How to sync passwords, files and bookmarks

Unify logins, files and favourite sites between all your computers

By Joe Cassels
From: http://www.techradar.com/

You can use Dropbox for a whole host of things apart from just synchronising files

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Staying synchronised across several different PCs can be a challenge. Updating files manually isn't a great idea, especially if you do so regularly, because it takes only one mistake to cause serious problems.

Obviously keeping regular backups will protect you against data loss, but managing multiple versions of files can be very tricky.

The best option is to use an automated system that backs your files up remotely and synchronises each PC whenever you're connected to the internet, so you don't have to worry about transfer drives.

Dropbox handles this automatically and you can use 2GB of space with a free account. All internet transfers are encrypted. When you set up Dropbox, you can specify the location of its folder.

• Read our Dropbox review

Everything inside it will be uploaded to its servers and mirrored on any computer that you install the program on. It comes in Windows, Mac and Linux variants, so you can sync data across operating systems.

Once you've signed up for an account and installed the software, simply place anything you want mirrored across your PCs into the Dropbox folder. As long as your computer is online, it will receive the most up-to-date version of the files. Changes made to files while offline will be updated when you connect to the net again.

Password manager KeePass uses a database file to store encrypted copies of your passwords and log-in information. You can opt to save this file wherever you like; just ensure this resides within your Dropbox folder to keep it up-to-date on all your computers.

KeePass has Mac and Linux versions that use the same database files as the Windows version, giving you a cross platform password synchronising solution.

The main limitation of Dropbox is that it doesn't synchronise data that isn't stored within its folder. This makes it unsuitable for synchronising files that need to be stored in a specific location, such as bookmarks and some calendar files.

However, you can persuade it to sync outside its folder by using a little hack and symbolic links. In Windows Vista onwards, you can use a command called mklink to link an external folder to your Dropbox.

So, to sync Firefox bookmarks, first ensure that hidden files are shown by typing folder options into the Start menu search, selecting the View tab and choosing 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'. Click 'OK'.

On a PC, browse to 'C:\ Users\\AppData\ Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\' where '' is your Windows account username and the 'xxxxxxxx' represents a string of eight numbers and letters that differ from account to account. Make a note of the folder name.

Now choose 'Start | All Programs | Accessories' and right-click 'Command Prompt'. Select 'Run as Administrator'.

At the command prompt, enter mklink /D "D:\My Documents\Dropbox\xxxx xxxx.default" "C:\ Users\\ AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\ Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx. default\".

Remember to substitute the location of your dropbox folder and your folder settings for your Firefox profile. You'll need to set up symbolic links like this one on each PC that you want to sync.

There are easier ways to synchronise bookmarks, but this principle works for any program that needs to store its data in a specific place.

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First published in PC Plus Issue 288

Five Best Online Backup Tools

From: http://lifehacker.com/

Author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.

Local backup is a useful and necessary part of securing your data against catastrophe, but with the advent of broadband and inexpensive online storage, you've got little reason to not back up critical files to the cloud as well.

Photo by jared.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite online backup solutions. Now we're back to share the five most popular solutions Lifehacker readers use to back up their data online and keep it secure in the event that some unforeseen event at their on-site location—fire, flood, theft, someone casts Chain Lighting in the server room—wipes out their local backup.

Note: When contenders in the Hive Five have a free option, we've listed that first, followed by the first level of paid backup they provide. For additional levels and packages click on the name of the backup service for more information.

For additional information on both both Hive Five contenders and other online backup solutions, you can check out this comprehensive comparison chart.

CrashPlan (Windows/Mac/Linux/Open Solaris, Basic [No online storage] Free, Premium [Unlimited] $4.50 per month)

CrashPlan takes an interesting approach with their backup software. You can download the software for free and use it to perform local backups on your computer and home network as well as back up data to a friend's computer if they are also running CrashPlan (so it's sort of off-site if a friend's running it). They don't offer any free introductory plans for online storage like most other online backup providers, but their rate for an unlimited personal account is on par with other providers. The software is very user friendly, and even if you're not sure if you want to commit to paying for an online backup service, it's worth a download just to automate your local backups. If your data goes kaput, you can restore it using the software or you can order a hard copy of your data.

Mozy (Windows/Mac, Basic [2GB] Free, Home Premium [Unlimited] $4.95 per month)

Mozy is an automated backup solution. Once you install the Mozy client on your computer, it will back up any files you specify at the frequency you specify. Mozy can back up files while they are open—so that huge presentation you've been working on for the last few hours will be backed up even if you're still working with it. Mozy also backs up based on file changes, only uploading the portion of a file that has changed and not the entire file all over again (meaning quicker incremental backups after the initial backup). Mozy stores previous versions of your files for easy restoration, and in addition to restoring all your files by downloading them, you can also order a backup on physical media for a fee.

