NYPC Blog - Older Postings

Postings Below:

• Serious File Backups
• RAWShooter program for digital pictures in the RAW format. 
• Drop My Rights - a free security program for Windows. 
• Don't get cheated buying Video Ram for Windows Vista. 
• Investment SIG schedule change 
• Why and How to Defragment Your Hard Drive  

Serious File Backups

December 28, 2006 By Michael Horowitz

I teach a class on Backing Up Your Computer that, despite being scheduled for four hours, never seems to provide enough time. So, as a sort of cheat sheet, here I'll explain what I consider to be the "best" backups.

This article is for people with a serious need for backing up files on their computers. It's a bit complex to set up and involves commercial software, so the time and expense are not warranted unless you have irreplaceable files on your computer. Someone who works at home would be a good candidate for this backup scheme.

The goal for serious file backups is to 

1. Schedule the backups to run automatically at a time that is guaranteed not to conflict with anything else running on the computer
2. For security, encrypt and password protect the backed up files
3. To minimize transmission time and storage space, compress the backed up files 
4. Make intelligent choices about what to backup and when 
5. Send the backups off-site 

Scheduling

You should never backup files while they are in-use, so your backups should run when nothing else is going on. The best options are just after turning on the computer, just before turning it off or the middle of the night when you're sleeping. A potential problem with running them at startup is they may interfere with the normal startup of Windows and you have to wait for the backup to finish before using the computer. A problem with shutdown time is that the Windows scheduler can not schedule programs to run just before shutdown (although other software can). 

To me, the middle of the night is preferable. The problem here is that it can mean leaving the computer on all the time - a very bad thing (for a number of reasons). But there is an elegant solution - you can configure the computer to wake itself up in the middle of the night, run your backups and then turn itself off. Just the sort of thing the word "cool" was invented for. 

This is actually pretty easy. If you look in the BIOS setup for your computer you may find a Schedule or Startup section. In many computers the BIOS is capable of waking the machine up at a set time. And this is a true wake-up, from a totally off state, not from a Windows hibernating or suspended state. Suppose, for example, you configure the BIOS to wake up the computer at 3 AM. Then Windows should be finished booting by 3:10 AM. 

But, your computer boots to a logon screen instead of the Windows desktop? A default userid can be configured using the "control userpasswords2" command in Windows XP. It's even easier to do this in Windows 2000. 

Now that it's 3:10 AM and Windows is running, we need to schedule the backups. This is easily done with the Windows Scheduler (Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks). Just schedule the backups for 3:15AM. 

But after the backups run, we want the computer to turn itself off. Assuming the backups take a maximum of 15 minutes, then schedule Windows to shut down at 3:45AM to insure they have finished. Windows XP includes a "shutdown" command (not in Windows 2000) that can be put into a .BAT file and the BAT file can be scheduled for 3:45AM. Point one above is done.

Backing Up

As for points 2 through 5, there are probably many backup programs capable of these four tasks. The only one I have used is WinZip. Yes, that WinZip. It's now at version 10 and costs $50, but there is a 30 day free trial. Other potential programs, that I have not tried, are Handy Backup, Backup For All and Urgent Backup. No doubt there are many more, but the devil is in the details. Upcoming are some of those details. 

Obviously, WinZip compresses files. It also combines all the files to be backed up into a single file and can encrypt and password protect the file. In fact, WinZip can do a lot of processing under the control of a "job". This is a common term in backup programs and refers to the description of what to backup, where, when, how, etc. 

For selecting files, WinZip has an option to backup only files with the archive flag on. And it can do this for a single folder or multiple folders. And it can include or exclude files based on their names or types. And it can either reset the archive flag or not - up to you. How you deal with the archive flag depends on other your other backups. If you have no other backups, then have WinZip turn it off. If you use replication type backups, then turn it off. If your local backups also depend on the archive flag, then WinZip should not change it. 

For sending files off-site WinZip supports FTP. As for naming the backup file, it can automatically append the current date. Thus, your backup files might be named:

    MyDocuments.MyNovel.TodaysFiles.2006-12-29.zip

Every day, WinZip changes the date at the end of the file name. It can also add the time, if you prefer. 

And of course the backup Zip file is created on your computer before sent off-site with FTP. For convenience, you can have WinZip put all your backups in a single folder, thus making both a local and remote backup at the same time. Don't want local backups? WinZip can delete the backup file after uploading it. 

