How to work with iWork's new file formats

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">With the recently released <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2056557/iwork-apps-get-ios-and-os-x-overhauls-available-now.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">2013 versions of iWork for OS X and iOS</a>, syncing documents across Macs, iOS devices and even <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2047239/hands-on-iwork-for-icloud-beta-almost-as-good-as-mac-ios-versions.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">iWork for iCloud</a> is now a seamless transparent process: Open and edit a document in one location, and the changes are instantly reflected at every other location that has access to the file. With very few exceptions, a document's appearance remains identical on each platform. Warnings about file conversions and omitted features have all but vanished.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">For anyone who has struggled with iWork file syncing over the years, this is fantastic news. It wasn't always this way.</p> <h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">In the beginning…</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> When Apple introduced iWork for iOS apps in 2010, transferring an iWork '09 document between a Mac and an iPad required a <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/file_sharing_with_an_ipad_ugh" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">tortuous procedure</a>mediated by iTunes. To transfer a file, you manually exported or imported it; there was no live syncing. Transfers also required converting the document to the matching platform-specific format. Especially when going from Macs to iOS devices, this often meant stripping out features unsupported by the more limited iOS apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In 2011, with the introduction of iCloud, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1163173/bugs_and_fixes_losing_iwork_documents_in_icloud.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">true syncing of iWork documents</a> arrived—but only among iOS devices. Transferring a document from a Mac to an iOS device required an intermediate stop at iCloud. From there, an iOS device could access the file (assuming you had iCloud enabled on the device), converting it to the more feature-limited iOS format. Any editing done to a file on one platform had no effect on a copy of that file previously transferred to the other platform.</p> <q style="quotes:none;background-image:url(http://csmb.staticworld.net/images/furniture/techhive/icn-pullquote-mw.png);color:rgb(242,116,5);font-size:24px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:85px;display:block;font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">The release of Mountain Lion in 2012 was a giant step forward. At last, you could "live sync" iWork documents among Macs and iOS devices.</q><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> The release of Mountain Lion in 2012 was a giant step forward. At last, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1167305/improved_iwork_file_sharing_coming_in_mountain_lion.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">you could "live sync" iWork documents among Macs and iOS devices</a>. After editing a synced Pages document on an iPad, for example, the changes would automatically appear on a Mac, even if the document was open in Pages on the Mac at the time.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The primary remaining downside was the differing <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/digging_deep_into_iwork_document_sharing_in_mountain_lion" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">multiple iWork file formats</a>. Moving across platforms required document file conversions that often resulted in document feature loss or related incompatibilities.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Three different file formats came into play.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> First, if you locally saved a iWork '09 document to your Mac (I'll use Pages as the example app), it saved in the "original" Mac iWork format—with a<code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code> extension at the end of the file's name. While the Finder did not treat this file as a package (that is, no<em>Show Package Contents</em> command showed up in the document's contextual menu), it was indeed a package. To pry it open, you could use a utility such as <a href="http://www.charlessoft.com/" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">Pacifist</a>. Inside, you'd find several items, most notably an index.xml file which contained the primary content you created.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="267" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-1-100068469-large.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="580">Looking inside a locally-stored Pages '09 document package on a Mac.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If instead you saved a Pages file to iCloud, it adopted a different format. To distinguish it from the original format, a <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> suffix was added to the end of its name. OS X recognized this format as a package, openable via the <em>Show Package Contents</em>command. Inside, you'd find that the index.xml file was gone, replaced by a file called index.pages (depending upon your settings, the <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code>extension might not appear in Finder windows). This .pages item was itself a package: it contained an index.xml.gz file. If you double-clicked the .gz file, a decompressed index.xml file appeared; this was essentially the same as the index.xml file from the original format.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">At this point, you may be wondering how one can examine files stored on Apple's iCloud servers. You can't; not directly. However, local copies of these files are maintained on your Mac. For Pages, for example, you'll find them at ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If you created a document in Pages for iOS, or if you used the iOS app to open a Pages document placed in iCloud by the Mac, a third format was required. This format retained the same <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> name as already described. However, inside the package, an index.db (database) file replaced the index.pages item. This was the only format compatible with iOS and the only one incompatible with Macs.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Moving files between Macs and iOS devices still required converting files to the proper format. The good news was that users were typically unaware of all of this complexity. The required conversions were handled automatically behind the scenes. While this situation was less than ideal, it worked well in most cases. You could at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.</p> <h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">One format, multiple platforms</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> With the release of the 2013 iWork apps, we've emerged from the tunnel altogether. There is now only one file format for all app variations. Whether you save or transfer an iWork document to a Mac, an iOS device or iCloud, the document's format remains identical. As a result, files live sync across platforms without any of the compatibility issues that plagued prior versions.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The names of these new iWork documents will be familiar. For example, the names of Pages documents still use a <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code>extension. The <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> variations are gone. Inside a document package, however, the format is different from any of the ones used with the prior iWork apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The primary item in the package is an index.zip file. If you unzip its contents (I again used Pacifist to do this), you'll find that the XML content has been replaced by multiple <a href="http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-formats/" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">.iwa files</a>. Although Apple hasn't offered an official rationale for this shift, the<a href="http://mentalfaculty.tumblr.com/post/65232514882/iworks-new-file-formats" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">speculation</a> is that the smaller binary .iwa segments allow for faster loading in iCloud and on iOS devices.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="236" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-3a-100068468-large.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="580">Looking inside a document created with the latest Pages software.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Almost perfect</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> This unification of formats would all be perfect, except for one thing. As<a href="http://www.tedlandau.com/slantedviewpoint/index.php/archives/2013/1289" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">I've detailed elsewhere</a>, to achieve this cross-platform compatibility, Apple dropped numerous '09 features from their iWork '13 apps. Apple has <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2061286/apple-promises-to-restore-some-iwork-features-within-six-months.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">promised to return some of these missing features</a> over the next few months. In the meantime, if these losses leave you dissatisfied, you may want to keep using the older iWork '09 apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">But what if you've already created or converted documents using the new versions? If you open an iWork '09 document in an iWork '13 app, the document automatically converts to the new format. However, this is strictly a one-way process: iWork '09 apps cannot convert or otherwise open iWork '13 documents.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="164" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-4-100068470-medium.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="300">The message that appears if you attempt to open a Pages '13 document with Pages '09.<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:22px">There is, however, a work-around. For example, to manually convert new documents to the Pages '09 format, open the document in Pages '13 and go to File > Export > Pages '09; there are matching options in Numbers and Keynote. Alternatively, you may be able to revert a converted document to its prior '09 format via OS X's </span><a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2059061/dealing-with-pages-file-conversion-and-email-attachment-problems.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:22px" target="_blank">Browse All Versions option</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:22px">. And don't worry about finding your old apps after you've updated to iWork '13. The iWork '13 installers save the older versions in your Applications folder.</span><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The same doesn't hold true on iOS. If you've upgraded to the latest versions of iWork apps for iOS, there is no Apple-supported way to revert back to the older versions of those apps. Furthermore, documents saved with the new iOS apps use the new iWork '13 format. So if you keep using the '09 apps on the Mac, you'll probably have to give up syncing the documents with iOS devices. Otherwise, you'll have to manually convert the iOS files back to the iWork '09 format, via the option in the Work '13 app, each time you want to re-open the files in Work '09 on the Mac.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Still not sure what version of the iWork apps you want to use? Apple makes it easy to try out the new '13 upgrades. For anyone who owns the prior iWork versions, or buys any of Apple's latest hardware, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2056159/what-you-need-to-know-about-apples-free-apps-policy.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">the new versions are free</a>.</p>

How to work with iWork's new file formats

With the recently released  2013 versions of iWork for OS X and iOS , syncing documents across Macs, iOS devices and even  iWork for iCloud ...

