Data Backups 4-4-2017

Data Backups 4-4-2017
By Dick Evans, www.rwevans.com

We talk a lot about the importance to doing backups on a regular basis. Macrium Reflect is one that we use to make an image backup of our computers. It copies the entire contents of the hard disk drives to a single compressed file on an external hard drive. It is built in such a way that a crashed hard drive can be replaced and the image used to restore everything to the new hard drive. The system works just the way it did on the day the image was made. You can also use the image to locate individual data files and restore them back.

However, anything you have done since the image is not anywhere except on your hard drive. So if you have an issue either with the hard drive or just a corrupted file, you have no way to get it back. Unless…

Many have been using USB flash drives to save their important data like tax forms and important letters. But this is only as good as the last time you remembered to update the flash drive.

There are many cloud storage web sites that allow you either for free or for a monthly fee upload anything to their cloud.

OneDrive has 5gb of free space and anything you save to your OneDrive folder gets synced to the cloud.

Dropbox is another one. You get 2gb free and can up that to 1tb for $99 per year. If you download the App to your PC anything you save to your DropBox folder gets synced to your Dropbox account similar to OneDrive.

I use both of the above and Google Photos, but my day-to-day data I let Mozy Free automatically save. I don’t have to drag anything to a special folder or even think about it. It happens. So if I lose everything on my hard disk, I can restore it from my latest image using Reflect and then restore all my day-to-day data from Mozy. And I have had to do just that a couple of years ago when my hard disk crashed in my laptop.

First let’s see what we are talking about. What is data? Simply put, if it is not a program (application), it is data. Your data is what needs to be backed up and you find it in folders under your user name. If you have multiple uses, you need to backup each one.




Desktop contains all the items on your desktop--shortcuts and whatever else you have saved to the desktop.

Documents is where most programs save what they create, like Microsoft Office and LibreOffice. And if you are like most of the users I know, your data in this folder is generally only a few hundred megabytes.

Downloads contains everything you have downloaded from the web. When something important is file there it is a good idea to move it to a folder in Documents. That way you can easily find it and it will be backed up with Mozy.

Music can contain a large number of files and take up a good deal of space, but if you really want them backed up daily you can add an additional 50gb of space for $5.99 a month. But remember that all your files, including your music are in your latest Reflect image backup. So if you just added a new album to your music library, make a new image and you will have it backed up without having Mozy do it.

Pictures can take up the most room and I do not suggest using Mozy to back them up. I use Google Photos and have the App on my Cell Phone. Everytime I take a picture it uploads to my free cloud space in my Google account. And the space it takes does not count against the 15gb of free space every Google user receives. There is an App for the PC as well that will upload any pictures you have on your PC to Google Photos.

Videos can be super large is you are one that downloads movies to your hard drive. If you take short movies on your cell phone, they will be backed up to Google Photos if you are using that App on your phone. If you have a lot of movies on your hard drive, Treat them like what I said about music. Do more frequent images with Reflect and do not use Mozy to store them. Better yet, stop downloading movie and use Kodi to stream them.

http://mozy.com/free use code GFBU22 and you will get an additional .25gb of free space for yourself and for me, too. Thanks.



Once you have installed Mozy you get to determining the backup sets you want. Mozy will assume you want all data folders backed up and that will take more than the 2.25gb of free space. Uncheck what you do not need to have Mozy handle for you.



Open the File System list and then drill down on your User Name.




Now check the folders and even down to the files level of what you want Mozy to handle for you.



When Mozy runs it displays a completion message showing you what it backed up for you. And form here you can go to settings and make changes.

Give it a try. It works great for me!

Class Summary 3-16-2017

The local Library has a new 3D printer! So if you are looking to see how one works, check out future classes there. We have come a long way from dot matrix printers of the 1980’s.
http://tinyurl.com/h9ucfsx

New video on Kodi (Thanks Ian). This is a well done how to video on YouTube for installing a different build of Kodi than the one we have been using.
http://tinyurl.com/hue3j6m

Another one with how to get live TV. This one shows us how to get into live TV from all over the world. And although this is an interesting build, we can see most to what we want in the IPtV menu of our current build,
http://tinyurl.com/z5s2fgr

Voter Records from all over the country can be found on this site. Just type in your name and see what it says about you.
https://voterrecords.com

County Records for Charlotte County Florida can also be viewed online. A simple record search of just your last name or just your street name works best.
http://ccappraiser.com

This article explains how to set Facebook Comments & Likes by Others so not everyone can. You decide who can do what on your posts. Good explanations off this page to other security issues.
http://tinyurl.com/h8am9xd

Wondering how to stop all those email notifications from Facebook? On the top row, click the down arrow way to the right. This will pull down a list of options. Choose Settings > Notifications > Email and turn off all but important ones.

