I have to say that my initial impression of Mozy Backup was not that great. Besides the abundance of outgoing bandwidth at my server the initial backup was very slow. I was only sending up a little over 1.5 gig of data and, it took the better part of a day to complete. But, now that I think about it more, that was actually a good thing. That way the first backup does not totally consume your outgoing pipe.

Well, no sooner than my initial backup was complete, I needed to restore some data. In the midst of a site update I overwrote the wrong set of files. This gave me a perfect excuse to try the restore feature. And, I will have to say, I was VERY pleased. The restore for this directory of files was very painless. Just open the app, click the files to restore and tell it to overwrite the destination files. And, Boom! The restore took all of 30 secs. Perfect!!!

Mozy saved me and I didn't even have it running two days yet. So, if you are considering the Mozy service, Do it! Forget about the initial back up, it's gonna take some time - deal with it, it's well worth it!

Well, after great thought and study, I've decided to go with Mozy as my online back-up choice. I've set up the account and have installed the clients. One server and one desktop client. My server has a tremendous amount of bandwidth so, I thought I would do it's initial back-up first.

So far I'm not real happy with the transfer speeds but I am transferring 1.6 gig worth of data so I will reserve judgment until it completes. After my initial back-ups complete, I will attempt some file restores and report my findings.

I am interested in another layer of back-up for my important files and have considered trying one of the online back-up services. There seem to be a quite a few out there and most of them offer a free version, paid personal, and business. Anyone have any experience with these???

1. IDrive-E
• free:2GB of storage space absolutely free Option to upgrade to the IDrive-E Pro version depending on user requirements remote backup features remote backup signup
• remote backup drive:Ideal for small and medium businesses (SMB segment) or individuals with very large backup needs. For a small fee, this service gives you unlimited storage space for your backups.
• IDrive-E Pro for Personal Use: Unlimited storage* space for just $4.95/month for all your backups! Opt for yearly plan at $49.50 and get 2 months free Drive-E Pro for Business
• 50 GB $9.95/mth $99.50/yr | 100 GB $19.95/mth $199.50/yr | 500 GB $49.95/mth $499.50/yr
2. Mozy
• 2GB of free, secure storage Open/locked file support, Block-level differential backup, 128-bit SSL support (to secure your data during transport), 448-bit Blowfish encryption (to secure your data on our server), Continuous or scheduled backup options
• Mozy Unlimited for just $4.95 per month
3. Carbonite
• $49.95 per year for unlimited backup after your free trial.
4. Iboackup
   • 5GB $9.95/mth $99.50/yr
   • 10GB $19.95/mth $199.50/yr
   • 50GB $49.95/mth $499.50/yr
   • 100GB $99.95/mth $999.50/yr
   • 200GB $199.95/mth $1999.50/yr
   • 300GB $299.95/mth $2999.50/yr

Ok.. I'm ready. I have a machine built and Vista Ultimate installed. I used the following hardware for this new PC:

1. ASUS P5W64-WS Professional Motherboard
2. Intel 2.4 ghz Core2Duo Processor
3. 2 Gig Kingston DDR2 800mhz RAM
5. ASUS 7900 GS (NVidia) Video adapter
6. Plextor PX-755SA Dual Layer DVD/CD writer
7. Two Western Digital 500 gig SATA drives in RAID 1

Windows ultimate installed perfectly. No need to install any drivers except the RAID on the motherboard. Otherwise it looks like Microsoft has started to get their act together.

» read the rest of this entry «

Everyone's seen it... You are surfing the web or working on a project for work when.... Everything Freezes up! AAAAARRRRGGGG... (no, this isnt an ad for Geek Squad!).

What caused it? Spyware? Virus? Cheese? It's really hard to tell. Lots of things can cause the dreaded "Freeze". After cursing furiously, you reboot and continue your work..(if you were a good boy/girl and actually saved it!?) But what caused it????

When this starts happening, think about what may have changed lately.. Did you:

• Install a new program?
• Remove and old program?
• Click a mysterious Pop-Up?
• Add a new piece of hardware?
• Upgrade your memory?

» read the rest of this entry «

Had a user call reporting their computer shutting off suddenly. On reboot, they received the message "On last operation CPU reported a thermal event" Well.. This told me that the CPU fan had probably choked and the CPU had overheated causing the PC shut down. Upon inspection I found my initial thought was only partially correct.

The CPU had overheated, that was obvious, because the heat sync below the fan was completely clogged with dust... or a small feline, I'm not sure which. BUT, The fan was still working. Everyone should now take a look at the blog entry I made on cleaning your PC.

What does that have to do with the DLL title? Well, it appears that one of the times the PC shut down on them, Windows was making use of some system files and they were corrupted or deleted. This caused the error:

"Windows unable to start, Load DLL's needed for Kernel" this effectively halts boot-up. No chance for safe mode... Nothing. The only solution at this point was to do an "In place" reinstall of Windows XP. This is a pain in the ... but things could be worse. So.. In short... Take the time and check out the state of your PC.. Or have someone do it for you. It could save you ALOT of grief.