As mentioned before, since I’m now using Ubuntu, my focus would be tools that should runs on Linux. But keeping in mind that many non-technical users are on Windows and I also uses MacOSX, the perfect backup solution is indeed one that runs on the 3 major platforms – Linux, Mac and Windows.

As with most solution search these day, the first stop is to visit the seach engine and generate a few alternatives as the starting point.

With the increasing popularity of using the “cloud”, the other alternative is to backup to one of those online backup services. A few that I had tried come to mind – Mozy, Carbonite, Wuala and here is a list with comparison.

So far none had led me to sustained use.

Now that Google is providing space to upload any file, perhaps someone will soon come up with a way backup files to Google. The price for additional space is pretty attractive too.

Do you have any other recommendation?

Related Post:

• Revisiting Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Brainstorming a Backup Strategy

I actually did got something out of that exercise but things began to turn really busy after that. In fact using that same tool, I cloned and deployed more than 30 Ubuntu desktop.

So which is it? Clonezilla.

Halfway throght the list, Clonezilla fit the bill so well that it wasn’t necessary to try the other.

So far clonezilla has worked for me on Windows XP and Ubuntu system. It has even worked on virtual machine on VirtualBox.

How does it work?

First download a copy from the website. You can either get the ISO and burn it onto a CD or get the USB version and put it on an usb thumbdrive.

For newer PC, the BIOS can be set to boot up from a usb thumbdrive. By using this I deployed many desktops without CD drive.

CloneZilla is actually built on top of Linux (based on Debian and Ubuntu for the experimental version). So just insert the CD or thumbdrive and boot up the system.

Usage is rather simple and easy but you might want to try it out on a non-critical machine to get the hang of using it.

When using Clonezilla, there are a few terminolgies to pay attention and get to know well what they mean.

Save/Restore
This means whether to save the existing disk/partition or to restore from a copy that was previously saved.

If it is the first time you are running, you probably want save.

If you are installing a new PC and want to use a clone of another PC, you will want to restore the clone onto the new PC.

Disk/Partition
Disk means the entire harddisk. Partition means just the partition you had selected to save or restore.

Clonezilla use compression and can take care of empty spaces, so even if you have a new 1T disk with a newly installed system, the resulting image should be rather small.

If the orignial disk or partition has different size, it might still work, but be careful, especially if the target is smaller than the original. To be safe make sure the disk to be cloned is the same as the original.

Image/Device
Clonezilla can save the disk or partition as an image. An image is a set of files that can be save somewhere (see the next section on image location). This image can then be used multiple times to clone new machines with the present of the original.

Also you upgrade the system you can create new image so that new clones get the updates as well.

Alternatively, you can directly clone a device to another device. If you have two identical hard disk attached, you can clone one to the other using a device-device mode.

Image save to/read from location
One thing I like so much about clonezilla it the flexibility it offers in terms of where to save/restore the image files.

Choose from, local partition (not the same as the one being saved), usb attached storage, network attach storage via NFS, Samba or even ssh.

If you have a Linux box running on the network, simply follow the few simple steps to configure the network and save the image via ssh. To clone a new machine, simply attach the network and copy back the image.

Conclusion
For businesses or home user with more than a few PC to mainain, Clonezilla can help to deploy standard setup, manage configuration, shortern setup time, and provide an easy way to backup.

Compared to commercial application that does similar task, it easily meet or exceed the task requirement of cloning disk and partition.

If you have used Clonezilla, tried other disk cloning tools or has other recommendation, why not leave a comment.

Where to get it?

• Clonezilla is at http://www.clonezilla.org/
• Current version: Stable version is 1.2.1-53
• Function: Disk/Partition Cloning

Related Post:

• Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Revisiting the Search for a Backup Solution
• Brainstorming a Backup Strategy

The selection has certainly improved and matured since I research this topic more than 2 years ago. Back then a few alternatives (including SystemRescueCD and PartD, Partition Saving) was tested but none gives the comfort that the restore would be fail-proof should the need suddenly appears. The main problem I remembered was NTFS wasn’t well supported at that time. In the end I stuck to Norton Ghost.

Now it is time to return to this topic after installing 2 PCs in 2 days and potentially having to provision 100 more PCs to come.

Let me list the alternatives and I will get back with the result in a few days. In the meantime, if you have any experience, good or bad, with open source/free disk clone utilities, please leave a comment.