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Keep your laptop safe and secure while you travel

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Of course your laptop is coming with you on any holiday trips. It's your pride and joy—for many of us, it's practically an appendage. It's our entertainment at the airport and on the plane. It's our office umbilical cord—because you know you can never <em style>completely</em> escape work.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Unlike an arm or leg, though, your laptop isn't physically attached to your body. And there are all too many ways that it can come to harm—or even disappear with someone who covets it as much as you do. Follow these tips for laptop security, and you won't have to ask Santa to bring you a new one.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Keep it padded</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Tossing a laptop into the average backpack, book bag—or worse, simply carrying it under your arm—is asking for trouble. Your delicate hardware needs a purpose-built enclosure to keep it safe.</p><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/case-100068429-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="504" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/case-100068429-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>Find a nice, cushioned bag without obvious laptop markings and logos.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Traveling is full of shoving bags into tight spots, jostling them about, and stuffing in <em style>just one more thing</em>. Push a little too hard, and you may hear an investment-shattering crack. Get a laptop-specific carrying case with plenty of padding and protection. Separate compartments for accessories and power cables are a luxury that can keep your PC scratch and dent free.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">To deter theft, buy a nondescript bag, without logos that advertise to potential thieves that there's valuable merchandise inside.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Turn it off</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> It's tough to pack a powerful computer into a tiny enclosure, and then keep its critical components running nice and cool. That's what the numerous vents and fans that suck cool air in and push hot air are for. Now imagine the heat that can accumulate in the secure, padded, tight quarters of a fancy new laptop bag.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Don't make the mistake of cramming a sleeping computer into the confines of a backpack or messenger bag. Hibernating is not the same as being powered off. Heat is a computer's enemy number one. It can shorten your computer's useful life, loosen components in the motherboard, or entirely destroy it. Block the computer's vents for long stretches, and you could unpack a fried PC at the end of your trip. Be safe and power down that laptop before you stow it.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If you <em style>do</em> discover your laptop's temperature to be on the rise, here are some suggestions for <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2039789/cool-down-an-overheated-laptop.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">cooling it down</a>.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Keep an eye on it, but keep it out of sight</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Laptops are hot-ticket items for thieves. Keep yours on your lap or within view while you're at the airport, bus, or train terminal. Don't leave it an open target by setting it on an adjacent seat and then becoming distracted by your phone or your kids. If it disappears, don't expect it to show up at the lost and found.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">When traveling by car, keep your laptop hidden. Leaving it exposed on the passenger seat, even when getting out to pump gas, could be the perfect opportunity for a sticky-fingered individual to reach in and scoop up the loot. Keep it in the trunk, under the seat, or cover it with a jacket. And keep your car locked at all times.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/lojack-100068467-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="402" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/lojack-100068467-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>LoJack can increase your chances of recovering a stolen laptop.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> If, in spite of your best efforts, your laptop still winds up missing, you might be able to recover it—provided you installed a program such as<a href="http://www3.absolute.com/en/lojackforlaptops/home" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">LoJack </a>before you hit the road. You'll find some other good recovery tips<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010825/can-i-recover-a-stolen-laptop.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">here</a>.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Back it up and lock it down</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> What could be worse than losing your laptop? Losing the information you have stored on it. Follow a backup regimen, keeping a copy of your important data on a hard drive at the home or office or in the cloud, so you can pick up where you left off as soon as you can afford to replace the missing PC.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">And what could be worse than losing the information stored on your laptop? Knowing some unsavory person has access to it. What's on your laptop? Contact information for friends, family, and colleagues? Personal photos? Banking and tax records? Sensitive information about your business? Perhaps there's enough personal information and photos to let someone steal your identity. Protect yourself by<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025462/how-to-encrypt-almost-anything.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">locking it all down</a> with a strong password and encryption.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Store any written-down passwords and sensitive data away from the laptop itself. It doesn't do much good if the thief manages to snag the laptop <em style>and</em>any information necessary to access what's stored on it.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Remember, you're in public</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> When wandering between public Wi-Fi networks, it's easy to pick up hitchhikers in the form of viruses, malware, and <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043095/heres-what-an-eavesdropper-sees-when-you-use-an-unsecured-wi-fi-hotspot.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">data snoops</a>.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Make sure you have up-to-date antivirus and antispyware software installed and running in the background. Keep your firewall up to block unsolicited connections to your PC. When connected to an unfamiliar network, it's sometimes best to be paranoid and treat everything like the enemy.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/secure-connection-100068430-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="301" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/secure-connection-100068430-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>Be sure your connection is secure before giving up sensitive data.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Going online for some last-minute holiday shopping or to check your bank account while you're on the road might seem like a good idea, but uploading personal information to the Internet while using public Wi-Fi is asking for trouble. If possible, wait until you're on a secured network to do the sensitive stuff.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If you must perform an online transaction, be sure the web address begins with "https" and that there's a locked padlock icon in the corner of the browser window or in the address bar itself, indicating you're connected to a secure site.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Know what you have</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Finally, record your PC's precise specifications, including the make, model, and serial or service number. Having this information on hand is crucial for reporting a lost or stolen laptop—and perhaps recovering it.</p><a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/service-tag-100068463-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="175" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/service-tag-100068463-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>This service tag on the bottom of an HP laptop contains all the vital information you might need, including its serial number.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Check the bottom of the laptop for a service tag with barcodes on it. Write all this information down. Better yet, take a picture to keep on your phone. Be sure to note any distinguishing features as well. Stickers, scratches, dents, or additional physical features will help prove you're the rightful owner.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">You're going to be harried enough dealing with travel and family during the holidays. Follow these tips, and your laptop should accompany you safely and securely, no matter where you're headed.</p>

Keep your laptop safe and secure while you travel

Of course your laptop is coming with you on any holiday trips. It's your pride and joy—for many of us, it's practically an appendage...

