Workers' Edge

There's simply no reason for any computer user to lose important data.

My hat is off to the tech companies that provide the hardware, software, and services we rely on every day. From Microsoft's Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista (though only partially implemented in the Home Edition), down to the smallest Web start-ups offering free and easy online storage (though you have to pay for unlimited storage capacity), they have made tremendous strides in helping to keep our valuable data safe. Now it's up to us to take advantage of these great products and services.

For full backups, image is everything
Start with a complete image backup of your hard drive using a program such as Acronis True Image Home. The program is so much easier to use than the backup utility built into Windows Vista and XP that it's worth spending $50 to keep it beyond the 15-day trial period. I create an image backup of the hard drives on three of the five PCs on my home network once or twice a year, depending on how much use they're getting. (The other two are test systems that are constantly reset to their defaults anyway.)

It can take five or more 4.7GB DVD discs to back up a big-capacity hard drive, so you may want to consider buying an external hard drive to simplify the process. Just remember to keep the external drive in a location other than next to your PC to prevent both being damaged or stolen at the same time.

Go casual for your day-to-day file backups
Over the years I have gotten into the habit of duplicating my important files on a regular basis: either by e-mailing them to myself and setting my mail server to save copies of all mail after it is downloaded to the PC; sending them in batches via ftp to the Web-server storage that's included in my ISP account; or burning a copy of the 1GB USB thumb drive I use as my primary file-storage location to a DVD. (Adding the storage folders on the thumb drive to my Save As dialog boxes in Office took only a couple of minutes.)

Online backup fills in the gaps
You might think that these occasional image backups and regular, informal file backups would have me covered. But recently I faced a situation where neither backup approach was appropriate. One of my three XP machines is showing signs of old age and may be ready to cash in its chips. I have gotten more than my money's worth out of this trusty, old hunk of metal, which served as my primary work system for three years before being converted to a test PC about three years ago. In that capacity it has been through the wringer: I've downloaded, installed, and uninstalled dozens of programs onto its 30GB hard drive.

Before I consign it to a shelf in the garage with the other PC wrecks, I need to get my personal files off its hard drive (which I'll probably pound a few nails through before I take it to our local electronics recycler). I've plugged at least two different digital cameras into this system, and several different audio players, all of which seem to use their own software. I've also used at least a dozen other applications at one time or another. Who knows where all these programs have put my images, audio files, and various documents and spreadsheets?

Instead of hunting down all these files before pulling the plug on the PC, I signed up for a free account at IDrive, which makes it easy to ferret out these files. The free version of the service gives you 2GB of storage with no limitations on the number of backups and restores. It also lets you perform continuous backups as frequently as every 10 minutes, and it doesn't delete your files on its servers after a period of time, as other free backup services do.

In the past, I have tried many online-backup services, including industry-leaders XDrive (now owned by AOL) and Mozy, both of which offer free limited-storage versions. But IDrive is the most straightforward of the three to sign up for and use.

Getting started with IDrive requires only a name, an e-mail address, and a password. You're given the option to use IDrive's encryption key, or to create your own based on a separate password of your own devising. After you download the client program used for your backups, you select the file locations and types you want to back up, or choose the service's automatic option, which includes the usual file-storage folders on your system.

Choose IDrive's default encryption for your backup files, or devise a key (password) of your own.

(Credit: IDrive)

Backing up the personal files on my old XP PC went smoothly, though it took just over five hours to transmit 450MB of files to the service. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to use more than the 2GB available for the free account, so I upgraded to the IDrive Pro service, which costs $5 a month or $50 a year. The Pro account lets you manage several accounts with a single log-in and from one console, though each PC has to have its own account. The exception to this is if you need to restore the backup of a crashed PC to another (the scenario I'm anticipating I'll have to use someday).

View the progress of your IDrive online backup as it proceeds, including the estimated time remaining.

