Maximum PC backup RSS Feed

Rising Enterprise Data Disasters Blamed on Human Error

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:24:14 -0600

A rising number of data flubs has caused some to question whether the benefits of cloud computing truly outweigh the risks, but is that really a fair assessment? The eggheads at Kroll Ontrack don't think so, who point out that the recent spike in data losses with corporate enterprises is simply the result of human error.

"While advanced storage options such as virtualization and cloud computing offer corporations storage optimization, human processes are still at the root of these solutions, instructing the technology as to how to perform," said Phil Bridge, managing director at Kroll Ontrack UK. "The complextity of these systems often requires a steep learning curve. With reported IT spending at a low, human error is increasingly common."

According to Kroll Ontrack, some of the biggest mistakes attributed to the human element include pulling the wrong drive while trying to pull a failed disk in a RAID array, accidentally deleting a business-critical database and restoring it with a corrupt or incomplete backup, attempting to force failed drives back online when rebuilding a bad array, accidentally deleting files, volumes, virtual machines, or a SAN LUN with no backup in place, and reformatting the wrong SAN LUN during a server migration.

Imation's New USB Drive is Wireless, Not Wi-Fi

Ryan Whitwam — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:16:31 -0600

Imation has announced the release of the first external hard drive to use wireless USB. The Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive packs a standard 1.5TB 3.5” drive, with an SSD upgrade kit coming soon. The transfer speed are said to be a respectable, but not great, 15 MB/sec.

Per the wireless USB standard, the Pro WX supports one to one connection that should limit the possibility that someone else can connect to your hard drive. But being that this is the first wireless USB hard drive, there hasn’t yet been a real world test of security. Backups can be triggered whenever the drive is within 30 feet of the (very large) receiver.

The Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive is available for purchase now for 500 smackers. The price may be a bit steep, but think how cool you’ll look not having to plug your hard drive in to anything… wait, what? Power cord? Um, can we get on that wireless power thing? At least it eliminates one of two cables.

Synology Announces 4-bay NAS with Support for Apple's Time Machine

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:50:10 -0600

Synology has a history of making excellent NAS boxes, and the new four bay DS410j is no exception. Front and center on the spec sheet is support for Apple’s Time Machine backup system, a rarity on third-party NAS units.

The unit is designed for home and entry-level business use. The four drive bays can take up to 2TB 3.5 inch drives. The DS410j also supports multiple RAID configurations when loaded with multiple compatible drives. Automated backup and DNLA support come standard as well. The DS410j can be purchased with or without hard drives preinstalled, but either way it’s going to be pricey. If you look around, the driveless version can be had for a bit under $400.

Arkeia Software Offers Free Network Backup for Ubuntu Users

Paul Lilly — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:06:11 -0600

Linux certainly has its advantages, and if Ubuntu 8.04 LTS happens to be your distro of choice, you'll be able to take advantage of Arkeia Software's Network Backup version 8 at no cost, Arkeia announced.

"Arkeia Network Backup is a proven network backup solution with broad platform support and a robust enterprise feature-set," said Steve George, vice president of sales and product management, corporate services at Canonical. "With the Arkeia Network Backup Enterprise Edition for Ubuntu, Arkeia Software makes a significant commitment to the Ubuntu user community and supports Ubuntu’s ongoing growth in the enterprise."

The fully licensed backup solution can be downloaded from the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS repository by using the Synaptic Package Manager or by typing the "apt-get install arkeia" command. The license is not time limited and includes one backup server running on Ubuntu, up to 250GB capacity for backup to disk, support of any single drive, tape, or disk, and 2 client agents to backup different types of client machines, including Windows workstations and desktops, most Linux setups, Mac OS X, and BSD computers.

Murphy's Law: The Post-Windows-7 Freeware Survival Guide

David Murphy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0500

What's the first thing you're going to do after installing the Windows 7 operating system? If you live in Japan, perhaps you'll go celebrate your new, wallpaper-shifting desktop with some cardiac arrest. If you're one of the stalwarts still clinging to your XP or Vista operating system, well, you're probably going to spin your chair around in smug defiance of Microsoft's latest bit of software. And if you're a Maximum PC reader, I would hope that you're going to treat your fresh new installation of Windows 7 as an October spring cleaning of-sorts.

