Friday, November 23, 2007

Safeguard Your Information with Data Recovery

You are about to lie in bed…your back pain is attacking you once again…

This is your feeling every time you finished a brain draining paperwork. It is really hard to earn money. You have to consume a lot of perspiration. But amidst all that is the satisfaction that you are able to fulfill your job.

In the recent inventions of technology, everything is made easy for you. By just being equipped with your own computer set, there is no need for you to jot down every data that you need. It is as easy as pressing your keyboard and clicking your mouse.

How about when you lose all the data? Will you frown? Shout? Freak out?

For sure you cannot imagine your expression when this incident happens. This is one of the drawbacks of the technological advancement that the world has today. Some things are out of your control. All the tiring and sleepy nights in doing the paperwork will just turn into a nightmare…

In one phase, you have to pay gratitude to technology for the third time around because the inventors are able to discover the data recovery software. There are plenty of software packages out there that can already be purchased in safeguarding the information in your desktop or laptop. The only key is for you to learn the initial steps immediately after you have lost the files stored in your computer.

For you to choose the right software, know how the data were lost. It can be due to the virus, mistake on your part or failure on the hardware. This will help you assess the perfect software or method for you to use.

This is another tip. In most cases after you have lost the data remember that it is not always trashed right away. Maybe if you are quick enough you can still have the chance to recover it through a system in your computer. You can ask a friend who is well adept about this.

Next is for you to identify the gap in the system before you will use the computer into something else. On this way, you do not need to purchase or install data recovery software anymore.

Therefore the hoax is only your quickness and wittiness in finding the gap. But if you think that there's no other way for you to recover your files, then it is high time that you go for the data recovery software.

Khieng 'Ken' Chho is author and owner of Online Data Recovery Resources. For related articles and other resources, visit Ken's website: http://datarecovery.1w3b.net

Choosing a Data Recovery Company in case of Data Loss!

The choice of a specialist data recovery company in case of severe data loss is really a big deal. When you have lost almost all the important data of the enterprise, which is the backbone of your business, the only hope for the survival of your business is to contact an expert data recovery company, believe or not, its not an easy job to find a professional company for this service in this situation. Any how, you have to take the decision for the survival of your business. Here are a few guidelines for those who have suffered data loss and need appropriate solution in no time.

The most important issue in selecting the right company for your problem is the authentication of the company whom your are going to approach in case of major data loss. You will probably ask this question, will this company recover my data after the disaster? Certainly, if your answer to above question is in affirmative then you don't need to worry about anything else. You can further look for following when you choose a data recovery specialist.

• Work history • Type of data recovery services • Clean room facility • Operating system agnostic • Expert engineers

The work history and reputation of a data recovery company is very important. A company who has got its fame after working for years would be more trustable and expert than a new one.

A lot of companies have specific area of excellence like some are good in retrieving data from hard drives; some are specialist in raid servers etc. So choose the best company which best suites your requirements.

Make sure that your target company is equipped with clean room support and sterilized facilities; this will help you to give some sort of guarantee that your data will be retrieved successfully. Software that is Operating System Agnostic will operate on many operating systems, so in order to find a recovery specialist, make sure they are really expert to deal with your media/device successfully. The cost factor does influence a lot while searching for someone with excellence in data recovery field, but it is not the primary decision to worry about; especially when you are sure to get your data back, you will not be anxious about other stuff.
Tip! Software Errors – This error usually result from software writing data to the wrong part of the disk. The task may require the services of a data recovery expert.

Moreover, if you know a bit work history, the services provided and a few cases of successful salvaging of data, then go ahead in full confidence to submit your case to that company. There may be many more points and queries that can be asked to find the best data recovery company for your data loss; but above points will give you a few important ingredients that are possessed by your data recovery service provider. If you have damaged your hard drive due to any reason then find out your desired solution at http://www.optimumrecovery.com/hard_drive_data_recovery.html.

Errors, Failures and Data Recovery

More than 20 years have been passed in personal computing. But still some issues have not been resolved completely. One of them is data backup and recovery. There are many ways one can lose his or her critical files and data either accidentally deletion of file or media corruption. This can happen with a single user as well as with an organization. In any case, important data files always remain important.

In most of the cases, we usually store our data on hard disk drives. There are some common errors by which data can be lost. Some of them are:

• User Errors • Software error • Hard drive electronic failures • Hard drive arm failures • Hard drive platter failures

What ever the failure case is, a question arises how we can prevent our data files from failure? There are two solutions of this problem.