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How to work with iWork's new file formats

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">With the recently released <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2056557/iwork-apps-get-ios-and-os-x-overhauls-available-now.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">2013 versions of iWork for OS X and iOS</a>, syncing documents across Macs, iOS devices and even <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2047239/hands-on-iwork-for-icloud-beta-almost-as-good-as-mac-ios-versions.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">iWork for iCloud</a> is now a seamless transparent process: Open and edit a document in one location, and the changes are instantly reflected at every other location that has access to the file. With very few exceptions, a document's appearance remains identical on each platform. Warnings about file conversions and omitted features have all but vanished.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">For anyone who has struggled with iWork file syncing over the years, this is fantastic news. It wasn't always this way.</p> <h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">In the beginning…</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> When Apple introduced iWork for iOS apps in 2010, transferring an iWork '09 document between a Mac and an iPad required a <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/file_sharing_with_an_ipad_ugh" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">tortuous procedure</a>mediated by iTunes. To transfer a file, you manually exported or imported it; there was no live syncing. Transfers also required converting the document to the matching platform-specific format. Especially when going from Macs to iOS devices, this often meant stripping out features unsupported by the more limited iOS apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In 2011, with the introduction of iCloud, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1163173/bugs_and_fixes_losing_iwork_documents_in_icloud.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">true syncing of iWork documents</a> arrived—but only among iOS devices. Transferring a document from a Mac to an iOS device required an intermediate stop at iCloud. From there, an iOS device could access the file (assuming you had iCloud enabled on the device), converting it to the more feature-limited iOS format. Any editing done to a file on one platform had no effect on a copy of that file previously transferred to the other platform.</p> <q style="quotes:none;background-image:url(http://csmb.staticworld.net/images/furniture/techhive/icn-pullquote-mw.png);color:rgb(242,116,5);font-size:24px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:85px;display:block;font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">The release of Mountain Lion in 2012 was a giant step forward. At last, you could "live sync" iWork documents among Macs and iOS devices.</q><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> The release of Mountain Lion in 2012 was a giant step forward. At last, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1167305/improved_iwork_file_sharing_coming_in_mountain_lion.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">you could "live sync" iWork documents among Macs and iOS devices</a>. After editing a synced Pages document on an iPad, for example, the changes would automatically appear on a Mac, even if the document was open in Pages on the Mac at the time.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The primary remaining downside was the differing <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/digging_deep_into_iwork_document_sharing_in_mountain_lion" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">multiple iWork file formats</a>. Moving across platforms required document file conversions that often resulted in document feature loss or related incompatibilities.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Three different file formats came into play.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> First, if you locally saved a iWork '09 document to your Mac (I'll use Pages as the example app), it saved in the "original" Mac iWork format—with a<code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code> extension at the end of the file's name. While the Finder did not treat this file as a package (that is, no<em>Show Package Contents</em> command showed up in the document's contextual menu), it was indeed a package. To pry it open, you could use a utility such as <a href="http://www.charlessoft.com/" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">Pacifist</a>. Inside, you'd find several items, most notably an index.xml file which contained the primary content you created.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="267" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-1-100068469-large.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="580">Looking inside a locally-stored Pages '09 document package on a Mac.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If instead you saved a Pages file to iCloud, it adopted a different format. To distinguish it from the original format, a <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> suffix was added to the end of its name. OS X recognized this format as a package, openable via the <em>Show Package Contents</em>command. Inside, you'd find that the index.xml file was gone, replaced by a file called index.pages (depending upon your settings, the <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code>extension might not appear in Finder windows). This .pages item was itself a package: it contained an index.xml.gz file. If you double-clicked the .gz file, a decompressed index.xml file appeared; this was essentially the same as the index.xml file from the original format.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">At this point, you may be wondering how one can examine files stored on Apple's iCloud servers. You can't; not directly. However, local copies of these files are maintained on your Mac. For Pages, for example, you'll find them at ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If you created a document in Pages for iOS, or if you used the iOS app to open a Pages document placed in iCloud by the Mac, a third format was required. This format retained the same <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> name as already described. However, inside the package, an index.db (database) file replaced the index.pages item. This was the only format compatible with iOS and the only one incompatible with Macs.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Moving files between Macs and iOS devices still required converting files to the proper format. The good news was that users were typically unaware of all of this complexity. The required conversions were handled automatically behind the scenes. While this situation was less than ideal, it worked well in most cases. You could at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.</p> <h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">One format, multiple platforms</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> With the release of the 2013 iWork apps, we've emerged from the tunnel altogether. There is now only one file format for all app variations. Whether you save or transfer an iWork document to a Mac, an iOS device or iCloud, the document's format remains identical. As a result, files live sync across platforms without any of the compatibility issues that plagued prior versions.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The names of these new iWork documents will be familiar. For example, the names of Pages documents still use a <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">.pages</code>extension. The <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em">-tef</code> variations are gone. Inside a document package, however, the format is different from any of the ones used with the prior iWork apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The primary item in the package is an index.zip file. If you unzip its contents (I again used Pacifist to do this), you'll find that the XML content has been replaced by multiple <a href="http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-formats/" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">.iwa files</a>. Although Apple hasn't offered an official rationale for this shift, the<a href="http://mentalfaculty.tumblr.com/post/65232514882/iworks-new-file-formats" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">speculation</a> is that the smaller binary .iwa segments allow for faster loading in iCloud and on iOS devices.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="236" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-3a-100068468-large.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="580">Looking inside a document created with the latest Pages software.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><h2 style="font-family:proxima-nova,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Almost perfect</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> This unification of formats would all be perfect, except for one thing. As<a href="http://www.tedlandau.com/slantedviewpoint/index.php/archives/2013/1289" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">I've detailed elsewhere</a>, to achieve this cross-platform compatibility, Apple dropped numerous '09 features from their iWork '13 apps. Apple has <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2061286/apple-promises-to-restore-some-iwork-features-within-six-months.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">promised to return some of these missing features</a> over the next few months. In the meantime, if these losses leave you dissatisfied, you may want to keep using the older iWork '09 apps.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">But what if you've already created or converted documents using the new versions? If you open an iWork '09 document in an iWork '13 app, the document automatically converts to the new format. However, this is strictly a one-way process: iWork '09 apps cannot convert or otherwise open iWork '13 documents.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"></p><img alt="" height="164" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/figure-4-100068470-medium.jpg" style="border-width:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:auto;min-height:auto;max-width:100%;float:left" width="300">The message that appears if you attempt to open a Pages '13 document with Pages '09.<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:22px">There is, however, a work-around. For example, to manually convert new documents to the Pages '09 format, open the document in Pages '13 and go to File > Export > Pages '09; there are matching options in Numbers and Keynote. Alternatively, you may be able to revert a converted document to its prior '09 format via OS X's </span><a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2059061/dealing-with-pages-file-conversion-and-email-attachment-problems.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:22px" target="_blank">Browse All Versions option</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:22px">. And don't worry about finding your old apps after you've updated to iWork '13. The iWork '13 installers save the older versions in your Applications folder.</span><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> </p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The same doesn't hold true on iOS. If you've upgraded to the latest versions of iWork apps for iOS, there is no Apple-supported way to revert back to the older versions of those apps. Furthermore, documents saved with the new iOS apps use the new iWork '13 format. So if you keep using the '09 apps on the Mac, you'll probably have to give up syncing the documents with iOS devices. Otherwise, you'll have to manually convert the iOS files back to the iWork '09 format, via the option in the Work '13 app, each time you want to re-open the files in Work '09 on the Mac.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Still not sure what version of the iWork apps you want to use? Apple makes it easy to try out the new '13 upgrades. For anyone who owns the prior iWork versions, or buys any of Apple's latest hardware, <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2056159/what-you-need-to-know-about-apples-free-apps-policy.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_blank">the new versions are free</a>.</p>

How to work with iWork's new file formats

With the recently released  2013 versions of iWork for OS X and iOS , syncing documents across Macs, iOS devices and even  iWork for iCloud ...