In fact, I urge you to. One doesn't often get a chance to reinstall an operating system from scratch. Or, rather, it's always easier to think of the hundreds of reasons why it's just not the right time to wipe-and-reinstall the contents of your primary hard drive. Resist the temptation to take the easy route. Backup your drive, give it a good format, and install Windows 7 onto your clean-as-a-whistle partition.

And once you've done that, read the rest of this article. While my colleagues at Maximum PC have given you some good first steps into your new Windows 7 world post-installation, I'd like to go one bit further and list out my typical post-installation routine for any Windows operating system. There are a number of key freeware choices that you'll want to slap onto your system to establish a baseline environment that's as efficient as it is secure--that, and you should really take this time to establish preventative measure that will keep your PC as clutter-free as can be throughout its new Windows 7 lifespan.

After all, bloated systems make Kylie sad.

Step One: The Interwebs

After I've gone through the various Windows 7 settings and tweaked them to my personal preferences (I like my hidden folders shown, damnit), I fire up Internet Explorer for its first and last time... to download Mozilla Firefox. I'm not a Firefox fanboy through and through--especially given the memory leaks that continue to plague the browser in various ways. However, just about anything is more useful, less cluttered, and better secured than Internet Explorer. The helpful IE View extension ensures that I'll always be able to load up the IE rendering engine if I'm in a jam (or navigating Microsoft's Windows Update site). Better still, I can immediately grab all my cherished bookmarks from the Cloud using the much-loved Xmarks add-on.

Step Two: Security

Before I start downloading programs and files en masse, I like having some kind of virus scanner either running in the background or easily available through a context menu. When's the last time I actually had a virus? I couldn't tell you. But I could tell you when the next time is that a virus is likely to infect my PC: never. There's been a lot of chatter about Microsoft's free Security Essentials application. I haven't honestly tried the scanner myself. I'm a time-tested fan of good ol' Clamwin, the open-source virus scanner that's quick to install, easy to run (and update), and relatively scare in its footprint. Whatever your choice, an antivirus scanner is worth its weight in easing your own personal stress over potential computer infections... even if it never ends up finding a virus at all.

Step Three: Decrapping

Just so I can get a good habit started before I forget, I make sure to grab the latest version of Spybot S&D and set the program's advanced configuration so that it always runs on my machine at particular intervals. I like Spybot S&D for this very fact: You can literally "set it and forget it," as the popular infomercial saying goes, and have a constantly updating, spyware-free system without having to worry about starting the application manually. Another nice feature of Spybot S&D is its ability to "immunize" your system against certain spyware "infections." In short, the program adjusts your browser's settings to block out known problems before they occur--a nice bit of preventative maintenance that you don't always find in a typical "scan and delete" application.

Get ready for steps Four and Five on page two!

Step Four: Isolating and Removing

If you're one of the lucky users to get your hands on Windows 7's XP Mode, congratulations--you've just acquired a wonderful virtualized operating system for testing new files you've downloaded. If not, don't sweat it. XP Mode is merely a free, virtualized version of the Windows XP operating system that's designed to run on Microsoft's Virtual PC application. You can download Virtual PC for free and install a version of Windows all by yourself (or grab VirtualBox if you want to run non-Microsoft operating systems). It's not a complicated task by any means, and you'll receive the same virtual functionality as those fancier Windows 7 users and their XP Mode.

The bigger question remains: Why bother? Well, a virtualized operating system running overtop your Windows 7 client is a perfect sandbox for testing new applications without having to gunk up your main operating system. Unsure of whether a piece of freeware is really a fit for you? Worried that something you've downloaded might be more problematic for your PC than good? Do you only need to install a particular application for a single use (like, say, obtaining a screenshot)? These are all scenarios where the sandbox environment of a virtual operating system becomes a useful tool. If your virtual OS gets too cluttered, you can always delete it and reinstall... while still going about your daily activities in your normal Windows 7 environment.

If you're still not convinced, or if you've already found yourself with some unwanted applications on your Windows 7 OS, don't uninstall them--not using their default uninstallation routines, that is. Grab Revo Uninstaller, a third-party freeware application that goes to great lengths to eliminate all traces of a program from your machine. Included in this elimination are leftover files in the installation directory, registry settings that were somehow overlooked by the normal uninstaller application, and anything else that's been introduced into your PC by said program. Using the program is no more difficult than Windows' "Add/Remove Programs" option in the Control Panel, but it's many, many times more thorough than the uninstallation routines you'll find on most apps.

