restore

Free Online Diary offers people a chance to take their personal thoughts into the 21st century by going digital with their diaries. With some added features, this program wants to be the final word in online writing, but its design might hold people back.

Free Online Diary is actually a companion program to access a site of the same name. When opened on your computer, it offers only a menu with links that takes you directly to sections of your online journal, including Diary, Notes, and a To-Do List. Beyond this, the software doesn't have any other features. It … Read more

This last weekend hosted the 33rd birthday of my life. Hooray! When I was making my wish list for all the great things I wanted to receive (but didn't) for my birthday, I also started thinking about some dream cars that I would love to own. So this week, I've dedicated my blog to my favorite cars that I wish to own one of these days.

One car I've always wanted to own was the Pontiac Fiero. My parents always advised me against getting one (y'know, with that whole "the engine might catch fire" … Read more

KLS Backup 2008 Standard doesn't have the most intuitive user interface for backing up important files and folders, but thankfully, it employs wizards to streamline the process. Once we put it to the test, it successfully backed up designated files, folders, and even our Registry keys.

The user interface has commands at the top of the window, and four panels that display created profiles, profile tests, archives, and archive content. Not sure where to go first, we used the backup wizard to get started. Using the wizard, we added the files, selected the compression level, and applied encryption and … Read more

Dealing with registry errors is never fun, but this back up and restore program helps you make sure you can quickly recover when things go wrong. Even if you wouldn't attempt to modify the registry, Mz Registry Backup makes it a snap to quickly restore your registry to an earlier backup if things go wrong when you install or uninstall a program.

Mz Registry Backup has a very simple interface that looks clean and professionally designed. Unlike some registry programs that overcomplicate the process, or those geared towards the expert user, this program makes the process easy enough for … Read more

Archive & Restore is a backup program that protects important files and folders. We especially liked that it included file compression and the option of backing up our files on an external device.

A wizard walks you through the initial setup process of choosing the archive location (LAN or disk archive). We were able to easily create a backup folder for protecting our desktop. The program operates through Windows Explorer. All you have to do is right-click on the files you want to back up and select the Archive In option through your Context menu. The Properties menu lets you … Read more

Back-In-Time is a helper app for Time Machine that gives you more detailed access into--and more options for manipulating--backed-up data.

While Time Machine has an elegant built-in interface, it can be limiting for users who want more control and flexibility. Back-In-Time offers an interface similar to Time Machine's, but in an easy-to-browse, two-pane view that lets you access data from multiple Macs, get Quick Look previews (including comprehensive version history, date, and size info), and even drag and drop to recover individual files and folders. You can also compare two versions of the same file, with a graphical view … Read more

Instead of backing up to an internal or external device, this program backs up important files and folders to an online storage facility. But thanks to a trial limitation and a painfully long backup process, we were left unimpressed by its performance.

Allmydata requires that you create an account to access your backed up files online. The user interface is plain, but pretty self-explanatory. A tree menu lets you check off the folders you wish to include in the backup process. For our tests, we selected to back up our Documents files. Using the Status tab we were able to … Read more

Darik's not kidding about the "nuke" in the name of his program: use DBAN only if you want to completely eradicate any trace of data on a hard drive. This is the ultimate in data shredding--there's no recovery once you've used it.

There are two work flows for using DBAN. When it loads, you can type "autonuke" and press Enter. From there, DBAN will show you the progress being made on wiping your hard drive's data. Larger HDs will take longer, of course. There's a more configurable option, as well. Hit … Read more

Earlier this week, I showed you how to take apart your iMac and replace your hard drive. But I ended that with a promise to tell you the rest of the story. Here it is:

After I installed the new hard drive (a 500GB 3.5-inch internal Seagate hard drive costing $99), to replace the computer's nonfunctioning drive, I put my iMac back together and fired it up. I popped my Leopard install disc into the DVD slot, formatted the new hard drive, and installed the operating system. Within about 30 minutes, my iMac was back to life. I was ready to determine what happened to my old drive.

First, I bought a hard drive enclosure to convert my internal disk to an external hard drive. I bought an Antec enclosure for about $70 at Best Buy. It's a simple black box that connects to your computer via USB. It wasn't the most expensive enclosure on the shelf, but it did the trick.

After placing my internal hard drive in the enclosure, I plugged it into my iMac via USB. I waited (and waited and waited) for the hard drive to pop up in Finder. Eventually, it did. Unfortunately, only my Windows partition was accessible. My OS X files were gone.… Read more