backup

Over the years I've shared a variety of DVD rippers, but most of them were designed to copy your movies to other formats: iPod, Android phone, MPEG-4, and so on.

Digiarty Software's new WinX DVD Copy Pro was built for DVD backups. It can clone a disc, turn it into an ISO image file, or convert it to MPEG-2.

The program normally costs $35.95, but today only, you can get WinX DVD Copy Pro absolutely free.

The software comes courtesy of Giveaway of the Day, a great source for freebies like this one. There are no strings … Read more

The trash in OS X is generally used to delete items, but because items can be placed in the trash without being immediately deleted, people commonly end up storing items in the trash. When this happens it may be difficult to remember exactly where the items originated from on disk, so if you empty the trash and then need to recover a document it may be difficult to locate it using Time Machine. You can use Spotlight searching from within Time Machine to try to locate the file (using Quick Look to help this procedure); however, there are times when … Read more

This is an update of a deal I posted last year.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you don't make regular backups, you're asking for trouble.

"I'd like some some trouble, please."

"Why, certainly. Please wait a moment while I destroy your financial records, family photos, music library, work documents, and other irreplaceable data."

"Rats. If only I hadn't asked for that!"

I know backups are a pain, but all you need is some decent software and one of the dirt-cheap external hard drives … Read more

Disk Drill for Mac is an easy-to-use data-recovery tool with a limited free version and more-robust (and more expensive) Pro, Expert, and Enterprise packages. The free Disk Drill Basic can help you protect your computer from future data loss (whether accidental trashing or as the result of more serious hardware problems), while you'll need to pay for at least Disk Drill Pro if you've already lost data that you need to recover.

What sets Disk Drill apart is its slimmed-down interface and almost painfully user-friendly documentation. If you're looking for a data recovery app with a good … Read more

Android doesn't offer a native backup service, so it's easy to ignore the need to do so. But don't wait until it's too late to start thinking about backing up your phone. Many of us rely on our phone cameras to snap day-to-day photos of our lives and save text messages to have some of the most important conversations. So before a thief swipes that phone, or a spilled cup of coffee bricks it, follow these tips:

Google has your back. Go to Settings > Privacy, and make sure that "Back up my settings" … Read more

iPhone owners who store files online through Mozy can now access those files remotely courtesy of the company's new iPhone app.

Released last week for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, the mobile version of Mozy allows users of the service to retrieve and view their online files directly on their mobile devices. Before you can use Mozy on the iPhone, you need to set up a Mozy account and then install the client software on your computer from where you back up your files. Once that's done, you can access any of those files on your mobile … Read more

Hello, world! Today it's your Backup Day. World Backup Day is a new idea promoted by a small team of Redditors, and it's a good idea. You can never be too careful when it comes to backing up.

By the way, this is about your data, and not calling your buddies over for help in a hostile situation, which is not really my area of expertise. So let's talk backups!

Basically it means putting your data in multiple places so that if something happens to one place (let's say you forget your laptop on the top of your car and subsequently back over it), that important PowerPoint presentation you've been working on isn't lost.

Backing up is much easier than you might think. For example, if you've been working on an important essay, you can just e-mail it once in a while to your mom or to yourself. Just make sure you use an online free e-mail service, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or all of them. This goes for photos as well. If you remember to e-mail them to your mom when you have new ones (and she'll probably appreciate that very much), chances are she'll save them for you on her computer, and even if not, they are still in the Sent Items folder of your online e-mail account in case you have lost the originals.

Obviously, e-mailing can only handle a relatively small amount of data and you'll have to remember to do that manually. If you have many files that need backing up, you'll want something more robust. This is when a backup plan is necessary.

Online backup Similar to e-mailing, an online backup plan provides you with a certain amount of storage space that you can access over the Internet, aka "the cloud." And no, your data is not flying in the sky, it's stored and managed on one or multiple servers located in different parts of the world. There are many online backup services, such as Amazon S3, McAfee, Mozy, or even Comcast. … Read more

Dan Ackerman joins us today from our New York office. He's been building a man-cave in a small Manhattan apartment and shares his experiences. Plus, week 6 of Rafe's adventures with Synology servers. And your burning questions answered, including: can one go overboard on antivirus apps?

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

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Some users have been experiencing issues when attempting to back up their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, especially when installing iOS updates like 4.3.1. Mac OS X Hints user renaultssoftware describes the issue:

"It was giving me 2 errors: 'Couldn't retrieve profile from Sync Services--unplug and replug iPhone' and 'Couldn't backup iPhone.' Having restarted, and unplugged/replugged the iPhone, it still wouldn't back up, or even update to iOS 4.3.1. The situation was very vexing."

Users on Apple's Support Discussions forums are finding other backup issues with their iOS device. … Read more