Archive for the 'How To' Category

In a recent article I wrote of the demise of a good friend’s warehouse and with it his two office PC’s and a laptop containing his only backups. Well, he was finally able to go into the building to recover what salvageable items that he could. Of course one of his primary concerns was his business data so he pulled both PC’s from the destroyed office and gave them to me to see what I could do.

The cases were pretty badly melted. The PC’s had also been saturated with thousands of gallons of water courtesy of our local fire company. I had little hope of recovering any of the data. Nevertheless, using a crowbar and hammer I was able pull the case apart and gain access to the key hard drive. Surprisingly, the drive itself was in good shape despite a good covering of soot. The sheet of rubber covering the controller board seemed intact. This gave me some hope that I might be able to get the drive running again - even if it did smell like a burnt hot dog.

To get the drive working I used a most useful device called a hard drive enclosure. The enclosure essentially includes a mounting rail to hold the hard drive, a USB I/O board, a case to protect it all and a power cord. It essentially allows you to turn an internal hard drive into an external USB-based hard drive. I’ve used the enclosure countless times in situations where a computer dies for reasons other than a HD crash and it’s always worked like a charm. I wasn’t sure how well it would work in this situation, however.

I carefully mounted the hard drive in the enclosure, connected the data ribbon and power supply. When I plugged the unit in and turned it on it seemed to spin up with out a problem. I connected the enclosure to my PC’s USB port and it was immediately recognized. Whew! I was able to recover all of my friend’s critical data including his QuickBooks data file, customer proposals, contracts and more. Obviously we were very lucky that the HD did not succumb to the heat. The recovery of this data saved him the many hundreds or thousands of dollars it would have taken to rebuild it all by hand.

A typical hard drive enclosure only costs about $25 but the benefits are almost priceless. If you find yourself with a dead or destroyed PC but an intact hard drive, then I highly recommend purchasing one of these devices.

These 5 useful tips will help ensure your data is protected, secure and there when you need it.

1. Automate Your Backups

Most everyone knows that you need to backup up your data. Unfortunately, most don’t make a regular habit of it. The best way to ensure you have up to date backups is to automate the process. An excellent way to do this is to use a tool like SyncBack. It provides an excellent GUI for creating “tasks” to backup data to external hard drives, network shares, encrypted volumes (see below) or other backup devices. Its integration with the Windows Task Scheduler makes it very easy to automate your backup tasks.

This is the solution I recommend for most users as it requires no batch programming and it is completely free. If you are backing up a business network I suggest using SyncBackSE, a premium version (~$30) that includes several more features including file versioning and the ability to backup locked files.

2. Get Your Backup Off Site

OK, now that you are making those backups on a regular basis you need to protect against tragedies like fires and floods. The best way to do that is to take backups off site. One way to do this is to use portable backup solutions like data cartridge or tape drives, external hard disks or a laptop. Each of these can be effective solutions providing you actually take them off site.

An alternative that can be completely automated is an online backup account. I discuss the alternative of using an online backup service in a recent article.

If you have a FTP account - with enough capacity and bandwidth for your needs - you can use it as the target of your SyncBack tasks.

3. Encrypt Your Data

Another threat to your data is unauthorized access. Your network is password protected, but what about the backups. With all these off site backups floating around the likelihood of it falling into the wrong hands increases. How many stories have we heard about information workers loosing a laptop full of social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal information? An excellent way to protect the data in your care is to encrypt it.

The tool I like best for this purpose is TrueCrypt. It’s a free, open source tool that lets you create and maintain encrypted volumes on hard drives and removable data cartridges. By backing up to these encrypted volumes you can be sure that your data is protected from unauthorized use.

If you are using an online backup service then configure it to backup the TrueCrypt volume only. This way you know that while your data is securely sitting on a third party server there is no risk of snooping or other data theft.

4. Use a Version Control System

If you work in an environment where several people make changes to a large library files then you may benefit by using a version control system. Traditionally used by programmers and software engineers, version control system can be valuable tools for others that need to maintain control over how and who can change files.

With a version control system authorized users are required to “check-out” documents from a repository before they can make changes to them. This helps prevent multiple users from editing the same file at the same time. When files are “committed” back to the repository the changes are stored as well. This gives you the ability to compare versions and rollback edits. So when some one accidentally deletes pages 5 to 21 of the employee handbook you can recover it from an earlier version of the document.

You can implement a basic version control system on your PC or network using a free tool like TortoiseSVN. You can also use a web based service provider like CVSDude to host your repository giving you the added benefit of anywhere access and off site backup.

5. Backup Your Power Too

Have you ever lost an hour or more worth of editing when the power went out? One solution to this problem is to SAVE OFTEN! But did you know that your changes aren’t always written to disk immediately when you save? It could be several minutes before their securely on the disk. The better solution is to use an UPS - that is an Uninterruptible Power Supply - or battery backup. When the power goes out a UPS will continue to keep your PC on long enough for you to save and shutdown the PC normally.