1. Prevent data before data corruption/loss 2. Recover data after data corruption/loss

Prevention before data loss

The above specified user errors and software errors fall in this category. In this scenario, we can save our critical files on more than one media. In other words, we must take backups of data on regular basis.
Tip! Facilities – When considering a data recovery company, always consider whether they have the right equipment and facilities to deal with your data recovery needs.

The other solution of this is to use third party data prevention tool. These tools keep record of every deleted file by the operating system and can recover it if it is not overwritten by any newly created file. One example of this is UnErase in Norton Utilities software package. There are others too available which provide this type of solutions.

Recover data after loss

No doubt, taking backups on regular basis and using third party tools to prevent accidentally deletion of file is a good practice. But what if, you have used all these techniques and you face media failure? In other words, the media on which data is being stored has been corrupted. This can be due to hard drive arm failure, hard drive platter failure or electronic failures. By happening this type of failure, your hard drive can make noises or even not detectable by the computer system.

So how we can recover and use our hard drive? If the case is only data file loss and hard drive condition is fine, we can try recovery softwares. These softwares actually read the file system table and then try to recover files. When a file is deleted, the operating system marks the file name with a character that informs the computer that it has been deleted. The deleted data is actually remains on the drive until the file system overwrites it, but the operating system can no longer access it. The process of hard disk recovery finds the data that the operating system is unaware of, but still exists in individual clusters on the hard drive. So we can say, a file can never be lost but can be overwritten. We can try to recover these files by any recovery software. But the risk remains as the softwares can make mishaps.
Tip! Invest in Maintenance – While using precious hours backing up and maintaining your RAID can prove to be taxing, and by all means unnecessary, you only have to look at a professional data recovery bill to realize that it was all worth it.

On the other hand, if the case is media failure then what? As there are organizations which provide better storage solutions, there are also those who provide better recovery services. The purpose of this is to provide the recovery solution on large scale basis as well as individual users. In critical situation, they take responsibility of your data. This is some how an expensive solution but usually 80-90 % of the lost data can be recovered on emergency and regular basis. However for free data recovery evaluation service visit Optimum Data Recovery Labs.

In above discussion, I have provided the example of hard disk. But remember, whatever the storage media is e.g. tape drives, RAID, Flash, Floppy etc., all these things can happen with them too. So make sure you have proper recovery solutions and backup plan for your organization's data.

-------------------------------------------------------------- About Author Shahbaz Ahmad is working in software industry since 2002. His programming experience includes C++,C#, Java and .NET. His current area of interests is .NET, C#, ASP.NET and SEO. He is working as software engineer. He has also worked on ATMEL micro controller programming, GPS (Geographical Positioning System) and VLSI design & Analysis. He holds Bachelor and Master Degree in Computer Sciences.

The Significance Of Data Recovery And Offsite Backup In Today's Business World

The question of data recovery comes to mind when an enterprise, with much larger volume and several business centers across the globe, loses its valuable data at one of its centers from a natural disaster like the recent Katrina hurricane, earth quake, flood or a terrorist attack. An organization's data is considered to be its most vital asset in today's fast growing business world. Not convinced? Consider a few types of data items like Text documents, financial records, contact records, address books, email messages and databases that you have created on your computer or servers may disappear forever unless you take a serious action to prevent it. Besides this you can be at risk of data loss due to programming errors, media/device failures, natural disasters, virus attacks and theft too.

In such situations business owners and managers are forced to ask questions like the ones below:

• Do we have an offsite backup of data for our destroyed or lost center? • How much data can be recovered and in what time frame? • How much cost is needed to successfully get our lost data back?

Oops! These are the questions that need to be answered instantly. Here the company owners and business managers feel the true importance of offline backup and data recovery service from a professional data recovery company.

The negated answer to first question is not easy to digest. Indubitably, the company that has suffered the situation of data loss will carry out significant measures to deal with disastrous circumstances in future. The best and the most frequent practiced solution must be to have offline backup for your valuable data periodically.
Tip! User Errors – This include accidentally deleted or overwriting files and accidentally formatting or deleting of a partition. User errors can sometimes be resolved through the use of off-the-shelf data recovery software.

To recover data from disastrous situations requires a lot of effort and it also depends upon the severity of destruction that has really hit your storage media and devices. In most cases the lost data is recoverable up to 60 percent. But there are data recovery companies which are able to recover 80 to 90 percent data after the loss. But in spite of wasting time and money on recovery it is advisable to use more than one data backup methodologies as data loss can happen to anyone in this uncertain world.