My Start Menu is free from all the items Windows 10 came with. To remove an item, right-click on it and choose Unpin from Start. On that same option list you have the ability to resize. Notice I made all mine small. I can tell what they are by the image and by hovering over it with my mouse to see a popup of its name.




Printing the Screen
When you need to capture a screenshot that contains a pull down menu, the Snipping Tool does not work. It allows you to capture a piece of the screen, but the pull down you wanted to get goes away. Instead use Win+PrtScr. This captures the entire screen as it appears and places the image in your Pictures folder in a subfolder called Screenshots. Open that image and then use the Snipping Tool to grab just the portion you need.

Now I use an old standby called MWsnap. This allow me to press a hotkey (Ctrl+SHift+A) and draw a box around the portion of the screen I need including the pull downs. The resulting image is placed in the clipboard for me to paste were I need it.

Class Summary 3-9-2017

Kodi tutorials and more for those of you attempting to install Kodi on your PC or Firestick
http://tinyurl.com/hm3pulp

Post Card Blank template for MS Word. When you click the link the doc file will download. Open it in MS Word or even Libreoffice.
http://rwevans.com/cccgc/Post Card Blank.doc

Some shortcuts to use in Excel to create Quick Charts and more
http://tinyurl.com/h84bd5l

Capture and share images and video with Jing
http://tinyurl.com/z3mgz55

A couple of Apple Mac notes. The mouse only has one button; no left and right like on a PC. Click it is like a left click. To get the right-click, hold Ctrl down while you click the mouse. Also, if you forget your password to get on, you can reset it on boot by holding down the Command key and the R key while pressing the power on button.

SmallPDF.com is a great site to convert a PDF into a word document so you can edit it. Will only work with a file that has been saved as a PDF; not for a scanned file. The scanner will create an image.

What about being able to fill out a form that is in an image format (you scanned it in)? Open a new MS Word document and insert it as a custom watermark. Then you can type anywhere over the image to fill in the blanks.

How do I send a folder of pictures to my Google Photo Cloud? First open photos.google.com and create an album with 1 picture. Name the album the same name as the folder of pictures you want to place in the album. Remove the 1 picture so the album is empty. With the empty album open, drag the folder into the album. All the pictures will be uploaded to photos and be placed into the folder.

Class Summary 3-2-2017

Demonstrated a loud bluetooth speaker. It was the S5 Zealot. It is easy to pair up with a cell phone.

Polaroid 360° Motorized Rotating HDTV Amplified Antenna with Remote. An inexpensive rotatable TV antenna you can put in your attic.
http://tinyurl.com/h78gq85

New Lenovo $199 Windows 10 laptop/tablet. A low end but lightweight and useful laptop.
http://tinyurl.com/z9fbqau

Explorer++ is a free multi-tab file manager that features the same familiar interface as Windows Explorer, while introducing several enhancements and improvements for a much richer file browsing experience.
http://tinyurl.com/3nejp42

Email Checker is a simple tool for verifying an email address. The free version allows you to check up tp 5 address per day.
http://tinyurl.com/j4om3ql

Printing Postcards
https://www.canva.com/
Or you can use a template right in MS Word.

Sneak Peeks, Advanced Access, and Special Giveaways at instafreebie.com. Free ebooks for Kindle and other book readers delivered daily to your email.
http://tinyurl.com/z2y2jdg

Walmart savings catcher is an app for your cell phone that allows you to scan in your receipts. Once scanned, Walmart views all the local ads to see if you could have gotten each item cheaper elsewhere. If so, they give you the difference in a store credit.

Sam’s Club Scan and Go is available on Android or on your iPhone. It lets you scan the items as you place them in your basket. When you are done, click Pay and you get to avoid all the lines and walk right out.

Efax lets you receive and send a fax from your PC. Free up to 10 per month received. 30 day trial on the sending.

