Ask Mr. Tech

Copying or “cloning” an entire hard disk can be useful for a number of reasons: you might want to backup your current operating system and all your data in order to add a larger hard drive to your laptop or desktop computer and thus have more free space. Or you might want to clone or “image” the hard drive for backup/disaster recovery purposes.

Backing up your data is a good first start, but what if you want to be able to easily restore the entire operating system just as you had it, with all the installed applications and exact same configurations? There are solutions available for both Mac and PC:

For Windows XP (or Vista, etc.), there is a free option and a paid option:

The free option for hard drive cloning for Windows is DriveImage XML.

The paid options are either Acronis True Image 11 or Symantc’s Ghost: I prefer the Acronissolution personally, and you can download a free trial here.

For Mac OS X, SuperDuper! is an excellent program. If you’re running Leopard (OS 10.5.x), you also have the option of using Time Machine (which is built into the operating system), but SuperDuper! is still worth the small investment. With SuperDuper! you can make a bootable image of a hard drive to restore the entire operating system.

Filed under: Backup, Free Stuff, Hard Drives & Storage, Mac, Small Business Corner, Windows by Mr. Tech
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WonderHowTo.com aggregates “how-to” videos from multiple sites: their tag line is “Every how-to video that exists”. Naturally, videos range from the completely idiotic to the extremely practical.

Here are some examples that illustrate this continuum:

“How To Build a $10 Wifi super antenna”

“How To Do basic pen tricks”

“How To Watch any video on Youtube in HD” (simply add “&fmt-18″ to the end of the URI in YouTube.com, or download the Better YouTube Firefox Add-on.)

“How To Tear a phonebook in half with your bare hands”

Shamefully I find myself gravitating toward both extremes: today I learned both “How To Crack an apple in half with your bare hands” and “How To Change a bicycle brake cable”.

If you’re looking to learn new skills as well as waste precious moments of your finite time here on Earth, this is the site for you!

Filed under: Free Stuff by Mr. Tech
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I just bought this neat little gizmo that could come in handy if you ever want to pull data off a hard drive that’s not sitting in any type of enclosure. It allows you to plug either a regular sized (3.5") or notebook sized (2.5") hard drive and connect it to your computer: it has both USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. This will work with Windows or Mac OS.

This is useful if you have any old hard drives lying around, or if you have a hard drive that won’t boot and you just want to see if you can get any data off of it from another machine. It can be used for data transfer, backup, or imaging (cloning).

Connectivity is easy since any computer will have a USB port, but if you have an eSATA card you will get much faster transfer speeds.

Ordering to the US cost me an extra $25 in shipping for a total of $79.00, but I think it’s worth it considering it can be very handy in a number of situations.

Click Here to Order the 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD Dock (USB + ESATA)

If you really don’t need the eSATA port, they have another version with extra USB ports to also act as a 4-port USB hub.

Filed under: Backup, Digital Tech Gear, Hard Drives & Storage, Mac, Small Business Corner, Windows by Mr. Tech
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We all have dozens of passwords we use to login to websites that we need to keep track of. Since password management can be cumbersome, many people simply resort to using the same password for every website, but this is not a good security practice.

What if you could store all your website passwords in an online, encrypted password vault, and access them from ANY machine?

You can have all this — and more — for only $19.99! I’m kidding: it’s actually all free. All you need is Firefox, a free Google account, and the Google Browser Sync Firefox Add-on.

Google Browser Sync gives you the option to sync your “Saved Passwords” in Firefox up to Google’s servers (where they are encrypted). You can also choose to sync your Firefox Bookmarks, Cookies, Browser History, and even Tabs and Windows.

Even if you’re using only one machine, it’s nice to know you have a backup of this information online.

If you use more than one machine, you can login to Google Browser Sync with your Google account (of course both machines need Firefox with the Google Browser Sync Add-on). (NOTE: if you have Gmail, then you already have a free Google account).

