Computer Tidbits

Introduction
Fiddling with with my computers (BTW, this is Bruce) has long been a bit of a hobby. While I'm by no means an expert, I have come across various tools and techniques that work well for me. My intention is to share of them here in the hopes that some of you might find them useful. If you've got any questions or comments, feel free to talk to me or e-mail me at my SeaWolf account.

By all means, if you have something that works better, speak up!! Likewise, if you have other tips, tricks, or software to recommend, please share that as well.

Full disclosure: I am NOT a Mac guy at all. Neither am I computer expert; these are just some things that work for me.

Backups
Something that many of us don't do enough is back up our data files. There are myriad approaches to backups and everybody's got to figure out what works for them. Here are some things that I do which work for me.

I'll add that Cheryl shared some advice from on the cohort 2 folks that we keep all of our electronic files well organized because we need them later. Having them backed up in the case of a computer malfunction seems wise.

There are two primary components of a backup system: (a) Backup medium, and (b) Backup software.

Backup Media
There are several choices for the medium onto which you do your backups: (a) optical discs, (b) hard drives, (c) online backup site, or (d) free online e-mail account. Optical discs (CD or DVD) have the advantage of being very portable, fairly rugged (DVDs not so much as CDs), pretty cheap, and that most computers these days have CD and/or DVD burners in them. The downside to optical discs are that they have a fairly limited capacity (~700 MB and ~4.7 GB). You also need to be careful with them While they are pretty rugged, I've lost a number of them over the years to scratches, cracks, and corrosion. (Note: Music CDs will sometimes continue to play with damage that would render a data file unrecoverable to a computer). If you don't have a ton of information, though, optical discs can work pretty well. I prefer to do my backups onto hard drives. They just hold a lot more information and are a bit more rugged (and harder to lose). I added a second drive inside of my desktop computer but I use an external USB drive to back up both my desktop and my laptop. For about $130 you can get either a large (500 GB) external USB drive or a smaller (250 GB), portable one. You can get them at Costco, Best Buy, or online (for a bit cheaper). The large ones require an external power source; the small ones do not - they draw their power through the USB port. You can also build one of the larger ones pretty easily and save $50 or more (especially if you have an old drive available). All of the online backup sites that I'm aware of charge for space and my connection is not fast enough to backup large volumes of data. I do, however, use a dedicated G-mail account for occasional backup of individual files.

Backup Software

1. Disk Imaging: Disk imaging means using special software to make an exact duplicate of your hard drive. The duplicate includes the operating system (Windows), all installed software, fonts, documents, settings, history, etc. It permits an exact replication of the disk (or part thereof). The advantage of disk imaging is that it allows you to completely restore your computer to its previous state, even if you have to replace the hard drive. The two downsides of disk imaging are: (a) the backup files are large, and (b) the software must be purchased (~$50). I do image my drives on a regular basis and it has saved me a couple of times over the years. I use a program called Acronis True Image (Check it out) and I recommend it highly.
   
2. File Backup Software: There are many programs that will back up your document files. In fact, Windows itself comes with one installed (check out Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools). I've never used it so I can't really comment on it. I use a free program from Microsoft called SyncToy (Download). It allows you to 'mirror' folders from one location to another (a second hard drive or a folder to be burned to an optical disc). There are plenty of commercial backup programs but SyncToy has always worked well for me. There are some other free programs available; check this out for some reviews. (I'll point out that True Image will also let you recover individual data files.)
   

Document Portability (PDF Files)
If you want to share documents or want to be able to read them on any computer, a PDF file (for example, Adobe Acrobat) is the way to go. If you want to create your own PDF files, there's a free program called CutePDF that works really well. You can get it here.

Virtual CDs
As I'm sure you've noticed, most of our books come with CDs. It is possible to copy your CD onto your hard drive and then have the computer "see" it as a virtual CD. That means that you can 'carry' all of the CDs on your laptop without having to carry the actual disc. The 'virtualization' program is called "Virtual CloneDrive" and can be found at www.slysoft.com Virtual CloneDrive requires the source CD to be "imaged" onto your hard drive before it can be 'virtualized.' SlySoft has a commercial program which can do that called CloneCD (they also have a free trial version which appears to be fully functional). There is, however, a free alternative program which should work. It is called DeepBurner Free and is found here. DeepBurner can create an ISO image of most CDs which can then be 'virtualized' using Virtual CloneDrive.

'Office' Suite (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, etc)
Perhaps everybody's got what they need. If not, I encourage you to take a look at the Open Office suite from OpenOffice.org. It's a very good piece of software and it's totally FREE (don't worry, Bill Gates will be OK without your money). Apparently, it also runs on a Mac under OS X.