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Recently I had a program cause a problem with; well I’m not sure exactly what. But it created a file folder that absolutely could not be deleted no matter what I tried. I tried to rename it, to move it, to delete it, from safe mode, from administrator safe mode, nothing worked

I spent hours and hours searching the web trying to find a solution. What I found on the net darkened my hopes of ever getting rid of this folder short of a format and reload of windows.

Not one to give up very easily at all, I starting thinking of ways one might delete files nothing seemed to be of much help until I found out that I could move the file if it was on the same drive, inside its parent folder. Now if the file or folder you need to delete is in your root system folder or on any other partition then your system or root partition, then this fix probably won’t work for you. To make it a bit clearer, the file or folder you want to delete must be on the system drive partition, but not in the root of that drive or partition. The reasons why will soon become apparent. Also you must have administrator rights to perform this fix

Ok, what ever folder the target file or folder is in; empty it out, saving all other files to another folder that can be renamed later. Now that you have just the target file or folder inside its parent folder, you can rename the parent folder to what ever you want. I used “Delete Me” just so I didn’t make any mistakes.

Now restart windows and boot into safe mode. If you are not sure how to boot into safe mode, a rule of thumb is to restart the system and tap the F8 key as soon as the boot sequence begins, usually until you hear system beeps that signal keyboard errors. By this time the system is booting into safe mode.

When you see the login screen, log in as administrator, the system will continue to boot, usually there will be a message advising you that you are booting into safe mode and asking if you want to continue. Windows XP safe mode desktop is black, so don’t worry if you have never been here before, everything is going fine.

Now that you are logged on as the administrator in safe mode follow these steps

1. Open control panel from the start menu
2. Select USER ACCOUNTS from the control panel menu icons
3. Select Create New account from the list of tasks
4. In the new task windows, give the account a two or three letter name, not any real user name. and click the next button
5. select the LIMITED account feature by selecting the little radio button at the top, and click the create account button at the bottom
6. close all program windows and restart windows
7. when windows boots you will see the new user id, log in on the new user account that you just created
8. you may get some funny flags and request when you log in , but they are not to worry, let the system finish logging you in and when all activity has finished, restart windows again in safe mode
9. log in as administrator again
10. Open my documents from the start menu and click the folders icon to open up the left hand panel of the explorer window.
11. Navigate to the file/folder parent folder you want to delete (the one you renamed to something like “Delete Me”)
12. Have it selected in the right hand pane of explorer (remember you can only move this file or folder if it is inside the parent folder)
13. From the file menu at the top select edit then select move to folder….
14. when the navigation widow opens, navigate to C:documents and settings new user id new user id documents (new user id is the account name you created) and select the move button
15. Now restart windows normally and log into your normal account
16. open control panel from the start menu
17. select user accounts
18. select change accounts
19. select the new user account you created
20. select delete account
21. select to delete all files, and delete account

End of story. No more unwanted files. I know that it seems like a long way around to accomplish a small task, but if you are like me, you have been pulling your hair out over how to cure this “Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk” problem. Don’t forget to restore your original files to their original location after creating a new folder to put them, in the proper location.

Since the introduction of the Internet, data has been freely accessible whenever you need it. Whether gathering data for your personal pleasure or to improve and support you career, you use the space in your hard disk drive (HDD) to store your data. Nowadays, HDD has gone gigabyte after gigabyte in size. You can fill it with MP3s, pictures, videos, mail, important documents, tutorials, references—you name it, it can be found on the Internet; this means it could possibly be in your HDD.

What if you lost all this data? What if you accidentally deleted all of it or even just some of it? What if you or someone else that snuck in to use your computer formatted your HDD? What can you do to recover that data in your HDD?

There are actual ways to recover your data. The simplest way is always to have a backup. If you occasionally burn your data into a DVD or a CD, then in the event that the data becomes missing, you can go back to these other forms of media to retrieve the data you need. An external HDD would come in handy for backup purposes since many external HDD have built in backup systems allowing you to backup your data in to the external HDD.