The cost for recovering your data is very critical factor which not only flourish your business but also affects it badly when you have a limited budget. It is observed that businesses that suffer data loss never stand up again; anyhow if they manage to continue their business after suffering the loss, 90 percent end up failing within two years. Again the solution to successfully cope up with all the catastrophic circumstances is to maintain a secure backup of your vital data.
Tip! Invest in Maintenance – While using precious hours backing up and maintaining your RAID can prove to be taxing, and by all means unnecessary, you only have to look at a professional data recovery bill to realize that it was all worth it.

For further information of how can you protect your data, regardless of disaster and failure, and how to recover data from lost hard drives, raid servers, tapes, file recovery and other removable media like flash cards, Iomega zip, memeory cards,Jaz disks and floppy disks, please visit http://www.optimumrecovery.com

The Drama of Data Recovery

Data loss is often a tragic and traumatic experience for most computer users. It is often due to hard drive failure, accidental formatting, electronic malfunctioning or a product of "natural calamities". This seems to be not much of a problem when there are viable data back-ups that the user creates. However, the problem comes when we tarry on making our back-up files, which is not a rare practice by the way. Yet even for those who prepare back-up files still fail to check on the viability of their back-ups.

In fact, even top-rated organizations are victims of data loss, because it simply happen all the time without choosing its target.

One minute, your files are all there. The next minute they're gone.

Whether yours is a novel that you have been working on for some time now, or some business data that means a lot to your career, it will still be like a great tragedy that will befall you. Now, when all your data are loss, are they truly gone forever? Can't something be done about them?

Off course there is…data recovery!

Data recovery is a huge business, which help computer users recover their data losses, even from a burned out hard drive!
Tip! Expertise – Each data recovery expert has his own forte to speak of. Some experts focus on different media or different problem areas.

Once a hard drive is sent to a data recovery company, it will be subjected to a diagnosis that will help determine the drive's condition and the status of the data loss. This process of evaluation will allow data recovery engineers to identify the problems and the necessary courses to take.

Logical failures, a type of failure that results from file-system corruption will take some time to rebuild. This is mainly because the solution to the failure would have to be a rebuilding process. However, there are cases that the whole drive would not need a total reconstruction. These occur when the media is not totally wrecked.

If however the failure roots from a physical problem, that may be more of a challenge. The data recovery engineer will have to scan the media and scan the binary code. This then will be rebuilt and transferred to a new hard drive. But users often elect the use of VCD' and CD's.
Tip! User Errors – This include accidentally deleted or overwriting files and accidentally formatting or deleting of a partition. User errors can sometimes be resolved through the use of off-the-shelf data recovery software.

The process of evaluation typically consumes one day. However, depending on the data recovery company, the actual data recovery process may take some 3 to 5 days. If you want immediate results (like when data recovery is a matter of life and death), there are agencies offering rush works during weekends. But off course with tag prices that are higher than usual.

Data recovery on its premium service commands great prices. Sadly the motto here seem to be- "you get what you paid for". It must be understood that data recovery process is a very intricate one, which requires factors that come with expensive tags. This is probably due to the truth that when something becomes complicated, it already owns the license to obligate consumers to pay higher for the services.
Tip! Facilities – When considering a data recovery company, always consider whether they have the right equipment and facilities to deal with your data recovery needs.

You don't only pay for the services itself but also for the skill of the data recovery engineer. The better the skill, the higher the price. In data recovery industry, one surety to retrieve lost data is to hire talented engineers who can perform at the highest level of standard. However, even that would not suffice. In fact, no one can actually guarantee you of the desired outcome. Experienced data recovery engineers can only provide you with tentative solutions, however so long as data recovery is on its process, there is no assurance that lost data can be recovered in the manner that you so desired.

In here, your only refuge is to seek for a very experienced engineer to accomplish the job and hope with cross fingers that he may produce a job well done.

Khieng 'Ken' Chho - Online Data Recovery Resources. For more, visit Ken's website: http://datarecovery.1w3b.net

Data Recovery Services: What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails

According to most people, there are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that will fail. But for folks who use Data Recovery Services, there is a third type of hard drive: one that does not fail.

A hard drive is the most vulnerable part of a computer; it has moving gears and is hence prone to wear and tear. So when you need hard disk data recovery, you must deeply consider the service and practice of the various repair companies in your area. A company that has been around the block more than a few times is ideal.

