How to Backup Your Computer if You Are Using Vista

How to Backup Your Computer if You Are Using Vista

  10:31:00 AM    Science Lover

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With each version of the Windows operating systems the backup process has improved. In prior versions I relied on third party backup solutions. With the Vista operating system I found that the Backup program that comes with Vista is dependable, and there is no need to buy another backup program.

The above statements are true if you are backing up your data to a USB external drive. I have a 250Gb external drive and I backup my computer at least once a month. You can use DVDs, but you would need multiple DVDs.

If you have a home network you can also backup one computer to another. If you only have a wireless network I would not recommend it because it will be a very slow process.

To start the backup process click on the Start menu and select the All Programs button, then select the Accessories folder, then Systems Tools folder and click on Backup Status and Configuration menu option. You have three options here:

· Backup Files

· Restore Files

· Complete PC Backup

Backup Files is when you want to backup your data only. No programs or operating files will be backed up. This would be good if you have the Vista DVD and CDs for all of your application. You would then just have to re-install the operating system and the applications, then restore your data.

You can also set this for automatic and as long as the device that you back up to is connected, it will perform the backup automatically.

Restore Files if you needed to restore the files from step one discussed above. Restore Files will allow you to recover an individual file, or a backup made on another computer, or restore files made from this computer.

The Complete PC Backup will copy the entire contents of your hard drive. I usually backup my computer once a month using the data as the file name. You basically select the Complete PC Backup and click on Create a backup now. Make sure the hard drive you are backing up to is attached. It will take some time to backup your entire system, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Advanced Restore will allow you to transfer the entire contents of your backup to a new hard drive or computer. This is done through the Advanced Restore option after you click on the Restore Files button.

Backing up to another computer running Vista may cause problems with Windows authentication. If it is only the hard drive that is different, you will need to re-authenticate the computer, but it can be done in about ten minutes.

Everyone thinks that they are safe until their computer stops working. Hard drives fail on 35% of the computers within the first year. Why take a chance. Make sure you backup your computer today.

There are also on-line backup locations offered on the Internet. Some are inexpensive. If something happened to the backup device, you are still out of luck. Having an online backup might be the right solution because these companies have a lot of redundancy. Go to the newsletter section of my site where I recommend a vendor for backups.

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Mysterious Meteorites Stymie Scientists

Mysterious Meteorites Stymie Scientists

  9:04:00 PM    Science Lover

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A pair of mysterious meteorites discovered in Antarctica is baffling scientists who are struggling to determine the origin of the space rocks. The meteorites, dubbed GRA 06128 and GRA 06129, were found in the Graves Nunataks region of Antarctica in 2006

The rocks were oddly rusty and salty and smelled like rotten eggs, its discoverers said.

Initially, a team at the University of New Mexico (UNM) caused a stir when its analysis hinted that the pair may hail from Venus or the moon.

But other teams then hurried to get pieces of the space rocks for analyses of their own—and for the most part, they disagree.

GRA 06128 looks like rocks retrieved from the lunar highlands by the Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972, but it contains much more sodium, research has shown.

The rock is also much older than the Venusian surface, according to the newer analysis, thereby eliminating that possibility.

The identity of the meteorites' source remains exciting and mysterious, said Allan Treiman, a scientist with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston who led one of the recent investigations of the rocks.

"From what has been reported so far, it's pretty clear that the meteorite is not from the Earth, or the moon, or Venus, or any of the common sources of meteorites," he said. "It's much harder to know where it is from."

Both teams—along with three others—are presenting findings about the meteorites at the 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston this week.

Not of This World?

GRA 06128 and its mate are slab-shaped, gray rocks containing bits of black glass.

Continued on Next Page >>

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Mysterious Meteorites Stymie Scientists

Mysterious Meteorites Stymie Scientists

  8:58:00 PM    Science Lover

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One of the first teams to get a sample of the meteorites was led by UNM's Chip Shearer. The researchers analyzed chemical signatures called isotopes and initially determined that the meteorites came from Earth or the moon, a position they've since retooled.

"Although initial oxygen isotopic compositions are consistent with an origin in the Earth-Moon system, numerous observations appear to eliminate both bodies," Shearer and his team write in an abstract presented at this week's meeting.