There are a little more complicated methods. There are software programs that you can find that allow you to create images. Images are like snapshots of your HDD. They work in a way that is similar to backing up your HDD, but they compress the data allowing you to save more space. There are more advanced software programs that would allow you to undelete and recover the files. In the worst cast scenario, you would be able to find service providers that would recover the data in your HDD for you.

Computers are now an integral part of our lives. We use computes for just about everything and much of our work and personal information ends up stored on our PCs. However, no matter how reliable computers may seem there is always potential for data loss and because of this it is vital that we backup our data.

No matter if your computer is five days old or five years old, backups are important. Anyone who has had a failed hard drive can tell you that without backups you can lose not only work, but irreplaceable data such as digital photographs. If you have a backup your data is safe and sound and ready to go once you get your computer up and running again.

There are many ways to lose computer data in addition to hard drive corruption. Your data could be lost due to computer viruses, fires, floods, power surges, and theft. Keeping your data backed up means that you donít have to start over.

Determining What to Backup

You don’t need to back up every file on your computer. Many are system files that can be restored by installing your operating system again, and come with any new computer. You want to focus on files that you have created and are irreplaceable in the event of disaster.

Easy Backups

Most operating systems come with their own primitive backup utility. You can setup a schedule and have your system backup at a certain time every day, week, or month. You can also use a zip utility which compresses your files, but you have to choose the files which can be very time consuming if you have your data in different places on your hard drive.

There are many backup programs available that can give you an easier method of backing up. Simply choose the folders which you want to backup every time, and it will only do so if the date on the file has changed from the last backup. You should only do this with files that do change on a regular basis. If you need to backup your emails you can simply save the messages to your hard drive and backup the folder they are stored in.

Backups can be done on CDs, zip disks, removable hard drives, floppy disks, or key chains which plug directly into your USB port. Choose whatever options are easiest for you and for storage options.

Backing up your dearest data to a secure, encrypted server in a remote location gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. The very fact that your backup is automatically offsite makes this a very cool concept. Online backups also have an added bonus of allow you to share files easily – as well as being able to access your files when you travel. Be aware however that some services won’t offer this as they don’t think it’s secure enough.

Not having to buy any hardware is another big plus. But the lingering question is what happens to my data if this crowd a zillion miles away isn’t here tomorrow morning! Of course it will coincide with my PC crashing – that’s how it always works..

So with this slightly chilling thought in mind you will find below a review of the five best online backup providers.

If you are one of those people who just want to know the winner – then TADA!

Xdrive

After we examined lots of Online Backup services, we chose six that are on their game: Acpana Data Deposit Box, Connected Data Protector, FirstBackup, Pro-Softnet’s Ibackup, Xdrive also @Backup, Amerivault, DataVault, Intronis Technologies EsureIT, Iomega Istorage Online, Novastor Online Backup Service, Register.com, and SwapDrive.

Choosing a Backup Service

It appears that a lot of the offerings differ mainly on price and capacity – the ones below all offer file encryption and compression, good privacy and thin desktop client. Their differences lie mainly in price, capacity, usability, and online management of your files. It appears longer-term plans are discounted; all but Acpana have an annual plan, and FirstBackup also offers quarterly pricing.

Each of these online backup providers will do a good job with your valuable data but for casual use you can’t beat Data Deposit Box’s pay-for-what-you-use pricing. Ibackup is inexpensive, but its interface is clunky. Xdrive’s easy to use with a big 5GB plan comes out our preferred service.

Connected Data Protector and FirstBackup are good services for anyone who doesn’t want or need Web-based access. Connected Data Protector is less expensive on a monthly basis. FirstBackup being cheaper annually.

Data Deposit Box

At 1 cent per megabyte per month, for the first gigabyte you’d pay only $1 a month or $12 a year for 100MB. The added cost for anything above that first gigabyte is only 0.3 cents per MB, which keeps Data Deposit Box competitive up to the point where you should be asking about volume discounts anyway. You can manage and share your Data Deposit Box files online, but you can also disable Web access via the client software if you’re worried about security

Data Deposit Box service with pay-for-as-much-as-you-use pricing is a winner small amounts of data. Data Deposit Box’s set-it-and-forget-it desktop client automates the backup process and handles everything in the background. No scheduling, though; instead, the client backs up files as they’re changed. During our testing, the client seemed to use hardly any Windows resources and didn’t interfere with other tasks. It uploaded our small backup and didn’t impact our surfing.

