Gateway has unveiled three enterprise storage products for entry level users in small to medium-size businesses, mid-sized businesses and educational institutions. The new products include a storage area network (SAN) called E-842R and two automated tape backups, the E-824R and E-826R. The new storage products have been designed to be both affordable and scalable. The E-842R serves as an entry point into storage area networking, flexible enough to use either high-performance serial attached SCSI (SAS) or low-cost, high-capacity serial attached ATA (SATA II) hard drives. The two tape backup products are both in Gateway's SuperLoader 3 family, designed to avoid human error by automating all backup tasks except for physically inserting or removing tapes from the autoloader.The tape backup system is available at US$2,499, while the E-842R SAN will be available July 13 at a price of $6,599.

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Now you can put an end to the fear of loosing all the contact nos. and other information stored on your mobile. ZYB has announced a free online service that enables customers to backup, manage and share their mobile data online. It does not require installation of any new software. In case the user loses his mobile, he can get his data back by doing, Sync a new mobile with ZYB account. ZYB offers users to; Backup their mobile’s contacts and calendar, manage their mobile’s contacts and calendar online, share contacts and calendar with friends and family, Import public calendars to mobile, synchronize their mobile’s data with other devices and services etc.

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There are numerous problems with data protection at a number of geographically distributed branch offices. Problems arise such as lack of skills of the administrator, lack of required hardware, software for backup, restore process etc.

In this context, it is better to manage remote office data protection processes centrally. Backup consolidation over a network is now technically and economically feasible more than ever. Backup consolidation is very convenient for organizations that have a large number of remote offices. Its also cost effective to backup & manage these remote offices from a central location.

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PRETEC is well known for its flash memory products, has now launched a bullet proof flash memory. The i-Disk Bullet Proof is being manufactured in sizes from 128MB up to two GB, is resistant to water, ice, fire, napalm and of course, bullets.

The casing of the flash memory says " Mental housing " so beware of the USB it may drive your crazy. Photo source: theinquirer

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With changing business practices many of the organizations are wholly dependent on email and applications. In spite of all this, IT personal are putting their jobs at risk, without adequate backup. The latest in data backup is considering Neverfail's products. Rather than purchasing large additional hardware, Neverfail is offering about £10,000 worth of software. By acquiring two servers – where both are dissimilar – and you can use one to backup the other. Neverfail's Heartbeat lets you replicate the major applications like RIM's Blackberry server and The Beast's Exchange. If disaster hits and a sever goes down, the replica server simply kicks in within minutes rather than hours.

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The Blue-ray media is a good choice for data backup, even though the price of a Blu-ray burner is $1,000. Blu-ray media is available at about $1 per GB, and the difference in price between write-once and re-recordable is not big. $1 a GB is high price to pay for storage, and it's cheaper to simply buy hard drives and a removable bay and use these.

Despite, Blu-ray discs media’s low error-rate and being good for thousands of rewrites, its price-tag is high, making one consider Hard drives as a cheaper alternative. Hard drives take up more space than a disc. But the media prices are so high, that wipes out any potential benefits that Blu-ray offers. The Bravo XR-Blu from Primera - is a $5,000 system that allows automated backups to be made using Blu-ray media. The drive prices are expected to fall to sub-$200 and media costs about $ for 2-3GB before it gains any traction over recordable DVD.

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Researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute have developed a prototype that can totally destroy a hard disk, in seconds eliminating all the information. Dubbed as GuardDog, this disk erasure system uses, a 125-pound magnet that delivers a field comparable to the strength of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. The system, fits inside a mini-fridge, consists an enclosed magnet with a slot big enough to accommodate a standard hard drive.

The new system differs from other commercially available disk erasers in its speed, size, and effectiveness.
Even alternative military-grade disk-destroying approaches must physically destroy the disk by grinding it into a powder to ensure complete destruction. Capability to erase drives completely could make GuardDog an effective system for the military, where a hard drive has to be destroyed at a moment's notice. Although GuardDog was driven by specific military applications, the technology would also benefit banks, credit-card companies, and other
organizations with sensitive personal information. The device not only removes the data, but also destroys the hard drive.

