In a cloning project I worked on, my favorite freeware product from my googling journeys was Clonezilla. Clonezilla is free hard drive cloning software for taking a snapshot of a system and reverting back to it later as a backup or to get things the way you once liked them.

When you have a new computer and begin installing software that you enjoy using, that would be a great time to image the hard drive in case something happens later. This can save time instead of having to reinstall your operating system if there is a virus or corruption in data. Creating a copy of a hard drive can also save you from ruining the state of a computer due to tinkering, installing software, etc. If you do PC repair for customers or as a hobbyist, you can also use this software before beginning work on some computers in case you would need a point of reference for any reason. Clonezilla, clones a 40 gigabyte hard drive in about 15 minutes.

Clonezilla has two forms, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla ServerEdition (SE). Clonezilla live is used for cloning single machines while Clonezilla SE is for multiple machine deployments. This article is about Clonezilla live.

When using the live version of the Clonezilla free hard drive cloning software, I burned it to a CD and then set the computer to boot from that CD. The first screens after Clonezilla begins, let you choose video resolution, language and keyboard layout.

The following screen is where you will select to “Start_Clonezilla” or “Enter_Shell” which is to enter command line mode, to make things easier on myself I selected “Start_Clonezilla”.

At the next screen I selected “device-image”. The other option is to go direct from partition to partition or disk to disk or any combination in between, in case your choice is to only clone a single partition of a drive to another drive. I wanted to clone the whole enchilada so I selected “device-image”.

The next screen was selecting where to place the image that was going to be created. Because I was saving the image across our network, I did not choose the more popular option of “local_dev” to save on a local hard drive or USB drive. If using “local_dev” you will just need to ensure the storage device has sufficient space for the image being cloned. The option that worked for me was selecting “samba_server” which is, in this arena, equivalent to a shared folder on a Windows network. You must allow write permissions on the shared folder for the account that is chosen.

After this step in the process, another thing that has to be decided is how to get an IP address, either statically assign one or send out a DHCP broadcast in search of one so the computer can begin talking on the network.

Then the next option is choosing the location where the Clonezilla image is going to be stored. You can either enter an IP address of the computer where the image will be stored or you can enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the computer, which might be something like “cloneserver.internaldomainname.com”. The next step is to choose which domain that computer resides on. Keeping with the previous example, I would enter “internaldomainname.com”.

Then you will be prompted to enter a username that has permissions to that save location. The name of the shared resource must also be provided, Clonezilla by default will elect to use a folder called “/images”. You must ensure that your shared resource and the response here match. We were placing our images in a folder named “CLONEZILLA”, so we would change “/images” to “/CLONEZILLA”. Make sure yours match also; if you get red letters in a message, there was a problem.

Now you will be prompted to hit Enter to put in the password associated with the account you chose. You will see a password prompt but when you type, no asterisk marks “***” will appear. Hit Enter after typing your password correctly. You must also select beginner or expert mode, since I had never used it before and I like doing things the easy way, I selected beginner mode.

In our project, when I wanted to copy a hard drive and save it as an image for use on other computers, I selected the “savedisk” option. When you want to restore an image to a hard drive, the process is very similar except at the option page where you originally selected “savedisk” you would select “restoredisk” instead. Some of the options after choosing to restore are not there; like you won’t be prompted to name the image but rather select it from a list of image files that are detected on the shared resource.

Then you must give the image a name. Which hard drive you are making a replica of, or pulling an image to, must also be selected, if there is only one hard drive to clone or overwrite then it will already be selected for you.

Then you can begin the restoring process, by hitting Enter a couple of times, and confirming the actions. For other freeware cloning alternatives you could try nLite, PC Inspector Clonemax,Marcium Reflect Free Edition, or Odin and let us know what you think.

Check out the software and documentation from the Clonezilla website.

What software do you use to clone your hard drive over a network? Let us know in the comments.

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It may be just an off the cuff percentage, but the fact is that very few of us actually take the pain to backup our data to a safe place. In my opinion, backing up our files and documents ranks right up there with the other best practices of computer usage.

But as is human nature, accumulating files by the dozens is preferred over dodging the tedious job of data backup. Don’t we all put off such jobs for tomorrow?