Connected Data Protector

Although this software was by far the fastest of the five in our tests when uploading files, it was so heavy on our 128K upstream bandwidth that surfing the Web was rubbish. You’ll want to schedule backups for after midnight. The backup client is nearly as slick-looking as Xdrive’s but is clunky. The ugly scanning of files that occurs every time you switch views would drive you mad.

Did we mention its also a bandwidth hog.

$14.95 a month or $164.95 yearly for 2GB of storage is OK for small businesses that want outstanding secure storage without the drama of sharing or online file management.

FirstBackup

In our tests, this required more CPU than the Data Deposit Box client, and the upload-progress dialog box didn’t work that well. We found we could still browse the Web while the backup was in progress, but slowly. For security, FirstBackup omits online management and sharing, so it’s not for people who put security first.

Installed as either a Windows service or a stand-alone program. We found this service quite easy to use.

FirstBackup charges $13.89 a month or $124.95 a year for the first 1GB of storage. Ibackup or Xdrive are cheaper but at $2.75 for each additional gigabyte, it’s competitive with Data Deposit Box and Connected Data Protector for big data amounts.

Ibackup

Ibackup comes in two flavours. The professional version is more secure, but for that reason it omits the easy online file management and sharing that the plain-vanilla version offers. Both backup clients use a classic tabbed interface but they need work to make them more user friendly.

This service overall works quite well. The normal client also offers backup to CD/DVD in case your Internet connection is out or hideously slow.

$9.95 monthly or $99.50 per year for 5GB is as super value in the online backup market, Ibackup simply isn’t as easy to use as Xdrive.

Xdrive

At $9.95 monthly or $99.95 yearly for 5GB of online storage, Xdrive is comparable to Ibackup for best cost per gigabyte in this review. However uploads via the client were painfully slow. But, while the backups were in progress we could still surf at good pace, a worthwhile trade-off if you want to be able to do stuff while Xdrive is running.

Xdrive has a superior interface and it’s apparent a lot of time has been spent in this area. Managing and sharing files online is the best we have found, thanks to Xdrive’s file selector. The downloadable client is even more sexy, and Xdrive uniquely creates a Windows Network drive to which you can drag and drop files.

We found their support exemplary and best of all they offer a no obligation 30 day free trial – so what are you waiting for - online backups have come of age!

http://www.backupmycontacts.com/online-backups.html

When it comes to mail servers and exchanges the presence of virus attacks, corrupted files, and booting issues are very much a reality. Any of these instances can create a problem with your email and cause them to disappear suddenly. It is crucial that you backup your email data to prevent loss. Businesses who fail to have back up and place strong reliance upon communication via email have great problems with these attacks.

There is a solution, it is called email recovery and it is a form of data recovery, only used specifically for lost emails. I don’t know how you feel about the possibility of loss of data in your email program, but for my business it could be devastating. The following are a few different examples of the steps you should take, for three of the most popular email servers, for data recovery.

Email Data Recovery in IncrediMail

Step 1-From the IncrediMail menu, click on Select file, then Data and Settings transfer, then Transfer from Old computer

Step 2-Click Ok

Step 3-Click on Open, then Ok

Step 4-Data recovery the begins

Step 5-Upon completion, you will see a dialog box that states that the recovery process has been performed.

Step 6-Click ok

Step 7-Upon clicking ok Incredimail will complete the data recovery process by automatically restarting.

Data Recovery and Email Recovery in Outlook

Step 1-From the Outlook menu, click on file, then Import and Export

Step 2-When the drop down menu appears, click on file or Import from another program

Step 3-Click on Next

Step 4-Highlight the PST (Personal Folder File) with your mouse

Step 5-Click on Next

Step 6-Click on Browse button, choose the PST File backup copy you want to use in data recovery from the appropriate location

Step 7-A dialog will appear, using your mouse mark the Replace Duplicates box, this will replace the duplicated items that are imported. This will begin the process of data recovery

Step 8-Click on Next

Step 9-When data recovery has completed, click on the finish button.

