What NOT to do When Your Hard Drive Crashes

With the amount of use most of us put on our computers these days, a hard drive crash can mean quite a panic. Not only are more people using their computers for their small businesses (both home based and otherwise) than ever before, but many people now have almost all personal information stored on their hard drives as well. This information can include obvious personal documentation such as digital pictures, videos, important documents, and calendars with date reminders, as well as information that is not so obvious, such as passwords to various banking services and other online businesses. Your hard drive may also maintain a record of web sites and services that you have used, which for many people is a deeply private matter.

When your hard drive containing all of this information does crash, many people will make hasty decisions on how to rectify the problem as their immediate concern is restoring the information and getting their lives back on track. Hasty action is often the wrong thing to do, however, especially where your personal information is concerned; one of the things to avoid when it comes to a hard drive crash is jumping on the first opportunity that comes along to get your information restored.

Most people will immediately look through the Yellow Pages to get the problem fixed, but this may lead you to a computer store or the computer department of a big box store. Retail stores are generally not the way to go when it comes to data recovery. The process can take a long time and in the end your information is not as important to them as fixing the problem with your computer; many times they will simply install new components or operating systems with no regard to the lost information. Not to mention, there is always the issue of privacy guarantees when it comes to these options or even using a close friend.

What, then, are the options when it comes to recovering your hard drive information? Well, just as you would go to a service store that specialized in tires when getting winters, you should go to a data recovery center for restoring your hard drive. These companies make their businesses solely from restoring your information, not from selling you a new hard drive. This specialized service is in itself a guarantee of the work involved. Their skill and their reputation for keeping private information private are necessary in order to stay in business.

Never use the services of a friend or generic computer shop when it comes to hard drive recovery. It simply is not worth the risk either to your hard drive, your information, or your peace of mind. These options are acceptable when it comes to computer repairs, but information is a specialty that should only be handled by experts.

Are You Still Not Backing up Your Data?

With the amount of use most of us put on our computers these days, a hard drive crash can mean quite a panic. Not only are more people using their computers for their small businesses (both home based and otherwise) than ever before, but many people now have almost all personal information stored on their hard drives as well. This information can include obvious personal documentation such as digital pictures, videos, important documents, and calendars with date reminders, as well as information that is not so obvious, such as passwords to various banking services and other online businesses. Your hard drive may also maintain a record of web sites and services that you have used, which for many people is a deeply private matter.

When your hard drive containing all of this information does crash, many people will make hasty decisions on how to rectify the problem as their immediate concern is restoring the information and getting their lives back on track. Hasty action is often the wrong thing to do, however, especially where your personal information is concerned; one of the things to avoid when it comes to a hard drive crash is jumping on the first opportunity that comes along to get your information restored.

Most people will immediately look through the Yellow Pages to get the problem fixed, but this may lead you to a computer store or the computer department of a big box store. Retail stores are generally not the way to go when it comes to data recovery. The process can take a long time and in the end your information is not as important to them as fixing the problem with your computer; many times they will simply install new components or operating systems with no regard to the lost information. Not to mention, there is always the issue of privacy guarantees when it comes to these options or even using a close friend.

What, then, are the options when it comes to recovering your hard drive information? Well, just as you would go to a service store that specialized in tires when getting winters, you should go to a data recovery center for restoring your hard drive. These companies make their businesses solely from restoring your information, not from selling you a new hard drive. This specialized service is in itself a guarantee of the work involved. Their skill and their reputation for keeping private information private are necessary in order to stay in business.

Never use the services of a friend or generic computer shop when it comes to hard drive recovery. It simply is not worth the risk either to your hard drive, your information, or your peace of mind. These options are acceptable when it comes to computer repairs, but information is a specialty that should only be handled by experts.

THE BENEFITS OF BACKUP SYSTEMS

Remote backup is fast becoming an alternative to traditional backup procedures. Most businesses do not rely on online remote backup as a single source for storage of critical data, but instead use it in addition to traditional backup solutions. It affords them a third storage area and data recovery source in the event of a catastrophic disaster. A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files.
Online backup systems are typically built around a client software program that runs on a schedule, usually once a day. This program collects, compresses, encrypts, and transfers the data to the remote backup service provider's servers.