It is only when Mr. Crash comes calling that we slap our foreheads and realize the value of caution over chance. All the hard work gone in a snafu’s moment. System crashes, hard disk failures and other computer mishaps are more common than we think and there’s a fair probability that one might strike us. When one strikes, we all wish we had a time machine to hop into and undo the moment. We can’t…but some simple software and simpler habits can ‘roll back’ time for us.

One such habit is that of periodic data backups. The tools are of course, the varied backup software.

Idlebackup

Idlebackup (1.17Beta) is a small 633KB zipped download available as an installer and as a standalone executable file.

Idlebackup performs the job of backing up your files in a straightforward manner. Select the directories and files for data backup and point it to the location where the data should be backed up to (an internal or external drive, thumb drive or a network drive).

Here are some of it’s key features.

The ‘Idle’ Job

The first key feature of Idlebackup is in the word ‘idle’. The program’s name comes from its ability to perform automatic data backups when the computer is not in use. When automatic backup is checked, the program does a computer activity check. If no activity is detected, the computer goes into the backup mode following a countdown of 60 seconds. After the backup is made, the interval time starts again.

If a backup job is interrupted, the program waits for the next idle time to resume the task after checking what needs to be copied. The idle activity check can be disabled in favor of a scheduled or a manual backup. The computer can also be configured to shut down when a backup job finishes.

Note: Some CPU usage may interrupt ‘idle’ times… so if you find that idleness isn’t happening, then you could try disabling the CPU activity check feature.

The Three Backup Modes

Idlebackup allows you to backup in any three ways –

Mirror backup: an uncompressed backup mode which is an exact duplicate of the files being backed up. Mirror backups can also be browsed normally (using Windows Explorer or the built in window) as they are uncompressed. After each data backup, Idlebackup erases unused directories (Synchronize backup) and files from selected directories so the directory structure is a replica to that in the source.

Full backup: a compressed backup which is incremental in the manner it adds updates, changed files to the backup zip archive. Also, each directory can be backed up to a separate compressed archive. The zip archives can be configured for integrity checks.

Sequential backup (Version Backup): a compressed backup which creates individual zipped files per backup job marked with a date-timestamp. Older jobs can be set for deletion after few days thus preserving space.

Multiple Backup Profiles

The beta version has introduced the use of 10 different backup settings. Backup settings are nothing but a source destination path for different kinds of backup jobs. For instance, certain files like mp3 can be backed up to one external drive, photos to another…some files get reserved for a network drive. Each backup setting can be given a name thus creating profiles.

Getting it all back – Restore

For backup software, restoring files is just as important as its core function. Idlebackup restores files automatically only for the uncompressed Mirror backup job. The files can be restored to the original location or to a location of choice.  For the compressed backups, a zip program like WinZip or WinRar is required to uncompress the backed up files. With zipped files, all that’s needed is to copy the files from the backup destination to the original path on the hard drive.

What’s there to like?

For a small, simple freeware, the feature set is full of potential. The program is easy enough for a novice user with its fast install and configuration. The program follows certain rules with regards to naming which also become safety nets against overwriting while repairing files through a restore. With a few profile settings, backup jobs can be set for mail clients too (see usage examples). The memory footprint is not significant (about 6K in my test runs).

The new Idlebackup beta so far seems a significant step up from its earlier avatar (ver1.16), with a more flexible set of features.

Are you willing to turn over a new leaf with the backup habit using this freeware? If you are an old hand at data backup tools, give us a heads-up on this simple one.

Idlebackup is a backup solution for Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7.

Image Credit: Sumobackup

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Your automated backups can go to multiple destinations, including other computers you use, or even friends’ computers. Backing up to locations other than CrashPlan’s servers is free, and you can be notified of completed backups by either email or Twitter.

In order to have a friend backup to your PC, you must give that friend a short authorization code. You can do this with multiple friends, as you’re only limited by your available disk space. Your backups are stored securely and must be unlocked with your CrashPlan password (you may also use a different password for added security).

By default, your My Documents folder is selected for the backup. You may wish to add or remove folders from the backup if you have a size concern. I like how there is an option to show hidden files which may otherwise get left out of the backup.