But more importantly, experts that ask questions and appreciate your situation are a necessity; companies that approach your needs in an impersonal way simply cannot diagnose your computer problems properly. For example, an expert who is on hand to ask specific questions about your hard disk will know whether or not to go about repair with mere software or through more professional means.

There are a variety of problems that lead to hard drive failure. If the hard drive is part of a mirror set, mirrored stripe set, or stripe set with uniformity, then all you will need to do is replace the drive - any lost data will mechanically regenerate.
Tip! Know Your Needs – Not all data recovery needs are equal. Some companies specialize in optical media.

A local service company can handle all your concerns though. Fixing a hard drive yourself is a tedious process, requiring lots of time and even research. Your next-door neighbor might be a computer geek, but that doesn't mean his or her advice is remotely accurate. After all, a computer can fail for many different reasons and they are not always easy to pinpoint.

The ideal solution is usually to replace a failed drive and re-establish your backup. This does not always work though, as many people find the necessary backup is outdated or sometimes, non-existent.
Tip! Expertise – Each data recovery expert has his own forte to speak of. Some experts focus on different media or different problem areas.

If a hard drive is beyond repair, data recovery is obviously not an option. So prepare for unexpected charges; you might have to buy a whole new drive. In this case, just be careful when replacing it, as you don't want to lose your data.

Stu Pearson has an interest in Business & Technology related topics. To access more information on data recovery or on file recovery, please click on the links.

Mac Data Recovery Explained

HPS and HFS+ are the Apple Macintosh systems for referencing stored data and hard drives. HFS and HFS+ data recovery methods are uniquely adept for Apple and are not to be confused with NTFS and "fat file" systems, used by Microsoft.

So what are some examples of errors that might require data recovery for Mac's?

- Unreadable disks - General disk errors - No Volume (or Volume that isn't HFS) - An uninstalled drive - Computer cannot find the directory - Internal file system errors - Flawed master directory block - Non-Macintosh disks - Improper file names - Segment Loader Error

If you use a Mac, whether for business or pleasure, you must protect your valuable data from hackers, viruses, human error, power surges, hard drive failures, and other unexpected problems. The most essential step to keeping your data safe is to back up files regularly - you should always be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Files, databases, emails, spreadsheets, and all other important data can be easily salvaged if this step is taken.

Mac's and PC's both offer limited solutions for data loss. Mac's are especially susceptible to data loss! But with data recovery, all bets are on.

When encountering data recovery problems, don't try and fix the problem alone. A hard drive is complicated and repair requires special tools, a clean room environment, and expert technological know-how. If you attempt to take on this task by yourself, not only may you be unable to retrieve the data, but you may also incur further damage on the drive.

But that's okay, because data recovery assistance and service is only a call away. Skilled technicians can evaluate the lost data and instruct you on how to solve the problem. But don't expect the job to be done in one day. This kind of repair is challenging; it can take almost a week before your data is recovered.

Stu Pearson has an interest in Business & Technology related topics. To access more information on retrieve data or on data recovery software, please click on the links.

Why You Need To Clean Your Windows Registry?

Registry is the database where data of programs and windows is stored. Registry cleaner is software, used to run your computer faster and smoother. Registry cleaning is very important for a smooth running of your computer system. Whenever you delete a file form your system, the registry does not remove this data. Thus, a reference to the deleted file remains in the registry. Gradually as the registry gets filled up with these databases, the computer gets slower and slower in its functioning. If the registry is not cleaned up regularly, severe damage can be caused to your computer.

A registry cleaner scans the windows and finds out the outdated and incorrect information stored in your computer’s registry. The software fixes this improper information enabling your system to be error free and run faster. The software is enabled with advanced features that make your computer run smoothly and efficiently. Registry cleaning makes your computer run very quickly and also safely.

There are many advantages for registry cleaning. Your computer will have a cleaned up registry and no information in the registry will be cluttered. You can regain the lost disk space and use this for installing new software. Registry cleaning will also block the installation of spyware and adware in your computer. If your computer was having any application errors, you can see that this has been fixed after you clean up your registry. Your system will be maintained as it was in its initial stages and you can also understand your computer much better.

If you do not clean up your computer’s registry timely, you can face different types of problem while using the computer. When you are in the midst of doing important work related activity, your computer can suddenly crash or the system can get stalled all of sudden. This can have damaging impact on your work. Timely cleaning up and fixing of the registry will prevent you from facing such crisis.

There are different kinds of registry cleaner available. You can use the best registry cleaner available in the market to maintain the registry of your computer. Keeping your PC clean is very important if you want it to run efficiently all the time. The registry cleaner software will help you in repairing some applications that are not working in your computer.