(Credit: IDrive)

While the initial IDrive backup can take several hours if you're saving hundreds of megabytes of data, subsequent backups are much faster, and the service's automatic-backup settings make them nearly transparent. You can also sync online files with your local PC, and view your files and other account information from any Internet-connected PC via its Web interface.

Tomorrow: registry freeware you shouldn't compute without.

If you rely solely on System Restore for your Windows backups, you're asking for trouble. Yes, the restore points created automatically by XP and Vista, and those I create myself, have saved my system from a failure on many occasions. But too often I've attempted to turn back the clock only to be informed that my computer could not be restored, or some similar error message.

Troubleshooting System Restore defeats the purpose, though it can be done; here are some instructions from Microsoft for doing so in Windows XP. If you use Vista, you've got much better backup tools at your disposal, so there's really no excuse for being caught without a backup in that OS (see more on Vista's backup utilities below). Here's a rundown on how to keep System Restore healthy in XP.

Don't expect miracles. System Restore won't protect your PC from viruses and other malware, and you may be restoring the viruses along with your system settings. It will guard against software conflicts and bad device driver updates. It doesn't affect data files in My Documents, Favorites, Cookies, and elsewhere, nor will it back up e-mail, or graphics files.

New accounts will be wiped out. If you created any new user accounts since the last restore point was set, they'll be erased, though any data files that user created will remain.

Newly installed software is only partially removed. System Restore deletes executable files and DLLs added after the restore point was created, but not the programs' shortcuts and other files. Uninstall the applications using Windows Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel prior to the restoration, and then reinstall it afterwards, if you wish.

Disabling System Restore wipes out your restore points. When you turn off System Restore, all existing restore points are lost. Also, you can't create a restore point while your system is in Safe Mode, so any restores performed in that mode cannot be undone.

Here are some ways to fix XP's System Restore:

Check your disk space: Right-click My Computer, choose Properties > System Restore, and move the slider left to reduce the amount of disk space reserved for restore points (thus reducing their total number), or right to add more space for more restore points. System Restore stops creating restore points when the amount of free space on the drive or partition falls below 50MB, and starts again when it reaches 200MB.

Avoid corrupt restore files: If your machine shuts down improperly while a restore point is being created, you may not be able to access that restore point. Likewise, making changes to a system file on a dual-boot machine can corrupt the restore point.

Peruse the event logs: Click Start > Run, type eventvwr.msc /s, and press Enter. Click System in the left pane, select the Sources tab in the right, and double-click entries with "sr" or "srservice" to view the description for hints at the source of the problem.

Nothing beats an image backup
As I mentioned above, if you use Windows Vista, there's no excuse for relying on System Restore for your system backup. And XP's built-in Backup utility is better than no backup, though it can't replace a disk-imaging program for reliability and convenience. If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and create an image backup of your hard drive.

In Vista, press the Windows key, type backup and restore center, and press Enter. Click Back up computer, choose a location for your backup (you can't store it on the same drive you're backing up), click Next, check the drives/partitions/devices you want to back up, click Next again, and then Start backup.

Click "Back up computer" in Vista's Backup and Restore Center to create an image backup of your hard drive.

To use XP's clunkier backup utility, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup, and step through the wizard, or click Advanced Mode, then the Backup tab, and choose which drives and folders you wish to back up.

Windows XP's Backup utility lacks the ability to create image backups of your drive, but it's better than no backup at all.

Note that restoring from this type of backup can be tedious, so consider investing in an image backup program, such as Acronis's $50 True Image Home (15-day free trial).

Tomorrow: supercharge your browser.

There's something about Microsoft Outlook that reminds me of the old Soviet Union: the program wants to centralize everything and store it in one big PST file that only it can access. There may be advantages to this approach to managing your e-mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar, but you know what can happen when you put all your eggs in one basket.

That's why it makes sense to move copies of your important Outlook files to folders that live outside the Office system. Saving messages and other data to local storage is relatively easy, whether you move them one at a time or in bunches. Note that this is different than backing up (or archiving) the messages, which I'll also describe.

