Regzooka Review - Should I Use Regzooka?

Are you wondering if you should use Regzooka? Well, a group of experts and I have purchased a variety of different registry cleaners and put them to the test to see which software is the most effective for our consumers. Regzooka was among one of those registry cleaners that we have tested.

On paper, Regzooka is an award winning registry cleaner that is created by BluePenguin Software, a technology company that is known for creating systems utility tools for removing spyware. Keep in mind that "award winning" should not be a deciding factor when choosing which software to use because most programs like this have won similar awards.

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Upon doing additional research on their company, I discovered that they have received a very poor rating in the BBB (Better Business Bureau) Business Review. In fact on September 28th 2010, BluePenguin Software had their accreditation revoked by the BBB's Board of Directors.

Regzooka Review - Should I Use Regzooka?

Now that we have reviewed the facts on Regzooka, let me report to you exactly what we discovered after having purchased and tested this program ourselves.

After the results for Regzooka had come in, we were not surprised when we found that this registry cleaner was classified as mediocre among the other programs tested. This software was a fairly decent and had all the necessary functions to do a thorough scan on your computer, but lacks some advanced options and special features such as the System Optimizer or Evidence Eraser that we want in these programs.

The interface was not as user-friendly as we hoped for. Some features were hidden away and might require a few minutes of digging before you could find them. Novice computer users may not be able to navigate this program as well as advanced computer users, however all the basic functions to perform a computer scan were simply laid out.

One thing that set Regzooka apart from the other programs we tested is its 100% guarantee of error removals. If this software did not clean out 100% of your computer errors, you had 60 days to do a complete refund. This was a nice option, however many other programs also offered 100% 60-day money guarantee if you were not satisfied with the program.

Overall, we give Regzooka 6.5/10 because it is a fairly decent piece of software that could potentially remove all the errors and help speed up your computer performance.

However, within the given price range, there are many other registry cleaners that offer much more in terms of special features.

Regzooka Review - Should I Use Regzooka?

Want The Best Registry Cleaner For Your Computer? Visit: Best Registry Cleaner

How Do You Reformat a USB Flash Drive?

USB flash drives have become really handy in storing different files of various sizes including, backups, personal documents, music, pictures, portable applications and more. Flash drives turned out to be so convenient that people start pouring in files of any kind without sorting them. Because of these habits, flash drives end up getting real messy quickly and it becomes difficult to figure out how to clear up disk space to accommodate more files.

Deleting unnecessary files is a good solution, but can be tough to do when files aren't properly organized. If you want to clear up disk space the fastest way possible, the best problem solver to this is by formatting your USB flash drive directly. The advantages of doing this is that your flash drive is wiped completely clean, removing all files regardless of their attributes (including hidden files). Here are the basic steps in reformatting your USB flash drive:

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Backup your data

How Do You Reformat a USB Flash Drive?

Formatting your USB flash disk doesn't leave any files behind so make sure you copy your most important files to a temporary location. If you plan to put these files back after formatting, organize the folder structure so you can better manage your disk next time you have disk space issues.

Reformatting your drive in Windows

Open up your "My Computer" (or "Computer" in Vista) from the Start Menu and look for the drive that has a "Removable Disk" icon. This is usually assigned to the last drive letter and may show multiple drives if multiple devices are plugged in. Right-click on the device you wish to format and select "Format".

A dialog should open up showing several options; leave all the options alone unless you want to change the volume label. You can leave the "Quick Format" option unchecked to make sure everything is deleted without errors and doesn't take too much time to begin with. Click the "Start" button on the dialog and wait for the device to fully format. You should end up with a clean flash disk that is ready to accept more files.

Reformatting your drive in Mac OS X

Mac OS X users can format a flash disk by loading the "Disk Utility" program located in the Utilities folder that is inside the Applications folder. Your flash drive should be in the list showing a white drive icon. Click that icon and select the "Erase" tab on the main window. Select the "MS-DOS (FAT)" option if you wish to make the drive compatible with Windows operating systems and give it a volume name. The format will begin when you click the "Erase" button below.

Formatting is a rather easy task so next time you feel the need of freeing up disk space or removing a nasty virus, you can format the device without nagging your techie friends and relatives in doing it for you. Just keep in mind that it is close to impossible to recover the data that you erased while formatting unless you have decent recovery tools so always double check your drive before you begin formatting.

How Do You Reformat a USB Flash Drive?

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For logo branded USB Flash Drives, he recommends Flashbay.com.

Causes Of Software Project Failure

Most software projects fail completely or partial failures because a small number of projects meet all their requirements. These requirements can be the cost, schedule, quality, or requirements objectives. According to many studies, failure rate of software projects is between 50% - 80%. This essay is a compilation of failure causes of software development projects; this essay summarises several areas that play a vital role in software project failure.

So, what really is the reason for software project failure? The sad fact is that software projects fail because we do not recognize that good engineering principles should be applied to software projects just as they are to building office buildings. We try to defend ourselves by saying that software construction is "different".