Email Data Recovering in Outlook Express

Step 1-From the Outlook Express menu, click on file, then import, then messages

Step 2-Choose the appropriate version of Outlook Express that you are currently using when asked what email program you are importing from

Step 3-Click on Next

Step 4-A dialog box will appear, ensure that you have chosen the appropriate version of Outlook Express

Step 5-Click on Ok

Step 6-Click on Next

Step 7-Designate the folders you want to import, data recovery will then begin.

Step 8-Click on Next

Step 9-The data recovery process is now complete.

Computers have evolved in the last decade and have proven to be one of the most important pieces of equipment required in a company. Companies such as Linux and Microsoft upgrade and create new programs almost every 5 years which are faster and better than the previous models.

Lost data is not always a problem of lack of efficiency of the operators or equipment, most times data loss will be consequence of a human mistake or a computer virus. The only way to avoid such things from happening will be to install safeguard features to enable the user to recover those files.

This process was first introduced in the MS-DOS 6 operating system which many programs still require to function. There is another way to recover lost data if the safeguards in the computer don’t work.

The affected computer user needs to acquire a specific data recovery software that will render him capable of managing, controlling and solving this problem from his house without the need of professional assistance. There are many kinds of data recovery software that can be purchased on the market.

Most recovery programs work after the command lines, and therefore there is no need of accessing the main operating platform, which may be the source of data corruption. Other programs can even bring the document back even if the hard disk has already been formatted.

The system restore function is an option featured by many recovery programs, and will grant the user with the possibility of restoring his hard drive to an earlier time, when everything was functioning efficiently. This works even when the hard drive fails and will recover not one but all the documents that were once stored there.

Every user willing to acquire a data recovery program, needs to check the different possibilities of each and every single one of them, and study their individual efficiency, mainly because most available programs today promise results but are unable to grant them. The individual can read up on these to know what is possible and what is simply unrealistic at present.

A good source of information on data recovery software can be found surfing the web or in specialized magazines.

It is not a surprise that most data recovery software can be found as cheap as $100. Some users are satisfied with the product which sometimes performs better and faster than others which are more costly but perform the same processes and gives the same results.

Friends are also great sources of information when choosing the best data recovery software. These people have surely experienced this problem in the past and know what programs there really work.

You should only consider the possibility of contacting a professional when all the other options have been exhausted. This is because these people are trained to handle this situation using the most advanced software available to attack the problem and solve it, but they obviously require more money.

Even in the scenario where you do not recall all the names for your lost files, professionals can open these files to give the customer a preview of the document before actually recovering it.

You are also capable of using a boot media for your data recovery. This can recover information that has been lost if the hard drive was damaged or if the user downloaded a corrupted file from the internet that contained a virus or similar malware.

There are many data recovery software programs available today, either online or offline. The person should probably do a comparison first of those that are available before selecting which one to bring home.

There is no need to panic when facing a situation where you suffer a data loss, the only thing that you should do is to acquire a data recovery program and then in a few minutes, will find that the lost document or documents have been restored.

Many years ago I developed a strategy for building a customers’ home PC in a way that helps avoid future technical support problems and increases customer satisfaction. Part of that strategy is partitioning the hard drive in a way that can prevent data loss when Windows crashes. By creating multiple partitions, the operating system can be installed on it’s own primary partition, allowing user created data to be saved on another partition. When the operating system crashes or becomes corrupt, data saved to logical drive partitions are not affected. If needed, the primary partition containing the operating system can be formatted or the OS reinstalled without the loss of saved data.

Drawbacks to the multiple partition strategy:

As we all know, the Windows operating system automatically saves files to the C: drive, leaving the user with the responsibility of making sure their files are saved on a separate partition. Let’s face facts. Unless a file is saved to the Windows Desktop folder the average user will not be able to find it. The Windows default path for a users documents and settings can be changed to another drive partition but that does not cure the problem since user installed programs save to the C: drive by default. In reality, the multiple partition strategy only works with advanced users who are not too lazy to save their work in a safe place.