Step Five: Saving

I'll hand it to Microsoft, their built-in "Backup and Restore" feature for Windows 7 ain't half bad. If you're sick of installing freeware at this point, then it's worth your while to fire up this Windows 7 application and schedule a drive backup to run on whatever interval you're most comfortable with. If you're a gambling person (or otherwise too impatient to wait for a full system restore should your primary drive hit the fan), you can select the individual files and folders you want Windows to copy over to a new location per your schedule. You can also bundle this piecemeal approach with the creation of a full system image. You won't be able to pick and choose files to restore should you, say, erroneously delete a folder that you didn't include in your piecemeal backup. However, if your computer goes haywire, you'll be able to restore the full. working contents of the your drive elsewhere.

I prefer to use Syncback Freeware for my backup needs--here's why. The program comes with a strong set of filters for the inclusion or exclusion of files or folders, as well as a solid list of "if this file does/does not exist on the backup drive, what should I do?" options for further specificity. I use both of these elements to customize a file synchronization between my primary hard drive and a secondary drive.

Why's that? I don't really want to waste time backing up files I'm never going to need in the event of a complete system meltdown. I'm the kind of guy who opts for the format-reinstallation of an operating system when danger arrives. It's the easiest way to turn back to a blank slate of perfection for my system, and I really don't mind copying the contents of my music, picture, and video folders from the backup drive to the primary. Well, that and all those program reinstallations... but, really, a meltdown is kind of like a forced spring cleaning to me. Consequently, I only want to back up the files that I'm going to need to copy back to the drive. I'd much prefer to reinstall everything else.

Step Six: Your Turn

Of course, these five topics are the first steps I take when my system's brand-new desktop screen pops up for the first time. This list is hardly comprehensive, however--there's much more I install after-the-fact, mostly programs that are less critical to my system's general operations than those represented by these five categories. What about you? What are some of the first steps on your Windows post-installation to-do list?

Ten bonus points and a traffic cone if anything with the word "plants" and "zombies" shows up within the first five items.

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

How-To: Configure and Schedule Automated Backups in Linux

Will Kraft — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0500

Regardless of the operating system you are using, data loss is inevitable. Sooner or later, it will happen to you—the only question is how much data you will lose. Although RAID can act as an insurance policy for hardware failures, it was never designed to serve as a backup and will not perform this task well at all. Human error is always the greatest concern since important files can be accidentally overwritten or deleted at careless moments. It is easy to fall behind on your backups or get complacent; without recent backups you have no recovery strategy. This guide will help you automate your backups on your Linux rig so you will always have your files up to date.

Step 1: Get the Requisite Tools

Before you can backup your data, you need an acceptable storage location to copy it to. Optical media like CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW discs were once a popular (but not necessarily the best) medium to back up to since they held a lot of data for the time and were fairly cheap. Cheap optical media is suitable for short-term storage, but should not be relied upon for the long-term because of the possibility of scratches, oxidation, or organic dye breakdown. (CD rot) Optical media is now even less practical than it used to be since most personal data greatly exceeds what most disc formats can hold. It would take many discs (or one or more discs in a still-expensive format like Blu-ray) to conduct a single backup session. It used to be common practice to include multiple redundant copies of a file on a disc or spread across several discs to improve the chances of recovery in case of damage, and this would inflate the disc count even more. Ultimately, it just isn't worth using optical discs for backup anymore.

Today, the only practical means for backup is either an external hard drive (or several of them, if you want maximum protection) or an external server. It is best to rely on a combination of these methods instead of just one to increase redundancy. In any case, the hard drive(s) should be large enough to accommodate both your current existing data in addition to any foreseeable growth. In the case of servers, you should definitely use a remote server if you have access to one (if you buy web hosting and have plenty of space left on your account, that would be ideal for backups) Regardless of the storage mechanisms you use, the actual file transfer operations should be done with a program called Rsync.

Step 2: Set Up Rsync

Rsync is a program that copies data from one location to another. Although another program, cp, exists for this purpose, Rsync is far more advanced and efficient; while cp can only copy entire files from one location to another on a local system, Rsync compares the source file to the destination file (if it exists) and only copies the newer parts of the source file to the destination. In this way, Rsync can synchronize data between two locations much like the Windows briefcase tool does. This saves an immense amount of time and bandwidth on backup procedures.