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The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The first rule of PC Club is: Always,<em style>always</em> back up.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Thankfully, backing up your most important data is a cinch. It's the getting off your rear to actually do it that stymies most people, myself included.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> We'll discuss emotional motivation later. (You'll laugh! You'll cry!) But first, let's walk through your many storage options to see how deceptively simple it is to back up everything <em style>right now—</em>before your inevitable data disaster occurs.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The options</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <strong style>Method A:</strong> Fork over the $50 to $100 a year and back up the data from all your PCs and mobile devices to an online storage service such as <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/234112/carbonite.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Carbonite</a>,<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049121/how-to-get-an-extra-10gb-of-google-drive-space-for-free.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Google Drive</a>, iDrive, iCloud, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/232833/mozyhome.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Mozy</a>, or<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010516/microsoft-skydrive-your-ultimate-starters-guide.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">SkyDrive</a>. Choose the one that supports all (or the largest percentage) of your devices, and use the downloadable app that the service provides to maintain a mirror of your files on your local PC.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/skydrive1-100124049-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="346" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/skydrive1-100124049-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>SkyDrive is a pretty trustworthy, easy-to-use off-site backup tool.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Of course, this method works only if you have regular access to enough upstream bandwidth to handle all your essential data.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <strong style>Method B:</strong> Consolidate the data from your mobile devices onto your primary computer. Buy the fastest, most capacious external hard drive you can afford—two, if possible. Use the Windows built-in app (the File Recovery tool in Windows 7, or the File History tool in Windows 8) to create a system image and a recovery CD/flash drive. Subsequently, use Windows Backup to back up your important data daily, weekly, or monthly to the hard drive. Create a backup of your backups to an online service if practical.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Using Method A, Method B, or a combination of both will protect 99 percent of PCs 99 percent of the time, though it's worth noting that local backups restore far more quickly.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">You can stop reading now—unless, of course, you're a seeker of the perfect backup plan, or you want some practical advice. In that case, keep going.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The platinum rule</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> It doesn't get any more basic in backup than the <em style>rule of three. </em>To lower the risk of data loss to the freak-karmic-event level, you must have three copies of your important data: the original, a backup of the original, and a backup of the backup. The secondary and tertiary copies should be in different locations: Ideally, keep one on premises (local) for swift restores and recovery, and keep one off-site where it isn't subject to the same physical threats (lightning, flood, theft, and the like). Remember that the rule of three is a practical minimum—an extra copy here and there won't hurt.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline3-100109202-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="446" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline3-100109202-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you don't think you'll remember to back up regularly, pay for an automated backup program such as Genie Timeline to do it for you.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> The classic example of a trinity backup is the aforementioned Method B: the original data on your PC or laptop, the first backup on an external hard drive that's disconnected and stored safely when not in use, and a third copy safely harbored at an online storage service.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The more modern version is Method A, which assumes that the online service you use is properly backed up in multiple geographical locations. That should give you your three copies, but for the sake of paranoia—with a nod to corporate short-sightedness—we'll assume the third copy is on your local computer and maintained by the online service's app.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">What to back up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Before you can know how you should best back up, you must know what you need to back up. The choice is ultimately yours, but I recommend protecting anything you might want or require later that you can't re-create: electronic documents (tax stuff, business stuff, any hard copies you've scanned and discarded), artistic creations, memorabilia (photos, videos, your old band recordings), or pretty much anything whose loss would evoke extreme negative emotions. Wondering about your downloaded movies, music, and other purchased media? You can always download those items again later, though if you're ambitious enough you can back them up as well. I don't bother. Note that If your data is spread over multiple devices, you'll need to consolidate it. More on that later.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/winxdvdripper1-100109211-orig.png" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="397" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/winxdvdripper1-100109211-large.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you're going through the trouble to rip all of your movies to your PC, make sure you back 'em up so that effort doesn't go to waste!<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Though not strictly necessary, it is especially convenient to have a complete backup of your desktop or laptop (ideally with your mobile-device data on board), as described in Method B. It's by far the quickest and easiest way to restore your operating system, applications, and data, should your system succumb to hard-drive failure or a malware attack. This procedure is referred to as <em style>disaster recovery,</em> and it requires a boot disc/flash drive created by the backup/recovery software. Without a disaster-recovery backup, you'll wind up restoring the operating system and applications individually from scratch.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Where to back it up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> This is an easy one. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that you don't have a tape backup drive. You may not even have an optical drive. If you do, there's nothing wrong with keeping a backup or two on disc, but that's your concern. I think old technology that slows down the process stifles motivation.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If your broadband connection has enough upstream bandwidth, back up to an online file-hosting service. Using such a service is pay-to-play, but costs a fraction of what it costs to recover data from a failed hard drive. It's also ridiculously easy—you just set it and forget it.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Obviously, many people don't have sufficient upstream bandwidth, or a data set small enough to make the online option viable as a complete solution. In that case, reduce your backup set (what you select to back up—don't remove the data itself) to the bare minimum, keep it online, and then back up the rest locally using storage drives you attach to your computer or network.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/05/1252980_1160-100037805-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="389" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/05/1252980_1160-100037805-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a><small class="credit" style="font-size:9px;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase;display:block;float:left;background-image:url(http://csmb.staticworld.net/images/furniture/techhive/backgroundwhite70.png);color:rgb(51,51,51);padding:1px 3px 2px;background-repeat:initial initial">ROBERT CARDIN</small>NAS boxes such as the Western Digital My Book Live are great for storing your backups remotely.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> For local backups, use an external USB 3.0/eSATA/FireWire/Thunderbolt drive, or if the data set is small, use a USB 3.0 flash drive, also known as a thumb drive. Use two drives and alternate between them if you don't plan to back up online, or ideally, even if you do. With hard-drive space costing about 5 cents a gigabyte, and flash costing about 60 cents per gigabyte currently, you can afford it. Don't use USB 2.0 unless you have to: It's slow—and once again, older technology demotivates.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Alternatively, you could use a network-attached storage box. Gigabit ethernet is as fast as USB 3.0, and a NAS box lets you back up multiple computers on a network without having to drag a box from location to location. Most NAS boxes support <em style>rsync</em>, which allows you to mirror one to another in a remote location (such as your aunt's house)—a possible alternative to online backup.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">How to back it up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Ah, the nitty-gritty. Here's how to back up once you have your backup repository (a hard drive or other device) and/or service in place.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> First, select your disaster-recovery and backup software. Windows 7 and 8 both offer integrated applications that can create complete system-recovery images, though in Windows 8 it's somewhat hidden under <em style="line-height:1.45em">Control Panel > All Items > Windows 7 File Recovery</em>. Alas, the restore routine isn't particularly robust, and it can fail with as simple a change in hardware as replacing your hard drive with a smaller solid-state drive. In this case, you can still have the PC mount the system image as a virtual hard drive, but only after reinstalling the operating system manually. A surer bet is to use a third-party tool, such as Acronis True Image or R-Drive Image, that isn't as fragile when it comes to restoring to different hardware.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/acronis-true-image-2014-ui-100051907-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="Acronis True Image 2014 UI" border="0" height="385" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/acronis-true-image-2014-ui-100051907-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>The latest version of Acronis True Image does a decent job of walking you through the backup process.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Once you decide on the software, the basic procedure is as follows:</p><ol style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 40px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:21px"><li style="line-height:1.45em"> Run the software.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, or even a shared location on another PC.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the partitions (C:, D:, or the like) that you want to back up. You should select all of them the first time around, excluding the destination drive for the backup. (Most backup software prevents you from selecting the destination partition/drive.)</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the backup process.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">When the process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Create your recovery media (CD/DVD/thumb drive).</li> </ol><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">For backing up just your data, Windows has its own capable backup application, but you can find dozens of backup programs that are easier or more versatile, including notables such as Acronis Backup & Recovery and<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047651/acronis-true-image-2014-review-still-powerful-and-feature-rich-now-easier-to-use.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">True Image</a>, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040484/review-easeus-todo-backup-free-is-the-most-comprehensive-free-backup.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Easeus Todo Backup</a>,<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/255703/genie_timeline_backup_free.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Genie Timeline Backup</a>, and NovaBackup. If you're using an online service, the service will provide a backup application. Most of the time it'll create a local backup on your external hard drive at the same time it backs up online.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline1-100109201-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="446" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline1-100109201-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>Genie's Timeline utility walks you gently through the backup process.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> If you want something more along the lines of Apple's elegant and easy-to-use Time Machine (which combines full system backup with data backup), Genie Timeline may be what you seek. You'll also find continuous backup products, such as Stardock's KeepSafe, which perform a full data backup (no OS or applications) and then look for and back up changed files at short intervals (such as every 5 minutes). If your data set changes quickly (or if you don't like scheduling backups), you can opt for real-time backup. NTI's Shadow, for instance, performs a full backup, after which it hooks to the operating system and saves files as they change.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">After you've installed your software, follow these steps:</p><ol style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 40px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:21px"> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the software.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the files and folders you want to back up.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, a shared location on another PC, and/or your online backup service.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the backup process. (Make a full backup of all your data the first time.)</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Verify the backup.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">When the backup process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Repeat as necessary—daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on how often things change and how risk-averse you are.</li></ol><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Tip: After your initial full backup, perform <em style>incremental backups</em> (backing up only the changes since the last backup) or <em style>differential backups</em>(backing up all changed files since the initial full backup) to save time. Start over with a new full backup once a week if you're backing up daily, once a month if you're backing up weekly, or once every four to six months if you're backing up monthly. <strong style>Note:</strong> Never, <em style>ever</em>delete the old backup until the new one is finished.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Step 7 and the tip above describe what are affectionately known as <em style>backup methodologies</em>. There are far more complex ones, but complexity, like slow technology, demotivates. (Unless, of course, you're being paid a lot to back up something. I'm guessing you're not, if you're reading this primer.)</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">Getting the data off your devices</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Although free online backup and storage space is available for each major mobile platform (5GB for iOS/iCloud, 15GB for Android/Google Drive, 7GB for Windows Phone/SkyDrive), centralizing the data from all your devices can be a tad more complicated. With Google Drive and SkyDrive, you get local copies of your files on your PC if you install their respective apps. Just add those files to your list of locations to back up, and you're golden. Or, you can simply copy stuff over from the appropriate folder when the device is attached to your PC via USB.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/icloud-100129030-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="345" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/icloud-100129030-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you carry an Apple device, you have to use iCloud to extract your data.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em"> The same is true with iOS, to a point. Apple's implementation of iCloud is currently, let's just say, different. Depending on the app involved, you may need to sync its data or docs using iTunes, or you might have to use whatever online storage option the app employs (Dropbox is common) and then copy the items onto your PC from there.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">Consolidating data for imaging</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Some users (including yours truly) prefer backing up to image files, largely because it's easy to mount such files as virtual hard drives for simple browsing and recovery. However, to make this approach feasible, you need to consolidate all the data to be backed up onto one dedicated partition—say, "D:" for "Data."</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">You can redirect all the "My" folders (My Documents, My Photos, My Videos, and so on) to this partition. Quite often, you can also redirect individual programs that normally store information in the hidden Users\<em style>Username</em>\AppData folder. Of course, there's always some piece of software that won't play nice: Google Drive and SkyDrive folders, as well as iTunes backups of your iOS devices, can't be relocated. Someday.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">The promised motivational speech</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Due to its high incidence of profanity, I can't link you to the most famous lost-data support call in history. But I can summarize: A user sent in a laptop to have a motherboard replaced, and the company replaced the hard drive. With no backup of what was apparently a two-year project, the user goes on one of the greatest answering-machine tirades in history. I've never found out whether the user got the hard drive back or whether the drive had failed.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">How would you feel if your Great American Novel disappeared, or if your wedding video or pictures of lost relatives vanished? Your term paper? Your tax data when the IRS comes calling? Use your imagination and channel whatever sense of dread you possess for motivation. Back up. Now. Yes, now.</p> </p>