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It is advised to load any type of backup utility on your mobile devices, for the safety of data. Sprite Backup is the best pick for Windows Mobile devices. It has advanced backup options and reliability. Another remarkable feature of Sprite Backup is its, ability to restore after a ROM update. Sprite Backup is available for US$29.95. Resco Backup is recommended, if you have a device running the Palm OS. Resco Backup is the fastest, most complete, and reliable backups. The application even, supports encrypted backups and individual file backups to safeguard your information. Resco Backup is prized at US$14.95.

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Streamload, the Online media storage guru has declared availability of its updated MediaMax 1.5 service and MediaMax XL application. It's the best place to store, back up, and share, your photos, music, video, and other media files, additionally you get 25GB for free of cost (250GB for $9.95 per month or 1,000GB for $29.95 per month). Some of the additional features are access to your files from any Web browser, Windows/Mac/Linux compatibility, sharing files without any limitations of file size and transcoding as well as advanced auto backup and synchronization of data between computers. Your data, is accessible from any Web-connected computer or portable device.

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There are increased efforts of data backup software vendors who continue to make advancements to cut down the time required for data backup. The exponential organizational storage allocation requirements, is posing a challenge in this front. Testing has revealed that the time required to backup data from hard drive volume to backup devides can be decreased and the backup data transfer rate can be increased by defrag-job, prior to backup. The study conducted to determine the effects of fragmentation on backup operations and benefits of defragmentation by Diskeeper Corporation revealed that; in addition to defragmenting this test case, consolidating directories had a further benefit on backup performance. Backup times for ARCServe were improved by an additional 3% for the local disk backup, and an additional 41% for the network disk backup.

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With the rise in usage of ActiveX controls, scripts and Java applets, the risk of such messages being accessed and modified without user’s knowledge is increasing. Outlook Express consists numerous tools that debar the unauthorized users from accessing the electronic data and filter the unsafe e-mail messages, ensuring privacy. Some of the security measure of Outlook Express are listed below.

Security Zones
Security Zones make available advanced protection for a user’s computer ensuring privacy. Intranet, Local Intranet, Trusted Sites and Restricted Sites are the 4 security zones in Internet Explorer. Outlook Express enables a user to choose which zone his incoming e-mail is in: either the Internet zone or the Restricted Sites zone.

Digital IDs
This tool checks the identity of the sender of the message over the Net. A user needs to associate his digital ID with the e-mail account before sending the signed e-mail. For this, he will have to click the Tools menu, click Accounts, select the account, click Properties, and then click the Security tab, and select the Use a digital ID check box when sending secure messages, and then click Digital ID. Now he will have to select the digital ID he wants to associate with this account. After getting a digital ID, a user can send secure e-mail. Outlook Express allows a user to send secure e-mail over the Internet by encrypting the messages.

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GoTrusted (provider of easy to use and accessible encryption methods to the general public) announced an online Internet security service ‘Secure Session’ targeted at safeguarding users of public wireless Internet access, public hotspots and other insecure Internet connections. The new, ‘Secure Session’ service, available at, www.GoTrusted.com enables users to instantly, connect through a secure web portal that encrypts their network traffic before it leaves their computers. No software is required for the service and it, requires no configuration of the host computer. The Secure Session service provides encryption, safeguarding the host computer from peer attacks over the network used to connect to the Net. GoTrusted’s secure session service can even be used by traveling workers who need privacy when using Internet connections at vendor locations.

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mkCDrec makes a bootable (El Torito) disaster recovery image, and backups for Linux system to one or more CD-ROM(s). The backups can be stored on another disk, NFS/CIFS disk, or remote tape. Incase of a disk crash or system intrusion, the system can be booted from the CD-ROM thus enabling you to restore the complete system as it was. It also features disk cloning, which allows one to restore a disk to another disk Currently, ext2, ext3, minix, MS-DOS, FAT, VFAT, Reiserfs, XFS, and JFS filesystems are supported.

