Warning: strtotime() [
function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in
/home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/link-template.php on line
113
Warning: date() [
function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in
/home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/link-template.php on line
138
After losing all the data on my thumb drive when it died, I decided to implement a backup process to make sure I don’t lose all the data on my computer. It’s been running for about a week and I feel confident that my data is safe now.
I got a new thumb drive and before I started using it, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t cry the day it stopped working. The solution I came up with is not as automatic as the one I described last week but it’s very easy and simple to use. For my computer backup I scheduled a task to run every night and sync the data from one computer to the other. Since my thumb drive is not always connected to my computer I had to find another solution.
I decided to back-up the drive when it is inserted in the computer. There are two obvious obstacles to this solution. First, we need a way to detect that the drive has been connected and then run a script to sync the drive. Then, we need a way to determine in which computer the drive has been connected. The backup must only happen when it gets connected to my home computer. I wouldn’t want to backup my data on my work computer for example.
Fortunately these two problems are easily resolved. Windows has something called autorun that lets you run a program when a drive is inserted. Also, it turns out that figuring out which computer we are connected to is not necessary, we can cheat by storing the backup script on the computer instead of on the thumb drive. This way it will only run on the desired computer.
Using autorun is very easy. All you need to do is create a file named ‘autorun.inf’ on the thumb drive and put the following in it:
[autorun]
label=My Traveler Disk
open=c:\rsync_thumb.bat
action=Sync Me!
This was a good starting point. When the drive is inserted in the computer, I get a pop-up window asking me if I wanted to sync the drive. Now all that is needed to sync the drive is a double-click. And if I click it by mistake when I’m on another computer, the command will fail because the script doesn’t exist.
Now if syncing was all I was worried about this setup would have been good enough. Unfortunately, all the data on my thumb drive is encrypted, which means that I need to run another program to access it. Autorun can only be used to run one program which means I can’t use it to for the backup script and the encryption software.
This is where PStart comes to the rescue. It’s a little program that let’s you create a custom menu to easily start your programs. I created a menu with two items, one for the encryption software and one for the backup script. Then I set an option in PStart to auto launch the encryption software.
The custom menu can be seen at the top of this post. The following screenshot shows the autorun window, which lets me start my custom menu, which automatically launches the encryption software.
Follow this link for more information on PStart:
http://www.pegtop.net/start/
Here’s a great article on how to customize your thumb drive using autorun.inf:
http://dailycupoftech.com/usb-drive-autoruninf-tweaking/
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Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
Friday, September 19th, 2008 at
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 35
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 107
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 109
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 111
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 112
3:47 pm and is filed under Computer.
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Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/link-template.php on line 113
Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EST/-5.0/no DST' instead in /home/listi088/public_html/wp-includes/link-template.php on line 138
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