The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC

The first rule of PC Club is: Always, always  back up. Thankfully, backing up your most important data is a cinch. It's the getting of...

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The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The first rule of PC Club is: Always,<em style>always</em> back up.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Thankfully, backing up your most important data is a cinch. It's the getting off your rear to actually do it that stymies most people, myself included.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> We'll discuss emotional motivation later. (You'll laugh! You'll cry!) But first, let's walk through your many storage options to see how deceptively simple it is to back up everything <em style>right now—</em>before your inevitable data disaster occurs.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The options</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <strong style>Method A:</strong> Fork over the $50 to $100 a year and back up the data from all your PCs and mobile devices to an online storage service such as <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/234112/carbonite.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Carbonite</a>,<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049121/how-to-get-an-extra-10gb-of-google-drive-space-for-free.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Google Drive</a>, iDrive, iCloud, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/232833/mozyhome.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Mozy</a>, or<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010516/microsoft-skydrive-your-ultimate-starters-guide.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">SkyDrive</a>. Choose the one that supports all (or the largest percentage) of your devices, and use the downloadable app that the service provides to maintain a mirror of your files on your local PC.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/skydrive1-100124049-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="346" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/skydrive1-100124049-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>SkyDrive is a pretty trustworthy, easy-to-use off-site backup tool.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Of course, this method works only if you have regular access to enough upstream bandwidth to handle all your essential data.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <strong style>Method B:</strong> Consolidate the data from your mobile devices onto your primary computer. Buy the fastest, most capacious external hard drive you can afford—two, if possible. Use the Windows built-in app (the File Recovery tool in Windows 7, or the File History tool in Windows 8) to create a system image and a recovery CD/flash drive. Subsequently, use Windows Backup to back up your important data daily, weekly, or monthly to the hard drive. Create a backup of your backups to an online service if practical.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Using Method A, Method B, or a combination of both will protect 99 percent of PCs 99 percent of the time, though it's worth noting that local backups restore far more quickly.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">You can stop reading now—unless, of course, you're a seeker of the perfect backup plan, or you want some practical advice. In that case, keep going.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">The platinum rule</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> It doesn't get any more basic in backup than the <em style>rule of three. </em>To lower the risk of data loss to the freak-karmic-event level, you must have three copies of your important data: the original, a backup of the original, and a backup of the backup. The secondary and tertiary copies should be in different locations: Ideally, keep one on premises (local) for swift restores and recovery, and keep one off-site where it isn't subject to the same physical threats (lightning, flood, theft, and the like). Remember that the rule of three is a practical minimum—an extra copy here and there won't hurt.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline3-100109202-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="446" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline3-100109202-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you don't think you'll remember to back up regularly, pay for an automated backup program such as Genie Timeline to do it for you.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> The classic example of a trinity backup is the aforementioned Method B: the original data on your PC or laptop, the first backup on an external hard drive that's disconnected and stored safely when not in use, and a third copy safely harbored at an online storage service.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The more modern version is Method A, which assumes that the online service you use is properly backed up in multiple geographical locations. That should give you your three copies, but for the sake of paranoia—with a nod to corporate short-sightedness—we'll assume the third copy is on your local computer and maintained by the online service's app.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">What to back up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Before you can know how you should best back up, you must know what you need to back up. The choice is ultimately yours, but I recommend protecting anything you might want or require later that you can't re-create: electronic documents (tax stuff, business stuff, any hard copies you've scanned and discarded), artistic creations, memorabilia (photos, videos, your old band recordings), or pretty much anything whose loss would evoke extreme negative emotions. Wondering about your downloaded movies, music, and other purchased media? You can always download those items again later, though if you're ambitious enough you can back them up as well. I don't bother. Note that If your data is spread over multiple devices, you'll need to consolidate it. More on that later.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/winxdvdripper1-100109211-orig.png" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="397" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/winxdvdripper1-100109211-large.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you're going through the trouble to rip all of your movies to your PC, make sure you back 'em up so that effort doesn't go to waste!<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Though not strictly necessary, it is especially convenient to have a complete backup of your desktop or laptop (ideally with your mobile-device data on board), as described in Method B. It's by far the quickest and easiest way to restore your operating system, applications, and data, should your system succumb to hard-drive failure or a malware attack. This procedure is referred to as <em style>disaster recovery,</em> and it requires a boot disc/flash drive created by the backup/recovery software. Without a disaster-recovery backup, you'll wind up restoring the operating system and applications individually from scratch.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Where to back it up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> This is an easy one. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that you don't have a tape backup drive. You may not even have an optical drive. If you do, there's nothing wrong with keeping a backup or two on disc, but that's your concern. I think old technology that slows down the process stifles motivation.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If your broadband connection has enough upstream bandwidth, back up to an online file-hosting service. Using such a service is pay-to-play, but costs a fraction of what it costs to recover data from a failed hard drive. It's also ridiculously easy—you just set it and forget it.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Obviously, many people don't have sufficient upstream bandwidth, or a data set small enough to make the online option viable as a complete solution. In that case, reduce your backup set (what you select to back up—don't remove the data itself) to the bare minimum, keep it online, and then back up the rest locally using storage drives you attach to your computer or network.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/05/1252980_1160-100037805-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="389" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/05/1252980_1160-100037805-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a><small class="credit" style="font-size:9px;text-align:center;text-transform:uppercase;display:block;float:left;background-image:url(http://csmb.staticworld.net/images/furniture/techhive/backgroundwhite70.png);color:rgb(51,51,51);padding:1px 3px 2px;background-repeat:initial initial">ROBERT CARDIN</small>NAS boxes such as the Western Digital My Book Live are great for storing your backups remotely.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> For local backups, use an external USB 3.0/eSATA/FireWire/Thunderbolt drive, or if the data set is small, use a USB 3.0 flash drive, also known as a thumb drive. Use two drives and alternate between them if you don't plan to back up online, or ideally, even if you do. With hard-drive space costing about 5 cents a gigabyte, and flash costing about 60 cents per gigabyte currently, you can afford it. Don't use USB 2.0 unless you have to: It's slow—and once again, older technology demotivates.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Alternatively, you could use a network-attached storage box. Gigabit ethernet is as fast as USB 3.0, and a NAS box lets you back up multiple computers on a network without having to drag a box from location to location. Most NAS boxes support <em style>rsync</em>, which allows you to mirror one to another in a remote location (such as your aunt's house)—a possible alternative to online backup.