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In the wake of a hard drive crash, one looses all valuable data, unless backed up. The situation demands easy-to-use backup program, for home computers. The new Norton Save & Restore ($69.99), of Symantec has remarkable properties of simplifying the process of making regular backup of valuable data. Norton's Save & Restore enables you to pick out individual file folders and, individual files that you wish to copy for safekeeping. You can create customized backup jobs, with it. The only drawback is the high cost of the program, is putting off many prospective sales. If the price is lowered the backup program would be a boon to millions..

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InfoPro, an IT research company, conducted a study, has shown that the accumulating data to be stored is increasing day by day. And this is posing a challenge to the IT sector. 9% of companies with data backup systems are spending $1 million on data backup software and 10% of companies with data backup systems spend around $5 million annually on backup hardware. This phenomenal growth has led storage professionals turning to Virtual Tape Technology.

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The beta version for the Mac remote computer access service has been announced by SoonR. The service enables to use cell phone to remotely access information from your computer. It supports accessing and sharing documents, placing phone calls via Skype, secure Spotlight searches and works with many of the cell phone models.

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Backup specialist CMS has come with an instant disaster recovery product for laptops and desktops.The new version of the back and recovery software ABS Plus plug in drives for laptops and desktops are preconfigured with Bounceback Professional 7.0. Usage of these 2- products easy and requires just plugging in one of the box, to backup your whole system. In subsequent sessions ABS Plus will back up only the changed files
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If your laptop drive is crashed completely use the Bounceback case to swap it for the dead one in your computer. If the drive is working but with problems, from dodgy software or virus, then you can plug in the backup drive and restore it to the normal state. ABS Plus notebook drives are available in capacities of 40GB to 160GB, with USB2, Firewire, or PC Card interfaces. But, if you want to back up an entire disk you need an ABS drive of high capacity because of the need to archive dead files.

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A new software suite, called Weblife, was launched by EarthLink, last week. The WebLife suite includes photo and file management sharing, personal computer data backup, and online storage. WebLife is aimed at safeguarding your photos and other digital files, in the event of a computer crash. It is offered free of cost to current EarthLink customers with up to 1gigabyte of storage, and non-EarthLink users can get it for $30/year or $3/month. Existing EarthLink customers can get WebLife Basic by signing in with your EarthLink username and password.

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At Gartner’s Storage Summit users have shared their knowledge regarding Disaster Recovery technologies and business continuity in the wake of hurricanes. About 80 Users have attended Donna Scott's ( Vice president and distinguished analyst for Gartner) presentation, out of which 44% told they are involved in developing a disaster recovery plan, 30% said they have plans a foot to do regular testing and 6% said they do the type of diverse testing Norfolk Southern does. Scott has advised companies to consider application/transaction-level disaster recovery, database log recovery, storage controller-based synchronous replication, storage controller-based asynchronous replication and host-based recovery.

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To select a disaster recovery (DR) solution which suits accurately to your needs is often a daunting task. Although there are various products to attend to this problem, one has to always keep in mind the cost factor and complexity associated with software platform before going for any product.

A few alternative DR solutions are presented here which can be selected as per the needs.

Looking at costs and simplicity of software, Drive imaging as DR solution is worth considering. There are two products to consider in this context. They are Symantec Ghost Enterprise edition 7.5 and Acronis True Image Enterprise Server 9.1. If your network infrastructure is comprised of a relatively small number of servers with a fairly static database and little change over the span of time between backups, then Symantec Ghost would be an ideal solution. , If you are in the market for a more complete solution for DR then Acronis True Image Enterprise Server 9.1 would be a great candidate, regardless of the size of your network.

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Data loss due to natural disasters like hurricanes, is becoming a normal phenomena. Geeks for Relief is now offering free remote backup for 120 days. With National Hurricane Center, predicting 13-16 storms this year, it is better to prepare for these events. The online backup service providers, (sponsored and hosted by Remote Backup Solutions) have decided to provide a website and resource for people exposed to hurricanes free of cost, as many people don’t have a backup plan. For the people in hurricane-affected states the free offer is for 120 days of remote backup coverage, during hurricane season. Each backup vendor has agreed to provide 2 Gigs of space.