Doug Rumble from the Carnegie Institution and his colleagues will also present an analysis of GRA 06128 and 06129 at the conference.

He said the New Mexico researchers initially studied a "tiny crumb that fell off the outside" of GRA 06129, but they didn't wash the outer layer to remove any Earthly weathering agents that might alter the findings.

"The UNM analytical results reflect only imperfectly the actual extraterrestrial composition of the meteorite, because UNM also analyzed rust that formed as the meteorite lay exposed to Earth's atmosphere," he said.

Rumble's own analysis puts the meteorites "right in the range of values expected for rare meteorites called brachinites," he said.

Brachinites are believed to be the remnants of planets that once orbited between Mars and Jupiter

"So now we are all meeting in Houston to hang our heads a little and admit to one another that maybe we were a little too hasty," Rumble said, "and got too excited over an unwashed meteorite."

Unsettled Debate David Kring, a visiting scientist at Houston's Lunar and Planetary Institute and a co-author on Treiman's paper, said there's still work to be done to nail down the exact nature of the meteorite pair.

The chemical and mineral compositions of the rocks are similar to brachinites and another type of meteorite called chondrites, he said.

Chondrites, leftovers from the formation of asteroids, are the most common meteorites. But the pair doesn't match either category exactly, Kring said.

The rocks are partially melted, which is not characteristic of chondrites.

And they contain high levels of the mineral feldspar, which is not typically associated with the short-lived planets between Mars and Jupiter.

"Thus there are two mysteries," Kring said. "What is the parent planet for the rock, and what type of geologic activity on that planet produced the unusual mineral assemblage?"

There is no shortage of new ideas to account for the disparity.

"My preferred working hypothesis is that [the meteorites] actually represent a piece of crust from an asteroidal body—the surface of another planet, if you like," offered James Day, a geologist at the University of Maryland.

Day has joined the other researchers at this week's meeting to puzzle over the rocks.

Treiman added that it would take a very large asteroid or a dwarf planet to cause the melting seen in the meteorites.

Whether or not its home is discovered, GRA 06128 is a "pretty puzzle, and will help us understand how asteroids form and how they evolve to become planets," he said.

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Gadgets have become bedroom bugs

Gadgets have become bedroom bugs

  10:35:00 AM    Science Lover

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Homes today are filled with increasing numbers of high-tech gadgets, from smart phones and computers to state-of-the-art TV and audio systems. But a new study has found that these have actually become bedroom bugs.

A team of researchers in Britain has found that the high-tech gadgets are forcing millions of couples to sleep apart with the bedroom becoming a communications hub rather than a place for sleep.

"Busy night-time routines are driving couples' bedtimes and even their bedrooms apart," the British media quoted Jessica Alexander of the Sleep Council, which carried out the study, as saying. In their study, the researchers surveyed 1,400 people in Britain between February 27 and March 3.

They found that one in ten couples sleep in different beds every night while a quarter admit to doing so on a daily basis; 4 in 10 people go to bed at a different time to their partner.

More than one in 5 people (22%) now use their mobile phone or Blackberry over the traditional alarm clock, after cleaning their teeth with an electric toothbrush, the study revealed.

One in three people are happy to chat on the phone, send and receive text messages or answer emails while tucked up in bed and 20% have checked social networking sites, played computer games or listened to Mp3 players between the sheets. In a sign of the times, 22% of those surveyed said charging electrical appliances is the last thing they do before bed compared to 10% using their last moments awake to say a prayer.

The research also found that many people ignore advice on drinks to avoid at bedtime. While water is the most popular drink among a third of those questioned, many others admit to drinking coffee, alcohol or sugary drinks.

However, some things about bedtime do not change -pyjamas remain the most popular bedtime apparel among women, while men are almost twice as likely as women to go to bed naked. One per cent of men claim to wear a nightie in bed.

"Our survey results provide a pretty accurate snapshot of our lives today. It also shows more than half of us (52%) regularly feel so tired at work that we would like to go home, with one in eight people feeling that way three or four times a week," Alexander was quoted as saying.

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