A feature of some services is the capability to back up the primary site data plus remote offices and branch offices in a relatively seamless manner.
The ability to back up files that are extensively opened, such as Outlook files or SQL database files can be useful. Such ability allows IT administrators to run back up jobs any time of the day, not requiring setting aside server maintenance time. Most online backup products need an add-on for this.
A Multi-platform backup service can back up multiple platforms such as the various flavors of Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/UNIX.
A continuous backup feature allows the tool to back up continuously or on a predefined schedule. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Most backup tools are schedule-based and perform backups at a predetermined time. Some services provide continuous data backups which are used by large financial institutions and large online retailers. However, there is typically a tradeoff with performance and system resources.

Some services allow you to access your backed up files via a normal web browser. Many tools do not provide this type of functionality.
A way to minimize network traffic is to transfer only the binary data that has changed from one day to the next. The more serious tools use this method rather than transfer entire files. Tools originally designed for network backup use this method.

Remote backup has advantages over traditional backup methods. Remote backup does not require user intervention. The user does not have to change tapes, label CDs or perform other manual steps. It maintains data offsite. Perhaps the most important aspect of backing up is that backups are stored in a different location from the original data. Traditional backup requires manually taking the backup media offsite. Some remote backup services will work continuously, backing up files as they are changed, but most remote backup services will maintain a list of versions of your files.

These computer backup systems might have, though, some disadvantages. Depending on the available network bandwidth, the restoration of data can be slow. Because data is stored offsite, the data must be recovered either via the Internet or via tape.
Often business might look at data storage in another state as additional protection against data loss, especially if the original area is prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. Online and remote backup is gaining in popularity for the safety and security of the data. The idea is you download your data through an online process to a remote location that stores the data in a secure environment. Your company has access to the data 24/7 for recovery needs or further backup.

Could you recreate the emails, documents and photos on your home computer in the event of a virus or hard drive failure? If your computer was stolen would you be able to recreate or restore all the memories taken? With Empyreal Systems Online Backup you could rest easy that no matter what your data is safe and accessible only by you 24x7x365Online Backup by Empyreal Systems http://empyrealsystems.com/

Using Online Data Storage

Most people don't realize how convenient online data storage really is in these days using email storage services. The benefits for storing excess data online and freeing up space on your own hard drive is becoming a popular trend. Backing up information that could be lost if something is to go wrong on the current storage media is another very common use of online data storage.

Instead of going through a process of sending data from one computer to the next, online data storage makes files easier to access from all around the world. You can backup those pictures and important documents online for free by opening an account with a free online storage provider and access them from any internet connection.

Online data storage is an excellent way to back up files in a place that can always be counted on to find your what you backed up. Internal and external hard drives can't always be counted on for your back up needs. An internal hard drive can simply crash and you will lose all your information you thought was safe forever. An external hard drive can be stolen, or misplaced. This is why online storage sites are becoming more common for the home user and businesses.

Accessibility is everything nowadays. You don't have to go out and buy a huge pack of cds to back up all your material. Online data storage is quick and simple way for the home user or business person to quickly store information and access it at another time with out having to go through the loops of searching for everything on a computer or back up disks. Most websites will allow you to login with a secure password and access your data from anywhere in the world. Have you ever been at work and needed to access a document that would normally be stored on your home computer? This is no longer a problem when taking advantage of the advice provided by this article.

There are many different websites that promise many things when it comes to online data storage. A good way to makes sure the site that you pick is safe and reliable is to read up on the website's history and check reviews by other users that happen to frequent the site for their back up needs. Make sure the usual online subjects are present on the storage website. Also, review the terms and privacy policies to ensure you know where you understand how your data is held.

Protecting your data by backing it up online has never been so easy and free. Be a smart user and keep your important files online for the sake of the data and ease of access.


This article was written for our friends at 30Gigs.com to inform people about online data storage solutions. Article written and distributed by Steve Cancel, IT Manager of Secure Link.

Save your Outlook Express email and address book to an archived file every once in a while

If you have hundred of emails stored inside Outlook Express or Ms Outlook on your hard drive, which is not present on any other computer ( such as a server ) this article is a must read, it contains free, useful information about how to locate and save your email files to a CD or secondary hard drive.

Outlook Express and Ms Outlook stores your email and address book in some files on the local hard drive(s) of your computer. In many cases this email is NOT stored on any webserver, as is deleted from the mail server as soon as is downloaded.

The average computer user has several thousands of the emails, contacts, several rules and a few signatures, all stored on the local computer and vulnerable to viruses or other disasters that can make a PC unfunctional.