With backup service providers using online backup software from Remote Backup Systems, the software allows you to choose which files to backup from different methods. For this first you have to select your backup service provider and create an account and download, install the software and decide which files to backup. The data encryption scrambles your data and until you apply the correct encryption key. Remember that if you lose your key, you would lose your data.

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Genie Soft Inc, a commercial solution for backup and security software solutions, has come out with ‘Genie Online Backup’ offering all-in-one backup and recovery solution. With this for the first time, users are enabled to backup anything, anywhere, anyway they like. The speciality of Genie Online Backup is, it is controlled through a highly flexible and user-friendly wizard-based backup utility that supports enterprise level backup and recovery features
such as data encryption, open files backup, cataloging, 64-bit Zip compression, advanced reporting options etc.

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The latest edition of PC World has an article on 17 free and low cost Online backup services, Online storage services & Web sharing sites. The 17 reviewed services were

Online Backup Services

IBackup
XDrive
FirstBackup
Acpana Data Deposit Box
ElephantDrive
Mozy

Online Storage Services

Online File Folder
Streamload Mediamax
Box.net
Simdesk
FlipDrive
Online Storage Solutions

Web Sharing Sites

4shared.com
Groove Virtual Office
WebEx WebOffice Workgroup
RapidShare
YouSendIt

The best online backup service was IBackup, the best online storage was GoDaddy online File Folder & the best Web sharing service was 4shared.com

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Ricoh, Japan a global leader in digital office solutions has introduced their latest 16x DVD+R drive with Video Content Protection System that safeguards DVD's against data theft ( video only ). The only requirement is that the special key, used in buring the DVD, makes the DVD run only on a HP or a Philips DVD player / burner.

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Vital data is lost when laptops are stolen and in many cases it is found that burglars are stealing the laptops for the instrument rather than the data. The reckless employees with weak security policies are easily falling prey to low-tech street laptop burglars. The Department of Veterans Affairs, has recently lost information on 26.5 million veterans and military personnel stored in a laptop and external drive. Use of Encryption, (which scrambles the information and would render it useless to a thief without digital key that decrypts the data) to secure the data can save the data in case of laptop lapses, which is not done by many. Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, due late this year for businesses and early next year for consumers, is expected to make it easier for users to encrypt all their data.

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Paragon Software Group, a Germany based provider of innovative software solutions in the field of storage management and data security, has launched the Paragon Drive Backup 8 Personal for real-time disk backup.

For home users Paragon's imaging technology, integrates new powerful features offering quick system recovery. The Paragon Drive Backup 8 creates backup image of the entire hard disk, with all of their preferences settings, applications and data files of the entire hard disk with a single click.

Paragon's exclusive HotBack(TM) technology performs "real-time" hard disk backup. Users are enabled to restore their entire system including all installed and configured applications, valuable documents and files - without any need for application reinstallation. Paragon Drive Backup 8 Personal consists of Differential and scheduled Backup, Volume Explorer, strong data verification and enhanced encryption making it an effective solution for all users.

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For backing up data, Holographic media is seen as the next-generation optical storage candidate, surpassing current DVD formats ( current DVD formats can store upto 3.9 terabytes). Blu-ray and HD-DVD's gets more data on to a disc than a conventional DVD by using shorter wavelengths of light to store more data in the same space. HVD ( Holographic Versatile Disc ) uses two lasers (green and red) and two layers on the disc. Optware is set to release a 30-GB holographic versatile card by the end of 2006 for less than a dollar. But the skeptics are doubtful of the lifespan of HD-DVD over the current DVD formats, which has a long span.

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LAN discovery tool is helpful to service providers and enterprise level users, in aiding them to lower their customer’s storage costs and help customers identify their data to be stored before they subscribe. Enterprise users can use it to reduce the volume of ROBO ( remote office/branch office ) data to be backed up, gleaning a better understanding of changing frequency of data at remote sites. A LAN discovery tool is designed to analyze idiosyncrasies and characteristics of data behaviour at ROBO sites, providing in-depth understanding about the ROBO data before it is secured. By placing a LAN discovery tool at each remote site customers can have their data analyzed to differentiate the ‘critical’ data (essential for day-to-day use) from the ‘important’ data (less frequently used but still needed).

