10 Steps That Could Save Your Business

Folks, today I am just going to share with you one of the better articles I have read recently. Whether you are a “business” or not, and whether you’ve heard some of the advice here before, or not, I think many (most?) of us will benefit from reading: Disaster Recovery: 10 Steps That Could Save Your Business

“The ‘disaster’ in ‘disaster recovery’ comes in many forms — flood, fire, even a serious health issue. The VARs in the following stories were given a second chance and then took no chances in making their business more prepared.” Read more..

Yes, it’s a bit long. But.

Today’s quote: “We acquire the strength we have overcome.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Windows 7 safety net | Mobile Malware | Quick reco’s

A few items for your consideration, today, including a great how-to. Let’s start with a good read for those who want more info than I provided in yesterday’s article, Microsoft Buys Skype. Now What?

* With baited breath: The Microsoft-Skype Deal

There’s plenty of speculation around the web about exactly what Microsoft plans to do with its brand new, $8.5 billion dollar baby. There is a lot of “Microsoft doesn’t know what it’s doing” sentiment floating around, but then there are some more interesting hypotheses that we figured were worth a look….CONTINUED: 8 theories behind the deal

* Got Spelling? Some – but not all – programs have built-in spell checking of some sort. If you want to add spell checking to all of your apps (or a select group) then take a look at tinySpell (free and pro).

If your favorite app does not have built-in spell checking, then tinySpell will definitely be a welcome (and very helpful) addition to your Windows system. They offer a portable version as well so you can take it with you to any PC.

[Also, How-To Geek has a tutorial here.]

* Build a complete Windows 7 safety net (by one of my fave tech How To writers, Fred Langa) Note: this is IMHO the definitive How To tutorial for disaster recovery — please read it!

“Every copy of Windows 7 includes a complete suite of backup tools. The suite contains everything you need to back up (and restore) your entire system.
What’s more, after you’ve set up your initial backup, future backups happen automatically.
In fact, Windows 7 makes it so easy to set up fully automated backups, it’s almost nutty not to do it.” Read more.. (please)

* Juniper Networks finds rise in Android phone malware, smartphone spyware

“The rising use of smartphones is gaining the attention of cybercriminals, according to a new study by Juniper Networks Inc., which tracked a sharp increase in Google Android phone malware in 2010 as a result of the platform’s success.

According to the Juniper study, which analyzed malware detected on its customer devices in 2010, smartphone spyware accounted for 61% of all mobile customer infections and 100% of all infections for Android devices. The report, issued Wednesday by the Juniper Networks Global Threat Center, also documented a 400% increase in Android malware, as well as highly targeted Wi-Fi attacks.” Read more..

Quote of the day: Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.  ~Henry Ford

Chuckle of the day:

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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About the Recovery (D:) Drive

A Reader Asks a Very Good Question About the “Recovery Partition”..

Q: Paul,
When I open up the My Computer icon on my desktop to check my hard drive, the recovery disk is usually close to 2/3’s full and it is in GB. Is this a drive I want to do anything with? I have plenty of drive space on my C drive but this takes 3-4GB of space.
What is the recovery drive for and should I try to recover the the disk space it uses?

A: When you click on “Computer” (or, “My Computer” in XP) an explorer window will open showing the storage devices (aka “drives”) attached to your computer (storage “memory”). These storage areas will be assigned a “drive letter”, and usually start with the area which contains the Windows operating system and is responsible for “booting” your computer — labeled drive “C:”
Why doesn’t it start with “A:“? Well, back in the day, it did. Long ago, computers came with A and B drives – which were 5.25” ‘floppy’ drives (which contained the operating system. Windows didn’t exist yet). When the first “hard” drive came along, it had to go next in line.. thus C:\ (c: equated to “hard disk” [with a “k”]). Eventually, operating systems were designed to run from “hard” disks, and – eventually – “floppies” went the way of the T-rex. (But “hard disk” still equates with “c””)

I digress, but! I need to keep talking about computer history/evolution for just a bit longer. Long ago, computers used to come with CD’s. Either a Windows CD or a Windows CD relabeled by the manufacturer to something like “Dell Recovery Disc”. These were used in the sad case of really bad errors crashing the computer, and tech support told you you had to “reinstall Windows”.
(Sometimes called “disaster recovery”)

At some point in time, some brick-headed, idjit barnacle of a CEO made the absolutely dumbest decision ever made by Man — in the hopes that they could save 3¢ per computer sold. (Can you guess what I would say to this *person* if I met them?) They decided to do away with the Recovery CD and instead put those files on a special section (called a “partition“) of the hard disk — which came to be Drive D:\ (aka “the ‘recovery partition’)… the topic today. Ahem, sorry.

Back to the topic: When you first start up your computer (aka “boot up”) you will see a drab screen that says something to the effect of “Press F11 to recover your computer” (or some F key.. maybe F10, maybe F2..) This function is used in the sad case of really bad errors crashing the computer, and tech support tells you you have to “reinstall Windows”. (Sometimes called “disaster recovery”)

This “recovery process” will wipe (aka “erase”, aka “delete”) your C:\ drive, and copy the “image” stored on D:\ over to there — thus returning your PC to “factory condition”.. complete with crapware, such as Connect to AOL and Polar Penguins, and minus all your installed programs, updates, and … files.

You do have a backup copy of all those.. right?

This disaster of a disaster recovery method was not necessarily the case if you had/have a disc. Which is why the CEO mentioned above is a jackass. And why you want to read, Windows 7 Owners, You Want To Do This…

Answer the question, Paul: Okay okay okay
The drive D: aka “Recovery” is a special, protected area, which contains the files necessary to restore your computer to factory defaults. You cannot modify it. Short version: Pretend it isn’t there, and … hope you never need it.

(If you are eyeballing that ‘open space’ because you have filled up your C:\ drive.. well, no. What you need to do is install additional storage [ aka “upgrade” ] and/or go in and remove stuff from C:\)

* Okay.. maybe not the dumbest…

Today’s reco’d reading: Warning: Surprise spam trojan on Facebook

“Ever received messages from your Facebook friends containing a notice or invitation, such as an invitation to visit a particular site, added with an interesting message, like “Hey watch this, so cool!”? In most cases, the recipient of the message will be happy to follow it, especially if the message was sent by one of your best friends, which you trust. However, did you ever think that it could be sent by an intruder, spam, or even viruses?

Like yesterday, one of my friends received a “surprise” from Facebook, but then soon realized that his computer was now infected with the trojan, as well as making it a “spam machine.””

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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