Refurbished...good as new?

Sometimes a deal comes by directly from the manufacturer that catches my eye. Take Apple Computer for example. Apple has been selling refurbished IPods and MacBooks at deeply discounted prices. Even better, they offer the SAME warranty as if it were a brand new product.

I purchased my 60GB IPod refurbished and saved $100. No one can tell it was a refurbished item...hell, I couldn't. It looked brand spankin' new and works flawlessly. I trust it so much that I use part of the 60GB as a backup drive for my data! The only thing was that the stuff does NOT come in the original box...big deal...I toss the box anyways. Hmmm...let me think about that...save bookoo bucks or pay retail and get the box for 100 bucks more...hmmm.

Get your great refurbished Mac and IPod items at the Apple store:
http://store.apple.com

Scroll down on the left for "Special Deals"

Money's tight...save your dough...say YES I SAVED !!!

Backup your Data...Part II

Well, you can read yesterday's post and find out that you can use your IPod as a backup drive in addition to an MP3 player.

If you have tons of files and preferences saved all over the place, it's easy to forget one if you are simply "dragging and dropping" them by hand. A better way is to automate the task using a professional backup program.

With the backup program, you specify the location of the individual files and folders, save, then the program "remembers" these files and backs them up every time. What's cool is that most programs will back up only changes to save time. This means if you have a bunch of stuff to backup and you only made a few changes the next time around, then the program will only detect the modified files (text, pictures, game saves, internet explorer favorites, etc.) and save them.

Not all backup programs are created equal. Some store bought backup programs save files in a proprietary format and if that file gets corrupted you're screwed. I know firsthand as this happened to me with a program called Retrospect Backup...stay the hell away from this program!

The backup program I recommend is Smart Sync Pro. It costs $35 and is worth every penny. Why? First and foremost it saves in native Windows format...not some proprietary format. What does that mean? It means that a word file is saved as a word file on your backup drive...a picture (JPEG, BMP, etc.) is saved exactly as a picture. The advantage is that there is one less step to screw up and that if you ever decide to move your data from one computer to another, then you can simply drag and drop your data and use it right away without having to convert it back to their original format. Also, Smart Sync Pro is loaded with features for very advanced backups (like over a network). Most people don't need the advanced features but they come right out of the box in case you do. Most importantly, it is easy to use and the author routinely returns email questions in less than 24 hours! Now THAT is tech support!

I've used Smart Sync Pro to backup my data to my IPod and when I bought a laptop, I simply dragged and dropped my stuff into the laptop and was up and running with a clone of my data in minutes! Time is money...if you aren't backing up then you're sitting on a time bomb waiting to happen...backup and save not only your money, but also your precious data and sanity too!

You can get Smart Sync Pro at:
http://www.smsync.com/

Money's tight...save your dough...say YES I SAVED !!!

Backing up data...with your IPod!!!

Did you know your IPod is not just a one-trick pony music player? Under WindowsXP your IPod shows up as an external drive and you can create a folder on it (just as if it were solely an external hard drive) and drag and drop data onto it!

The bigger the IPod (30GB to 60GB) the more wiggle room you have to store data on it.

I know a friend of mine who regularly backuped her data onto her IPod. She had an unfortunate fire in her apartment building and lost most of her things including her computer but because she had her IPod with her away from the apartment in her purse, she was able to restore her precious data, photos, etc. when she got her new computer.

In her own words, "My IPod literally saved YEARS of work and photos. I just got into the habit of using my backup utility and having it choose the IPod as the default storage drive. Since I regularly take my IPod everywhere I go, I have a complete backup completely away and separate from my home computer without ever thinking about it. I never would have imagined how important backing up my data was until I thought I lost all of it. If I didn't have my backup on my IPod I would have been completely screwed".

Another friend of my regularly takes his power point presentations with him backed up on his IPod and when his laptop failed minutes before a key presentation he simply borrowed his colleauge's laptop and transferred his files and was back in business in minutes.

The bottome line...using your IPod as a storage device definately saves you the money of having to buy an external hard drive as backup and in the event of a total catastrophic loss of data, can save your precious time and data.

Money's tight...save your dough...say YES I SAVED !!!