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One of the most serious complaints against software failure is the inability
to estimate with acceptable accuracy the cost, resources, and schedule necessary
for a software project. Conventional assessment methods have always produced
positive results which contribute to the too well-known cost infested and
schedule slippage.

Causes Of Software Project Failure

Over the last 20 years many cost and schedule estimation techniques have been
used with mixed sensation due to restrictions of the assessment models. A major
part of the estimations failure can be due to a lack of understanding of the
software development process and the effect of that method used in the project
plan, schedule and cost estimates.

Failure Case Studies
Below are few of the case studies considered which will be analysed to fetch
the main reasons of failure of the software system.

Northumbria University developed accounting software to manage its day to day
business. The project could not come up with the desired results and failed to
meet the deadlines. Te investigations showed that the basic project management
procedures were not followed. This case study is referenced in this essay at
different points where necessary. [1]

Thai subsidiary (SMTL) of a Hong Kong-based multinational company (SMHK)
engaged in the manufacturing of electronic equipment. They implemented an
integrated software package; which was a failure at the several factors. These
factors were mostly management related. Such as a poor fit between the business
process assumptions inscribed in the software and the business processes in SMTL,
poor leadership at different levels, cultural differences, organizational
environment, and poor human resource management.

St John's Hospital is a District General Hospital provides medical and
nursing services, which includes both general surgery and medicine.All these
services are supported by diagnostic imaging, laboratory, ambulance, pharmacy
and therapy services, which are all on site. As the major hospital in a tourist
area, it deals with many visitors in the holiday season, generating a large
amount of non-booked admissions work.

Software Management & Leadership
It has been shown repeatedly, that effective leadership is essential for successful IT implementation (Klenke, 1994). A leader must also have cultural sensitivity, communication skills, creativity, ability to delegate, and the ability to develop and retain human resources (Luthans, 1994). The software manager at (SMHK) was a western, where as the lower managers were Eastern. So there was a cultural clash going on always. Jack (Manager) always try to introduce creative thoughts. And most of the time the lower management could not do them. Hence there was a clash going on all the time.

Employees also felt that management hardly ever "listened" to their concerns
or attempted to address them. Consequently, many employees were eager to leave
the company, and did so as soon as they found alternate opportunities in other
companies.

Project Planning & Scheduling
Project planning means creating work breakdown, and then allocate responsibilities to the developers over time. Project planning consists of construction of various tasks, timelines and essential pathways including Gantt charts and PERT charts and different written plans for various situations.

It is quite usual in software development process to work backward from the
project end date which results in complete software project failure. It is
impossible that a project can be completed efficiently from the planning stage
to the implementation stage.

Allocation of roles and responsibilities has to be clearly defined, and it
becomes crucial while hiring the stall from outside. University's higher
management failed to apply the basic project management rules which laid to the
project failure.

Proper scheduling is also required before the start of the project. It
includes the time scheduling, teams scheduling. Project managers don't know what
they have to plan and schedule. They just only tell the programmer what to do
and the programmers can come up with a proper solution.

The development was moved to a new office and the office was not fully
equipped with the proper infrastructure. As time is also a big factor in success
or failure of a project. So it delayed the development process and contributed
towards the project failure. Infrastructure was not fully scheduled and
management team didn't know where and how the project development will be
started.

The top secret of a winning software development project is to control the
quality up and lower the risk. Contingency plan is also the part of planning. In
case things went wrong then this plan can be followed to lower the affect of the
failure of project. Same was the case with university's accounting software. The
management team had no such a contingency plan nor did they evaluate the risk
involved in the development of the new system. So it caused more trouble without
the backup system or backup plan.

The management just try to follow the methodologies like SDLC or RAD, but don't know which methodology to use and at which time should apply the right technique.

Cost Estimation
Cost estimation is mainly involved the cost of effort to produce the software project. But it's not limited to the effort only. It also includes the hardware and software cost, training the employees and customer, travelling to the customer, networking and communication costs. Cost estimation should be done as a part of the software process model.

Cost estimation needs to be done well before the start of the project
development. Failure of the budgeting for the cost of the project results in
complete disaster. As stated above the infrastructure cost, development tools
cost and hardware cost also needs to be estimated first.

Same thing happened to university's accounting system development. They
purchased the new system well with out any serious estimation of the cost and
the income sources.

Below are the reasons why wrong cost estimation is done.

Inappropriate estimation methodology
Another reason would be the use of an inappropriate cost estimation methodology. Not a single methodology is better than other. Every methodology has its own strong and weak points which should be considered. Dr. Barry Boehm's book Software Engineering Economics lists seven estimation methodologies. One or more of these methodologies can be used to estimate the cost of a project

"Good suggestion is that more than one software cost estimation methodology
should be used for accurate estimation".