What is an advanced user?

Until recently my idea of an advanced Windows user was a user who had a great deal of knowledge about the inner workings of computer hardware and software. To become more in line with the PC industry definition of an “Advanced User” I have redefined my definition of an advanced user. An advanced user can be determined by answering one simple question; Does the user understand the file system? A Windows user is advanced if she/he can save a file to a specific folder and then find that file with Windows Explorer. Finding a file with the application that created it does not count.

The multiple partition strategy works great for advanced users and gives technicians some peace of mind. Average users on the other hand, require other more hands on alternatives such as backup scheduling. Unless a technician wants to visit a customer on a regular basis to do periodic maintenance an auto backup schedule should be implemented. It is not wise to leave the data backup task in the hands of an average user for many reasons.

Creating a Strategy:

To create your own strategy take into consideration how the PC will be used and the skill level of the intended users and the hardware available. Try to set up automatic backups using Windows Task Manager or 3rd party backup software if users are average or new to computers. You might also consider a CD or DVD backup strategy. An online backup service is a good choice for users with a broadband internet connection. No matter what strategy you use, make backups as easy and simple as possible. The more hands free your backup strategy is, the more likely you will avoid data loss.

We are often reminded about the importance of backing up our data and I am not immune to procrastination. To stress the importance of making backups, keep this in mind. Your hard disk will fail, sooner or later, are you ready?

( For more information about custom PC building strategy see…
http://bytepowered.org/build_computer_plan_1.php)

There is an old saying, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, many people subscribe to this philosophy with their computers. If they can turn their computer on and access their email or play a game, then preparing for an eventual disaster is usually the last thing on their minds.

If you use your computer for business or store important files like family pictures or tax records, it is imperative that you formulate a plan to backup your computer on a regular basis. Even if your computer is brand new, or just a few months old, hard drives can fail, power surges and lightening strikes happen, and viruses or malware can wipe out your data at a moment’s notice.

Recently, the main hard drive failed in one of the computers I manage for a busy Real Estate office. They had a backup plan in place, but they failed to routinely follow it. The latest backup data on the external drive was over a year old. They lost hundreds of contacts and thousands of dollars in labor spent building data bases and specialized software files.

I restored all the old data I could and immediately instituted a regular backup schedule that they have been following religiously. They were not worried about a catastrophic data failure because they had installed new hard drives in their computers just over a year ago. But hard rives are very delicate and complex, and one never knows when there may be a failure.

So how do you go about setting up and following a proper computer backup plan? Here are my suggestions:

1. Get Some Form of External Storage Capability. Windows XP has a built in restore feature, but that is worthless if you have a catastrophic hard drive failure. To be truly effective, your computer backups must be stored outside of your computer. You can do this by writing the data to CDROMS or DVDs, but this is a rather slow and cumbersome method. There are online services which allow you to store your data on their secure servers, but the upload times can be really slow, even with broad band.

I recommend getting a large capacity external hard drive, preferably with USB 2 or FireWire capability. Buy the largest capacity drive you can afford, a minimum of 120 Gigabytes. Now if your main hard drive fails, you will have a current mirror image of the drive you can restore using a special boot disk created by your backup software.

2. Buy a Computer Backup Program and Use it. There are a lot of software solutions out there, Norton Ghost is probably the most well known. For various reasons I won’t get into in this article, I don’t recommend Ghost as your primary backup software. I have tried many different backup programs and the one I use most frequently is Arconis True Image. Regardless of what program you choose, learn to use it effectively, develop a computer backup plan and stick to it.

You may want to backup once a week, every other day or even daily if you are constantly adding new and important data. I perform an incremental backup of each computer every five days. This gives us recent enough data files to work off of should we experience another failure. Whatever schedule you choose, stick to it, no excuses.

3. Create a boot disk and know how to use it. The most recent backup in the world is useless if you are unable to restore it. If your hard drive fails, you must be able to restore your backup data to your new drive or computer. To do this you will need a bootable CD or a set of bootable floppy disks to restore your backup image. Each program does this a bit differently, be sure to read the manual and fully understand the process.