This program is fast. On a high-speed connection, it only took an hour to backup 23GB. Keep in mind that this is between two PCs on the same home network, but moving that much data in such a short time is still impressive.

Restoring files from a backup to any computer is as simple as backing them up in the first place. Restored files and folders will be moved to the appropriate place on the file system you’re currently using.

I found CrashPlan simple, quick, and easy to use, and highly recommend it to anyone needing a backup solution. For extra features or business use, a paid upgrade is available, although the free solution will work just fine for most. I intend on convincing my brother to trade disk space with me for a backup arrangement. How will you use CrashPlan, or can you share any alternative solution on how to backup computer files? Let’s see ‘em in the comments.

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Using System Restore assures you that you won’t lose personal data such as documents, e-mail settings and messages. However, keep in mind that data you have stored in My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music folders are not affected by System Restore.

Today, I am going to introduce you one tool that can be used to create Windows System restore point with a single click of a button.

To simply and easily create System Restore points, you can use Single Click Restore Point. Just run SCRP with administrator privileges and it will automatically create a restore point for you – no need to dig through the menus. The only caveat is that you can’t name the restore points yourself, they’re all called “Created by SCRP Tool”. In my experience, SCRP does the job and makes it more convenient for less tech-savvy users. All you need to do is double-click on the application and a resulting window pops up:

To restore your computer to an earlier time in Windows XP, log in as an administrator, and then follow these steps:

1. Click Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools, and then click System Restore.
2. On the Welcome screen, click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click Next. You can also click on Create Restore Point to manually create a backup of the system files. This backup will appear along with the other automatically generated backups.
3. On the Select a Restore Point page, select the date from the calendar that shows the point you’d like to restore to.
4. On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, check to see if you selected the right restore point.
5. Click Next if you are ready to continue or click Back to change the restore point.
6. The computer will automatically shut down and reboot. On reboot, you’ll see the Restoration Complete page.

If you’re happy with how the system is behaving after the restore, you don’t have to do anything else. If not, just open System Restore and select Undo my last restoration on the System Restore Welcome page. If your computer doesn’t boot normally, you might have to use Safe Mode to access System Restore. To access Safe Mode, press F8 key during reboot and choose Safe Mode.

In Windows Vista and 7, all you have to do is type System Restore in the search bar within the Start Menu. You’ll will be presented with the most recent restore point in the windows that appears. If you want to choose another restore point made earlier, click Choose Another Restore Point and Next. After you’ve selected the restore point you want, just click Finish. Your computer will automatically restore the required system files and restart.

To manually create a restore point, open Advanced System Settings (by typing this into the Start Menu) and select the System Protection tab. Once there, click on Create.

Did you find this tutorial handy? What other programs do you use to manage your restore points? Let me know in the comments.

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I just can’t remember how I was able to live without them before I discovered them a couple of years ago. I don’t remember if I found them by accident or if I read about them somewhere but since then, I’ve told all my friends about it.

What’s So Cool About It?

The ability to automatically restore opened Windows folders and Firefox tabs when Windows restarts is very convenient for people who have the habit of opening many folders and tabs. I usually have at least 5 folders open and some of them are located rather deep in the file system (i.e. F:\Work\Freelance\WritingComputers\MakeUseOf) and it is very irritating when I have to navigate to such a folder manually.

I usually keep all the folders I am currently using open, plus some folders with music, movies, books, and other non-work related stuff. These folders are open any time I am at my PC. For me, it is a great relief that when I restart Windows, I don’t have to open all of them individually.

How to do it?

If you have messed with a lot with the settings in Windows, you’ve most likely already discovered this options. But if you don’t know (or don’t remember) where to enable it from, let me tell you.

To enable the automatic restoration of opened folders, open Windows Explorer (or any folder) and in its menu bar, go to the Tools menu. Select Folder Options and then click the View tab. This will open the dialog box shown below:

If there isn’t a tick in front of the ‘Restore Previous Folder Windows at Logon’ option, just check it and there you go!

Similarly to Windows, Firefox offers a similar function. When you enable it, you will have your tabs from the previous session automatically restored when you launch Firefox. Since I typically have 20+ tabs opened and many of them are of sites I check all the time, you can imagine how much I value this option in Firefox.