1. Partition Saving
2. SystemRescueCd
3. UBCD – Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
4. Clonezilla
5. FOG – Free, Ghost-like Cloning Solution
6. g4u
7. Trinity Rescue Kit
8. PING – Partimage is Not Ghost
9. Linux Rescue Server – this one is interesting from an overall system management point of view.

Wikipedia has a good article to learn more about disk cloning.

Related Post:

• Revisiting Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Revisiting the Search for a Backup Solution
• Brainstorming a Backup Strategy

I have to confess that I had been thinking about backup since day-one and have yet to do any concrete about it. So I sat down today and did a mind map (using FreeMind) for a backup strategy.

So the next steps are

1. Figure out and decide on what strategy to use
2. Find the right softwares (free/open source preferred)
3. Implement
4. Train users
5. Monitor and manage

I will be posting the progress and any related softwares that I find. Hope this helps you too.

Related Post:

• Revisiting the Search for a Backup Solution
• Revisiting Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools

Tor

Tor’s website describe it as “an anonymous Internet communication system“. Which doesn’t really helps to understand what it is.

The normal business user would not need to know how Tor works (read this overview if you want to know), only what it does.

One of Tor usage is to get pass blocked website. Which is what I am going to describe in this article.

If you work in some countries (no name here to protect this site) that filters web traffic you may want to read on.

If you are on Windows platform you would want to download the Tor & Privoxy & Vidalia bundle.

Tor has comes a long way since the day when user need to hand configure everything. Tor actually need to be used together with Privoxy to get pass web filter. But now the Viadlia does the configuration and Privoxy is bundled together. Just download and the setup does everything.

After setup you should have 2 icons on the notification area.

• Right click on Tor and select Start if not already started
• Right click on Privoxy and select Enable

Next to configure your web browser.

Firefox

• From the menu select
  Tools > Options … > Connection Settings …

• Select Manual proxy configuration:
• Enter localhost for HTTP Proxy
• Enter 8118 for Port
• Check Use this proxy server for all protocols
• Click OK

Internet Explorer

• From the menu select
  Tools > Internet Options … > Connections > LAN Settings …

• Check Use a proxy server for your LAN
• Click Advanced…
• Enter localhost for Proxy address to use
• Enter 8118 for Port
• Check Use the same proxy server for all protocols
• Click OK

Now surf to a website that you do not have access before.

User Experience

One of the disadvantage of using Tor is the the speed can be slow, some time painfully so. So you may not want to surf with it.

Privoxy also block ads and certain website. Depending on your preference you may or may not like this.

If everything work fine, great. But if you need customization, be prepared to dig around for information and read alot.

The tool does not take up too much space so it is good to have it around. Who knows you may travel to one of those filtering country.

Chinese support

Chinese language interface in Tor is included.

• Right click on Tor
• Select Configure
• Click Appearance
• Select from Language drop down
• Click Save (on the top row)

Where to get it?

• Tor is at http://tor.eff.org/
• Current version: 0.1.1.23
• Function: anonymous Internet communication system (use as web filter bypass)

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Frustrating? Not anymore. DAEMONS Tools comes to the rescue.

Daemon-Tools is a virtual CD emulator or sometime known as CD image mounter.

Sounds techy, what does it do? Well, it does a two things that might be very interesting to you as a user.

1. It allows reading a CD without a CD drive
2. It allows reading multiple CDs at the same time

Effectively, Daemon Tools emulate (or “pretend to be”) a CD or DVD drive. So you can read the content of a CD/DVD without a drive. The mounted CD image will appears as a drive letter just like a normal CD. Normal file operations can be perform on it just like any CD.

Before you can mount a CD image, first the CD image had to be created. A CD image is, well, an image of a CD. Simply, it is a digital copy of the CD stored on the harddisk. To create it a tool like Nero is needed. There might be an open source Windows-based program for that but I do not know yet. (Let me know if you do)

“Mount” is a term used quite frequently in unix but a Windows user may not know exactly what it means. It roughly means “hooking it up”. So mounting a CD drive means connecting to the drive so that the system can read information from it.

Similarly mounting a CD image means connecting to the image so that information on the image file can be read. If it is a data disk, think of the image as a big zip file and Daemon-Tool as a program that will allow you to access the files in the zip file.

It does not ends here! What more interesting is that multiple images can be mounted at the same time.

So you see how our original frustrating problem can be solved. Just mount the 2 CD images (or create one image and put the other CD in the drive) and you can access data from both disc at the same time. No CD swapping.

