Comments for JBH Communications http://jbhcommunications.com Web site design and maintenance, newsletter production and photography in the Dallas area Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:26:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Comment on New Site Takes Flight by Rob Brown http://jbhcommunications.com/2009/10/new-site-takes-flight/#comment-17 Rob Brown Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:26:20 +0000 http://www.jbhcommunicationsblog.com/?p=276#comment-17 Brad, This is really interesting--great photos on the website. What a life the Pucketts have had! Very brave people. Rob Brad,
This is really interesting–great photos on the website. What a life the Pucketts have had!
Very brave people.
Rob

]]> Comment on Disk Image Backups, Free and Otherwise by Brad Hepp http://jbhcommunications.com/2008/12/driveimage-xml-free-backup-solution/#comment-4 Brad Hepp Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:48:06 +0000 http://www.jbhcommunicationsblog.com/?p=51#comment-4 Fred, I'll have to give rsync a try. I currently use Microsoft's SyncToy to write any new Data files over to external USB drives. I wish it were faster, although it makes up for some sluggishness in sheer simplicity. I too am a fan of partitioning software--have used gparted with no problems. Thanks for the tip on saving a copy of the master boot record. Short of using DriveImage XML, that sounds like a good safeguard. Any recommendations on how to make and restore that MBR copy? Fred, I’ll have to give rsync a try. I currently use Microsoft’s SyncToy to write any new Data files over to external USB drives. I wish it were faster, although it makes up for some sluggishness in sheer simplicity.

I too am a fan of partitioning software–have used gparted with no problems.

Thanks for the tip on saving a copy of the master boot record. Short of using DriveImage XML, that sounds like a good safeguard. Any recommendations on how to make and restore that MBR copy?

]]> Comment on Disk Image Backups, Free and Otherwise by Fred Langford http://jbhcommunications.com/2008/12/driveimage-xml-free-backup-solution/#comment-3 Fred Langford Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:31:04 +0000 http://www.jbhcommunicationsblog.com/?p=51#comment-3 I would like to suggest two more tools. I use "gtparted", however there is "gparted", "pmagic" (parted magic) and not to be confused with "partition magic". Any of these can ease the task of using a larger hard drive with a smaller image. After applying the image, the drive can be resized, generally without destroying any data. This is contrary to what I have always been taught, but it works. This works with almost every file format. Even with NTFS. This is open source. The other tool is "rsync". This will make mirror image - files, directories, etc. although not *.iso image Windows needs. It works great for uploading new or revised web pages, backups that do not require an image, etc. This is available for Windows, Linux, Unix, etc. It's claim to fame is it only moves the differences in the files, not the whole file. Very fast. This is open source. I use "rsync" for backups. Because I use Linux, I really don't care if I have an *.iso image or not. I can take a live CD and have everything reinstalled in 20-30 minutes, ready to go to work. I back up my data files separately from my hidden files, so I just reload my data backup. My hidden files are personal configuration files - these I will pick and choose over. Browser, email configuration, etc. I only want to restore the basics. The rest I will never move. Additionaly, I would like to suggest Windows users have a saved copy of their master boot record. Microsoft does not help very well in this area but, this is where a good percentage of viruses hit first. Linux makes it easy to replace the master boot record at any time. I have one machine with a "grub" bootloader (Linux) running Windows XP. I did not have a Microsoft backup. Grub works quite fine. I would like to suggest two more tools.

I use “gtparted”, however there is “gparted”, “pmagic” (parted magic) and not to be confused with “partition magic”. Any of these can ease the task of using a larger hard drive with a smaller image. After applying the image, the drive can be resized, generally without destroying any data. This is contrary to what I have always been taught, but it works. This works with almost every file format. Even with NTFS. This is open source.

The other tool is “rsync”. This will make mirror image – files, directories, etc. although not *.iso image Windows needs. It works great for uploading new or revised web pages, backups that do not require an image, etc. This is available for Windows, Linux, Unix, etc. It’s claim to fame is it only moves the differences in the files, not the whole file. Very fast. This is open source.

I use “rsync” for backups. Because I use Linux, I really don’t care if I have an *.iso image or not. I can take a live CD and have everything reinstalled in 20-30 minutes, ready to go to work. I back up my data files separately from my hidden files, so I just reload my data backup. My hidden files are personal configuration files – these I will pick and choose over. Browser, email configuration, etc. I only want to restore the basics. The rest I will never move.

Additionaly, I would like to suggest Windows users have a saved copy of their master boot record. Microsoft does not help very well in this area but, this is where a good percentage of viruses hit first. Linux makes it easy to replace the master boot record at any time. I have one machine with a “grub” bootloader (Linux) running Windows XP. I did not have a Microsoft backup. Grub works quite fine.

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