I have spent a number of years following backup services and discovering new ones. Some are good, some are bad, but one that slipped under my radar was a service called SpiderOak. I was contacted by Ethan Oberman, co-founder, for this relatively new service and I was, of course, ready to experience a new backup service with open arms.

As our digital media grow, it is imperative that we all find ways to keep it forever. I was once a strong believer that I could never be a victim of hundreds of important files lost. I saw more clearly my mistake when I lost some of my most valuable pictures, videos, and music years ago. To keep that from ever happening again, I backup to several places so in the event that anything fails, I have a backup somewhere else. SpiderOak has made the list of saving my most important files, and doing it well.

For For $10 a month, you can store up to 100GB; this can be further increased with another $10 per 100GB increment not just for one computer, not two, but all your computers! If you are like me, then you’ll take it and run with it. One thing that $10/month will get you is advanced security. SpiderOak has one of the most advanced security systems that I have used in a backup service. Many people have their security concerns, so the SpiderOak team takes great pride in protecting their customers. In fact, because of its strong encryption, the program is currently available only in the United States. MacNN, a favorite site of mine, mention: “While it’s unlikely that employees will browse through your files, the possibility is always there, which means you lack true privacy. That’s why the site uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a US government algorithm, for encrypting your data on its servers. In theory this not only halts local access, but means that if the password is lost or forgotten, even you will never be able to retrieve your files ever again.”

I would probably suggest you always remember your password . Also unique to SpiderOak is a feature I absolutely love. Versioning is a wonderful feature that all backup services should use in my opinion. Imagine you save a document, and you decided to change some things within the document and resave it. Most services would replace the backup copy with the new one, however, SpiderOak not only keeps that version, but any previous changes you have made or will make. Brilliant.

SpiderOak also takes great pride in giving users the ability to share their files. You can designate specific files to share, assign a password to them, and then anyone with the right password can access your files over the Internet. Simple as that! With such a simple program, anyone can use it and not only am I talking about any person being able to use this program but any operating system can use it as well. This cross-platform program can have you backing up on your Mac laptop, Windows PC, or your Linux computer.

I am not particularly fond of the look and feel of SpiderOak, but in my conversations with Oberman, he made it easily understandable when he said, “this has been as issue that we have discussed at length internally. However, given that one of our top priorities from the beginning was to be completely cross platform, we wanted to provide a consistent look and feel within the application regardless of platform. Therefore, if you are on a Mac, a Windows machine, or working in Linux, the SpiderOak application will look and feel the exact same.”

That is when the saying, Never judge a book by its cover comes to mind. Despite its unpleasing facade lies a great functional program that not only backs up your files (as it is suppose to do) but also does so with security that even you cannot access without the password. SpiderOak is also joining the “Cloud.” “The company allows users to create a ‘SuperCloud’ that protects them against data loss, makes all stored information available by browser on a 24×7 basis, offers password-protected ‘ShareRooms’ for easy family/friend/colleague access, and provides a variety of technical advantages for efficient and cost-effective data management.” 

I got a chance to use a great piece of software. Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a complete solution that helps you to search, locate and recover your lost, missing, inaccessible or deleted data. It is pretty cool in the fact that what you thought you might have deleted is actually not deleted at all. Quite simply, it is a stellar addition to any computer.

Unfortunately, “Windows Data Recovery” means that the software is just for Windows machines, so Mac users should look elsewhere. Not only does the software cover Windows machines only, but also covers all operating systems. Stellar Phoenix covers FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system. It also allows you to recover the data from compressed NTFS drives or individually compressed files.

Stellar Phoenix is powered by an engine which helps scanning the drive three times faster. Standard search is very fast and efficient in normal cases. If you are not able to get the desired results, it also offers advanced search. The method has greater chance to discover lost data. It scans each cluster of the logical drive and also scans the entire unused cluster for known file types. In case of formatted drive, previous file system can be selected for scanning.

What I like most about Stellar Phoenix is the support to “Recover more than 300 file types in case of severe file system corruption.” This means the program will have signatures of almost 300 file types. You can also add, edit and remove signatures that are added. The program also has the capability to determine file size of some of the file types. With this feature, you can recover different file types including MS-Office, Web, Images, Movie, Digital Camera, and Application files.