The software uses speed detection techniques to very quickly identify the missing and invalid reference from your windows registry. After identifying the problems, the software with the use of its advanced technology can easily clean your registry. After this your computer will start functioning, like a new PC. After installing the software you can customize its different options according to the requirements of your computer.

Many online sites provide registry cleaner software for its customers. Before you buy a registry cleaner, make sure that you are aware about its different features. This will help you in customizing the features of the software according to the needs of your computer.

Buy the best registry cleaner that is available for your computer.

About the author:
Matt Garrett, http://www.registry-cleaner.org/

Learn How to Erase Hard drive Completely

You definitely need way to erase your hard drive completely.

Your hard drive is being used within your computer to record all the things that you are doing on the web? If you are worried about the websites that you have visited, the movies you have watched or the things that you have downloaded, you need an effective way to erase your hard drive completely.

But how?

Unfortunately, even reformatting your hard drive will not completely clean out your hard drive. You can still be at risk of this collection of data to be found and used against you. In fact, there are government agencies waiting for you to mess up so they can collect this data and use it against you. But, there are ways to erase your hard drive completely.

The program called Evidence Eliminator can help you by completely erasing everything that is located on that little black box inside of your computer. It will erase things so well that it can never be found again. No other method is available to do this type of work. If you are allowing yourself to be watched by your boss, government agencies or even your friends and family, then you are at risk of being put in jeopardy.

Even authorities with a microscope can not recover files that were once on your computer once you use Evidence Eliminator.

With this easy to use bit of software, you will never have to worry again about your privacy and whatever you are doing on the web. Become safe again with the use of Evidence Eliminator.

About the author:
Max Penn is a leading figure on buying surveillance equipment online.
To find more on the subject, please visit spy equipment

Does it worth to backup emails from clients like Outlook Express?

How often do people loose their email data?
Is this important to backup your email client before loosing important emails?
Are you thinking it won’t happen to you?

Well, for those who use an email client and loosing their emails is one of the worst nightmares. Unfortunately this situation is quite probable.

There are several causes for this:
- Hard disk failure
- Viruses and Trojans
- Windows crashes
- Some time un-expected things

Hard Disk can fail from several reasons: logical problems like bad partitions, hardware problems caused by dropping them or something on them, or, sometimes they just stop functioning. You can use several data recovery tools like GetDataBack or Acronis, which might save your day. But you might not be able to get back any byte.

Viruses are increasing their numbers day by day. It’s hard to keep up even for the big players like Symantec or Kaspersky. They reduced the response time for a new virus, but if you are unlucky, the virus crashes your computer before you can apply the antivirus.

Well, we all know how reliable Windows is. There is no person that can say he never saw a “blue screen”. Because most of the email clients store email, account and settings data in My documents, Program files or in Windows registry. When you reinstall the operating system you loose them all. Even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates acknowledged that they counted 5 percent of total Windows based computers to crash twice every day. Here’s a small report: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/technology/25SOFT.html - September 1, 2005.

The best way to count those situations is to backup emails on a CD or another hard disk. People who know a little about Windows and computers can do it by hand. Outlook Express is still the most used email client.

If you want to backup Outlook Express by hand, you have to save registry keys and DBX files. Saving messages, signatures and the address book can be done within the email client, but for settings you have to search through Windows registry. It can be pretty difficult to do it for a beginner.

After a long search now I found a tool that can do this job automatically. Adolix Outlook Express Backup: http://www.adolix.com/outlook-express-backup/home.html You can use this software to backup Outlook Express, IncrediMail and some other email clients. It’s an email saver program that can backup and restore emails, addresses, folders, signatures and options.

What it cannot do is backing up Outlook Express and restoring to Pegasus Mail for instance. Synchronization can take place between different instances of the same email client.

It can be used to move emails from one computer to another. For instance if you own a laptop and a PC, you can transfer emails between them. Furthermore, you can backup Outlook Express from Windows98 and restore it to Windows XP.

Adolix Outlook Express Backup has a wizard mode for beginners, but the most experienced users can use Standard mode for more speed. It costs only $24.95 and I think worth for too much.

It’s pretty clear that anyone can loose emails. So backing up your email client is essential, but you have to decide whether to do it by hand or to purchase a tool like Adolix Outlook Express Backup.