CamScanner is a great way to scan documents to your cell phone, edit them, and save them as PDFs or even editable documents.

Searching on the class blog is easy when you use the site parameter in your browser. Let’s say you want to look for the summaries that talk about using LibreOffice. If you just type LibreOffice into your browser, you will get thousands of results and probably nothing about the class summaries on the first few pages. Instead type the following:

LibreOffice site:dickevanstraining.blogspot.com

You are telling your browser that you want to search for LibreOffice, but only on pages contained in the site named dickevanstraining.blogspot.com.

Auto Forward emails when you have multiple email addresses. For example, I have my comcast email set to forward all emails to my Yahoo account. I do that by opening my comcast email page and setting the auto forward address to my yahoo address. All email servers allow you to do this.

To post email content on Facebook, simply select what you want to post on Facebook in the email and Copy it to the clipboard. Then go to Facebook and paste it into your post.

Use Blogger to create a free website or www.evanshosting.com for an easy to build low cost one.

Saving LibreOffice Documents by Default in Microsoft Office Formats

Choose Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.

In the Default file format and ODF settings area, first select a document type, then select the file type for saving. I suggest setting it for Microsoft Word 2007-2010 which will use the docx format,

Class Summary 2-23-2017

Began with a discussion on folders. A folder is a container used to organize other folders and files within. Windows comes with some preset folders like Documents, Downloads, Pictures, and others. You may create additional folders inside or under any of them. Open the folder you wish to add a folder under.



Then either click New Folder in the ribbon, right-click in the folder and choose New > Folder, or just type Ctrl+Shift+N. A new folder will appear with the name new folder selected. Replace that temporary name with the name you want to give it.

We discussed the Downloads folder. When you receive an email with an attachment. The downloaded file ends up in your download folder. So do the pictures you download from Facebook or elsewhere. And the programs you download to install. So downloads generally ends up with a lot of junk you do not really need to hand on to. However, when you do download a picture or a file that you want, move it to a better place. Like pictures to your picture folder or documents to your document folder. You might even create a subfolder to better organize your stuff. Like a folder for trip to disney 12-2016 and place all your pictures from that trip in that folder. This makes it much easier to locate them later.

The question came up about placing emails in folder for easy access to the later. Years ago we had a program that came with Windows called Outlook Express or we worked in an office that used the paid for Outlook program. Those programs actually received our emails and placed them on our computers. We could then back them up or organize them as we wished. Today our emails are stored in the cloud at our email provider. Comcast emails are stored at comcast and we access them through the internet wherever we are. Same with gmail, yahoo, live, AOL, and others. The only way to “save” them on our computer is to print them as a PDF and store the resulting file.

When we get a new computer, we need to move data from one computer to another--from the old one to the new. I suggest an external hard drive be plugged into the old computer and the files and folders under your username be copied to it. Then plug the external into the new computer and copy them to the new. Programs cannot be moved from the old to the new. You will need to install them on the new. Locate your original installation media and key codes. There is a product called PCMover that will move some, but not all, programs. I have not used it, but it gets good reviews. It is not free.

Recuva is a free program from Piriform.com that will scan your hard drive and locate deleted files. Yes, the ones you deleted and then removed from the recycle bin.

https://fmovies.se/ is a site that lets you access free movies and TV shows. I have not used it, but one of our members recommend this.

I wrote a paper on the maintenance programs I use to keepy PC clead. Here is a link to that paper: http://www.rwevans.com/ComputerMaintenance.pdf

I installed and demonstrated Photo Clip 7 which is a paid for program that makes it incredibly easy to set your main subject against a new background! In the following example, the picture of the family is removed in only 3 steps and placed in front of a new background, resulting in a completely new image!
http://tinyurl.com/zg6fvhg

Class Summary 2-16-2017

One of our members was wearing her smartphone and everyone was interested in it. It is called a Smartphone Lanyard Necklace
http://tinyurl.com/hoejx49

Password Checker was something we talked about last year and harold mentioned it again in his January talk on passwords. Here is the link.
http://tinyurl.com/44x8csm

Find My Friends allows you to track someone by their cell phone. You need their permission.
http://tinyurl.com/k5j5eev