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">How to back it up</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Ah, the nitty-gritty. Here's how to back up once you have your backup repository (a hard drive or other device) and/or service in place.</p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> First, select your disaster-recovery and backup software. Windows 7 and 8 both offer integrated applications that can create complete system-recovery images, though in Windows 8 it's somewhat hidden under <em style="line-height:1.45em">Control Panel > All Items > Windows 7 File Recovery</em>. Alas, the restore routine isn't particularly robust, and it can fail with as simple a change in hardware as replacing your hard drive with a smaller solid-state drive. In this case, you can still have the PC mount the system image as a virtual hard drive, but only after reinstalling the operating system manually. A surer bet is to use a third-party tool, such as Acronis True Image or R-Drive Image, that isn't as fragile when it comes to restoring to different hardware.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/acronis-true-image-2014-ui-100051907-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="Acronis True Image 2014 UI" border="0" height="385" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/08/acronis-true-image-2014-ui-100051907-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>The latest version of Acronis True Image does a decent job of walking you through the backup process.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Once you decide on the software, the basic procedure is as follows:</p><ol style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 40px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:21px"><li style="line-height:1.45em"> Run the software.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, or even a shared location on another PC.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the partitions (C:, D:, or the like) that you want to back up. You should select all of them the first time around, excluding the destination drive for the backup. (Most backup software prevents you from selecting the destination partition/drive.)</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the backup process.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">When the process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Create your recovery media (CD/DVD/thumb drive).</li> </ol><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">For backing up just your data, Windows has its own capable backup application, but you can find dozens of backup programs that are easier or more versatile, including notables such as Acronis Backup & Recovery and<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047651/acronis-true-image-2014-review-still-powerful-and-feature-rich-now-easier-to-use.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">True Image</a>, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040484/review-easeus-todo-backup-free-is-the-most-comprehensive-free-backup.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Easeus Todo Backup</a>,<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/255703/genie_timeline_backup_free.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Genie Timeline Backup</a>, and NovaBackup. If you're using an online service, the service will provide a backup application. Most of the time it'll create a local backup on your external hard drive at the same time it backs up online.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline1-100109201-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="446" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/timeline1-100109201-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>Genie's Timeline utility walks you gently through the backup process.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> If you want something more along the lines of Apple's elegant and easy-to-use Time Machine (which combines full system backup with data backup), Genie Timeline may be what you seek. You'll also find continuous backup products, such as Stardock's KeepSafe, which perform a full data backup (no OS or applications) and then look for and back up changed files at short intervals (such as every 5 minutes). If your data set changes quickly (or if you don't like scheduling backups), you can opt for real-time backup. NTI's Shadow, for instance, performs a full backup, after which it hooks to the operating system and saves files as they change.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">After you've installed your software, follow these steps:</p><ol style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 40px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;line-height:21px"> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the software.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the files and folders you want to back up.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, a shared location on another PC, and/or your online backup service.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Run the backup process. (Make a full backup of all your data the first time.)</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">Verify the backup.</li><li style="line-height:1.45em">When the backup process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em">Repeat as necessary—daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on how often things change and how risk-averse you are.</li></ol><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Tip: After your initial full backup, perform <em style>incremental backups</em> (backing up only the changes since the last backup) or <em style>differential backups</em>(backing up all changed files since the initial full backup) to save time. Start over with a new full backup once a week if you're backing up daily, once a month if you're backing up weekly, or once every four to six months if you're backing up monthly. <strong style>Note:</strong> Never, <em style>ever</em>delete the old backup until the new one is finished.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Step 7 and the tip above describe what are affectionately known as <em style>backup methodologies</em>. There are far more complex ones, but complexity, like slow technology, demotivates. (Unless, of course, you're being paid a lot to back up something. I'm guessing you're not, if you're reading this primer.)</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"><br></p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">Getting the data off your devices</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Although free online backup and storage space is available for each major mobile platform (5GB for iOS/iCloud, 15GB for Android/Google Drive, 7GB for Windows Phone/SkyDrive), centralizing the data from all your devices can be a tad more complicated. With Google Drive and SkyDrive, you get local copies of your files on your PC if you install their respective apps. Just add those files to your list of locations to back up, and you're golden. Or, you can simply copy stuff over from the appropriate folder when the device is attached to your PC via USB.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/icloud-100129030-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="345" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/icloud-100129030-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580"></a>If you carry an Apple device, you have to use iCloud to extract your data.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em"> The same is true with iOS, to a point. Apple's implementation of iCloud is currently, let's just say, different. Depending on the app involved, you may need to sync its data or docs using iTunes, or you might have to use whatever online storage option the app employs (Dropbox is common) and then copy the items onto your PC from there.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">Consolidating data for imaging</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Some users (including yours truly) prefer backing up to image files, largely because it's easy to mount such files as virtual hard drives for simple browsing and recovery. However, to make this approach feasible, you need to consolidate all the data to be backed up onto one dedicated partition—say, "D:" for "Data."</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">You can redirect all the "My" folders (My Documents, My Photos, My Videos, and so on) to this partition. Quite often, you can also redirect individual programs that normally store information in the hidden Users\<em style>Username</em>\AppData folder. Of course, there's always some piece of software that won't play nice: Google Drive and SkyDrive folders, as well as iTunes backups of your iOS devices, can't be relocated. Someday.</p> <h2 style="font-family:facitweb,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em">The promised motivational speech</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">Due to its high incidence of profanity, I can't link you to the most famous lost-data support call in history. But I can summarize: A user sent in a laptop to have a motherboard replaced, and the company replaced the hard drive. With no backup of what was apparently a two-year project, the user goes on one of the greatest answering-machine tirades in history. I've never found out whether the user got the hard drive back or whether the drive had failed.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em">How would you feel if your Great American Novel disappeared, or if your wedding video or pictures of lost relatives vanished? Your term paper? Your tax data when the IRS comes calling? Use your imagination and channel whatever sense of dread you possess for motivation. Back up. Now. Yes, now.</p> </p>

