To get the most out of Cucku Backup you should store your local backup on an external or network hard drive.
When you install Cucku the default location for your backup is on a different drive if one is available. This way if your hard drive fails you'll have a safe local copy of your data that you can restore from quickly.
To check where your backups are stored click Settings and then Backup Locations. You'll see a list of backup locations and a description of what is stored in each location. If you have a backup partner you'll also see the backups that you're hosting in the list as well.
If the backup for a drive is being stored on that drive then you're at risk of losing both the data and the backup if the drive fails. You should move the location to a different drive. Cucku supports any local, external or network drive that you can reach using a drive letter. If you don't already have an external hard drive then we recommend spending some of the money you're saving by using Cucku on buying one.
This may seem like odd advice from a remote backup company but in most cases a local backup will save the day. Cucku Backup has always included both local and remote backup for this reason. The remote backup is insurance in case you lose both your computer and your local backup.
Labels: Tips
posted by Rob on Monday, March 30, 2009
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Carbonite is one of the leading online backup brands. A recent post on their blog explains part of their backup strategy:
What you're looking at are arrays of 16 1TB data-center grade drives in a RAID-6 array. 3 of the 16 drives would have to fail simultaneously before we would lose any data. This RAID configuration is 36 million times more reliable than a single disk drive. Generally we don't even wait for a drive to fail - we have software that can tell when a drive is starting to get flakey and an alarm goes off on our operations console.
Only last week I said:
Is there a backup of your backup? Many online backup companies have a single datacenter. While it's much less likely that this will fail than your computer it's still a single point of failure.
This morning The Boston Globe is reporting that Carbonite has filed a lawsuit against two suppliers. According to the article the suit claims:
Carbonite lost the backups of over 7,500 customers in a number of separate incidents, causing serious damage to Carbonite's business and to its reputation as a reliable source for backup data service.
The lesson here is that for the files you care about you really need at least two backups. Ideally you should have a local backup for convenience and an offsite backup in case of disaster. Local backup alone doesn't cut it and it's becoming increasingly clear that you shouldn't rely on online backup either.
posted by Rob on Saturday, March 21, 2009
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(Updated April 14, 2009: If you have this problem then in most cases you can fix it by downloading the latest full installer for Skype. If this doesn't help please get in touch and we'll do what we can to help you fix it.)
(Updated April 16, 2009: While you're reinstalling make sure that you click the Options button on the first page of the installer and select the Extras Manager. See the screenshots below if you're not sure where this is. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who pointed out this tip.)
(Updated April 22, 2009: Skype has released a hotfix to 4.0.0.225 today. One of the bug fixes listed is Extras Manager was not installed to some users so if you're still having a problem with Extras try grabbing the latest version.)
If you recently upgraded Skype you might notice that the Extras menu (Tools -> Extras) is disabled or greyed out. This is because Skype 4.0.0.215 does not include the Extras Manager if you update without downloading the full installer. Without Extras Manager you can't install new Extras or manage any existing Extras.
Skype released an update to fix this problem yesterday:
We've released a hotfix to Skype 4.0 for Windows.
This update resolves the problem in the previous release of Skype 4.0 (4.0.0.215) which prevented the Skype Extras Manager from being installed .
We recommend that everyone upgrades to the new build.
You can check the version of Skype you have installed by choosing About Skype from the Help menu. If you have 4.0.0.215 installed you should upgrade to fix this problem.
Skype Installer Options
If you are having problems accessing Skype Extras try clicking the Options button on the first page of the installer (click each screenshot for a larger view):
For a fresh install make sure that the Install Skype Extras Manager option is selected:
When reinstalling make sure Update Skype Extras Manager is selected:
If the Extras Manager option isn't available then the installer you downloaded does not contain the Extras Manager. Try downloading the Skype installer again.
After installing pick Options from the Tools menu on the main Skype window. Select the Advanced page and make sure that Automatically start Extras is selected:
If you needed to enable this option then exit and restart Skype to load Extras Manager.
posted by Rob on Thursday, March 19, 2009
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I've spent a lot of time looking at different backup products. Here are 5 tips for finding the right online backup service for your needs.
