Backup for Outlook clients

One of the saddest parts of my day is having to tell someone that their email, contacts and calendars have been lost because of a hard drive failure, operating system glitch or human error.

Each email client stores information in a different format and thus has a different mechanism for making backups of data related to them. For this demonstration, I will focus on Microsoft Outlook, version 2007 and a POP server. Some of my screenshots might not match yours exactly, but all of the Outlook clients are similar. If you are on an exchange server (in-house or hosted), your mail will reside on the server and you will not need to make a backup as described. I would, however, make sure that your mail server is being backed up on a routine basis.

First, open Outlook.

Then, I suggest a quick Send/Receive and then set your automatic Send/Receive to 60 minutes. You can reset it back later. This is under Tools | Options | Mail Setup | Send/Receive button. At the bottom of the screen, change the time to 60 or more. This will keep from doing a send/receive during a backup session.



Now what we are going to do is Export out mail, contacts, etc... to a file that we store apart from the computer. In my case, I will be storing it to a USB drive located at drive D:. Do not try and write this to a CD or DVD.

So, with Outlook Open, click on File in the upper left corner and then choose Import and Export. Click on "Export to a file" as indicated in the picture and then click Next.



This will take us to the Create Type of File Screen. Scroll down and click on Personal Folder File (.pst) and click Next.



Now, you will see a listing with the same setup as your Mail Folders layout in Outlook. Scroll up and select "Personal Folder" and then click the box that indicates "Include subfolders". Click Next.



Now we can tell it where to export the file to, in my case, D: and I will name it BackupSAP.pst. Use the Browse Button to make life easier.






When you return, your screen should look something like:



Click Finish... and you will see this screen:



Don't change anything, just click OK and wait (and wait, and wait). Eventually, you will return to the Outlook main view.

Do this as often as you don't want to lose files.

Happy Processing...

'Tis the Season - again!

Black Friday! Cyber Monday! HumBug!

With the economy in flux, I thought electronics would be pushed down the priority on on the Christmas shopping list. But by the look of things at Best Buy and Circuit City last Friday, my thought was wrong. Depending on which report you read, sales were up anywhere from 1% to 3% over last year.

Today is Cyber Monday - so called because after a few days off for Thanksgiving, office workers delay getting back to the job by cyber-shopping before getting down to work. Because many households now have high speed internet access, the legend lives on, but the reality is that cyber-shopping is now spread over the next 2-3 weeks.

There are a few things on my shopping list this year that won't break the bank, but may make life a little easier.

For those of you who have the best intentions of backing up the 9,243 photographs, but just cant find the time - there is the HP SimpleSave Photo DVD-R. You must have a DVD burner (if you don't and are concerned about losing photos, go get one - NOW!). Pop one of DVD's in the drive and it will search out your photos and burn them to the DVD. The photos may not be organized, but they will be backed up. Sold as a 5 disk package for $15 bucks so don't hesitate and wait and pay me to recover your photos - go to www.hp.com now.

Another nice gadget is a cooling device for laptop computers. Lot's of you have a notebook/laptop that just sits on the desk. Pick that puppy up and feel your desk - a bit warm isn't it. It's mostly because there is no airflow under the computer where the hard drive and the battery are located. Belkin makes the Belkin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Stand ($21 at amazon.com)appears to be the reasonable one, but up the price tag to $30 and there are lots more available. Perhaps the QuadCooler from www.quadcooler.com is the way to go. So far, the Belkin is the only one that sucks air from the bottom and blows it onto the bottom of the laptop, therefore you cannot set it flat on the ground or in your lap while you are wrapped up in your fleece snuggly. Most of the others pull warm air from the base and distribute it to the outside. there are lots of these devices available. Watch for size, power source (generally a usb port), air flow and whether or not you can use them on your lap.

I get tired of trying to make all digital cameras works with with all my computers. The fix is a multi-card reader. My latest is a Digipower Platinum 32-in-1 reader with a passive USB hub. So far it has read all the cards I have tried. It is powered by the USB port on my computer(s) and works reasonably well. Drive letters tend to get a little messed up on systems attached to a domain network with mapped drives, but the added USB ports all me to plug in a flash drive for those who bring me information them.