The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC

The first rule of PC Club is: Always, always  back up. Thankfully, backing up your most important data is a cinch. It's the getting of...

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How to make room on your Windows partition

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">I'm going to concentrate here on recovering disc space in Windows and your applications, but not in your libraries. If you keep separate Windows and data partitions (which I heartily recommend), following the advice below could significantly improve space on drive C: (the Windows partition). If you keep everything on one big partition, it will still help, but not as dramatically.</p> <br><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Before you do anything else, create a restore point. In Windows 7, click <em style>Start,</em>or in Windows 8, go to the Search charm. In either one, type <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>restore point</strong></code>, and select<em style> Create a restore point, </em>then follow the prompts.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Now that you're safe, let's do some cleaning. Go to C:'s root directory and look for a folder called Windows.old. If it's there, examine the User folder within Windows.old to find out if there's anything there you need. If there is, move the files to an appropriate folder elsewhere, such as Documents. Then delete Windows.old.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Next, open Control Panel's Programs and Features applet, and search for programs you're no longer using. Uninstall them.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">You can also clean out your temp folder. Search for <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>%temp% </strong></code>(including the percent signs) and you'll find it. You can safely remove any file older than the last time you booted the PC.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Next, use Windows' disk-cleaning tool, which in its latest edition can remove old updates. But be warned, doing so loses you the ability to remove an update and return Windows to a former version.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In Windows 7, you'll need to make sure you have <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">this Windows update</a>installed. You probably already do.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">When you're ready for cleaning, you need to launch the Disk Cleanup tool as an administrator:</p> <img alt="" border="0" height="136" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-launch-as-admin-100067854-orig.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="270"><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> In<strong style>Windows 7</strong>, click <em style>Start </em>and type<code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>cleanmgr</strong></code>. But don't just launch the program. Right-click <em style>cleanmgr.exe </em>and select <em style>Run as administrator.</em></p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In <strong style>Windows 8.1</strong>, use the Search charm to find <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>cleanmgr</strong></code>. Select <em style>cleanmgr switches. </em>On the resulting screen, right-click <em style>cleanmgr switches</em> and select <em style>Run as administrator </em>at the bottom of the screen.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-disk-cleanup-100067855-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="171" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-disk-cleanup-100067855-small.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="140"></a>Click for full size<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Once the program has examined your drive, you'll find a list of several cleanup options. The most lucrative one, the one that removes old updates, is called <em style>Previous Windows installation(s). </em>Make sure that it's checked.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Most of the space you recover won't be visible until you next boot.</p>

How to make room on your Windows partition

I'm going to concentrate here on recovering disc space in Windows and your applications, but not in your libraries. If you keep separate...

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How to make room on your Windows partition

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">I'm going to concentrate here on recovering disc space in Windows and your applications, but not in your libraries. If you keep separate Windows and data partitions (which I heartily recommend), following the advice below could significantly improve space on drive C: (the Windows partition). If you keep everything on one big partition, it will still help, but not as dramatically.</p> <br><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Before you do anything else, create a restore point. In Windows 7, click <em style>Start,</em>or in Windows 8, go to the Search charm. In either one, type <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>restore point</strong></code>, and select<em style> Create a restore point, </em>then follow the prompts.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Now that you're safe, let's do some cleaning. Go to C:'s root directory and look for a folder called Windows.old. If it's there, examine the User folder within Windows.old to find out if there's anything there you need. If there is, move the files to an appropriate folder elsewhere, such as Documents. Then delete Windows.old.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Next, open Control Panel's Programs and Features applet, and search for programs you're no longer using. Uninstall them.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">You can also clean out your temp folder. Search for <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>%temp% </strong></code>(including the percent signs) and you'll find it. You can safely remove any file older than the last time you booted the PC.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Next, use Windows' disk-cleaning tool, which in its latest edition can remove old updates. But be warned, doing so loses you the ability to remove an update and return Windows to a former version.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In Windows 7, you'll need to make sure you have <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">this Windows update</a>installed. You probably already do.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">When you're ready for cleaning, you need to launch the Disk Cleanup tool as an administrator:</p> <img alt="" border="0" height="136" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-launch-as-admin-100067854-orig.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="270"><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> In<strong style>Windows 7</strong>, click <em style>Start </em>and type<code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>cleanmgr</strong></code>. But don't just launch the program. Right-click <em style>cleanmgr.exe </em>and select <em style>Run as administrator.</em></p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In <strong style>Windows 8.1</strong>, use the Search charm to find <code style="font-family:monospace,serif;font-size:1em"><strong style>cleanmgr</strong></code>. Select <em style>cleanmgr switches. </em>On the resulting screen, right-click <em style>cleanmgr switches</em> and select <em style>Run as administrator </em>at the bottom of the screen.</p> <a class="zoom cboxElement" href="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-disk-cleanup-100067855-orig.jpg" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)"><img alt="" border="0" height="171" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/1125-disk-cleanup-100067855-small.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="140"></a>Click for full size<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Once the program has examined your drive, you'll find a list of several cleanup options. The most lucrative one, the one that removes old updates, is called <em style>Previous Windows installation(s). </em>Make sure that it's checked.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Most of the space you recover won't be visible until you next boot.</p>

How to make room on your Windows partition

I'm going to concentrate here on recovering disc space in Windows and your applications, but not in your libraries. If you keep separate...