About the author:
Mircea Ionescu writes for Adolix Software.
Adolix Software is a young company specialized in tools and utilities like Adolix Outlook Express Backup (http://www.adolix.com/outlook-express-backup/home.html ), Adolix PDF Converter or eCover Engineer.

The Importance Of Email Backup

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!
Most home computer users don't need an expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders with important documents and pictures to a CD-RW from time to time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily get them back. Togeder with documents and pictures, it's a critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book and other important data from within the email client; otherwise in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely on their emails. Unfortunately many people actually start to do backup copies only after they lose data.
This article will explain how one can create a Outlook Express Backup copy ( as Outlook Express lacks a backup function ) This email program is usually installed with the Windows operating system and is probably among the most commonly used email programs today. While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.
The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.
After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V. To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:
a.. Select Tools | Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.
b.. Choose File | Export | Other Address Book...from the address book's menu.
c.. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.
d.. Click Export.
e.. Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button.
f.. Give your backup copy a meaningful name.
g.. Click Next.
h.. Select the fields you want to include in your backup.
i.. Finally, select Finish.
j.. Click OK.
k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, Ihope).
Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blockedlist, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients.
The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are ofcourse, free.The conclusion is that either manual or automatic,backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.

A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can befound at:
http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/



About the author:
Alexandru Marias is a IT student

Tips For Turning CD Duplication Into A Profitable Side Business

CD duplication has arrived in a big way. Teenagers are using cd burners to rip mp3s from their favorite artists. Companies use cd duplication to make backups of their software and documents. Federal agencies are scrambling to define and interpret intellectual piracy and copyright laws as they relate to cd duplication and the music industry. The movie industry is seeking how they can profit from cd and DVD duplication. With so much attention focused on cd duplication, now is the perfect time to turn your home cd duplication hardware into a very profitable side business.

Believe it or not, you probably already have everything you need to get your cd duplication service business off the ground. All you need is a computer, a cd burner, cd duplication software, and a few blank cdrs to get started. It is really that easy.

If you don’t possess a computer or a cd burner, don’t worry. Purchasing a cd duplication device is very affordable. The cost of standalone cd duplication hardware has reduced significantly in recent years. Practically all home computers come with internal cd duplication hardware (cd burners) and some sort of cd duplication software as well. CD duplication media such as blank cd-r and cd-rw are extremely low priced and can be purchased at practically every major retail store.

Your market for your cd duplication company is going to be local bands and musicians as well as small businesses. Local up and coming bands/musicians are often too busy perfecting their sound to be tied down with the tedious task of duplicating cds for their gigs. They also don’t have the money to order cds from the big cd duplication companies.

Likewise, small businesses are almost always unable to financially justify having a technical/computer staff to handle the backup and data storage aspects of their company. All too often, they end up forgoing needed data backups simply because they forget to do it.

However, you can solve these marketplace gaps, provide a needed service, and earn some nice side profit legally by starting your own cd duplication service that caters to these clients. By having a reasonable price, quick rate of delivery, and a quality product, you will undoubtedly get many repeat customers and plenty “word of mouth” buyers.

So what are you waiting for? Start your cd duplication service company today!

About the author:
Mike Waters is owner of Waters Rock music studio and the senior technology columnist for Media-Tech Entertainment and You. Be sure to check out more about his music cd duplication services and data
cd duplication at http://www.my-cd-dvd-duplication-replication.com

Fast Web Design For The Skint Webmaster

About two years ago, I had a go at commercial web site design. I put a medium-sized ad in a London classified ad paper. Nothing fancy: "Web designer seeks work ..." etc. This was expensive, about £500 for a month's run.

Got a few replies. Lesson number one: advertise where clients of the calibre you want will see it. The clients I got thought £300 was a lot for a web site. They didn't want to pay web hosting. They wanted a lot of bang for their buck. 'Mission creep' was a term I grew to know and loathe.

This set me thinking: how could I give these people all they could ever want, but not spend a lot of time and money? Lately, I realised how.

So how can you get a full featured site up in a day? Easy (ish!).

1. Mambo Content Management System http://www.mambo.com

I wish I'd found this software a couple of years ago. It's freeware. The default set-up allows people without web design skills to update the site. It has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option. This adds HTMLArea code to text input form fields. Each HTML code input box becomes a mini HTML editor.

If you can use Microsoft Word, you can add formatted HTML code to the site.

To get it running you need to know how to install MySQL databases, or have PHPMyAdmin as part of your web-hosting package.

You can add articles, edit them, send emails to members, and be contacted by users.