WinZip backups can be scheduled using the Windows Scheduler. Each job exists as a ".WJF" file. Simply schedule this file directly, it works just like a .BAT file in this regard. For example, point the scheduler to the .wjf file as such: 

     c:\somefolder\somesubfolder\myfavoritewinzipjob.wjf

As for auditing, WinZip can log it's activity. There is a different log for each job and the log file is plain text (.txt). The log file can be appended to or clobbered. One problem with WinZip seems to be that if you append to the log file, it will grow forever. You can store the log files in a few places, I like the idea of single dedicated folder for all the logs from all WinZip jobs - makes it easier to find them. 

As for where to store backup files, there are hundreds of website hosting companies that offer online storage that can be used for either a website or backup files or both. There are also dedicated file storage companies, but not all support FTP uploads and many require you to install their software (not a good thing for many reasons). The best bargain I've seen so far is from 1and1.com which provides 100 gigabytes of storage space for $5/month. I've been using them for a while and can attest that every time I try to connect with FTP it works. 

But at 8 AM when you turn on your computer how do you know if the middle of the night backups worked? It's easy to forget to review the activity logs. WinZip can email you a copy of the log, but I prefer a simpler scheme. The Windows scheduler can schedule Windows Explorer to run at start-up time and go directly to the folder where the WinZip log files reside. If sorted by date, the most recent logs will always be at the top, and this also lets you review more than one log at a time. 

To do this, first schedule Windows explorer (c:\windows\explorer.exe) to run "When my computer starts". Then, go back and modify the scheduled task and in the "Run" box add the folder name at the end, after a space. For example, it should look something like this.  

c:\windows\explorer.exe "c:\winziplogfilefolder" 

At this point, we are backing up all new and updated files every day. Depending on how big your important files are, you may want to schedule a full backup to run once a week, every other week or once a month. This requires a new WinZip job since we are selecting all files not just the updated ones, but the job definitions are simple text files, so copying them is easy. 

Of course, backing up all files is much slower than just the files updated/created in a single day. This complicates the scheduling of shutting down the computer. Instead of scheduling the shutdown for a set time, we need it to run after the full backup completes regardless of how long the full backup takes. We can do this by scheduling .BAT files. Simply make a .BAT file with the WinZip job and the "shutdown" command. For example:  

   c:\somefolder\somesubfolder\myfavoritewinzipjob.wjf
   shutdown -s

At some point, old backups should probably be deleted, but deciding when depends on your local backups and the size of your files vs. the total amount of backup storage space available. And needless to say, make multiple backups of WinZip (or whatever backup program is used).

Summary

To recap, the computer turns itself on in the middle of the night, runs the backups and then turns itself off. Each day we backup only files that were changed or created that day. Backups are combined into a single file, compressed, encrypted, password protected and sent off-site via FTP. The file name has the date appended at the end so we can easily tell which day it was created. The backed up files can reside both locally and remotely. Whenever the computer starts up, it opens Windows Explorer positioned at the folder with the log files so we can easily verify that the middle of the night backups ran successfully. We can also make occasional full backups.

Note: A longer, more detailed write-up of this is available at Michael's web site. 

RAWShooter Program

October 18, 2006. All digital photographers who use the RAW format or may use it in the future, should try RAWShooter Essentials, a terrific free application for working with RAW format pictures. It's both easy to use and powerful. In June, Adobe purchased the assets of the developer, Pixmantec, and will discontinue both the free Essentials version and the paid Premium version. According to Adobe, the free RawShooter Essentials "will remain available as a download from the Adobe Web site until shortly after Lightroom 1.0 is released as a shipping product". As of October 18, 2006, RAWShooter Essentials is still available for download. It's 4.9 megabytes. 
 

Drop My Rights

September 29, 2006 By Michael Horowitz

Drop My Rights is a free, simple program that makes Windows more secure by running programs with restricted rights even though you may be logged on to Windows as an Administrator class user. 

A big reason that Macs and Linux are safer than Windows is that people normally log on to those systems as restricted users. Thus any malicious software they run is limited as to the changes it can make in the system. With Windows it is not practical to run as a restricted user so everyone runs as an Administrator with full access to everything for both you and any malicious software that may be running. 

DropMyRights can be used to run any program with restricted system access, but it makes the most sense to use it with your Internet facing applications: web browsers, email clients, instant messaging, etc. You might also want to run the Office applications in restricted mode as they too can be exploited to install malicious software. 

