.