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.

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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.

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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…)

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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…)

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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!

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