DropMyRights is a single file (DropMeRights.exe) that takes the program you want to run in restricted mode as a parameter. For example, the command to run a restricted version of Thunderbird is

  C:\DropMyRights.exe "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

Practically speaking, the best way to set up DropMyRights is to copy an existing desktop icon for the program you want to restrict. Then rename the new shortcut icon to "restricted Thunderbird" (for example). Finally, right click on the icon, get the properties, and modify the Target box as shown above. That is, scroll all the way to left of the target box and enter the path to the DropMyRights.exe file. It can exist anywhere on your computer. 

You end up with the original icon that runs Thunderbird normally, and another icon to run it in restricted mode. Use it in restricted mode all the time. When you come across something that doesn’t work in restricted mode, then simply run the program normally. One thing that won’t work without full Administrator privileges is Windows Update. Another is installing a new version of Flash - it hangs with no error messages. An online virus scanner needs to read all the files on your computer, so it should be run unrestricted. The F-Secure online scanner hangs when it starts to remove tracking cookies. 

Restrictions are inherited. That is, if you are running a restricted version of an email program, then click on a link in an email message and open a new copy of your web browser, the web browser will also run in restricted mode. Likewise, if on a web page, you right click on a link to open it in a new window, the new copy of your browser will be restricted if the original copy was. 

• Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator by Michael Howard November 15, 2004. This is the original source. You can download it here as an MSI file. Double-click on the file to run it and it installs DropMyRights. Like most installs, you get to chose the target folder. It installs 5 files, but the only one that is needed is DropMyRights.exe. The article is very technical in nature but it includes installation and use examples.
• Reducing browser privileges an article about DropMyRights at Security Focus by Mark Squire October 2005  
• Windows Users: Drop Your Rights by Brian Krebs in the Washington Post April 18, 2006

Don't get cheated buying Video Ram for Windows Vista

September 20, 2006 By Michael Horowitz

There are two hardware schemes for rendering video in a personal computer. The better and more expensive scheme uses a video card separate and distinct from the motherboard. The video card,  often made by nVidia or ATI,  has its own processor and ram. The video ram on the video card is referred to as "onboard" memory and video cards come with varying amounts, usually 32 MB, 64 MB, 128MB or 256MB. The cheap way uses the main processor to render video and steals some ram from Windows for its own use. This was originally called "integrated graphics" but now has other names. If you have a computer with 512MB of ram and Windows only see 504MB, then the machine has integrated graphics. 

For the standard Office applications, integrated graphics is fine. However, high quality pictures and videos are best done with a dedicated video card. This becomes much more an issue however, when planning for the upcoming version of Windows, Vista. For computer to fully support Vista, it needs a dedicated video card with at least 64MB of video ram. Some articles cite 128MB as the minimum, I've even seen an article that suggested not using less than 256MB of video ram. 

Be aware though, the marketing of video hardware can be very misleading. 

Be wary of video cards from ATI that are labeled “Hypermemory”. Both the 64MB and 128MB ATI Hypermemory graphics cards have only 32MB of video ram. The “128MB” in the product name comes from the fact that it can use up the 128 MB of total ram, meaning it steals normal ram memory from Windows. 

NVIDIA competes with ATI and also misleads the unwary with their product names. In their case look out for “TurboCache”. For example, the GeForce 6200 128MB TurboCache video card has only 16MB of actual video ram.

And finally, a computer sold now that is labeled as being "Vista Ready" does not necessarily have sufficient video hardware and ram to run the new Vista graphics system. 
  

Investment SIG Schedule Change

September 9, 2006 

The investment SIG meeting schedule has permanently changed to the 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Why and How to Defragment Your Hard Drive

The article Why and How to Defragment Your Hard Drive Under Windows 95, 98, ME & XP* was originally written for NYPC Bytes. 

In the course of troubleshooting Windows 95/98 problems, I have found that Windows is very sensitive to hard disk fragmentation. Even with gigabytes of free disk space, fragmentation can slow Windows to a crawl and cause lockups, crashes, etc. Windows XP is less sensitive, but it still needs to be done occasionally. This article will show you how to tell if your hard drive is fragmented. The Windows defragmentation utility in 95/98 often erroneously reports that a drive is not fragmented when, in fact, it is . . .