In addition to that, Rsync can sync files on both local and remote systems whereas cp can only work with local systems. (there is a remote version of cp called scp, but even it can only work with whole files) Rsync will be as slow as cp the first time you use it since the destination files must be copied in full to the new backup location, but subsequent sessions will be much faster. You should know that it may take anywhere from several hours to several days to complete the first Rsync session with a remote server, depending on the speed of your connection and the amount of bulk data you need to transfer. Furthermore, Rsync (via SSH) encrypts remote file transfer sessions to keep your data from being sniffed in transit.

Rsync is fairly straightforward. The basic syntax is as follows: “rsync -a [source dir] [destination dir]”. (the -a switch tells rsync to work in “archive” mode, which is ideal for backup functions) Although the basic command listed above will work once you specify the source and destination locations, there are many other options available to tweak Rsync. These can be discovered by reading the Rsync manual page (run “man rsync”).

Although the command line implementation of Rsync allows for easier automation, (more on that next) using Rsync in this way can be difficult for new users who are not used to the command line. In such cases there is a graphical frontend called Grsync that can vastly simplify the backup process. Grsync redefines the various switches as easy-to-understand checkboxes that can be set to the desired combination.

Grsync does have a degree of automation by allowing you to define and automatically run a session (grsync -e [session_name]) but standard Rsync is still much more versatile since you can specify commands directly instead of having to rely on predefined sessions.

Step 3: Cron

Once you have configured Rsync to backup your files, you are only halfway to having a viable backup plan. A decent backup solution must run regularly instead of intermittently, and all by itself Rsync will not update your files unless you manually invoke it. While you can remember to manually run Rsync every day, there is a far easier way to do it.

Linux and similar systems have a utility called Cron, which is essentially a scheduling tool for running other programs. Each user has a crontab file, which is a list of instructions for Cron to execute and the times each instruction should run. In this way, everyone (not just root) can use Cron. Cron works with the system clock; when the correct time for a planned event rolls around, Cron will automatically execute the command.

There are several ways to edit your crontab. The easiest way for new users to configure Cron is to use a frontend like gcrontab or kcron. More advanced users can edit the crontab manually in a text editor like Vim or Kate. To edit the crontab manually, open a terminal and type “crontab -e”. After that, you should check your system process list for a “cron” or “crond” process (root should own it) to make sure that the Cron daemon is running. After editing your crontab, you must restart the cron process ( run “sudo /etc/init.d/cron restart”) before your new changes will work.

Manual crontab editing looks daunting at first but is simple once you get the hang of it. Each row in the crontab list is treated as a separate command. Each row has several columns that must be specified: minute, (abbreviated “m”) hour, (abbreviated “h”) day of month, (abbreviated “dom”) month, (abbreviated “mon”) day of week, (abbreviated “dow”) and the command. Each column is delimited by a single space with no other marks, and it doesn't matter if each row lines up perfectly with the others or not. You can add times/dates as both real numbers (Cron uses a strange 24-hour clock, so noon is 12:00 and midnight is 00:00), abbreviated days of the week (Sun, Thu, etc.), and wild characters. (*) Anything defined with a wild character is interpreted by Cron as “all”, meaning that if the hour on a command is set to “*”, Cron will execute the command every hour. To configure something to run repeatedly at a certain interval, you can use a “split” wild character. (e.g. setting */2 in the hour field will cause the command to run once every two hours on the days you define.)

Cron is quite flexible; Ranges affecting everything between two values are defined by short dashes (-) while multiple nonconsecutive occasions are delimited by commas. For instance, if you wanted to run a command every day from the first of the month to the 10th, you would specify “1-10” in the “dom” field. Likewise, if you wanted a command to run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you should declare “Mon,Wed,Fri” in the “dow” field.

Step 4: Put them Together

Now that you know about Rsync and Cron, you can probably already see how they can be used together to automate backup processes. Since decent backup procedure recommends backing up to multiple sources, you would have to create multiple crontabs each with a different rsync command. Fortunately, there is a far better way that can be handled with a single Cron job.