The only criticisms I have of this software are:

1. The admin interface is confusing. It's all there, just finding and using it is the problem!

2. You need to search around template sites to find ones suited to your site purpose. I wanted simple, clean, business ones. Most of those available seem to have a fat graphic which covers half the screen. There are more restrained ones out there.

These are minor gripes, compared to the relief of finding what is essentially a web site in a box. It can be installed in an hour, once you get familiar with it.

To add ecommerce to your site:

Oscommerce Shopping Cart http://www.oscommerce.com

Again, this is a full-featured, freeware software. You can add lots of freeware 'plug-ins' to it, to get a professional shopping cart.

Therein lies the danger. Some of these plug-ins require altering or overwriting the default cart files. When you try to upgrade the cart version later, you may 'break' it, by overwriting a plug-in, thus creating errors.

The trick here is to only install plug-ins that add files (rather than overwrite them) or that require minor alterations to existing files.

What I do is download all the versions of the plug-in type I need e.g. a WYSIWYG editor. I then choose the one which has the least files, or which creates a new directory for its files. If it requires that important files be overwritten, or is complex, I chuck it.

Mambo and Oscommerce. Don't try to integrate them! Hyperlink from one to the other. I've tried integrations of other softwares, like PhpBB and PhpNuke. Fine, when it works, but when you upgrade one or the other, arrgh!

*Keep databases separate*. If one goes skew-whiff, then at least the other will still work. Same goes for adding chat rooms and the like. If they're all running off the one database, and that database becomes corrupted ...

It may offend your sense of tidiness for your visitors to have to sign up twice at your site, but you'll thank me for this sage advice later. Remember KISS is the basic rule of computing (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

About the author:
T. O' Donnell ( http://www.tigertom.com) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on conservatories, available at http://www.ttconservatories.co.uk.T. O' Donnell freeware may be downloaded at http://www.ttfreeware.co.uk.

CD Duplication: Superb Quality At A Cheap Price... Don’t You Love It?

There has never been a more opportune moment to have your audio book, music project, training disc, or CD-R business card duplicated than this very moment. Why? Simply stated, because it’s cheap!

The cost of blank CDs has dropped drastically over the past couple of years. Retail outlets such as Office Max and Staples run specials on blank CDs where you can purchase a 50 CD-R spindle for under $20. Froogle has similar deals on blank CDs with a 50 pack available for less than $12.

For those interested in CD duplication at home, many of the popular Dell series of computers come packaged with a CD burner included for prices starting under $500. If you already own a computer and want to add an internal CD burner, several retailers have brands available for under $50. You can even purchase an external CD burner to satisfy your CD duplication needs for under $100.

Making cheap CD duplication even more affordable are CD duplication powerhouses such as DiscMakers, Oasis, and CDman who specialize in duplicating large quantities of CDs at low prices. Not only do these CD duplication firms offer superior quality at an affordable price, they also give unbelievably low package deals on graphics, CD inserts, jewel cases, and other professional accompaniments to complete your CD project.

The best part about these cheaper prices is that you are not sacrificing quality in the process. You are still getting exceptional digital quality with each CD purchased. However, because CDs are limited in the amount of data that can be stored on them in comparison to DVDs and other forms of recordable/writable media, the prices of CD duplication continues to fall.

With all of this being said, what are you waiting on? Stop paying higher prices and start saving money today while growing your business with cheap CD duplication services. With prices this low, how can you resist?

About the author:
Mike Waters is owner of Waters Rock music studio and the senior technology columnist for Media-Tech Entertainment and You. Be sure to check out more about his music cd duplication services and data
cd duplication at http://www.cd-duplication-service.net

Broadband Review

Broadband is a high-speed Internet connection that provides a large bandwidth. It is considered a very quick connection. It is an "always-on" type of connection and can transmit data at a much faster rate than your usual dialup connection. Broadband also has the added advantage of not tying up your phone line, which means you can use the both the Internet and telephone at the same time. Broadband can be provided from a variety of sources, including over the top of your phone line as in ADSL or on dedicated line such as Cable or ISDN.

Typically, low-band Internet access is running up to 56kbps using a dial-up modem. Mid-band Internet is described as dialup access that operates at 64kbps or 128kbps. Standard broadband starts at 512kbps, which is about five times faster than dial-up service. Broadband is also available at 1mbps, 1.5mbps and 2.2mbps. There are companies that offer broadband at 4mbps and 8mbps. The maximum possible for cable is around 26mbps and 24mbps for ADSL. These speeds are not sold commercially because the cost to upgrade the telephone lines to be able to transmit data at these speeds is very high.