Our advice: you should consider saving these email files from time to time to a safe archived copy ( usually on a CD, or a separate hard drive ) and if ever you have problems with your PC you will be easily able to restore the email.

It is incredible how many people do NOT save copies of their Outlook Express email files; and when a disaster strikes, they will reinstall all software, copy back pictures and some documents from CDs, but all their email is gone. Forever.

Viruses, power failures, software failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!

Many users do not need an complex ( and expensive ) backup software, as they can easily copy all the important home made videos, pictures, documents, and important files to CDs or DVDs, from where they can be easily copied back when needed. However, the email is most of the time harder to copy because not all home users know where to find it, and which files should be copied.

This article contains a detailed tutorial of where these files are located and how to copy them to a safe place. Also, you can use a software that does it fast and most important, automated at regular period of time. It is very important to do the process right, or you will end up with an unusable, incomplete backup copy.

While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.

The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.

After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V. To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:

a.. Select Tools | Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.
b.. Choose File | Export | Other Address Book...from the address book's menu.
c.. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.
d.. Click Export.
e.. Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button.
f.. Give your backup copy a meaningful name.
g.. Click Next.
h.. Select the fields you want to include in your backup.
i.. Finally, select Finish.
j.. Click OK.
k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, I hope).

Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blocked list, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients.

The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are of course, free. The conclusion is that either manual or automatic, backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.

A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can be found at:
http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/


http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/

Fast and Reliable Recovery of Microsoft Office Documents

What would you value most in a data recovery solution should you lose an important document? Would it be speed, convenience, or ease of use? These things surely matter for all kinds of computer software, but data recovery has one specific demand that outweighs everything else by a huge margin. This factor is reliability of the recovery.

Microsoft Office documents store results of many hours, days or even years of work of practically all office employees and most people who use their computers at home. Microsoft Word dominates the market of word processors, and most if not all documents are stored in RTF and its proprietary DOC formats. Microsoft Excel and its XLS file format dominate spreadsheet market. Most presentations are created in Microsoft PowerPoint and stored in PPT files, and most charts and drawings are drawn in Microsoft Visio and saved as VSD files. Combined, files in these formats occupy significant space on the users' hard drives, and represent hours and hours of work, much more than any other file format.

In an unfortunate case of hard disk crash or file system failure, what would you try to recover the hardest? Would it be a set of software products such as Windows or Office itself, which you can easily re-install from the original CD or DVD, or would it be files and documents you spent your personal time working on? Unless you have a fresh backup of your documents somewhere, the documents are impossible to simply re-install. If you have a recent copy of your Office documents, that's great! But what if your backup is several days old, and you've put a lot of work into these documents? Or even worse, what if you don't have a backup at all?

Recover latest versions of your deleted documents even after a hard drive failure with DiskInternals Office Recovery securely and reliably. Unlike general-use undelete and data recovery tools, DiskInternals Office Recovery strongly benefits from being designed specifically to handle documents stored in Microsoft Office format.

General-use recovery products scan the computer's file system in order to locate files that were deleted or corrupt because of a hard drive failure. However, they frequently fail to work properly if the file system itself is damaged, which happens a lot after hard drive failures.

DiskInternals Office Recovery scans entire surface of your hard drive in order to locate all Microsoft Office documents that are still there. In order to find the documents, it uses a set of signatures that are characteristic for the Office file types. The file system is also scanned in order to retrieve the names of the files. The results of disk scan are matched against information contained in the file system, and you are presented with a complete list of all Microsoft Office documents that are on the disk and that are still possible to recover.

Quite often you don't want to see the list of all Microsoft Office documents that were ever saved on your computer. There's no point in spending time scrolling through an endless list of files if you just need the latest revision of a PPT presentation or an XLS spreadsheet, but you need that document right away. DiskInternals Office Recovery offers an extensive set of filters allowing you to display only the files that you need with just a few mouse clicks. If you need a DOC file that you know you worked with today, you simply activate the File Format and Date filters, and only the Word documents that were modified on this day will be displayed. If you don't remember the name of the file, but know its title or the person who created the document, the Title and Author filters will show you those files. Similarly, if you only remember a line or even a few words of text from the document, you can instantly locate that particular file by activating the Text filter.

With full document preview in the free evaluation version, there are no worries or surprises in buying DiskInternals Office Recovery. Download the free trial version from www.diskinternals.com and see for yourself that it is fully capable to do the job!