Lastly, by using a LAN discovery tool to thoroughly analyze the storage network before investing in a backup management solution, enterprises can implement policies and procedures that will help manage corporate data while controlling costs and optimizing storage resources.

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To enforce Corporate ‘No-Wireless’ policy, protect corporate data and meet HIPAA requirements, Blue Cross of Idaho has deployed Rfprotect of Network Chemistry Inc. Rfprotect is installed to protect network and data from unauthorized use and to enforce ‘no-wireless’ policy, plan, secure and manage wireless networks when they are ready to roll them out in future.

RFprotect provides a complete solution that seamlessly integrates with enterprise network, WLAN, and security systems. RFprotect Scanner is a network-based vulnerability management solution focused on rogue wireless device detection and automated remediation. Its a one stop remedy for organizations looking to cost-effectively enforce 'no-wireless' policies.

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In case your laptop is stolen there are various ways by which you can trace it out or disable it to protect your vital data from getting into wrong hands. There are systems that do useful work of mitigating the consequences of theft. They are tracking software, encryption and switches that can make laptop’s data self-destruct. Computrace is one such tracking system. Computrace, run by Absolute Software of Vancouver, Canada, raises hopes, in this regard. When laptops are monitored by Computrace, every laptop reports to the company server via Net, each day. In case the computer is stolen, the server shall instruct it to send messages every 15 minutes. If the machine’s Internet address could be pinned to a street address, the police can trace it out. Computrace service costs about $50 per year per machine.

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Those who carry their business files and customer databases on laptops, will be the hardest hit, data is lost due to failure or damage of hard drive. Here is a guide to safeguard your data when you have drive failures or damaged harddrives.

If the hard drive spins but the files can't be seen, it is better to use Ontrack EasyRecovery. This utility recovers a wide array of data in several different ways. EasyRecovery Professional, the most robust version of this do-it-yourself recovery tool. It offers data recovery, file repair and disk diagnostics for $499.

The lite version is $89 (it lets you recover 25 files per recovery session). Even, if that can’t recover your data, there is another option— shipping the hard drive off to a company that specializes in retrieving data from damaged drives, such as the Ontrack's In-Lab Data Recovery Service. Ontrack reports that the typical minimum recovery cost for a Windows desktop workstation is $1,000, which includes a $100 evaluation fee. The evaluation fee buys a listing of all recoverable and unrecoverable files before launching into to the full recovery. This way, customers know exactly what data will be recovered.

Anyhow if the platter is damaged, be prepared to lose some data. Safe Measures to be followed

•Never get complacent about backup
•Do a restore every couple of months to verify that the backup system is working properly
•Go into the admin screen of your backup application once a month and verify that all the files are scheduled for back up
•Put your data in different places.

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Travelers insurance firm has declared to offer Net-based tools designed to aid small and medium businesses to create customized disaster recovery plans and counter the risks of natural disasters. These net based tools will ensure business continuity in the wake of natural disasters. The new online tool ‘Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity Management’ is a guide available to customers, agents on a CD-ROM that enlists steps for business continuity planning. The guide consists of technical bulletins, checklists and presentations regarding hurricane preparedness, natural disaster protection, response and recovery, health precautions and FEMA emergency management guide for business and industry.

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iomega’s new REV Loader 280, is best suited for small businesses who don’t want to compromise with backup hardware that lacks performance. It is based on REV technology, which, instead of magnetic tape, uses removable cartridges containing hard-disk platters that offer an archival shelf-life of 30 years. As REV disks offer random access capability; hence specific files are located quickly, there is no need for rewinding, fast-forwarding, cleaning or maintenance.