Downloading and streaming music and video is very quick with broadband. There are a lot of websites now that are designed especially for broadband users. They have intense integrated graphics, flash and video. Broadband is also popular for online gaming. Game consoles like Xbox and PS2 have broadband support included. You can then subscribe to different types of gaming packages from your current ISP, which makes it possible to play Xbox and PS2 games live with other gamers over the Internet. Actually, online PC gaming has been going on since the Internet came into use, but in the past it was difficult to do. Slow and jerky response from your computer made it hard to play, and you always had to keep an eye on the time. Now, with the faster speeds of broadband, it has become much easier and is quickly gaining in popularity. Some games are now being released that require an Internet connection to play.

The growing popularity of broadband has made it necessary for most providers to put a maximum limit on the amount of music, video and other data you can download. This limit can vary greatly, from as low as 1 GB up to 30 GB. Extreme users can get unlimited downloads if they wish. However, exceeding your ISP's download limit usually results in having a limited connection or no connection at all.

One of the possible futures of broadband is Internet Television. The current bandwidth, which is the amount of data you can send and receive, is not wide enough to provide an image that is of comparable quality to that of your standard television. The ever- increasing broadband speeds will make Internet Television a reality. Since you can currently download clips from the shows, music videos and other content you like, it will soon be possible to do it legally in real time. Another use of broadband is online telephony. This is software that allows you to use your computer as a telephone and talk to people from anywhere without any extra cost. It is becoming commonplace, and has a higher quality or recording than a traditional telephone line. With the increase in the speeds of broadband, it may soon replace your television and telephone, and will find its way into every home. The success of broadband is making the Internet a great resource that's easy to use and fun to access for a variety of needs.

About the author:
Robert Michael is the owner of Best Broadband Review which is a great place to find Broadband Links, Resources and Articles. For more information go to: http://www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk
http://www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk© Copyright 2005

Microsoft Dynamics GP – renovated Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ERP

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is now renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP, as well as Microsoft Navision into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Axapta into Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Solomon into Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft CRM into Microsoft Dynamcis CRM. Of course Microsoft has the plan to select the most marketing attractive name for its ERP products, however the other side of the renaming may be in the plan to move Project Green forward. At the final phase of Project Green Microsoft might drop GP, NAV, AX, SL and CRM extensions and make final version name to be simply Microsoft Dynamics. Interesting fact that Great Plains Software, which was the first candidate for Microsoft ERP software acquisition had Great Plains Dynamics brand, so probably Microsoft is plying retrospection card, in any case Microsoft technically owns GPS Dynamics brand anyway. In this small article we will give our retro view on Great Plains Dynamics customization, development and reporting.
1. Great Plains Dexterity – this is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package – Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope – that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface. Nowadays, however – and this is a good thing – most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server – so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures.
2. Modifier with VBA. Unfortunately you have to purchase this tool and get new registration keys. If you are familiar with VBA customization for Access or Excel – you have all the skills needed – then you just attach your scripts to the buttons and fields on GP forms (you can modify these forms with Modifier – or just tough them with it).
3. Continuum for VB/Delphi – we don’t recommend this tool, because it is using Great Plains as OLE server – and you probably don’t want to be trapped by old technology.
4. Crystal Reports. Great Plains has its own ReportWriter, but its functionality is limited – you can’t do cross modules reports (you can’t link Sales and Purchasing tables in one report, for example). So – you use Crystal. The GP tables structure is in Tools->Resource Description->Tables … and you are in control. Feel free to create views and stored procs directly in the companies databases – it doesn’t hurt the Dexterity engine
5. Direct web publishing from Great Plains SQL databases, using Visual Studio.net and your language of choice (VB.Net, C#, J#, etc). Plus you probably want to have several SQL stored procs.
6. eConnect – this tool is type of SDK with VB.net samples. It allows you to feed data into Great Plains and was primarily created for eCommerce developers.
7. Integration Manager – it is end-user tool for importing to GP, however if end-user meets some challenges in the integration – you as a developer can help with VBA scripts. IM validates 100% of business logic and uses hidden GP forms – so it maybe slow for big on-going integrations, when you have thousands records per day – in this case you rescue to eConnect or directly to SQL store procedures.
8. SQL queries - as a developer you have unlimited potential in using SQL queries, because the database in MS SQL Server. Be careful, it is kind of surgery - you can easily delete all your customers, by executing: DELETE RM00101
Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com


About the author:
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C##.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.