HomePage 4 of 9: File Transfer, Search and Backup/Recovery
File Transfer, Search and Backup/Recovery
Now that we've got our browser and security set up, let's take a look at file transfer clients. Starting with FTP:
FileZilla
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URL: http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/ Description: FTP client that does everything you want, erm, with FTP. Really no reason to get a commercial FTP client. License: Open Source |
SmartFTP
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URL: http://www.smartftp.com/ Description: Another free FTP client. Supports Windows Vista. License: Freeware (for non commercial use) |
BitTorrent, despite its reputation as a tool for pirates, is actually quite useful for downloading any sort of large file, be it an Linux ISO or a game demo. Luckily, most BitTorrent clients are free, but here are our picks:
µTorrent
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URL: http://www.utorrent.com/ Description: A fully-featured BitTorrent client with a small footprint (low CPU usage) and easy to use interface. Supports Windows Vista. License: Freeware |
BitComet
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URL: http://www.bitcomet.com/ Description: BitTorrent client that also doubles as a HTTP/FTP download accelerator. Supports Windows Vista. License: Freeware |
Azureus
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URL: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ Description: My former favourite BitTorrent client, but far too resource hungry compared to µTorrent, due to the inherent weakness of Java. License: Open Source |
For file searching on your computer, if you are not already using Vista's search features (or not using Vista at all), then there are several choices in terms of desktop searching. The ones I'll spotlight are Google Desktop Search (Vista ready), Copernic Desktop Search and even one from Microsoft, Windows Desktop Search.
Moving on to file backup and recovery. File backup is one of those things that people don't really care about until they find that they need the backup, and usually by then, it is too late. Sometimes you hard-drive manufacturer will provide simplified backup utilities that most will find enough for their backup needs - for example, Seagate and Maxtor HDD owners have DiscWizard/MaxBlast uses the popular Acronis backup engine to provide image based backup (backup the entire hard-drive, sector by sector - great for moving from one drive to another).
You can also use Windows Backup to backup your files, with the Vista version being a bit more useful than the XP version (especially the image based backup features in the Business and Ultimate editions of Vista).
For freeware options, try SyncBack Freeware or EZBack-it-up. Then there is the Nero Suite, which includes Nero BackItUp - even though Nero is commercial software, Nero is bundled with almost everything these days, it can almost be considered free software.
If restoring a backup is no longer an option (ie. you didn't do it, and now you've lost/accidentally deleted some data), you can use a file recovery tool to get at least some files back. File recovery is no alternative to backup though, and in the best cases, you will be lucky if you can get 50% of your files back. You can try using DATA Unerase Personal Edition to see if you can still recover the deleted files (if they had only been recently deleted, there is a good chance of recovery). Also try Undelete Plus.
