Following a major computer failure about 6 weeks ago coupled with a loss of back-ups + paper records (Don't ask! Just a series of silly co-incidences) I've lost all my mail. Bottom line was when I was able to hook up yesterday I had around 19,000 (nineteen thousand!!!) email messages waiting of which I was only able to ID a few dozen as being legit before I gave up and dumped the lot.
If anyone here has written to me recently and has not had a reply please accept my apologies and re-send.
"kim" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
No the hard drive went belly-up (mechanical head crash), to make matters worse it happened during a back-up operation on top of which my dar, dear, dear wife had recently had a clear-out and got rid of all that old rubbish on my desk - the papers records of *all* my various account passwords/log- ins (I design/build and host websites as a bit of a side line so you can imagine just how much went).
Also lost all my local copies of around 3 dozen sites, FTP passwords, server passwords and all my software ... customised over 5 years of use. :- (
New computer, new OS, new back-up software ... taken me 6 weeks!
Agreed, but there are things you can do to avoid the problem of data loss.
Currently my main PC has two HDDs which mirror each other, so in theory if one fails mechanically, then the other should survive.
I also back up all crucial information, including digital and scanned photographs to an external HDD - these are now relatively cheap - around £100 for a 120Gb external drive which connects to your PC through a USB cable. I only attach the latter when I want to do a back-up, so again in theory it should be isolated from any potential virus infection.
And of course these days DVD-R drives are commonplate, and even a cheap DVD disc will provide several gigabytes of storage.
It's just remembering to do it all regularly and before disaster strikes.
I work for a charity helping disabled people with IT - We had one client who was terminally ill and developed a fascination for pictures of naked ladies - The system ran under windows 98se and I learned more about viruses/trojans/rootkits/etc in a few months than I had ever known before. Solution was simple - Copy of Norton Ghost, you need either two partitions or two physical drives to use this (at least thats how I do it). I partitioned his drive with a 4GB C and the rest as D - My Documents was moved (not copied) to D and all pointers changed to point to it (most programs have a default folders option).
C is for the operating system and programs, D is for data. This allows C to be wiped and replaced either with Ghost or with a complete clean install without affecting the users data.
Start with a clean install, just windows at first Run ghost, make a boot-floppy. Use the floppy to 'ghost the basic windows installation (this ends up as a .GHO file on drive D).
Install basic software, do a ghost of the resulting drive C.
Add all passwords etc (and add a text file with all the details of your ISP, passwords, FTP settings etc) Do a final ghost of this lot.
Ghost files can be split so they will fit on a series of CDs, most people should get away with a single DVD. Leave the copies on drive D and keep the CDs or DVD(s) somewhere safe, just in case.
If an any doubt regarding the integrity of C pop in the (write protected) Ghost floppy and turn on - doing the restore takes a few minutes (*much* faster than a clean full install but it sets the partition size as well, so if replacing the drive make sure the C partition is the same size as the old one)
NB - If using Outlook you need to back up your e-mails to drive D at intervals - Do a search on *.DBX, select all the resulting files and copy these to your back up location on drive D, I use a program (freeware) called DBXviewer which allows me to access DBX files without them being associated with Outlook. For the Windows address book search for *.WAB and copy to the backup folder on D. For favourite websites export as an HTML page, most browsers allow this, and again store on drive D.
Spybot Search and Destroy (free) includes 'tea timer' which monitors registry changes, we usually put in Adaware (also free) as well and of course a firewall such as Zone Alarm (free) and anti-virus (AVG, there is a 'light' version that is free for home use). Evidence Eliminator, intended to cover your tracks if you go looking at naked ladies, also has a registry check and restore that (I am told) is useful for eliminating nasties.
To do routine back-ups I like Laplink. It is simple to use, you just open a 'local file transfer' window, point one side at yoiur data and the other at your back-up location and (with copy newer files only on) copy the one to the other. At intervals burn the resulting back up to CD or DVD and store.