To restore tabs on startup in Firefox, just open the Tools menu → Options → Main and have a look at the “When Firefox Starts:” option under Startup section. Click the arrow on the right of the drop-down list and select ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’. When you are done, click OK and that’s it.

When Automatic Restoration Doesn’t Work

The above settings work almost every time you restart Windows and/or Firefox. One of the cases when the opened folders will not automatically restore is when Windows restarts after a crash. If Windows is terminated abnormally (for instance, when you didn’t restart your computer by selecting Start → Turn Off Computer or Restart but you unplugged it instead), the folders are not restored.

Also, if you have two or more instances of the same folder (i.e. C:), only one instance will open after restarting. Sure, this is a minor glitch to a great feature, so there is no reason to complain about.

Unlike Windows, when Firefox crashes, its tabs are usually restored. If Firefox has crashed, when you launch it, you see the following message:

If you select ‘Start New Session’, your tabs will not be restored. If you select ‘Restore Previous Session’, you will see the tabs that were opened before the crash. This feature is pretty cool, right?

Did you know about the “restore” function in Windows Explorer? Do you like your folders to automatically reopen magically when you turn on your computer? Comment it out.

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Yes, I said “for free” and “from Microsoft” in the same sentence again! This little application installs on your Windows Mobile Device and then you can set a schedule for your data to be synced to the cloud. I am talking everything here: from text messages to contacts and back to audio and documents. This is awesome!

If you destroyed or lost your phone, restoring your data has never been this easy without having to sit in front of a computer with active sync.

Let’s see how it works.

First, we download the application directly onto our device by browsing over to http://myphone.microsoft.com/install and letting it install. Once it is installed ,you will need a Windows Live ID (your Hotmail account will work). The setup wizard will start and you will see this screen:

Simply click next and then accept the agreement to continue.

After you click Accept, you are ready to either enter your Windows Live ID or sign up for a new one. You can sign up for a new one by clicking the link that says “Create New Windows Live ID” at the bottom of the screen.

If you are going to have MyPhone sync on a regular basis, you will need to check the box next to “Save Password”.

You will see a confirmation that you have logged in successfully and your device is then configured to work with MyPhone.

You will be able to choose how you want to sync: either automatically on a schedule or manually. If you choose manually, you will need to open the MyPhone application on your phone to sync.

Your sync will start, and you will see each item sync as it goes. Contacts, calendar, photos, text messages, videos, audio and more.

After you are all synced up, you can browse over to http://myphone.micrsoft.com from your PC to view your data. Let’s check it out.

And of course, if you want to restore a device with your data, all you need to do is install the application on your device. After logging in, it will pull all your data back to this device. You can add multiple devices and keep them all in sync.

Are you using this or another similar service? Let us know in the comments!

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But then again it’s a delight to work on a freshly installed machine, where everything is smooth and responds quickly. But customization is tedious. And when your hard drive decides to break spontaneously, time is something you won’t have for sure.

For emergencies it’s better you have a data and a system backup available. Here are the 5 best tools to clone or copy your hard drive in no particular order.

Paragon’s Drive Backup Express (Windows)

This software is the easy solution to clone your hard drive . It’s comfortable to use with a sleek interface that guides you through the whole process of backing up and restoring step by step. And while a backup is running in the background you can even proceed using your system.

Both Drive Backup Express and DriveImage XML (described below) require a bootable CD, which the user has to create independently.

I have previously written about Drive Backup Express and thoroughly explained how it works here.

DriveImage XML (Windows)

In contrast to Drive Backup Express, DriveImage XML is a visually very basic tool. However, it reliably creates images of logical drives and partitions and restores these to either the originating or a different hard disk.

Like Drive Backup Express, DriveImage XML applies a cloning technique that allows parallel use of the system while the backup is running. It can also do incremental backups, supplementing existing backups with what was changed in the meantime. Additionally, images can be restored without having to reboot.

CloneZilla (cross platform)

CloneZilla is an open source and cross platform tool to make a copy of a hard drive and also to restore them afterwards.

It’s a tough tool for non nerds as it requires some background knowledge. First of all it’s not a software you install on your computer. You download CloneZilla in form of an ISO image or ZIP file and burn the image to a CD or load the files onto a USB flash drive or hard drive.