These also works between a Mac and Windows machine, since Firefox Add-ons are cross-platform. (more…)

Filed under: Backup, FireFox, Free Stuff, Google, Google Browser Sync, Mac, Security, Small Business Corner, Windows by Mr. Tech
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Terms like “data storage”, “backup”, and “disaster recovery planning” used to be primarily associated with pocket-protector-wearing nerds who inhabit the cubicles and refrigerator-like datacenters of Information Technology departments in large corporations. (I’m allowed to cast such libelous aspersions since I myself transitioned from an exceedingly Kafkaesque, corporate IT background into the world of digital photography.)

But now that photography has largely gone digital, photographers are finding themselves in the position of having to make decisions on how to store, organize, and secure the lifeblood of their business — digital images – whether in RAW format, as JPEGs, TIFFs, or retouched Photoshop files.

While many different computer programs exist that can organize, manipulate, and retrieve digital images (applications like iPhoto, Adobe Lightroom, Aperture, and iView Media Pro, to name a few), the focus of this article is the physical media used to store and back up this data, regardless of what applications are used. (more…)

Filed under: Backup, Digital Photography, Hard Drives & Storage, Mac, Small Business Corner, Windows by Mr. Tech
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Question: What’s the best way to use Google Calendar with iCal and an iPhone?

Simply subscribing to Google Calendars from iCal easily: see How to Subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal.

However, if you want to sync bidirectionally — add things to iCal and have those sync to Google Calendar as well — I recommend Spanning Sync, which has a 30 day trial and costs only $15 to purchase. While there are actually free ways to subscribe from iCal to Google Calendar, it’s more trouble than it’s worth and doesn’t have the flexibility or simplicity of Spanning Sync. (more…)

Filed under: Free Stuff, Google, Google Calendar, Mac, iCal, iPhone by Mr. Tech
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“Cross Processing” is a method of developing slide film using chemicals meant for developing print film, the result of which are bright, over-saturated images.

This Cross Processing with Photoshop tutorial shows how to use Photoshop to achieve a similar effect. While certainly not applicable to all images, this technique has its place in creating dramatic images.

Another, simpler method can be found here.

Filed under: Adobe Photoshop, Digital Photography by Mr. Tech
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Camtasia Studio allows you to record a video of what’s happening on your computer and for use as a streaming video for video tutorials, product demos, etc. This is very useful when you’re recording “How To” videos (instructional or computer-based training): usually one records both video and audio so you can narrate the action. You can also use any graphics program as a “digital whiteboard” if you need one, or perhaps run a PowerPoint presentation in full screen and narrate while you record your voice narration. You can then upload these to YouTube, etc.

You can record any window or application, so you can show someone how to use the operating system, or how to use Photoshop or any other application, or do something in a web browser: the possibilities are only limited to your imagination — oh, err, they’re also limited by your operating system! Unfortunately Camtasia only runs on PCs, so if you’re using a Mac, you’ll need to look into paid alternatives like Snapz Pro X or ScreenFlow.

The latest version of Camtasia Studio is version 5, but version 3 is still pretty good and offers a lot of functionality, and now that it’s free, you can’t beat the price! This is NOT beta software: they sold many licenses at full price in fact. (more…)

Filed under: Adobe Captivate by Mr. Tech
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As anyone who has ever lost data on a computer knows, consistent data backups are critical. Whether you’re running a business or just don’t want to lose your vacation photos, backups are key — but there is a new twist on the old paradigm.

You can now backup your files “off-site”, over the Internet. If a water pipe bursts and your PC AND backup drive are destroyed, you can always restore data from an off-site backup.

Offsite backups are nothing new, but were usually done using backup tapes.

A new emerging trend is Online Backups: you backup your data over your Internet connection to a “cloud in the sky” (i.e., servers on the Internet).

A free service from Mozy.com allows up to 2 GB of data backup for free. If you need more than 2 GB of online storage, you can pay $4.95 per month for unlimited space. And since Mozy has graduated from Startup status to being acquired by storage giant EMC for $76 million, I don’t think this service will be disappearing any time soon.

If you have a high speed Internet connection, I’d go with an online backup strategy. Having dealt with the hassle of tape drives and mailing tapes off-site myself, I’m very happy to see the emergence of online backups!

Filed under: Backup, Free Stuff, Hard Drives & Storage, Small Business Corner by Mr. Tech
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