To save a single message to a local folder, open it, and in Outlook 2003, click File > Save As, or in Outlook 2007 click the Office button and choose Save As twice. In both versions, navigate to the folder you want to use, choose a file type in the Save as type drop-down menu, and click Save. Note that in Outlook 2003, the message subject becomes the file name, but in Outlook 2007 you have to give the file a name.

The two most common formats for e-mail are HTML (.htm or .html) and Text Only (.txt): the former opens the message in a browser and preserves the look of the original, but the latter ensures that the message will open in just about any program.

You can also save multiple messages simultaneously by Ctrl-clicking to select them, or Ctrl-A to save them all, and then choosing File > Save As in Outlook 2003, or the Office button and Save As twice in Outlook 2007. They'll all be saved as a single text file, and you'll have to give the file a name. Each message in the file begins with the word "From".

To move an entire folder to your hard drive or other local storage, click File > Import and Export, choose Export to a file, click Next, select Comma Separated Values (Windows), click Next again, choose the folder you want to export, click Next yet again, browse to the location you want to store the folder (unless you want to go with the folder and file name Outlook chose), give the file a name, click Next once more, and then Finish.

Export the contents of an Outlook folder via the Import and Export wizard.

You could also choose to export the folder as a single Excel or Access file, but using either Comma Separated Values (Windows) or Tab Separated Values (Windows) makes the file much easier to read in Word.

Back up the Outlook way via archiving. You may also want to protect your mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar entries within Outlook by archiving your data. The primary advantage of archiving is that everything is backed up with a single action. The disadvantage is that everything lives in a single file, and the data is accessible only in Outlook.

To archive in Outlook 2003, click File > Archive > Personal Folders (or select individual folders, if you wish), enter the date, choose a location for your archive file, give it a name (or go with Outlook's default in both cases), and click OK. You can ensure that your archive includes everything by checking Include items with "Do Not AutoArchive" checked.

Archive all your Outlook data by choosing Personal Folders and the current date in the Archive dialog box.

You may also want to note the folder Outlook uses to store this and other files by default, because Microsoft does a good job of making the location impossible to guess. In XP, the path is C:\Documents and Settings\your login name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. In Vista, it's C:\Users\your login name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.

Let Outlook do the archiving for you. I get nervous when programs start doing things behind the scenes, but you might prefer to have Outlook archive a folder automatically. To do so, right-click the folder and choose Properties > AutoArchive. If you select Archive items in this folder using the default settings, click Default Archive Settings, and choose your preferred options. Another way to set up auto-archiving is to click Archive this folder using these settings, and make your choices. As far as I can tell, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Make your auto-archive selections in Outlook's AutoArchive dialog box.

Retrieve your archived data. An archive won't do you much good if you can't access it, and Outlook doesn't make the process particularly easy: Click File > Import and Export > Import from another program or file > Next > Personal Folder File (.pst) > Next. Now browse to and select your archive file, click Do not import duplicates, and choose Next > Finish.

Tomorrow: Ubuntu time-saving tips.

Nearly all broadband Internet accounts come with storage on the ISP's servers, but I'll wager not one in 10 broadband users ever store anything there. That's a shame, especially if you find yourself schlepping a USB thumbdrive or rewritable CD full of your personal files from computer to computer. There are dozens of free utilities out there that make transferring files between your local PC and an FTP or Web server as easy as dragging and dropping. The two I've been using are the open-source FileZilla FTP client, and 2Brightsparks' SyncBack, which is also available in a $30 version called SyncBackSE that adds compression, performance, and security features.

Windows' built-in FTP comes up short
You don't need any added software to send files to an FTP server from Windows: simply type the server address into Windows Explorer's address bar and press Enter to connect and view the files, or open a command prompt and type the address there. If you're working with lots of files in several folders, the Windows approach is like dressing in the dark. FileZilla and other FTP clients give you a clearer view of your file transfers before, during, and after the process.