The recent version of DAEMON Tools includes an option to install a client-side software applications (DAEMON Tools Searchbar and Save Now) that behaviorally and contextually targeted ads and comparative shopping results. This what many considered Adware and earned them a red warning from SiteAdvisor.

As noted this is optional and as always exercise some judgement and common sense when using free softwares.

What I like about DAEMON Tools

• mount multiple CD
• support many file formats

Room for improvement

• if only it could create the CD image as well

Chinese support

Simplified Chinese translation can be found on the DAEMON Tools Translations for V4-Series page which also has translation for many other languages.

You will download a single file name 2052.dll. Copy this file to the Lang folder where Daemon Tools is installed, typically C:Program FilesDAEMON Tools

After restarting, language can be changed on-the-fly by right-clicking on the tray icon and select Options > Language > Chinese

Where to get it?

• DAEMON Tools is at http://www.daemon-tools.cc
• Current version: 4.0.3
• Function: Virtual CD/DVD-rom emulator, CD image mounter

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Filezilla

Beside web browser and email client, FTP client is probably one of the most used net-applications.

But unlike web browser and email, there are far more choices for FTP programs around. Commercial, sharewares, freewares/open source, some with really long history. Do you remember WS_FTP? A quick search shows that it is still around. It was very popular once but not many people seems to be using it now. And there were CuteFTP, SmartFTP, just to name a few.-

Personally I had not try alot of FTP clients. There might be another good Open Source FTP client around that I am not aware. However Filezilla had served me well for a few years now and I will gladly recommend it.

If you are using an unregistered or cracked copy of shareware FTP client, give your conscience a break. consider switching to Filezilla, an opensource alternative.

Filezilla won the 2006 Sourceforge Community Choice Awards under the Networking category. A testimony of its popularity.

What do I like about FileZilla?

• Support SFTP
  Must FTP client nowaday support SFTP. But this wasn’t the case before. Back then we were using SFTP in our company, we had a hard time find a good client. Filezilla had some basic support and I gave it a try. Ther rest, as they said, is history.
• Upload, download queue.
  Good for selecting files across different directories and transfer at one go.
• Mutiple connections
• Switch interface language on-the-fly.
  Important when you need to tell a colleague in another language the function to use.

My FileZilla Wish List

• Connect to multiple sites at the same time
  Open more than one connection, perhaps in tabs.
• Copy between sites
  I have seem some program able to do that.
• Better file overwrite options
  Able to set overwrite options in the queue for different files.
• Easier way to save current connection/location setting for account. Automatically save the current path for example.
• Faster SFTP
  The directory caching seems to work not that well in SFTP.

Chinese support

Chinese translation of the user interface is included. To change default language go to Edit menu:

Edit > Settings … > Interface settings > Language

Simplified chinese is one of the many languages supported.

Where to get it?

• Filezilla is at http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
• Current version: 2.2.26a
• Function: FTP client

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• Are you still using FTP? Beware

Do not be deceived by the name which may make it sounds like it is yet another Zip clone and only read zip file. 7-Zip introduces a new format called 7z and also supports ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB format.

The 7z format produces very good compression ratio. Compression ratio is the ratio of the difference between the compressed file size and the uncompressed file size to the uncompressed file size. I had been using 7-zip for a good few years now and the format consistently beat other format like zip (worst), rar or even tar.bz2.

The one drawback of 7z is that not many people know or use the format. So I cannot, for example, email a .7z file to a friend. My friend probably get an “Unknown file type” error. But this should change soon. Expect to see more programs supporting the 7z format. WinRAR already support it and so does a number of compression utilities.

7z format is licensed under the open source GNU Library General Public License (LGPL). What does this means? For one it means anyone can implement the format.

For another, it means no one can charge loyalty just for using the format.

Most people know the GIF graphic format. But what most people do not know is the the creator of the format once tried to charge royalties for producing file in the format.

What I like about 7-Zip?

• Support multiple formats, especially .tar.gz, .tar.bz2.
  Now most compression software support it. Not so a few years back. Often I had to install separate program just to open unix files or I had to rename the extension.
• Small and light. No fancy functions that I never use anyway.
• No trial period expired, no registration reminder, no delayed start up splash screen like other archivers.

For a long time 7-Zip does not have drag-n-drop functions but this was added as of version 4.23. So if you have try 7-Zip and drop it because of the lack of drag and drop, I urge you to try it again.

Chinese support

Simplified chinese version available at 7-Zip官方中文首页.

Where to get it?

• 7-Zip is at http://www.7-zip.org/
• Current version: 4.4.2
• Function: File archiver, file compression utility

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