Dropbox (Windows/Mac/Linux, Basic [2GB] Free, Pro [50GB] $9.99 per month)

Once you install Dropbox, a folder, appropriately called "My Dropbox", is placed in the Documents area of your computer. Anything you put into this folder will be synced with your Dropbox account. You can sync files, share files by making the folder they are in public, and restore a previous version of your file—Dropbox keeps a change log going back 30 days. All your files are also accessible via the Dropbox web site, which is great for those times you're at a computer where you don't have Dropbox installed, but you still want to access a document. If you want to sync a folder without putting it directly inside the main My Dropbox folder, you can do that with a little elbow grease, too. Dropbox doesn't have an unlimited option like the rest, but if all you want to back up is your most important documents, it certainly works as off-site backup, and it provides data redundancy on every computer you install it on.

Jungle Disk (Windows/Mac/Linux, Pricing: $2 per month + Per GB Fees)

Jungle Disk takes a different approach to backup on several different levels. Rather than offering a flat rate pricing for unlimited storage, Jungle Disk operates on a fee system. You pay $2 a month per account plus a fee per GB of data used. The fee structure per GB is currently: $0.15 for storage, $0.10 for upload, and $0.17 for download. On the upside, in the face of fee structure you can use your Jungle Disk as a networked disk drive in addition to a remote backup location. Jungle Disk is great at backup, but you can also use it with any application you'd like that can write to a network drive. A bonus for small-volume users is that for small amounts of data, you'll pay less than other backup solutions per month and have a lot more flexibility with how you use your remote storage.

Carbonite (Windows/Mac, Unlimited Storage $4.58 per month)

Carbonite is the other contender in this week's Hive Five that doesn't offer a free basic account with teaser storage. They have a simple pricing plan: $54.95 for a year of unlimited storage from a single computer. Like Mozy, Carbonite also offers block-level incremental backup to speed up the backup process. You can access your files through a web-based interface when you are away from home, and you can use the Carbonite application to restore all or some of your files at any time. Carbonite does not provide a hard copy of your data upon request, so get ready for some heavy downloading time if you've got a lot of data you need to restore.

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Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick,

5 Ways To Clone & Copy Your Hard Drive

Jan. 6th, 2009 By Tina

One of the most annoying things about owning a computer is the maintenance. It’s easily neglected. After all you don’t really notice the slow decline of your system’s performance, do you?

But then again it’s a delight to work on a freshly installed machine, where everything is smooth and responds quickly. But customization is tedious. And when your hard drive decides to break spontaneously, time is something you won’t have for sure.

For emergencies it’s better you have a data and a system backup available. Here are the 5 best tools to clone or copy your hard drive in no particular order.

Paragon’s Drive Backup Express (Windows)

This software is the easy solution. It’s comfortable to use with a sleek interface that guides you through the whole process of backing up and restoring step by step. And while a backup is running in the background you can even proceed using your system.

Both Drive Backup Express and DriveImage XML (described below) require a bootable CD, which the user has to create independently.

I have previously written about Drive Backup Express and thoroughly explained how it works here.

DriveImage XML (Windows)

In contrast to Drive Backup Express, DriveImage XML is a visually very basic tool. However, it reliably creates images of logical drives and partitions and restores these to either the originating or a different hard disk.

Like Drive Backup Express, DriveImage XML applies a cloning technique that allows parallel use of the system while the backup is running. It can also do incremental backups, supplementing existing backups with what was changed in the meantime. Additionally, images can be restored without having to reboot.

CloneZilla (cross platform)

CloneZilla is an open source and cross platform tool to clone and restore hard drives.

It’s a tough tool for non nerds as it requires some background knowledge. First of all it’s not a software you install on your computer. You download CloneZilla in form of an ISO image or ZIP file and burn the image to a CD or load the files onto a USB flash drive or hard drive.

The next step is to reboot the computer from that medium you created, which may require going into the BIOS and allow booting from a CD or USB device.

Once the tool is running, it’s easy to use the simple interface to initiate or restore a backup. There also is sort of a screenshot walkthrough on the CloneZilla homepage, where you can view some of the options before running the tool.

XXCLONE (Windows)

XXCLONE is Windows software. The tool can create a self-bootable clone of a Windows drive as well as full backups of non-system volumes.

The interface is basic and clear. When started, the tool scans for available volumes and you can then choose a source and target volume from these. A direct link to the Windows Disk Management is provided through the “diskmgmt” button. Under the “Tool Cools” tab you can make use of options such as making the target volume self-bootable, manage restore points or create a batch file to save your current settings for future re-use.

The download section of the website provides a thorough help file that contains screenshots and descriptions of all features.

EASEUS Disk Copy (cross platform)

EASEUS Disk Copy creates sector by sector clones of partitions or hard disks, independent of operating system, file systems or partition scheme. It’s a versatile tool for both the novice and experienced user.

Just like CoolZilla, it’s not installed locally, rather the ISO image is burned to a bootable CD or DVD.

The website is probably the best of all tools described here. The information is thorough and very clear, including a very detailed help section that will walk you through every aspect of the program.

Do you clone and copy your hard drive? If so, which program do you use? Can you recommend any particular program to us? Let us know in the comments.