The next step is to reboot the computer from that medium you created, which may require going into the BIOS and allow booting from a CD or USB device.

Once the tool is running, it’s easy to use the simple interface to initiate or restore a backup. There also is sort of a screenshot walkthrough on the CloneZilla homepage, where you can view some of the options before running the tool.

XXCLONE (Windows)

XXCLONE is Windows software. The tool can create a self-bootable clone of a Windows drive as well as full backups of non-system volumes. Basically, it can make a hard drive image.

The interface is basic and clear. When started, the tool scans for available volumes and you can then choose a source and target volume from these. A direct link to the Windows Disk Management is provided through the “diskmgmt” button. Under the “Tool Cools” tab you can make use of options such as making the target volume self-bootable, manage restore points or create a batch file to save your current settings for future re-use.

The download section of the website provides a thorough help file that contains screenshots and descriptions of all features.

EASEUS Disk Copy (cross platform)

EASEUS Disk Copy creates sector by sector clones of partitions or hard disks, independent of operating system, file systems or partition scheme. It’s a versatile tool for both the novice and experienced user.

Just like CoolZilla, it’s not installed locally, rather the ISO image is burned to a bootable CD or DVD.

The website is probably the best of all tools described here. The information is thorough and very clear, including a very detailed help section that will walk you through every aspect of the program.

Do you clone and copy your hard drive? If so, which program do you use? Can you recommend any particular program to us? Let us know in the comments.

Picture credits: CraigPJ

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The interface of Recuva is similar to CCleaner, it is simple to use (even a computer moron could use it) and after testing it, it seems to be very effective in restoring deleted files. So I figured it deserved its own write-up on MakeUseOf.

So let’s get the short product description first of all from the Recuva homepage:

Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

But as with any deleted file that you want to bring back, the older it is, the harder it will be to bring back. Plus if you are able to bring it back, the older it is, the more corrupted the file will be. So if you want to bring a deleted file back, you need to do it as fast as possible. The more you delay, the less chance there is of recovering it.

After using Recuva for a couple of days, I have ended up being very impressed with it. It is very fast with finding recoverable files and when you click on what you want brought back, it restores the file and sends it back to your hard drive within seconds.

So here’s how the program works.

1. After opening the program, select the drive where the file was deleted then click the “scan” button.

2. Recuva then starts sweeping the specified hard drive looking for files that are able to be restored.

3. You then get a list of all the files that Recuva was able to find.  As you can see, some of the files are unidentifiable with just scrambled file names but a lot of other files have their original names intact (more on that later). What I really liked about Recuva is that it has a colour-coded system where you can see right away the status of each file and whether or not it is in any condition to be downloaded successfully or not.

Red means the file is basically screwed and you can forget it. Yellow means the file is in very bad condition but you can still download it and take your chances with it – some of it might be salvageable. Green means that the file is in excellent condition and you can get it back no problem.

4. If there are too many files returned to manage or you are looking for a particular file, you can filter the files. Just specify a file type or a file name in the “filename or path” field or drop down the menu to specify a file type.   So for example, by typing in “googleupdate”, I was able to find three particular files.

5. Now say I want to want to recover those 3 files? I just need to tick them and click the “recover” button. Recuva will ask me to specify where on the computer they should go and when I have told it, the files will start downloading. In fact, they are put back on the computer so fast that I didn’t even have time to make a screenshot!

That’s basically all there is to it. Just remember to untick those files in Recuva before you close the program because Recuva remembers those files next time and will keep on downloading them over and over again! So untick them once you have recovered them and you’ll be fine.

Do you use Recuva? If so, what have been your experiences with it? What percentage of files have you managed to recover using this app? Is there any particular file format in your opinion that recovers better than all the others?

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So the first option when faced with a frozen or unresponsive application is to kill it. Not literally, of course! We can try to kill or “terminate” the program. The easiest way to do this is to simply right-click the application in the Dock and select ‘Force Quit’.

Another method is to bring up the “Force Quit Application” menu by pressing ‘Cmd-Option-Esc’ and selecting the application which is non-responsive.