Filter Your News Feed by adding this neat applicaiton
http://tinyurl.com/69438nq

British TV streamed for $5 a month
www.acorn.tv

Yes, Kodi on Windows 10 is easy to do
www.Kodi.tv to download the installer and then a YouTube video that tells you how to a full featured addon
http://tinyurl.com/zp7uzf6

12 powerful websites that can replace your PC's desktop software. Great idea, but the links do not work yet.
http://tinyurl.com/j9t9zgj

Direct TV with no dish or boxes and a free Amazon Firestick
http://tinyurl.com/z2uoxdx

Build your own Simple and Free Website. To keep it active you have to log into it at least once a month
www.simdif.com

Verizon safety net is something I talked about last week and forgot to include. It takes over when you use up all your 4GLTE data on your cell phone dropping you down to 4G unlimited.
https://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2016/06/verizon-transforms-your-wireless-experience.html

Best Cell Phone Apps 2016 is an article with 50 interesting apps to try
http://tinyurl.com/zrucq37

Windows 10 Ads & Notifications shows you how to stop some of those annoying popups right in Window 10
http://tinyurl.com/hla6qmh

Set Up Acquaintances in Facebook so you avoid see most of their newsfeeds and can remove them from seeing your posts without unfriending them
http://tinyurl.com/jrs4ng2

The safest ways to lend someone your Android phone is to setup a guest account that you switch your phone to first. Then they do not have access to your apps and passwords.
http://tinyurl.com/j6v9q8k

Class Summary 2-9-2017

Almost thirty signed in today. We spend the first hour or more talking about using other methods to get the shows we want to watch on TV rather than subscribing to a cable or provider for hundreds of channels we never look at.

Many of us pay big bucks to watch a few shows on our televisions. We either ahve a satellite or cable connection through some local service that feeds us hundreds of channels. Have we really looked at what we are watching? I will bet you are not looking at most of them and have just a few shows you follow plus local news channels.

If all you need are the local channels, get an antenna and plug it into the back of your TV where the cable from your current carrier plug in and go to Setup on your TV remote. Scan for channels and do not be surprised if you find 20-30 channel available right over the air. No cable connection needed at all.

Now don’t cancel all your services. You still need an internet connection, but that will be a lot lower cost than the bundle you now have. Now speed is nice, but you do not need the high speed line they may try to talk you into. You can stream movies at 6 mbps.

Phones are another topic, but if you have a cell phone why keep the in house phone? If it is part of your cable bundle, if the power goes out so does the phone. You cell phone will still work and you can charge it in you vehicle. I like my number, you say. You can port your existing number to your cell phone. There might be a small charge to do this, but you save that other bill every month.


OK, the cable is cut. How do I get to watch my favorite shows? As long as you have an internet connection you can use one of the popular devices. We are going to look at the Roku ($30+) and FireStick ($40 with Alexa Voice). They allow access to a number of free streaming services and many pay for services as well. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you automatically have access to free movies and TV shows with either of these devices. I have used Netflix for years and can access it using my Roku or FireStick.



Add Kodi to the FireStick and you can watch any movie, TV show, Live TV, Sports, and more. Add you can add it free using one of the many YouTube videos out there that step you through the process. Now you have the best of both--you have local TV for free and all the movies and TV shows you ever want to watch, even live TV all for the cost of the stick.

Kodi can also be installed on your PC and your smartphone. Watch what you want when you want to watch it.

We touched on OneDrive, Google Docs, and Google Photos all of which we have been discussing each week. Look at prior class summaries for detail.

Demonstrated using speech to text while in Google Docs and in the Google search engine.

Was asked how to clean up a cell phone. I use CCleaner on my Android phone. It is not available for an iPhone, so use Battery Doctor on it.

What should I buy when getting a new PC? My suggestion is always to see what is on sale. All the major brands are good in my opinion--Dell, Acer, Asus, HP, and Toshiba. Look for a multi core machine with no less than 4gb for RAM and at least a 500gb hard drive. WiFi is a must. Many laptops do not come with DVD drives today. But don’t let that stop you because you can purchase an external one that plugs into a USB port for $20 or less.

If you are just planning on using it for internet access and email and Facebook, I suggest a Chromebook instead of a Windows 10 laptop. A Chromebook does not need an antivirus or any of the maintenance programs we suggest for a Windows PC.

You can find laptops for under $300 and Chromebooks for under $200. Check the local stores for deals--Staples, Best Buy, Walmart...