Ghost is cheap (about £30 I believe, if purchased on its own), I have not yet tried it with XP but it works with 95, 98 and ME (you would need the current version for XP, otherwise a second hand copy of Ghost 2001 would do fine). Laplink is another program I have not tried under XP, but I have never had a problem with it from Version 2 in the 1980s up to version 2000 a few years back. I have been told that the 2000 version will NOT work with XP but I have not yet tried it to see which bits if any do work.
This system worked very well for the chap in question. When his widow handed back the computer he had not had to call us for months although he had been using the machine every day (I ran a whole series of cleaners on the drive, heaven only knows what was on there (I didn't dare look) and we needed it for another client's machine!)
Seconded - Have however had problems with broadband supplied by Tiscali, NTL and BT - Others may be fine - works flawlwssly on dial-up - Newer versions may work with BB but try the freebie first
'Nother option (one I use myself) is to have a sacrificial machine for internet work, separate from the main system. If using ME or XP you still need to go on line with the main system to collect the updates. A 300MHz system with 64 meg or ram is fine for the internet - pick one up for about £40, I also use ghost on a partitioned drive with the sacrificial system but if something really nasty gets through it cannot go anywhere as the network doesnt connect to the net. Not for everyone, works for me though.
"Mike Smith" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk:
My issue is that as a side line I register, design, host and maintain websites for folks which means that in addition to my personal email I have work related mail and also have to deal with a lot of the email for various clients.
As a matter of course I run Spam Assassin, SpamBox and BoxTrapper on the various servers. But because they are not 100% in operation generally I'm content to simply let Spam Assassin flag suspect mail before previewing it using (as you suggest) MailWasher (no problems at all for me onNTL cable broadband). As the computer is usually on for around 16 -
20 hours a day (and sometimes 24 hours a day) this set up works very well for my purposes. Spam is quickly identified, scanned and deleated on a continuos basis throughout the day whilst legit mail is preserved. After a six week period though when I wasn't even able to access the various mailboxes even at the server level I was stuffed. If I'd appreciated that my home machine was going to die I'd have re-set various server settings to prevent the build up ... didn't have the chance though.
Like you though I'd highly recommend mailwasher.
My other issue was that quite frankly my home computer was old, still running WinMe, CRT monitor that was failing etc etc etc. So when the HD died I made a decision to replace everything. New machine, new monitor and significantly a new OS. At the same time I uprated all the software. PSP5 is now PSPX, Dreamweaver/Fireworks MX is now DM/FW 8 and so on. Which apart from the setleing in period required also cost a fair bit of dosh ... another reason for delay.
If I'd stuck to a new HD and a reinstallation of WinME I'd have had sufficient back-ups to be up and running again in a few days.
Can I ask which version of Mailwasher you are using? He gave our charity a free copy of version 2.0.4 but that was a while back (I'm still using it though)
"Mike Smith" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk:
...
You can but I don't have to answer. :-)
Mailwasher Pro ('Pro' needed for multiple accounts), vers 5.2, brand new as of 4 days ago. previously mailwasher Pro 4.something on Me. Non 'Pro' is still free (I believe) for single accounts.
Chris Wilson said the following on 19/05/2006 23:04:
Did you find that this version needed to be turned down slightly to avoid false flags? By default, it was flagging stuff for deletion, even though the sender was in my friends list. A quick twitch of the slider, and all is well and even more accurate than before!
Paul Boyd wrote in news:446edc0c$0$10768$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net:
Yup a certain amount of fettling was required but as you suggest it's not much. As all my mail is first examined by Spam Assasin and flagged if it's suspisious mailwasher doesn't actually have that much to do. In essence when SA flags something I have it re-write the subject line to include "*** SPAM ***", through the use of a rule MW automatically blacklists and deleates messages so marked and as a result I can afford the time to have it examine more of the unflagged messages allowing it to give an accurate suggestion as to status. Really think that it's the dogs do-dahs, been using it for donkeys years now.
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