And speaking of Flash Drives, these little babies make great stocking stuffers. As an example, Crucial.com has their Gizmo! USB drives for $34 for 8gb, $13 for 4gb, 2gb for $10 and 1gb for an embarrassing $7. Other than the Memorex brand, I have had good luck with all the ones I have (or have broken). Things to look for:
- Retractable connector is very good as is a swivel unit
- around the neck holders make you look like a geek (good or bad is your decision)
- plastic caps get lost, some units (PYN) often have replacement caps in the package
- leaving it in your front USB ports tends to be a magnet for my size 8 foot.
- U3 units can run software directly from the unit, see geek above.

In the cool, but expensive, enter Rivio (www.meetrovio.com). This mobile, wifi robot navigates your house and allows you to view what's going on. Around $300, this is a "for the geek that has everything). And no, I am not coming to your house to install.

Me personally - I'm going with the food gift idea's this year. Off to Hershey.com for a little cyber-shopping!

Fan in Mouse, Politics, Mojave & Pandora

Flexii USB 2.0 Cool Fan 3D Optical Mouse
If you are like me, you have a mouse in your hand for several hours each
day. I get a little sweaty, especially in the summer months.This USB 3D
mouse is a best summer computer accessory you can buy, features a
fashionable ergonomic design, combining a cooling fan which make itself
best summer input device for long hour playing game enthusiast or regular
office user.Cost is around $20 with shipping. The fan tends to make a
little noise, but it is worth it on those hot days.

Politics the Internet Way

The internet has become the new campaign canvas for political candidates.
More specifically, Email and Twitter has become the communication medium of
choice for Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.

You know what e-mail is.

[http://www.twitter.com] Twitter is a texting tool that allows posters and
subscribers to communicate through short (140 characters) text like
messages. You can choose to receive twitter posts by email, web browser or
instant messenger notices.On the official website of Obama, you can track
the campaign operations through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr
(Pictures) LinkedIn and about a dozen more. On Twitter, Mr. O has 71,420
followers. This puts him at the top of the twitter list in popularity.
(Interestingly, the number 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, & 10 slots are held by popular
bloggers in the tech field.)

The [http://www.barackobama.com/index.php] Obama campaign has worked the
Internet masterfully to not only raise millions, they’ve managed to get
millions of cell phone numbers after having promised to text his choice of
a running mate prior to the general press release. Imagine how they’ll
be able to mine those cellphone numbers, IMs, etc. Get out the vote? Fund
raising?

The [http://www.johnmccain.com/] McCain campaign? Well, you can subscribe
to an email blast about the campaign trail and upcoming activities.

For my taste, both websites are a little cluttered and difficult to locate
things and much information is repeated in several locations.

Is this going to be the make or break decision on the upcoming election.
Probably not, but among the tech savvy, the vote is going to swing the he
who exhibits the best pretense of being technical enough to guide us to the
future world.

The Mojave Campaign. Will it save Vista?

You may have seen those “I’m a Mac” television ads promoting Macs
over PC’s, Microsoft has sat on it’s laurels, I guess hoping they
would go away.

But now, Microsoft launches the “Windows, not walls” campaign,
featuring 90’s comic star, Jerry Seinfeld. Reportedly, Mr. Sienfeld will
take home $10 million for his appearances.

Microsoft recently conducted the Mojave Experiment, which asked 140 people
their opinion of Microsoft Vista. The average score was 4.5 on a 10 scale.
They were then shown the new Microsoft Mojave operating system. After
seeing the new O/S, the respondents rate the “new” system and average
score of 8.5.

You guessed it, Mojave is Vista without any identifiers. Turns out that
many of the respondents rated Vista poorly, even though they had never seen
or worked with it.

The irony of Microsoft’s new employee… Seinfeld always used a Mac in
his show.

And Finally, bye, bye Pandora.
[http://www.pandora.com] Pandora is a great online Internet radio service.

You pick the artist and they play the music by that artist and by similar
artists. For example, I selected artist John Denver and Pandora built a
radio station around the selected and similar artists. Pandora selected
Peter, Paul and Mary; Jim Croce and Bread as similar stylists to John
Denver.

As always, I stress that internet radio broadcasts and streaming media are
huge bandwidth hogs and we recommend that you be polite at work and not
take the entire internet bandwidth.But at home,

I often use Pandora for parties to set a mood. I don’t have to have all
the music since Pandora selects (very well, I might add) similar artists to
my selection.

Sadly, it’s about to go out of business thanks to the punitive royalties
that Internet radio has to pay - twice as much as the cost of royalties
that broadcast radio pays.

And yes, you can thank the Recording Industry Artist Association for that.

Pandora is not a music sharing service, it is a legal, law-abiding radio
station that happens to broadcast across the internet instead of the air
waves.