backups

This is an update of a deal I wrote about earlier this year.

Need a last-minute Father's Day gift for Dad? Nothing says, "Thanks for being such a great guy" like unlimited online storage.

Through Sunday, you can get a one-year Bitcasa Infinite subscription for $79 when you apply coupon code JUSTFORDAD at checkout. That's not quite as sweet a deal as it was last time out (the subscription was $10 less), but it's still a very good price for Bitcasa's unique brand of no-limit cloud hold-'em.

The service supports all the major … Read more

Cosmos System Care Free is touted as your all-in-one maintenance tool to keep your computer system healthy and clean. Indeed, when you first download the program, you are offered the chance for an immediate scan. However, while this program seems to be wide in scope, the free version only offers to scan your computer for problems; it doesn't fix them.

Cosmos System Care Free took more than 35 minutes to download, extract, and install on a dual processing system. The program scans for security problems including privacy issues, includes a file decryptor and encryptor, and backs up or restores … Read more

The other day I asked if it still made sense to buy a mammoth hard drive. For my money, the smarter buy is a compact, portable, smaller-capacity drive that's fast, affordable, and USB-powered.

Like this one: While supplies last, TigerDirect has the Western Digital Elements SE 1TB USB 3.0 hard drive for $59.99, plus around $4 for shipping. That's after redeeming a $10 mail-in rebate (PDF). It sells elsewhere (Newegg, Staples, etc.) for at least $80.

Compatible with Windows and Mac systems alike (though you'll need to reformat it for use with the latter), the … Read more

A bug apparently exists in Apple's Time Machine backup routines in Mountain Lion that can prevent recent backups from being used for a full restore.

By default, Time Machine mirrors the entire boot drive of an OS X system, and should update on an hourly basis to keep the backups current with changes to your system. By combining hard links to old backups along with new backup data, it quickly creates a full representation of your system by copying only changed files to the backup.

In this sense, in its default configuration each backup represented in Time Machine should … Read more

The days of physical media are slowly but surely drawing to a close. Of the last 10 movies I rented, eight came from Amazon Instant Video and one from iTunes. There wasn't a shiny silver platter in sight.

That said, lots of folks have giant DVD libraries, and with good reason. DVDs are cheap. They work great in minivans that have DVD players. And, um, oh, what was that third one again? I can't...sorry. Oops.

I kid, I kid. I'm just jokingly making the case for why you might want BDlot DVD ISO Master, a free … Read more

Get Backup for Mac's well-designed menu and useful features make it a good tool for system and file backups. With more and more information stored on your computer, the need for utilities for backing up important information stored on systems has increased, and this app has some nice options.

Despite the fact that the program is freeware, additional functions are available if the user chooses to purchase a special license. Get Backup for Mac opened quickly after being dragged into the Applications folder. The program's main menu was appropriately designed with clear graphics indicating the main buttons. Technical … Read more

The lack of options in native backup utilities means some Mac users may look to outside programs for more features. FileFort Free Mac Backup Software for Mac adds flexibility to backups, as well as some useful options, and would be a helpful utility for many users.

FileFort Free Mac Backup Software for Mac is free, but it attempts to install other programs from the developer, including an Internet tool bar, during setup. There were no problems during download, but the user must accept a lengthy licensing agreement to operate the program. User instructions were not obviously available, but there is … Read more

Helium App Sync & Backup saves copies of your vital data for you if you don't want to do it, yourself. It includes an app backup in addition to backing up your sensitive files, but it's a major pain to set up. It takes most of the appeal of automatic backup away.

Helium App Sync & Backup is made mostly for rooters, but it will work with some unrooted phones, too. To be sure it works with yours, check developer options in your settings menu and see if you can turn on USB debugging. If you can't, … Read more

Users with a Mac computer and several mobile Apple devices may want a way to track them from their Mac. iBackup Viewer for Mac is a simple application used to monitor information on an iPhone or iPod.

iBackup Viewer for Mac is available as a free application, but does have a button that solicits donations to the developer. Fortunately, there were no unexpected problems associated with download and installation. The program did not have any instruction or tutorials, but its menu was easy to interpret without them. At startup, the computer does not require any additional configuration and simply loads … Read more