Question: I’m scanning hundreds of personal documents. What is the best way to safeguard these files from hackers? I’ve read that one can password-protect zip files.

Answer: It is possible to put protected documents in a compressed archive such as zip file that require a password to open. Microsoft for instance, has instructions for Windows XP users at support.microsoft.com/kb/306531. But for all the guides you can find for adding passwords to zip files, you can also find many more to crack them open. eHow has an example here.

Mac OS X has a program called FileVault for encrypting your Home folder. Some high-end versions of Windows have a file encryption feature or a drive-encryption tool call BitLocker.

For personal files that are scanned primarily to make digital archive copies, you may want to consider storing them on an external hard drive that can be encrypted itself with program such as PGP or the free TrueCrypt. Make sure your computer has an active firewall and other security software and unplug the drive when you are not using those files.

Technology has become essence in our life now. From day to day the the computers has evolve and become very important part in our life. However, do not depend on computers itself since it still have a big flaws. You can easily purchased notebook computer that having a decent features but one thing to consider; the drive which is the very important hardware in your computers will frustrated you. The hard drive is very important hardware to store your data, however it still can crash anytime. So, how you can do data recovery? That’s headache.

You cannot expect hard drives are perfect even though they are built with amazing technology. Hard drives are very sensitive hardware and any interference could possibly damage the drives. Nowadays, hard drives come with a lot of features to reduce drive failure but they are not 100% perfect. Event though they come with those features you cannot avoid physical damage and should consider data backup and recovery.

Computer geeks should not have a problem dealing with hard drive data backup and recovery. At the first place it will be a little bit technical, but in the end you will have your own way to deal with your drive problems. It will involve fixing master boot record, and retrieve data from damage disk. If you cannot do this, get somebody to do. There are many data recovery service out there. Definitely they will charge you. And it is expensive.

Save your money now by having external hard drive to do a backup. Yes. Invest some money to buy external hard drive will make your life better. If the data in the hard drive is your life, better back it up. That is the contingency plan if your hard drive crash. Create one partition for important data in your computer hard drive will make it easy when you are doing backup. It also will make you easy when doing data recovery if that drive fail. Again, you should definitely consider buying external hard drive for backup rather that paying expensive data recovery expert.

Hello friends! I come across on external hard drive stuff again. Nowadays, storage has become commodity, so hard drives are sold in style or ease of use. Western Digital is the one who care about style and ease of use.

My Book Elite is now smarter and sleeker than ever featuring a customizable e-label, automatic, continuous backup, and a new smaller size to fit snugly on your shelf or desktop. The best-selling My Book Elite external USB drive now features a customizable e-label to identify what’s on your drive, visual automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. The new sleeker design brings beauty and brains together.

Smart display – Create your own personalized drive label to remind you of what’s stored on each drive. You can even view the label when the drive is unplugged. The display also includes available capacity and security status.

Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design – We’ve made these award-winning drives even smaller, sleeker, and more elegant. As always, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

WD SmartWare – See your life safe in one place.

This is new excellent product by Western Digital. The speed is good, the usability incredible. The only tip that I post for all the future users of this item is “Don’t use the software included in the HDD” Just plug and play the drive and use it with the Windows explorer with copy and paste. Following this tip the use is easy and simple as ABC.

Western Digital My Passport Elite are available in capacities of 320GB, 500GB and 640GB. The drives are available in three metallic colours; red, blue, charcoal. Other product features are as follow:

• 320GB, 500GB, 640GB Capacity
• Automatic, continuous backup
• Password protection and 256-bit encryption
• Grab-and-go USB dock
• Illuminated capacity gauge
• Use with Windows and Macintosh computers – some included software applications may not be compatible for both
• XP and Vista friendly / Mac OS 10.4 / 10.5.2/ Windows 7
• Soft-touch finish – A luxurious, soft-touch, finish makes these drives easy to grip, comfortable to hold, and beautiful to show off to your friends

This drive is great for backups, as you can hook it up fast without a power supply and store it anywhere. Put it in your briefcase, put it in your safe, take it with you anywhere and keep a copy of your data. It is almost pocket-size and the only thing you have to keep with you is a short USB cable. Some people consider the short cable that’s included to be too short, but it’s mobile!

The surface of the Passports can be easy to scratch if you throw it around or keep it in your bag with other items. That would be my only complaint, but it doesn’t really bother to me.

The transfer speed is always quick, and the case is very sturdy. You can have these drives everywhere, because of their mobility and performance. You can’t beat them!

The speed is very responsive. Try to used it on an XP and Vista machine and both have copied data to it fairly quick. I haven’t performed tests on it, but it always gets the job done for me.