backups

Data backup: Top portable drives for home users (roundup)

Having up-to-date backups of your data is like insurance, we all need it and at the same time never want to have to resort to it.

Though backing up data is not required by law, the consequences of not doing it are often so huge that it's fair to call those who don't frequently back up their important data, well, reckless, irresponsible, or just simply foolish. The truth is, when you realize that the originals of your important documents or photos are gone because of a hard-drive crash or losing your laptop, being called names is the least of your worries.

Now there's an easy fix. Here's a list of our top portable hard drives that make backing up data a no-brainer. Take a look and get yourself one if you don't already have a backup solution in place. … Read more

How to move the My Documents folder

Are you afraid that your computer will crash one day and take all your valuable data with it? A proactive way to help avoid data loss is to move your documents, photos, music, etc., from the Windows system drive to another physical drive.

Windows uses special folders like, My Documents, for quick access to files, but are stored on the system drive (C:), alongside the Windows operating system. Here's how to change the default location of the special folders:

Step 1: Browse to C:\Users\username, where "username" is the name of your Windows user account.

Step … Read more

Pogoplug Mobile adds backup, storage, streaming to Android, iOS devices

Cloud Engines' new Pogoplug Mobile is a small box that plugs into your home router and streams your media libraries to your Android or iOS device.

That may sound familiar to anyone already familiar with the Pogoplug line of products, but the Mobile adds one key feature to the mix: it automatically backs up photos and videos captured with your phone or tablet.

Its name and diminutive size notwithstanding, the Mobile is not a portable device. Instead, it resides alongside your router and relies on one of three sources for storage: your PC(s), a USB hard drive or flash drive plugged directly into the unit, or an SD card.… Read more

How to manage iCloud storage on iOS 5

One of the growing pains for iCloud users is the fact that 5GB just might not be enough space, and paying for more space isn't that appealing to most.

Thankfully, Apple allows you to manage what information is backed up and stored on iCloud from your iOS device, giving you the capability to free up valuable space on your iCloud account.

To manage iCloud storage on your iOS device:

Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage.You will be presented with the device(s) you are backing up to iCloud. Tapping on the device … Read more

Tackling Time Machine slowdowns in OS X

Having a full-system backup is highly recommended for any computer, and for most people Apple's Time Machine backup utility is a great way to make hourly backups that each can be restored as a full and bootable image of your system. Unfortunately, despite its benefits Time Machine does have a number of glitches that a small number of people continually experience, with one of them being slow and hanging backups.

When slow backups occur in Time Machine, the system may sit constantly in its preparing mode, or it may crawl through a few kilobytes of data and seem to … Read more

Nero 11 multimedia suite does it all

Released today, version 11 of Nero's one-stop multimedia suite adds a more integrated interface, photobook printing, picture-in-picture video support, and so much more to what was already an impressive list of editing, burning, backup, and organization tools. With its solid basic features and its new higher-level additions, it appears to be a potential workflow solution for casual media enthusiasts and prosumers alike.

With an improved user experience in mind, Nero's developers have reconstructed the suite with each of its main application's interfaces looking and feeling more consistent throughout. There's also a convenient new MediaBrowser, which gives … Read more

How to get your iPhone ready for iOS 5

Four months after it was releaed in June at Apple's WWDC, iOS 5, the next major version of the software that powers Apple's iPods, iPhones, and iPads, will release today. By now, you're probably ready for the handy new features, tweaked UI, new Twitter integration, and everything else (read what we've learned so far of iOS 5), but is your iOS device ready?

To make sure your iPhone is set up for the launch of the latest iOS, we've put together a step-by-step guide for making sure it is primed for the update.

Editors' note: … Read more

Bitcasa moves your hard drive to the cloud

One of the most technically audacious companies I've seen announced itself at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference yesterday: Bitcasa.

Technically, it's a virtualized primary storage company. With this product, your main storage is actually in the "cloud," and because of that, it's pretty much unlimited. Your local hard drive is used--heavily--for the cache. If the technology works, this architecture should give you storage that's just as fast as a local-only hard drive, but with more capacity and reliability. Bitcasa will cost $10 a month with no storage cap for users. (A free version will be &… Read more

How to back up browsing data for nearly any browser

I like Chrome quite a bit, but I know others who swear by the latest Firefox, Opera, or IE browsers. Chrome lets you transfer browsing data easily, but it can get frustrating to share information like passwords, bookmarks, and so on using different browsers. FavBackup is a great, free Windows utility that lets you transfer data painlessly using many popular browsers. Here's how to use it:

Download, install and run FavBackup. (The download page also lists supported browsers, so you may want to check that out first.) Select your browser from the icons presented at the top, … Read more

Free services protect your e-mail

Technologies come and go, but e-mail just keeps chugging along. According to a Pew Internet report released August 9, search and e-mail remain the most popular Internet activities: 92 percent of online adults use search engines, and 59 percent use them on an average day; e-mail is also used by 92 percent of adults online, 61 percent of whom use it on a typical day.

So it's no surprise e-mail scams continue to proliferate. The FBI's New E-Scams & Warnings page is alerting people to scam e-mails purporting to be raising money to help victims of Hurricane Irene. … Read more