If you are running a business network a UPS is a must for file servers and database servers. Remember to use a UPS on network equipment as well. Even if your servers and workstations are on a UPS you won’t be able to properly close network resources if the switch looses power. That can lead to data loss too.

In addition to a continuing flow of juice a good UPS unit will also provide protection against power surges that can damage your computer and network equipment. Even small, unnoticeable fluctuations in voltage can cause electronic wear to sensitive equipment. If you are not going to use UPS, at the very least use a surge suppressor.

If you publish one or more RSS feeds then increasing your subscriber base is probably one of your goals. Therefore, it is important to make sure your readers know there is a feed available. One way to do that is to add subscribe buttons to various places on your page.

Another great way to increase visitor awareness is to make use of the subscribe feature built into the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox.

In IE, the button appears in the toolbar when one or more feeds is available for the page:

In Firefox, the button appears on the right side for the address bar:

I find this option a preferable addition because it maintains a sense of consistency from one site to the next. When I am visiting a site that I find interesting and want to subscribe I can quickly look in one of these locations to see if a feed is available. Without them I find myself searching around the page for a subscribe link- that I sometimes can’t find.

Adding the button to your site if very simple. You only need to include the following meta tag within your page header (between the <head> and </head> tags):

Here is an example

<link rel="alternate"
   type="application/rss+xml"
   href="http://www.myblog.com/feed"
   title="My Blog's Feed">

Make sure the rel parameter is set to “alternate” and the type parameter is set to “application/rss+xml”. The href parameter should be set to the address of your feed and the title should be set to something meaningful to the reader.

If you use a common header that is included in all pages then you can insert it there. If you use WordPress you can add the tag to the header.php file of your template.

When your visitor clicks on the button they will be able to view and subscribe to the feed using their choice reader.

If you offer multiple feeds you can add multiple link tags to your header. In this case, when your visitor clicks the button a drop down menu will appear that lets them choose from all available feeds. If you click on the button in this blog for example you will find a number of available feeds.

It’s a free and easy way to increase awareness of your feeds. Add it to your site today and watch your subscriber base grow.

While most us were fortunate to enjoy a Memorial Day weekend filled with backyard cookouts, swimming pool opening and trips to the beach a very good friend of mine was struck with tragedy. The building that housed his small business’ office and warehouse burnt to the ground. The cause is yet to be determined but was most likely the result of damage to electrical wires in the ceiling of the aging building. In any case, he suffered an unimaginable loss including a disruption of his business as well as a great deal of personal property.

Limitations of Do-It-Yourself Backups

About a year ago I assisted him in setting up a backup routine for his company data. All of his company information - including his QuickBooks data - was stored on a PC in the office. I created a simple routine that he could run from his laptop that copied all of the data from the PC to his laptop. He took that laptop home just about every night. Unfortunately, this past Thursday night, he left his laptop in his office and it was lost along with everything else. The most recent off-site backup he has is just over a year old. He will be able to “rebuild” much of this data, but it will take many dozens - if not hundreds - of hours - not to mention the embarrassment of going to clients to request information like account balances and contact info.

How could this have been avoided? As a consultant I am always reminding my clients to backup data - and to take those backups off-site. An on-site backup is always useful in the event of a hard drive crash or other data corruption, but only an off-site backup can help in the event a tragedy like that experienced by my friend. Of course, the discipline of making a backup and taking it off-site frequently is sometimes hard to maintain. This is especially true when a tragedy such as this seems a remote possibility.

Online Backup Services

One solution that would have helped mitigate this disaster is using a web based backup, online storage or data synchronization service. Here a few that I think are worth considering:

• BeInSync - This is an online backup and PC synchronization service designed for professionals and small businesses.
• Box.net - This is an online storage and document sharing service.
• Carbonite - This is a service designed specifically for performing online backups.
• IDrive - This is a service offering online, encrypted backups.
• Mozy Remote Backup - This is also a service designed for performing online backups.
• SugarSync - This is another online backup and data synchronization service.

With a little help from an IT pro you can easily setup a regularly scheduled backup routine that will protect your data against this type of disaster.

Encryption for Better Security

If you are concerned about having your sensitive data sent over the Internet and stored with a third-party vendor then you should consider using encryption software. There are two packages that I recommend in the Free Software Catalog that will help in creating a completely secure backup solution.

The first is TrueCrypt. With TrueCrypt you can create an encrypted volume where backup copies of documents, databases and other files can be stored. The volume itself is stored in an encrypted file that can only be accessed with TrueCrypt and the password used to create the volume. It is this “volume” file that gets backed up to the online service.

The other packge is AxCrypt. AxCrypt lets you encrypt individual files or folders. The encrypted files are then backed up using the service.

In either case, the encryption of your data can be incorporated in to scheduled backup routine making the entire process automated and care free.

This week my friend will start the long process of rebuilding his business. And while he was reluctant to use an online backup service before he now embraces the idea whole-heartedly.

Please contact me for more information on custom backup and other IT solutions that can help save your business from such a costly disruption.