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How to use a cloud camera to secure your home during holiday travel

<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">The holidays are here. And as home owners across the land put out their mistletoe and menorahs, Santa won't be the only one committing home invasions. According to the FBI, some 400,000 burglaries will hit American homes between now and the new year. So if you're planning to travel, you might want to beef up your home security before you go.</p> <img alt="" border="0" height="421" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/logitech-alert-100154433-medium.jpeg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="300"><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> This year, a variety of cloud-based recording services are making it easier than ever to monitor your domicile from afar. With almost any kind of webcam, you can stream live images of your home over your wireless network, and monitor them from your laptop, phone, or tablet. Many cameras include motion-detection capabilities, so they can alert you when something's afoot in your absence, and give you a chance to respond by calling the cops and alerting your neighbors.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">In this article, I'll describe how to set up a simple surveillance system using cloud-based cameras, so you can keep an eye on your castle no matter where you celebrate the season.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">To get started, all you need is a web-connected camera and a cloud-based video-recording account. Many newer webcams now include features and services that let you monitor the video stream remotely. There are also stand-alone cloud recording services that let you use your existing camera. So if you've already got some gear, you can be up and recording in minutes.</p> <h2 style="font-family:ff-enzo-web,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Camera options</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> <strong style>Good: Computer webcam</strong></p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">If you've got a laptop or an all-in-one desktop, chances are you've got a functional webcam already. You could use that webcam in conjunction with a service like<a href="http://www.camcloud.com/" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Camcloud</a> to get surveillance set up right this second. If your PC has a clear view of the most likely entry point your burglars might take, it can at least capture that dastardly activity and alert you in time for you to take action.</p> <img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/camcloud-100154449-medium.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="300"><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> Oh, and in case you were wondering about the likelihood of thieves stealing the very laptop that's capturing evidence of their break-in, that's a valid concern. But while the crooks might be able to get away with your camera, they won't get the video—it's stored safely in the cloud. Indeed, as they reach in to take the hardware, the camera will capture an even tighter close-up of the person's face.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"><strong style>Better: Wireless webcam with cloud-based viewing/recording</strong></p><img alt="" border="0" height="475" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/11/tv-ip751wic_front-100154452-medium.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="300"><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> A wireless webcam will give you better flexibility than a built-in laptop webcam, because you can place it anywhere you like, and possibly even hide it so that potential robbers won't know they're being watched. Some webcams, like the $120 <a href="http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=225_TV-IP751WIC" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Trendnet Wireless Day/Night Cloud Camera TV-IP751WIC</a>, include basic cloud viewing services out of the box. Others, like the $149 Dropcam, give you more-powerful features like motion-detection, automatic recording, and two-way audio, for an additional monthly fee.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"><strong style>Best: Multiple Wireless Webcams with Cloud Viewing/Recording</strong></p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> If you can swing it, grab three or four cameras and place them around your house, making sure to cover all the likely ingress points. Unify all the cameras in a single cloud monitoring account with motion-detection alerts, and it'll be nearly impossible for a potential intruder to walk past your place without your knowing about it.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"><strong style>Our Pick: Dropcam</strong></p><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> For simplicity and sophistication, Dropcam's $149 <a href="https://www.dropcam.com/product" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)" target="_self">day/night camera</a> is an awesome home surveillance option. The standard version gives you 4X zoom and two-way audio, so you can let people know you're watching them if you so choose. The low-light recording quality is excellent, so you can detect facial features even in the dark.</p> <img alt="" border="0" height="324" src="http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/10/dropcam_night_vision-100057325-large.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto; height: auto; max-width: 100%; float: left;" width="580">The Dropcam Pro can take sharp, wide-angle video of your home's interior even in the dark.<p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> For $50 more, the <a href="http://www.techhive.com/article/2053342/dropcam-pro-review-enhance-your-wi-fi-video-like-a-crime-scene-investigator.html" style="color:rgb(37,167,215)">Dropcam Pro</a> gives you an 8X zoom, even better low-light performance, and better audio quality. Dropcam's mobile apps for iOS and Android will alert you whenever one of your cameras detects motion, so you can see what's happening in real time. If it's the UPS driver, you can use the camera's built-in speaker to, say, give them permission to drop a package at your neighbor's house while you're away.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">Dropcam uses continuous video recording to capture everything your cameras see, then stores those recordings for your later perusal. The service comes in two tiers: The $99/year seven-day plan saves up to 168 hours of video for your ongoing review, while the $299/year 30-day plan saves 720 hours of recordings. For typical home users, the 7-day plan ought to be plenty.</p> <h2 style="font-family:ff-enzo-web,sans-serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0.25em;color:rgb(34,34,34)">A la carte service</h2><p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif"> If you're using your existing webcam, chances are you can use it with Camcloud's recording service. Like Dropcam, Camcloud lets you watch live streams of activity from any of your connected cameras. There's a free tier for users with only one camera, and it lets you record up to 30 minutes of footage. For $5 per month, you can connect up to four cameras and store up to four hours of video. For $15 per month, you can hook up an unlimited number of cameras and store up to 24 hours of video.</p> <p style="line-height:1.7em;margin:0px 0px 0.7em;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif">A number of basic security strategies apply whether you're using an a la carte service or a more fancy-pants system like Dropcam. Pay attention to the following to get the most from your cloud-based system.</p> <ul style="margin:1em 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 40px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:22px"><li style="line-height:1.45em"><strong style>Cover all the approaches.</strong> If there's more than one way into your place, make sure you're monitoring them all. If possible, mount a camera outside your home, or in a window with a view of the street or driveway. This can boost your odds of capturing license-plate numbers or other vehicle information that can be useful in a police report.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em"><strong style>Conceal your cameras</strong>. If burglars can see your cameras, they'll probably just add them to their loot. The better you hide the cameras, the better your odds of capturing incriminating footage. Sure, whatever your camera captures will be saved on a secure server and inaccessible to the thieves, but don't you want video of their entire caper?</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em"><strong style>Set up motion-detection alerts.</strong>Good cloud surveillance services will immediately alert you when one of your cameras detects movement. That can give you enough time to call 911 and send the police to your door, even when you're thousands of miles away.</li> <li style="line-height:1.45em"><strong style>Use an uninterruptible power supply.</strong> Savvy burglars may cut the power to your house before entering, rendering your off-the-shelf surveillance system useless. But an uninterruptible power supply can keep your cameras, router, and modem working, even during a power outage.</li> </ul>

How to use a cloud camera to secure your home during holiday travel

The holidays are here. And as home owners across the land put out their mistletoe and menorahs, Santa won't be the only one committing h...

Read more »