Lost any of your RAW camera format files? No need to worry. Stellar Phoenix has that covered also. The RAW Recovery option provides enhanced photo recovery and supports all major camera format file types such as NEF, CRW, CR2, ORF, SR2, K25, KDC, DCR, RAF, MRW, PEF, and X3F. If you are like me, some of these file names just don’t make since, but thankfully there is a preview mode. You will see that many files will have strange names while you are trying to recover them and you will not come to know what exactly that file was because it does not have that familiar name.

Of course, I had to test out the software, rather than assume it does its job, so I did a simple test and deleted a bunch of items in my recycling bin. Phoenix did a stellar job at recovering everything. Then I moved to an adventure that is a little more dangerous. Ooops. I accidently deleted one of my hard drive. This time around, I ran the scan in RAW mode, an option that scans each and every sector of the drive for files. This can take quite a long time. My 160GB hard drive took well over 4 hours to be fully scanned.

Afterwards, I was pleasantly surprised that most of my files were back. Not all of them, but luckily I had duplicates of everything before doing my tests. Perhaps something you may not have known is the fact that in Vista, a full format actually gets rid of everything by writing zeros to every sector of the disk, and no recovery software can deal with this – nope, not even Phoenix Stellar. Partitions formatted under Windows XP can, for the most part, be recovered.

When disaster strikes and your hard drives crashes, what do you do? Well, if you don’t have one of the many services that allow backup online, then you can’t do much. Regardless, you can never be too safe. Phoenix Stellar is good at what it does. However, I must admit, it was my first time using such software so I was, of course, pleased with results. The software is a little confusing at times, and I simply did not know what to do, or what many things meant. If you find yourself running into trouble however, customer support is free and 24-7. They are kind and very helpful. The user interface is not a site to behold; however, it is clear that their focus was not so much on looks, but functionality and for that, they are stellar.

The software is $99 after you have used your demo, and can be downloaded here.

As the battle continues against the ultimate online backup solutions, HP has stepped forth with its service called HP Upline. It is a decent backup product at a good price point, but it has a few frustrating limitations.

The software is simple to get started with and the paid plans provide unlimited storage for your documents, photos, music, and video files. The system checks for new files by default every 15 minutes, and uploads your data to the HP servers in a quiet background process. There is a free version that gives you 1GB of online storage for a year, but if you are serious about backup (like me); you will want one of the paid versions. The least expensive “Home plan” ($59.00/year) gives you the unlimited storage and allows up to three PCs. Family plans and small office plans give you individual storage bins, and the business plans also give you an administrator’s dashboard.

Something I really like is that the product allows for web-based access to your backed-up files, which is very useful if you want a file and not by your computer. You can also share files via e-mail or the publish files for public access. Upline can also back up files to a local device, such as a second hard drive, a server, or a PC on the local network. This is a cool feature and I do not think there is a service out that that does both, local and remote storage options, but I could be wrong.

Now there are some cons to this service. Firstly, if you want to back up your emails, you will not be able to. Not yet, anyway. Secondly, this service is focusing on backing up only and not restoring your system, so if you happen to crash your hard drive, you cannot use Upline to restore the system. Although I think this is a feature that is likely to come in the future. Thirdly, the application does not offer PC-to-PC sync. I feel this is a very important feature, and I would suggest looking at a few of my favorites, FolderShare, BeInSync, and SugarSync.

Lastly, HP Upline is not compatible with Mac. I think it is important to offer for both platforms, especially today, since there seems to be a mixed variety of Mac and PC users. Regardless, HP Upline is a great, promising service and in the onward battle of backup solutions, it is also important to keep a nice price point and at $59/year for unlimited backup, I think they have secured themselves in the battle.

Last year, I reviewed a few backup solutions that, like most, allowed you to backup important files to a central server so you would never be in the predicament I was in a few years ago where I lost gigabytes worth of data. T.W. Garrett informed us about the useful Byteswap that allows you to upload files in addition to other important files.