Usually, by forcing an application to quit, we lose any unsaved work. Waiting for the program to resolve itself is a better alternative if you can afford the time. Personally, I’m not quite patient enough. So, it’s a compromise between overworking your CPU and data loss.

Then there is the third method: using Activity Monitor.

One of the first things I do every time I get my hands on a brand new Mac is to add Activity Monitor to the Dock. Simply because I use it so often, accessibility is crucial. If you didn’t know, Activity Monitor is located in ‘~/Applications/Utilities’. Or you could Spotlight for it.

Activity Monitor is the evil twin brother of Window’s Task Manager. With it, you can see a platter of vital information including all running processes, memory usage, CPU load, hard disk usage & read/write speeds and network activity. Mainly, I use Activity Monitor to deal with unresponsive applications. Notice that I said “deal with” and not “kill/terminate” because you can occasionally actually bring a frozen application back to life just by launching Activity Monitor! It doesn’t work all the time but when it does, you’ll be amazingly thankful.

If simply running Activity Monitor won’t solve your problem, you could investigate deeper. Under the ‘Process Name’ column is a list of all the applications which are currently running on your computer. The ones which are unresponsive will be labelled red and will be tagged with a clear (’application not responding’) title. Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with a screenshot because nothing has crashed yet (crosses fingers). To kill a particular hung application, click on it and press ‘Quit Process’ from the menu at the top.

Sometimes, certain frozen applications are more stubborn and are harder to kill, ‘Force Quit’ won’t do the trick. Whenever that happens, try going into the ‘View’ menu and choose ‘Send Signal to Process’. On the window that pops up, choose ‘Hangup’, ‘Interrupt’ or ‘Kill’. I find from experience that choosing ‘Interrupt’ may just bug the application to become responsive again. Just because an application is hung doesn’t mean that it has crashed, so sometimes you won’t need to kill it to restart it again.

Besides using Activity Monitor to force hung applications to quit, it is also useful to provide you with the vital information you need to know about your Mac. CPU load, for instance, is something simple but useful to know at all times. Increased CPU load can make your fans work harder, that makes more noise and your Mac will also run hotter. Most of the time, if you notice an increased CPU when you aren’t performing any CPU intensive tasks, that’s when something fishy is going on.

Activity Monitor’s dock icon is configurable to show you either CPU usage, CPU history, network & memory usage or disk activity but not all at once. If you want access to all this information, I suggest iSlayer’s range of monitoring applications. Personally, I use iStat menus to show my CPU history, network & memory usage and CPU temperature right on my menu bar, which is wicked!

How often has Activity Monitor brought your frozen application back to life? Let me know in the comments. Also, which monitoring application do you use?

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To me this is not a tedious task, I actually quite enjoy the process. But the thing is that setting up a system from scratch, plus restoring personal settings, user data and backups, takes a lot of time. Sometimes you may not have the time. Thus, for emergencies it’s always wise to have a quick fix better than a Knoppix CD. There are two ways…

Create a System Image

If you currently have a stable and smoothly running system, you can create an image of your system. This is the most comfortable solution because it incorporates all your personal settings and preferences.

The tool of choice here is Paragon’s Drive Backup Express. It’s a model piece of software: fast, intuitive user interface, thorough documentation, and it’s free. OK, the happy guy next to the menu is a little too much.

To install the program you need to obtain a free serial, which means you have to register with Paragon using a valid eMail address. I think for a software of this quality that’s a reasonable thing to ask for.

The setup is straightforward, no more surprises. The menu is the first thing that comes up when the program is loaded. Since Drive Backup uses hot backup technology, backups can run while the computer is being used, which makes it very comfortable to use. Unfortunately, the free version does not offer scheduled backups.

Step 1: Select what you want to back up.

Step 2: Start, sit back and wait or continue working.

Step 3: Check the file for validity.

Step 4: Build recovery media for the case that you cannot boot your computer.
This can be a flash memory stick or a CD/DVD disk. When using a USB stick please be aware that all files currently on the stick will be removed. The stick will become a dedicated recovery medium, so you should get a separate one for this purpose.

Step 5: Disaster!
In case of disaster, insert your recovery medium, start your computer, make sure the BIOS lets you boot from your USB stick or CD/DVD drive, start the recovery program on the stick and launch the Simple Restore Wizard. The whole procedure is very, very well documented in the user guide and it really isn’t complicated. However, if you want to be super safe, print it.

