Data Recovery: Top 10 Most Effective Computer Backup Tools

Despite my best efforts, last week I lost both my primary and secondary computer systems. After losing my main desk several years ago, I vowed that I would never let myself be caught without a working PC. As they say, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” and once again I was caught with my pants down without a working computer when my desktop, which had been showing some signs of trouble in the last month, died. . all of a sudden and it wouldn’t turn on.

Then I went to my laptop, which I had been too lazy to keep up to date, and turned it on. It immediately started the Windows update process and prompted me to install Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. Having successfully done that on my desktop, I wasn’t too concerned about any installation issues on the laptop. However, upon completion of the installation, I got the blue screen of death, which is NEVER a good sign with a Windows based system.

After trying for about an hour without success to revive my laptop (which is only 8 months old and still under warranty), I knew I was in trouble and started looking for alternatives. Fortunately, my husband has a laptop handy that he uses to play games when we travel, and he generously offered to let me install my programs and files on it until he could fix one of my computers.

After finally acknowledging that there was no way I could have foreseen this situation, I decided that I had to suck it up, get over it, and move on. So I settle for a partially customized laptop that will work until one or another of my PCs is returned.

Despite having been through similar situations before, I learned a few new things along the way about data recovery and computer backup. Here are the 10 most effective tools that saved my bacon during my recent IT meltdown.

1. Automatic backup software. I have been using 2 online backups, Carbonite and Syncplicity. I had to restore from Carbonite before, and found the process lengthy and somewhat confusing. So several months ago I started using Syncplicity because it offers online access to all backed up files as well as the ability to sync an unlimited number of computers. However, it took a week to restore 20 GB of data with Syncplicity, and some of the data was not actually restored, despite what Syncplicity told me in my account. However, I can easily download this missing information to my computer from the online vault. One process that this backup system makes easy is that I store all my data files in My Documents so I don’t have to look for them in Program Files, or wherever they are normally stored.

2. Email client software. I still use Eudora dinosaur for my email client. Old clothes are hard to die for, I guess. However, I somehow missed marking some key Eudora folders for backup, so I was initially using my webmail access provided by my hosting company to access email due to this oversight with Eudora. I quickly grew tired of it, as I had no way to create additional folders on those systems, so I decided to manually configure Eudora and open folders and emails as I needed them in the program. This experience has tempted me so much to switch all my incoming and outgoing email servers on all domains to Gmail just to have access to everything online, come a hurricane, flood, tornado, or computer crash.

3. Bookmark service. I am an avid researcher and resource gatherer, so having access to my bookmarks or favorites file is vital to my daily operations. I had been using Spurl, but due to their frequent outages, I switched to Foxmarks. I like that this service gives me the ability to access all of these online, as well as have them at my fingertips anytime I need them from my Favorites menu, as well as easily sync them with any computer.

4. Contact management. Although I don’t use Outlook for email, I do use it for managing calendars and contacts. I had been using Plaxo as an online backup for my contacts, but it doesn’t allow me to store my notes on each contact. I have been using Airset for several months now and it regularly syncs my contacts (with notes) and calendar with their online service. I found this much more convenient than trying to restore a backup PST file in Outlook and then repeating it again when my main computer comes back. Instead, I just make changes to my contacts and calendar in Airset, and sync them with Outlook on my desktop.

5. Passwords. I have been using Roboform for years to help me manage my passwords. I have my Roboform data in My Documents, so it was very easy to reinstall Roboform and copy the data folder to the new computer and allow me to access all the sites that require a password and username. Finally something that worked perfectly!

6.Project Management. Smartsheet has been my project management service for the last few months. I love that it has the ability to create an item and allow you to attach a document and discussion to that item. Instead of having to search for information about a project, all I had to do was log into my Smartsheet account and there it was.

7. Software licenses. About 99% of the new software I install is downloaded and I don’t get a physical copy on CD. Therefore, I make sure that I have the downloaded version in a My Downloads folder that is part of the My Documents archive, which is regularly backed up. And I make a PDF copy of the software license that I receive by email and save it in a Software folder, also in My Documents. Lastly, I purchased a very inexpensive program, Registration Vault, which allows me to store all of my software license and purchase information and allows me to back up my data to My Docs. Since I had to reinstall the software on a new computer, it was easy to restore the registry vault files, get my software license number, and have a fully functional piece of software in a matter of minutes.

8. Accounting. I use Quickbooks for my accounting needs, and while they offer an online version, I haven’t made the move to it yet. Instead, I back up Quickbooks after each use to the My Documents folder. When I needed to bill consulting clients earlier this month, all I had to do was reinstall Quickbooks and restore my latest backup. I instantly had everything I needed back at my fingertips.

9. Free alternative services. Some software I use, like CuteFTP and TraxTime, don’t allow data backup. So I really have to start over with my FTP information and my time tracking information when my computer dies. Instead of installing these programs on the new computer, I just used some free alternatives to get by. FireFTP, a Firefox add-on, has worked pretty well for me as my FTP client, and MyHours.com has been pretty good for TraxTime, though it does require a few more steps to get it up and running than TraxTime.

10. Email marketing. While not a tool, I have found that the text and HTML versions of email broadcasts are important in email marketing. Initially, I couldn’t get my normal email client up and running, so I was reading my email from my webmail systems. I have 2 hosting accounts, and the newer one has a pretty sophisticated webmail system and allows me to read HTML emails with no problem. The other, however, does not allow the display of HTML. So those emails sent only in HTML were the ones I couldn’t read. If you’re smart and your email marketing program allows you to send emails in both plain text and HTML, go for it, even if it seems like an unnecessary pain. You never know how your list members might be forced to prepare their emails.

As you can tell, I have found that online services have given me the best support to help me get through this IT crisis. My lesson? Duplicate as much as you can in the online systems. This way, you’ll have access to your data when you travel, when your computer crashes, or when you’re faced with a natural disaster.

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