Now, you can feast your eyes upon SugarSync (formerly known as Hummingbird). For as long as I can remember, I have been using another cool service by Sharpcast that allows you to backup, share, and sync (in real time) all your pictures. It is a simple as anything: You download the program, install it, and specify where your pictures are located, and the software instantly starts syncing your files. I say “syncing” rather than backing up, because that is exactly what is does. If you have another computer in the home, you are able to instantly see you pictures on that computer. If you are at work and want to show off your kids, there are there. If you are bored and want to look at pictures while you are waiting, but there is not a computer in the area, fear not. Just whip out your cell phone and they are there also! Any changes made from any location are instantly synchronized everywhere.

“Sharpcast’s real-time “push” sync eliminates the daily frustrations of manual backups, tediously uploading and downloading files; and using email, cables, storage cards and other peripherals to shuttle files back and forth.”

Using this same idea, the smart people over at Sharpcast have created SugarSync. What looks to be a replacement for the current photo software, they are now offering, SugarSync synchronizes all files in addition to photos. SugarSync  allows you to sync and backup your files and media across all of your computers, the web and mobile phone. Best of all, SugarSync takes care of everything automatically in the background so you never have to make backups or email files to yourself.

“COMING SOON: SugarSync!

SugarSync (formerly known as Hummingbird) is a service from Sharpcast that allows you to sync and access your files and media from anywhere – on different computers, on the web, even on your mobile phone. SugarSync securely backs up all your computers online and synchronizes them automatically so you always have access to your files. Best of all, SugarSync takes care of everything automatically in the background, so you never have to make backups or email files to yourself. Say goodbye to CD burning and emailing files to yourself; say hello to SugarSync.”

A small client is required on your Windows PC. The application client runs in the background to monitor and synchronizes a copy on a secure central server. Files can then be available and accessible via web browser directed to http://sugarsync.com  or from a mobile phone browser athttp://m.sugarsync.com . It even has a nice iPhone optimized site to view your pictures! I am hoping the ability to backup your pictures on the iPhone will be implemented soon.

The software, I noticed, is a little slow right now and steels bandwidth as if five people were playing WOW simultaneously on the same network. I am hoping this will also be fixed in an update. I normally would leave it running (as suggested) but it just eats away my internet connection, which is relatively fast. I thought that perhaps, it was my internet provider, but after closing the program, I see a significant difference. However, like most beta programs, not all problems are subject to all users, but different problems (if any) can arise with any user, so I would say, try it. In general, you will love it.

Now, when SugarSync comes online in spring, user will get 2 GB free but for now, Beta users get 11 GB of online storage space for saving synchronized files. Of course, there will be premium prices of which have yet to be announced. Yes, it is currently in private beta so do not think you can rush over to Sharpcast and download the product today. There is a waiting list with a few users added every-so-often. I am a nice person though, and I have nothing else to do with my invitations, so the first five people to request an invitation in comments will get an email invitation from me.  

What do a Ducati MotoGP bike and a flash memory card have in common? – They’re both red, they’re both the fastest in their class and they both say Sandisk on the side.

Press release: “SanDisk teamed with world-renowned motorcycle designer, Ducati, to launch their most ambitious set of digital flash memory products to date. Echoing the speed, performance, and styling of Ducati’s legendary, racing-inspired motorcycles, SanDisk proudly presents the Extreme® Ducati Edition. This label is reserved for some of the fastest memory products SanDisk, or the industry, has ever produced. This exclusive, collectible product line will only be available for a limited time, and only from specialized retail establishments.”

Ducati’s MotoGP stars Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi looked on while Sandisk also released their fastest ever SD and CompactFlash cards on the eve of the MotoGP championship round at Laguna Seca, California.

The grid consists of 4- and 8-gigabyte capacities for the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition CompactFlash card and 4GB for the SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition SD Plus card. The latter features a snap-open connector that enables the card to be plugged in directly to the USB port of a personal computer without requiring a cable or reader.

Maybe not quite 200 mph, but these things are pretty quick. I wonder if the girls’ tattoos are permanent? Looks like the perfect Christmas gift for the computer buff in your life. My Christmas list gets bigger. I would even like one of the cards.