Category: Windows 7

Network Backups Are Now Available at Chez Roo

Lorin Olsen

After replacing the old external drive with a shiny new network drive, the next step was obvious: network backups.  I was excited.  This was going to be a no-brainer.  Windows 7 offers a backup tool.  And that tool is quite good.  Too bad it doesn’t work with Windows 7 Home Premium.  Yes, you can backup your system to a USB-attached device.  But if you want to use a network location, you’ll have to invest in Windows 7 Professional – or some other tool.
I chose the “some other tool” option.  My requirements were simple.

  1. I want to be able to take full backups.
  2. I want to be able to take incremental (or differential) backups.
  3. I have to be able to use my new network-attached storage device.
  4. I don’t want to spend much (or any) money to make all of this happen.

To start, there are a lot of backup tools.  Some come with the operating system.  Others are available via purchase at a retail store. Some are bundled with network storage systems. And still others can be downloaded from the Internet.  So my first chore was to sort the list down to two or three tools that would meet my requirements.  After fiddling with Google search arguments, I finally ran a search that narrowed my choices down.
After checking out a few reviews, I read the review put together by Mark Muller (at BrightHub).  Based upon that review, I downloaded and installed Comodo Backup.  And I am genuinely thrilled with this product.  It does all of the things that you expect a backup tool to do.  And it does them on any kind of media (including network-attached storage).
And it does this for free.  I’m still trying to figure out how this company makes money.  They do offer a remote storage option (a la Mozy or Carbonite).  Maybe they will make their money in this fashion.  I sure hope that they do – because I really want to continue to use the product.  Why do I want to use this product?  Two words: it works!
-Roo

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Windows Weekend

Lorin Olsen


I’ve been running Windows 7 since January of last year.  But over the past few weeks, I’ve been getting the notices that the Windows 7 release candidate that I was running would expire at the end of February.  So it was finally time to buy the upgrade licenses and installl the GA code.
But over the past few months, I’ve also started to have some weird system problems.  Specifically, the video driver I have been using has started to abort.  And in a few instances, I’ve even had a few BSOD troubles.  So it was with a little trepidation (and a sliver of hope) that I decided to upgraded two of our systems here at the bat cave.  And as much as I hate to do clean installs, that is the path that I chose.
It was a good choice.  The install went extremely well on my system.  I booted from the install media, installed into a new directory and the system installed flawlessly.  Yeah, it took a few hours to reinstall some applications, but the system is running wonderfully well.  And my sliver of hope was rewarded as all of my video driver issues have been resolved.  They may reappear.  But I’ll keep my eyes open and make sure that I document all of the restore points I will be setting.
Unfortunately, my wife’s upgrade did not go as well.  I tried to boot from the install media – but I couldn’t get the prompt to “press any key” to boot from CD/DVD.  I went into the BIOS and changed a whole heap of settings.  But I still couldn’t get the system to boot from the Windows 7 installation media.
So I asked my wife if she was having trouble with her CD/DVD combo drive.  And after a few minutes, it became clear that the trouble was with the hardware itself.  There was no way to boot from the drive because the system didn’t recognize the drive at all.
So I started feeling a little stuck.  I really didn’t want to plunk down the cash as Cindy is between jobs.  So I decided to build a bootable flash drive from the installation media.  I followed the steps outlined on the “Into Windows” web site (details here).  From the resulting flash drive, I could boot and install Windows 7 on my wife’s system.
Once I could boot from installation media, I had no trouble reinstalling the GA code on Cindy’s system.  Her install went well, with a few minor hiccups where I needed to remove the flash drive before a reboot.  But the overall process was much faster than installing from optical media.
Once I got the system installed, I migrated all of her apps and turned the system over for her QA.  Everything was great – until she noted that Outlook wasn’t working as it was supposed to work.  I worked to configure Outlook and utilize all of the PST files that she had acquired over the last couple of years.  Unfortunately, I had deleted a couple of the PST files.  So it was time to break out Recuva and get back the files I had eliminated.  After a few stumbles along the way, I got the files restored and I got Outlook properly configured.
The entire upgrade process (with all of the fits and starts I encountered) took less than a day.  And in the end, I had increased the stability of my systems.  So while I was reluctant to spend the money, I must admit that it was money (and time) well spent.
-Roo

Chrome: More Than A Browser – Less Than A Desktop

Lorin Olsen


Take a look at the picture above.  What do you see? Here’s a quick summary:

  • That’s Windows 7 running on my system. Yeah, it’s the release candidate as I haven’t upgraded to the GA version – yet.
  • You see Tweetdeck. While I like other clients, I can’t quite swallow the Seesmic brew that includes Silverlight.
  • You also see a Chrome browser. I like a lot of things about the Chrome browser.  But oddly enough, I still have to use Firefox to edit my posts to WordPress.
  • While hidden by a few windows, you also see Windows Media Center.
  • For those who are looking carefully at the task bar, you see an icon for Eclipse.  I’m using that for my Android development environment.
  • Sun’s VirtualBox is running.  You see it running on the desktop.  And you see several operating systems images.
  • One of those operating systems is the Chrome OS.  And that VM is running.  In the image, you’ll see what looks like a Chrome browser.  There’s a tab for GMail and a tab for GCal.  You’ll also see the Start/Welcome tab.  There’s a pretty good chess game and there are a lot of web apps.

So what is Chrome? Is it a desktop? Nope.  Is it just a browser? Nope.  It IS a down-payment on Google’s gambit to move people from desktop apps to cloud/network services.  And it is a completely open framework for new innovation.
Will it win? Well, it won’t displace Windows on new system sales – at least, not yet.  Will it be the platform for netbooks? Maybe.  But they may be fighting against Android for that honor.
But unlike other desktop contenders, this offering is not designed for a head-to-head fight with Windows.  Unlike Safari and Mac OS X, this platform is not seeking to be another desktop in the fight.  Rather, it seeks to move the battlefield to an entirely new venue.  This is the same fight that Sun started with the NC (i.e., the “Network Computer”).  But Sun had no traction in the consumer marketplace.  And they saw meager penetration in the enterprise space.
But Chrome OS is the inheritor of a unique phenomenon; some of the best technologies are a redux of something that was already in existence.  MP3 players existed for quite some time before the iPod arrived.  The Apple iPod won because it captured the consumer imagination.  In the same way, Chrome OS is a redux of things we’ve seen before.  Can Google transform a moribund market for network computing?  I sure hope that they will.  But they will need a spark for that to happen.  In the mobile phone industry, I think that the Verizon Droid may be the spark needed for Android’s explosion into the market.
In a very strange way, Chrome OS’ real competitors maybe the netbooks and wireless platforms like Android.
-Roo