By following the Best Practices I listed above, your data will be safe from eventual loss. Hard drive failure will no longer be a major catastrophe, if you have a proper backup plan in place you can be up and running in a matter of hours.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
-Francis Bacon
A Tale of Two Plans
There is a lot of talk these days about disaster recovery planning. Organizations of all sizes are investing big money developing “The Plan” that will help them survive should something really bad happen.
Yet disaster recovery planning is problematic. At what point does the plan kick in? What if something sort of bad but not really bad happens? And what happens if something within the plan itself fails? Does this mean the plan was faulty or incomplete? And is a failure of the plan itself even worth planning for?
When best-laid plans fail, we have to resort to Plan B. So why not just do Plan B in the first place? Let’s compare the differences between Plan A and Plan B to see:
Plan A vs. Plan B

• Automated vs. Manual
• Planning vs. Troubleshooting
• In-line redundant vs. Offline recovery
• Big Companies vs. Small teams
• Predictive vs. Reactive
• Prevents small problems from growing vs. Fixes big problems
• All or nothing vs. Something
• Good at best-case scenario vs. Good at worse-case scenario
• Expensive vs. Practical

Why Plan A Works Better For Small Problems
Plan A shines at keeping minor problems from growing into disasters. Take RAID for example. By having a set of redundant hard drives, you prevent the predictable failure of a single hard drive from causing an entire system to fail.
Plan A relies upon predictable outcomes. If you have a backup system in place that automatically takes over in case the primary system fails, that is a predictable outcome. Calling Dell support in case the primary system fails is not a predictable outcome.
Most big organizations invest solely in Plan A solutions. They have inline redundant systems, huge knowledge bases of information and pay millions of dollars for support contracts. When it works, Plan A is really invisible. It quietly and efficiently keeps things running.
Ironically, most disaster recovery plans are entirely Plan A, probably because they are made by the same big organizations that love Plan A solutions so much. They literally attempt to plan for every eventuality. This is a mistake because Plan A has one major drawback: it either works or it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t you’ve got a real disaster on your hands that somebody has to fix.
Why Plan B Works Better for Big Problems
Where Plan A fails, Plan B excels. Plan B analyzes the problem and then develops a simple and flexible plan to fix it. Plan B requires common sense and action. The most important choice to make for your Plan B is personnel.
The best Plan B starts with a team of talented and experienced people you can count on who work well under pressure and are great at troubleshooting. To be effective, you have to give your Plan B team some room to work. Give them the authority to make decisions and resources to support their efforts. Accept that the solution will be imperfect. Your team must be allowed to make mistakes.
This isn’t to say that Plan B should be completely ad-hoc. It still is a plan, after all. Involve technology, when appropriate.
For instance, we use backup software from Ultrabac that makes a daily image of our servers. In the event a server fails, we can restore the image on a different server, even if the hardware is not the same as the original. It’s a manual process to restore a server and data since the last backup will be lost. Still, it’s a pretty good solution given the alternative.
Most small organizations rely solely on Plan B. They have little or no backup systems or even backups for that matter. In case of failures they endure downtime, hope for miracles and sometimes get them.
The Art of Failure Planning
If you are a big organization, you have to face the reality that a true disaster recovery plan needs to look more like Plan B than Plan A. Instead of spending a lot of money trying to plan for every possible bad thing that could happen, put together a qualified Plan B team. Then have that team tell you what resources they would need to respond to an emergency.
The lessons of Hurricane Katrina demonstrate clearly that trying to force Plan A to work will only create a bigger problem. Had the government gone with Plan B to start with, much of the suffering would have been avoided.
If you’re a small organization, you can do with more Plan A. Invest in practical backup solutions and redundant hardware for critical systems. There are proven solutions for many common failures. Take advantage of them and stop being a victim.
Every organization should have failure plans that include both Plan A and a Plan B. The art of failure planning is to understand the limitations of your plans and thereby make better decisions about how to respond to failures.