For example, I use FileZilla to transfer files to a directory on my ISP's FTP server, as well as to update a Web site hosted on one of the company's Web servers. I created a profile for each task and can jump between the two simply by clicking the drop-down menu next to the program's Quickconnect button. FileZilla's multiple windows let me view the folder trees and contents of the local PC and the remote server side by side.

The free FileZilla FTP program lets you compare the contents of folders on your local PC and the remote FTP server.

As simple as FTP transfers are using FileZilla, you can't use it to back up files to an FTP server automatically, nor is it easy to synchronize files between two folders. That's where SyncBack comes in: the program lets you schedule file syncs and backups to FTP servers as well as to local storage devices. And you can run your backup and sync profiles manually with a single click. SyncBack lists the files that appear in the source or destination folder, but not in the other, so you can choose which files to include or exclude from the update.

Back up and sync files on an FTP server as easy as to a local folder with the free SyncBack utility from 2Brightworks.

It may sound like a trifle, but one of the greatest benefits of the FileZilla/SyncBack approach to file syncs and backups is that I no longer have to fumble around trying to plug my thumbdrive into the USB ports on my various PCs. It's also one less gizmo to keep from misplacing. Any programs that simplify my life even a little bit are welcome.

Monday: Getting Ubuntu to play nice with Flash and QuickTime.

Why would anyone start futzing with their PC if the machine is working OK? Two reasons: to make it safer and to make it faster. Dividing your hard drive into multiple partitions accomplishes both. By separating your applications and data from Windows' system files, you speed your backups and protect your files and programs from being wiped out if Windows conks out.

Windows Vista lets you create new partitions (which it calls "volumes") quickly and simply via the Disk Management utility. Unfortunately, the only quick and simple way to partition a hard drive in XP is to use a third-party partitioning program such as Symantec's $70 Norton PartitionMagic or Acronis's $50 Disk Director. A free alternative is Andy McLaughlin's Partition Logic.

To create new drive volumes in Vista, press the Windows key, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter to open the Disk management utility. Right-click one of the existing volumes and choose Shrink Volume. A window opens showing the amount of space in the volume, and the amount available for a new partition. The next field in the dialog box lets you choose how much space to allot to the new volume. The last field indicates the size of the original volume after the shrink.

Right-click a volume in Vista's Disk Management utility and choose Shrink Volume to create a new volume for your applications and data.

After you select the volume size, click Shrink. Now right-click the new volume and choose New Simple Volume. Step through the wizard to select the volume size and its drive-letter designation, which Vista assigns automatically based on the letters currently being used. If you expect to add new storage devices, select a letter further down the alphabet to avoid potential conflicts in the future. You'll also select the file system to use (I recommend NTFS, unless you want to use the volume for older apps), and give it a name.

When you've made your selections, you'll see a summary of your choices. If you're happy with them, click Finish to begin formatting the volume. When the formatting is complete, an Explorer window will open with the volume selected. Relocate your favorite programs and data files to this volume, and set your backup program to duplicate this volume rather than the main (likely C:) drive, which holds all of your system files, which change much less frequently. Of course, you'll still want to back up your entire system three or four times a year--or more or less frequently, depending on how much confidence you have in your PC's stability.

A note on repartitioning XP
I have an ancient laptop whose battery gave up the ghost months ago, so it works only when plugged in. For no apparent reason, I decided to repartition the machine's drive following Microsoft's instructions for doing so in Windows XP, which entails a complete reinstallation of the operating system. I'm happy to report that I succeeded in creating two 15GB partitions on the notebook's 30GB drive during the reinstallation, and the machine is working relatively well.

All it took was about six hours of my time: about an hour for the initial OS installation, and five more to download and install the 100 or so updates XP required. I counted eight restarts during the process: every time I thought I was done and returned to the Windows Update site just to make sure, I was hit with more "required" updates (getting IE7 on the system took about an hour and a couple of restarts all by itself). Much easier to go with a third-party disk-partitioning utility, I think, but an interesting academic exercise just the same.

Tomorrow: Convert a Word document into a Powerpoint presentation.