Computer Configuration
Well, I finally decided to completly wipe the hard drives of both my laptop and desktop and start over. The laptop was Windows XP and the Desktop was Vista (ug).
But it worked so well I'm documenting my thoughts!
1. Backup's - all the time! My choice is to use an external hard drive and they come with both USB and Firewire connections - I use the simple USB connection and mine is 500 Gig. I have used a free program from http://www.karenware.com/ which is called "Replicator". I configure it to back up my "Document" folder each morning at 1:00 a.m. and I use a 'tag' (<dow>) which makes directories 1-7 for each day of week. Into the appropriate directory (1=Sunday, 2=Monday....7=Saturday), the entire Documents folder is copied. After the first execution where every file is copied, only files that have been added or changed are copied. Thus, I have the previous 7 day's backups always there on that external drive. SEVEN backup's, each one is one day older than the previous!
2. I use Thunderbird for email and there is a great backup tool for that which I execute manually every so often and it is then also backed up to that external hard drive. That is called MozBackup - google that name and you will find it.
3. Just boot up with the installation disk that came with your machine, then add only the necessary software, copy the backup of your Documents directory from the external back to the internal hard drive, and you are ready to go! You also need to use the driver CD to update the drivers for the internal equipment, but if you don't have it, you can let the system find the appropriate drivers from the web.
Fantastic software:
DUMP MICROSOFT WORD AND EXCEL! Go to openoffice.com and download the free software. Much more stable and completly compatible with all word processing files - reads and writes all except MS Office 2007 files. If you have Office 2007, save the file in Office 2000 or some other format, and then open it with OpenOfficeWriter. Same for Excel.
Want a calendar that sends emails to tell you of upcoming events? Go to http://www.mymemorizer.com/ for a web based program and if you can find anything you want that it doesn't already have, let me know!
Also, if you need assistance, or to provide assistance remotely to another computer, try out teamviewer.com with it's free remote control software. It is secure as it's simply computer to computer and you can get/give assistance easily!