When I tried to run the recovery, I had slight issues using the normal mode. The program would freeze half way through loading from CD. So I tried the safe mode and again had some issues, this time with hard drive i/o errors. However, the program continued and once it listed all detected partitions and drives I quickly located the backup file and ran a restoration on my old laptop without any further problems.

Create a Custom Installation CD

If creating an image from a running system is not an option, you can at least prepare an installation CD that will spare you the hassle of manually adding user accounts, drivers, software, and more.

A great tool for this task is Vitali Graf’s Windows Unattended CD Creator. What you need is a valid Windows CD and all the software, drivers, patches and hotfixes you wish to include in your custom CD. The program also requires Net Framework 1.1 or 2.0 installed. For the creation of the CD you will naturally need software and respective hardware able to burn ISO images on CD or DVD, and a blank disk.

What’s your ritual for restoring your operating system? Which strategies and tools are you applying?

(By) Tina is a regular MUO author. In her offline life she’s a PhD student interested in unraveling signaling events that determine cartilage and bone development.

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If you are on Windows, it’s almost mandatory for you to backup your important data since it’s not an operating system which you can always count on (although it is the most popular one).

We have previously mentioned about top free programs to backup data on your PC and also about services which help you backup your data online. Another advanced and versatile backup software in this league is AceBackup. It was previously commercially available and has recently been made free of charge. It offers local and remote backup and also lets you encrypt files while backing up. There are many other features available which you’ll not find in other free backup software.

After installing AceBackup, you’ll have to first create a backup project which will help you streamline your backup tasks. You can create two kinds of projects :-

(1) Acebackup Archive – This lets you backup within the Acebackup directory. You can store private files in a compressed and encrypted form.

(2) Acebackup Backup – This is the actual backup project which lets you backup important files in an external storage device like a CD or DVD or to a remote FTP server. It also lets you automate the entire backup process.

As I mentioned earlier, AceBackup gives you multiple backup options. You can select whether you want to back up to a local directory or a network drive, host your data at a remote FTP server or back it up on CD / DVD. You can also choose to backup simultaneously at multiple locations.

AceBackup also gives you multiple file security and compression options. If you understand the security standards then you can choose your preferred standard from a drop down menu depending upon the sensitivity of your data.

Once you’re done with selecting the type of project, the backup location and the type of security, you can schedule it to backup at specific time intervals and there you go! You’ve got a secured and automated backup running at your desired time.

Unique Features

The following are some of AceBackup’s unique features which you won’t find in any other freeware backup utility.

Secure FTP – As already mentioned, AceBackup lets you backup your data to a remote FTP server of your choice. You can use one of the five encryption algorithms and back it up to a FTP server which requires secure authentication.

File specific encryption – By specifying the file extensions, you can actually customize the file encryption process during the backup.

Another cool feature is the ability to launch applications before or after a backup project. This can help you shut down your computer automatically after a backup using a particular software for that purpose.

Multi File Versioning – AceBackup enables you to store and restore a file in several versions. This is a very useful feature because if by mistake you backup a wrong or damaged version of your document then using this feature you can easily restore an older version of your file.

There are many more features which you’ll discover, once you start using it. It’s no doubt a robust backup utility and since it’s now free, it is probably the best tool for the job. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

(By) Abhijeet Mukherjee is addicted to the internet and loves blogging and freelance writing. He blogs about tech tweaks, blogging tips, productivity hacks at Jeet Blog.

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One of the problems I had when I was buying Windows Vista was what version to get. There was Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate and a lot of others most people never heard about. Although I wanted all the awesome tools in Windows Vista Ultimate, I was stuck with Home Premium because I didn’t want to shell out the extra cash.

One of the features that I really loved about Vista Ultimate was the Shadow Copy function, which made it so I could “go back in time” as Apple puts it and restore data that I deleted. As much as I loved the feature, I really didn’t want to spend a hundred dollars on it.

It turns out that although the Shadow Copy program is not in Vista Home Premium or Home Basic, Vista still backups your data. You just don’t get a way to access the data. Luckily, there is a great tool out there called ShadowExplorer which gives you the power to browse the backups that Vista makes.