- Pick the right flavor.
There are three main approaches to online backup:
Social Backup (i.e. Cucku Backup) stores your files with a friend, family member or second PC that you own. With social backup you can backup or restore in person, providing speed when you need it. Cucku Backup includes full local backup as well as remote backup.
Anonymous Peer-to-Peer (i.e. Allmydata, Wuala) is decentralized like social backup but makes use of free space throughout the network. This has the advantage that you don't need a backup partner to be online. The drawback is that many copies of your backup need to be uploaded and there's no way to restore quickly as you don't know where your data is stored.
Traditional Online Backup (i.e. Carbonite, Mozy) hosts your backup in a datacenter. While the cost of storage and bandwidth continues to fall it still isn't free, so traditional online backup is more expensive than social backup or anonymous p2p. There have also been many high-profile failures, see Bill's post Recession squeezes online storage.
- Test the restore process.
Too many people wait until they're in trouble before trying to restore files. I was a victim of this when I needed to use a recovery disc for a laptop last year. Before you commit to using a product try backing up a few files you don't care about, delete them and then see if you can get them back. If you can't figure out how, or can't get them back quickly then you need a different product. For extra credit try to restore the files on a different computer so you know what to do if your computer is stolen and you need to recover all of your files.
- Find out what happens to deleted files.
Imagine you discover that you accidentally deleted a folder that you needed a month ago. You can recover from your backup, right? With many providers the answer is no, and you'll discover that "backup" and "archive" are considered to be different services. Make sure you understand how long deleted files will be stored and also how many versions of a file are available for restore. Cucku keeps deleted files and every version of every file that you've backed up.
- Check for limits on what you can include in the backup.
Some products will exclude some types of files, or won't allow you to backup from external hard drives or network locations. Even if all your files are on one hard drive now you may decide to move some of your data to an external drive or network attached storage device (NAS) in the future. Cucku allows you to backup from local, external and network drives and there is no restriction on the types of file that you can include in your backup.
- Make sure you have both belt and braces.
Is there a backup of your backup? Many online backup companies have a single datacenter. While it's much less likely that this will fail than your computer it's still a single point of failure. Cucku provides the best of both worlds with a local backup and a remote backup. Store the local backup on an external hard drive and you can quickly recover from day to day problems or even a drive crash. The remote backup is there so that in the worst case scenario you know that you can always get your data back.
posted by Rob on Saturday, March 14, 2009
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Facebook has just revamped their pages to make them work more like user profiles. We republished over the weekend so check out the new Cucku Backup page.
If there's anything you'd like to see from Cucku on Facebook leave a note on our wall.
posted by Rob on Monday, March 09, 2009
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We have discovered that a spam email is circulating that appears to come from Cucku Support. The subject of the email is A Niche Empire Working Part Time?. We are investigating to see if there is any action we can take and I'll update this post later.
Update: The problem was tracked down to a hijacked form which has been removed. I'm sorry that some people were inconvenienced by this spam.
posted by Rob on Sunday, March 08, 2009
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I get asked a lot about whether you need to leave your computer switched on all the time to use Cucku Backup. This can be a good idea while you're running your first remote backup and want it to complete as quickly as possible, but after that there's no need.
There's actually a setting in Cucku that will prevent your computer from sleeping while a remote backup is running (see Partner Settings).
This behavior is enabled by default, so once a remote backup starts it will keep running. This means you can set your computer to sleep or hibernate without worrying about getting out of sync with your backup partner.
Labels: Tips
posted by Rob on Friday, March 06, 2009
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There have been a spate of failures of online storage providers from high visibility brands like HP Upline and AOL Xdrive to specialists MediaMax, Omnidrive and MyVirtualDrive. Ouch, your precious data is gone!
What lies behind this? The problem is that online storage costs money and that's rather tight right now.
There is competition among online storage providers to gain customers because they're locking their users in for years of fees (when you stop paying fees they throw away your backups). The ones that don't charge enough are going bust and the others will be charging more to survive the recession.
But there's another way, backup your data using Cucku to people you know and keep your money in your pocket.
posted by Bill Rivers on Wednesday, March 04, 2009
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