REV disks are small, measuring 3 inches x 3 inches x 0.4 inches, with each holding 35 GB, with no compression. The disks outperform tape cartridges, cost only $50 for a pack of four REV disks, they offer unlimited number of rewrites per disk. The data can be protected via password protection and encryption. The REV loader is easy to install and is designed to fit right on a desktop or on a shelf in a server closet. It offers the performance of hard-disk technology with the convenience and removable media functionality of tape drives. The REV Loader 280 comes with everything (CA's BrightStor ARCserve Backup v11.5 for data backup and recovery) needed for backing up data on a single server.

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In the month of May, Maxtor sponsored a poll of 2,604 adult computer users. Based on the six types of digital data and personal files listed in the survey, personal photos are the most valued type of digital content (32%), followed by written documents (22%), and financial/business records (14%).

For small and medium businesses (SMBs), HP has unveiled a new data protection, recovery program, which can help businesses, prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover the critical data that backs their companies, lost out of unexpected events. This business protection portfolio offers a Virtual Library System (VLS) and tape library along with improved software for HP ProLiant servers. This ensures data protection, and is affordable, easy-to-use. VLS stores upto 1.5 terabytes of data, using integrated data compression feature, allowing customers to restore files in few minutes.

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IBM is now offering a new service, called Contingency Planning Assessment, exclusively to help businesses running in the event of a virus outbreak. Corporate companies might be well prepared to face natural disasters like fire accidents, earthquake etc. But there is no way if majority of staff is out of office due to pandemic. Priced at $10,000 for small business, IBM’s services will have a close examination on how the pandemic might hit company’s operations. After this, IBM will prepare a contingency plan, taking into account the effects on communicating with employees, working with Government and supply chain.

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Mozy is one of the new breed applications under the Web 2.0 umbrella. Mozy is strictly a online backup utility, which currently works only on Windows XP. To create Mozy account, register at the website, after answering few questions, once you respond to a confirmation e-mail, you are registered. To perform your backups, you need to download software. It is convenient, organised and easy, enabling you to choose all the backup files in a set or individual files in one itself. Mozy offers two gigabytes of storage free of cost.

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Toronto based Asigra (A specialist in agentless remote backup and recovery software) and Texas based NetMass the safe data company, have introduced an advanced solution for companies, to protect data at remote branches and offices. Last year numerous companies have lost data due to hurricane, thus necessitating disaster recovery plan, which includes automated offsite data protection.

In a what can be said as a First data recovery plan ADRC has launched ‘Datainsure’ to recover the lost data for notebook/laptop users in Singapore. By paying less than 50 cents/a day, akin to an insurance plan, users can be assured of their data. If you have lost data on your laptops, ADRC would recover the data from the damaged drive within a span of 3-5 days, failing which they would refund the whole money paid. As the money lost on failure to recover the data is to the tune of $14,500 to $6.5 million per hour for the companies, the package Datainsure, would be a cheering news to corporates. ADRC’s strong hardware, their long-standing experience in recovering data from hard
drives and their competent staff has earned them priestagious clients such as ExxonMobil and Frost & Sullivan.

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Here are some tips to note when viruses, disasters, hardware failures, defective hard drives destroy your valuable data. Below is a checklist of the data that should be stored in the binder.

Internet Settings: DSL, broadband and dial-up settings such as username or Tel. No.

Installed Software: Should include a list of software installed on the computer.

Installation Instructions: Includes, instructions for installing software.

Email Settings: Includes, settings for accessing email via Outlook.

Drivers: Copies of new drivers for hardware components of the computer.

Installation Keys/Registration: listing of registration information necessary to install software.

Downloaded Software: Copy any software that is downloaded.

Updates: List out any updates applied to installed software.

Copies of installation Media: Prepare copies of installation media for software installed

User names: Document User-names for email, net access and websites

Warranty information: Make proof of purchase.

To make the disaster recovery notebook, follow the checklist to gather the information. Make copies of all installation media by burning copies to CDs or copying to floppy disks. Make sure to label all backup installation media with the contents, date and version. Use a three ring binder to store all the printouts, CDs and floppy disks. For more security, create two binders – one to keep with the computer and one store off-site in a secure location.