Shadow Explorer is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is download the program and start it up. Then you can access all the backups without having to use a hard to navigate interface. At the top of the program, there is a place where you can change the dates of the backup you’re seeing, and also a place to select which disk you want to browse. After that, there isn’t much to teach because most people can figure things out by themselves. Click on a folder to see the contents, and right click on a file if you want to restore it. Select the ‘export’ button and save the file wherever you want to keep it. There really isn’t much else to it. It’s a very small program (around 2MB) but functions great and hasn’t given me any problems.

This is an awesome tool and I’ve fallen in love with it because I always delete things and realize days later I deleted the wrong thing. It’s also saved my butt a couple of times.

Know any other tools that replace certain paid for Windows Vista features? Post a comment and talk about them.

(By) Ken Burkes, who is an active web surfer that diggs, stumbles, and blogs in his free time. Being too lazy to get a blog of his own, you should stay up to date with Make Use Of to find more of his articles.

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Amic v2.0 simply is an email backup and restore software program. It supports most of the major email clients like MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express, Eudora, Incredimail, Opera Mail, Pegasus, The Bat, PocoMail and Netscape Messenger. It also covers the entire spectrum of content within an email program – email and news messages, address book, account settings, message rules, signatures, stationery, multiple user identities and also doesn’t miss out on the blocked senders list.

There are three core functions which Amic takes care of.

1. Mail backup

2. Mail restore

3. Backup scheduling

Amic gives the user a choice between two interfaces, Standard and Wizard. Both interfaces are simple to understand and use, though my personal mouse click would be for the wizard. The ‘cool quotient’ beats the blandness of the standard mode hands down.

The Mail Backup Process

Hey! We are not talking rocket science here. The process to backup your mail is as simple as 1-2-3. The software also saves you a bit of trouble by detecting all the mail clients on installation. Select the email client, choose the items to backup, specify the location of the file and presto – it’s done.

The Mail Restore Process

Again, simplicity in reverse. Choose the backup file to restore from, choose the items to restore, now choose to directly restore to the mail client or restore to a custom folder (for later import using the mail client), and the job’s done.

The Backup Schedule Process

Select the mail client, identities if any and the items to backup. You can now schedule it according to hours, days, weeks or months. A start date for the backup plus the time completes this simple process.

Please note that for scheduled backups, Amic runs as an ‘EmailAutobackup’ process in the background and it installs a shortcut in the start-up folder. It runs invisibly and in slower computers you might notice a slight performance hit for the minuscule duration of the backup. It took me about 110 seconds to backup a year’s worth of data on my machine.

The Options on view

Few but sufficient would be an immediate assessment.

• Gives a choice of backup to a new file or to overwrite an existing one. The files are easy to understand as they have the date appended, which even my four year old can understand.
• Gives an option to keep a fixed number of the most recent backup files or all of them.
• Significantly, a user can password protect all the backup files on the go. (Backup and secure all those emails from your ‘ex’ maybe!)
• The choice of backups can be broken down to user specified zip sized or CD sized chunks (i.e. if you are an email clutterer, you could request, say, 700 MB chunks that would fit on a CD).
• You can also backup all your IE Bookmarks.
• Supports all versions of Outlook and Outlook Express (i.e. versions 2000, 2002, and 2003). Although the ‘Read Me’ does not mention compatibility with Vista or Outlook 2007, it ran without a hitch.

Small and nice…but with room for improvement.

Huey Lewis & the News sung ‘It ain’t a perfect world…’ and so it isn’t. At the risk of nitpicking here are some of the misses.

1. It glaringly does not support ‘Thunderbird’. With Mozilla going great guns, this miss is top of the heap.
2. It is only compatible with Windows so far among the operating systems.
3. It cannot backup e-mail files from a network drive because it reads the email settings from the local Windows registry.
4. It can restore only to the same type of email client from which it was created originally.
5. An option to specify a default folder path would have been a slight time saver.

For now, let us disregard the five points; for a small adware-free download at 1.3Mb, providing ease of use and a freeware to top it all is worth a distance run.

What email backup programs do you use? Are their features much the same as Amic? Better? Worse? Let us know in the comments.

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