backups

FEBE stands for Firefox Environment Backup Extension. It's a free add-on that can back up, save, and restore everything from add-ons and themes to, well, everything in Firefox: bookmarks, passwords, preferences, saved forms, and more--even your entire profile. You can schedule automatic backups or start them any time, and even upload saved results. It's got some extras, too.

FEBE installs like any Firefox add-in but also adds its own entry on the Tools menu, with choices to make backups, restore items or profiles, and access FEBE's options; we also accessed the options from the Firefox add-ons manager. … Read more

Carbon Copy Cloner is a simple, donation-ware utility for cloning entire drives, performing incremental backups, and scheduling ongoing backups. This app has a long track record as one of the most useful and reliable disk utilities available, and its interface and features (especially for scheduling) have only gotten better. Its also kept up with the Mac OS, adding support for HFS+ filesystem compression. Other recent updates have integrated support and documentation into the app better, speeded up recovery of files from damaged volumes, and ensured that Carbon Copy Cloner excludes the Time Machine database.

Carbon Copy Cloner makes it very … Read more

Most utilities that promise to clean, tweak, and protect your PC share a shortcoming: they do too much and too little. They give users little control over the sweeping changes they make, sometimes disastrously. WinSettings Pro from FileStream offers plenty of control, but it requires more knowledge and effort than the "all-in-one" tools. However, that's precisely why we recommend it over the free and cheap alternatives.

WinSettings Pro's primary access point is an icon in the Notification Area, aka system tray. The program's stylishly skinned interface and Windows-style layout is anchored by the Group Bar, … Read more

Time Machine is a convenient backup system and we recommend all Mac users enable it or otherwise regularly back up their data. Besides its uses, Time Machine does have a couple of quirks, and one is that after using Time Machine for a while some people may find the system has created backups for multiple systems in the "backups.backupdb" folder on the Time Machine drive.

When Time Machine runs, it will store all backup instances in a folder that is given the name of the current system, so if you connect it to a computer called "… Read more

Why would anyone want to be in the consumer data backup business? Even if you have a great, useful, cheap product, most people simply won't bother to use it. You might as well be selling dental floss. It's got to be depressing.

Erik Zamkoff runs a relative newcomer in this space, MiMedia. He likes selling dental floss. And he has two clever tricks to get more people to use his cloud backup service.

First, he takes the data and media his service's users upload and gives it back to them online in a nice, organized Web viewer … Read more

Windows comes with so many fonts you'd need a warehouse for them all if they were old-fashioned metal typesets. Digital fonts are virtual, but they do consume disk space and memory. They can slow down your boot-up if you've got a lot of them, which is quite possible if you've installed any software. Lots of programs add their own font sets, and Windows loads them all every time you start your PC. FontFrenzy from Sound Doctrine is a free utility that can boost your system's performance by removing and backing up all non-Windows fonts. Most programs … Read more

Live and learn, my friends: if you don't make regular backups, you're asking for trouble.

"Hello, may I have some trouble, please?"

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

"Oh, if only I hadn't asked for that."

I know backups are a pain, but all you need is one of the dirt-cheap external hard drives I regularly post here and the right software.

Let's talk about the latter. Today only, Giveaway of the Day has Paragon Backup and Recovery 10 Home Special Edition absolutely free. … Read more

There are plenty of options--from iTunes to DoubleTwist to Windows Media Player--that will keep the average consumer satisfied in terms of basic multimedia organization and playback. However, if you count yourself among those creative or persnickety enough to delve into the realm of audio and video editing, you may want to consider some more fully featured media tools.

That's where Nero's latest products come into play. Today, the company announced Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Platinum HD and Video Premium HD, two solutions for "creative enthusiasts" that will be available October 15 for $129.99 and $… Read more

These days, most file compression activities are baked into your operating system, but there are still plenty of reasons to get a specialized compression utility. With StuffIt 2011 for Mac--exclusive to CNET Downloads today--you can create customized "Destinations" that let you drag and drop files or folders for automated compression and sending. Want to compress to ZIP format and upload via FTP, for example? With a quick setup, you can create your custom destination beforehand with your preferred compression algorithm, and you'll never have to worry about flipping through menus for this destination again. To top … Read more