The various command shells on Linux (like Bash) have excellent support for scripting. Shell scripts are the Linux equivalent of Windows batch files and offer a way to quickly run multiple commands in a specific pre-defined order and with a preset configuration. If you have much experience at all on the command line, you should not find basic scripting very difficult (there are plenty of online guides to help you write scripts for bash and other shells if you run into trouble). Creating a shell script to hold the necessary Rsync commands is trivial; from that point, you can invoke the shell script in your crontab and each Rsync command will run at the appointed time you set in Cron just as though they were being invoked directly. It helps to specify the full pathname of the shell “/bin/bash $scriptname” in the crontab instead of the shortcut “./$scriptname” to make sure that Cron executes the job successfully. If you have sensitive data, you should definitely consider encrypting it before you place it on a shared server (like a web host). Encryption can be done with GPG in the shell script prior to transmission.

The only foreseeable problem with automated backup is that system configurations tend to change over time. Mount points and IP addresses can be reassigned without notice, and your script will not automatically update itself to include these changes. As long as your Rsync commands are out of date, your files will not be backed up properly and you will have no idea of the problem until it is too late. Therefore, it pays to manually run your backup commands often to check for problems and update your script as necessary.

Although Rsync can sync between locations on the local system without user input, it usually requires a password before it can sync to a remote system (it uses part of SSH's functionality for this). Since automated Cron jobs prevent user input, there is no way to provide the password when it is needed. Because of this, the default SSH behavior will not work for automated backups. You can get around this by setting up public/private key authentication for SSH; as long as the keys match, no password is required. Be forewarned that the automated key authentication will be broken if the IP address of the remote host changes (this is a deliberate feature to help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks) and that security is compromised slightly. Ultimately, it comes down to a trade-off between security and convenience, so choose wisely based on your situation and needs.

Outputting Outlook

The Maximum PC Staff — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500

I am starting to back up all my files to CD in anticipation of buying a new computer this fall when Windows 7 becomes available.

I have a Windows 98SE system using Office 2000 and I cannot find my Outlook 2000 .pst files so I can save them to CD and then move them to the new system when it arrives. I have searched the entire disk for “*.pst” and the only thing it shows is the “default.pst” file which is way too small (300KB) to be the file I want. Also, is there a way to save my Outlook settings so they can be moved to the new Outlook?

—Allan Kjeldsen

Allan, Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article 196492 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196492) gives instructions on exporting your .pst files and settings. Briefly, to find your .pst files, right-click Outlook Today and hit Properties, then Advanced. The Path box should show your .pst file location; the default is C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. The Knowledge Base article also includes instructions for backing up your Outlook 2000 settings, rules, contacts, calendars, and tasks so you can export them to newer versions of Outlook.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

Terabyte Backup

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:30:57 -0500

How do I, at a reasonable cost, back up all of my data? Long ago, when hard drives were 40GB, 4.7GB DVDs were a reasonable means of backup. But now with multi-terabyte hard drives there doesn’t seem to be any reasonable backup method. Right now I’m using RAID 5 rather than backing up my data. I have a RAID with five 1TB drives in it and I’m relying on the redundancy as the backup. I looked into tape backup drives and found that the cheapest 800GB LTO-4 drive was $1,800 and the tapes run $50 each. As it turns out, I could build another system, put together a duplicate array and back up one to the other for less than the cost of the tape drive. Is there any such thing as affordable backup anymore? I can’t find anything. Blu-ray isn’t even affordable yet, and it’s already too small for backups.

—K. Bateman

Ah, you’ve touched upon a common topic of discussion here at Maximum PC: How do you back up huge amounts of data effectively?

The bad news is, with the amounts of data you’re talking about, there’s no such thing as a cheap backup solution. If you want to back up 3TB of data, you’re going to have to spend some money. Sticking with what you have now may be tempting, but RAID 5 is not a backup strategy, and you’d have to buy at least one 1TB drive to rebuild your array if it fails, anyway. So here’s what the Doc recommends: Buy a multibay NAS (or external eSATA enclosure, such as WD’s MyBook Studio Edition II), fill it with 2TB drives and back up your array to it, or (if you have less than 3TB of data on your array) split your array up and use half for your primary drive and the other half for backup.

Western Digital's MyBook Studio II contains two 2TB drives and has an eSATA port. Not a bad choice for backing up huge amounts of data.