Cost estimation tools
There are many drawbacks in manual cost estimation. This technique is almost obsolete now. These days successful cost estimation includes the use of appropriate commercial software cost estimating tool.

Good software estimating tools do not always guarantee reliable software
estimates. Wrong input of the software size will result in wrong estimate.
Estimation software also needs to be customised for the specific need of
organization. These customisations require the data from the past projects as
input for the tool to estimate.

There are number of reasons these tools can return the wrong estimate.

Choosing the right estimation tool
Choice of a right estimation tool is necessary for the right estimation. The tool is not capable of handling the input and thus it can come up with the wrong estimate and hence cause the software project to fail.

Ease of customisation
As mentioned above the selected tool must be customisable according to the organisation needs, so that the organization can customise it according to the needs and past project data.

Easy to use and learn
The cost estimation tool should be easy to use and learn. It must include help and examples, simple and straight forward user interface. It must require less training to learn the system and inputs should be well defined.

Accurate Estimation
The estimation tool must have the capability to analyse all the parameters and come up with the accurate estimation for the cost.

Risk Management
Risk management is an important factor towards software project failure if it's not managed timely and effectively. As nothing can be predicted that what will happen in future so we have to take the necessary steps in the present to take any uncertain situation in the future. Risk management means dealing with a concern before it becomes a crisis.

Risk Identification

According to the Universal risk Project there are two types of conditions which can be a symbol of as risk.

IF-THEN Statements "IF technology is not available, THEN we will not meet the requirement" "IF we cannot hire sufficient qualified software engineers, THEN we cannot meet the planned development schedule

Given the "condition", there is a likelihood that the "consequence" will occur "Given that this specific test fails (the CONDITION), the CONSEQUENCE is that the planned schedule will slip"


Project managers have to identify the areas where the risk can be and how it
can affect the development of the project. Risk can be of technical nature or
non technical. Project managers needs to be aware of both the risks. Most of the
projects managers are not good in either of the side. A good manager with
programming skills can be good in identifying the technical risk but not in non
technical risk.

Risk Analysis
After the risk is identified there is a need to make the categories of that risk. Risk analysis is the process of examining the project results and deliverables after the risk analysis and applying the technique to lower the risk. After risk analysis is complete, the proper risk analysis plan needs to be made to cope with any uncertain situation. First identified risks are categorized and make the hierarchy of those risks. At this point the risk is classified as the positive or negative risks.

Risk Prioritization
After the risk is analyzed, the next step is to priorities the risk. At first focus on the most sever risk first; and les sever later. These risk factors can worked from time to time so that the final project out come is free of risk. So most of the time project management team fails to identify the sever risk and work on the less sever risk. This often results in the form of a crisis.

Risk Avoidance
Dealing with the risk is an art. Some times the management takes the projects with out identifying the proper risk involved in the project. So an experienced manager will take the project after proper risk analysis and avoid any risk involved in the project.

Risk control
Managing the risk to achieve the desired results and deliverables is done through controlling the risk at its best. This is a pure intuitive process and depends on the experience of the project management team, or risk already managed in past projects which were done by the same organization.

Conclusion
This essay has presented three basic factors which can cause the software development project to fail. Planning & Scheduling, cost estimation and risk management. All of these factors are to be considered at the management level and then transferred to the lower management.

Planning & Scheduling comes at first, good planning and scheduling makes the
strong foundation for the software project. Project planning consists of
construction of various tasks, timelines and essential pathways including Gantt
charts and PERT charts and different written plans for various situations. If
these factors are not taken into part then the software may encounter problems
during the development and the final product will be a failure.

Cost estimation depends on the budget of the project, customer type and the
size and effort to be put in the project. Cost estimations are done many times
during the life cycle of a project. It affects the project in many ways, wrong
estimation complete failure, affect the good-will of the organisation if the
costs are not covered, stake holders are affected and waste of resources.

Managing the risk is a practical approach for decreasing the ambiguity and
possible loss related with a software development project. Potential measures
can be considered as opportunity-focused (positive risk) if their consequences
are favourable, or as threat-focused (negative risk) if their consequences are
unfavourable.

Causes Of Software Project Failure

[1]. infoNet is an Advisory Service funded by JISC retrieved on November 26 2006 from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/ Jones, Capers, Patterns of Software Systems Failure and Success, International Thompson Computer Press, Boston, Mass., 1996. Boehm, B.W., “Software Risk Management: Principles and Practices”, IEEE Software, January 1991 http://sunset.usc.edu/classes/cs510_2003/notes/risk.pdf “Software Risk Management: Back to Basics – The Top 10 (or so) Software Risks”, Software Technology Conference, 2003

How to Recover Deleted Internet History

It is actually nobody's business what you do on your computer or for a matter of fact what you do. Unfortunately we all have to share computers in some places and protecting yourself privacy is very important in such situations. So, we delete the Internet history. If you are an administrator or want to recover deleted Internet history, you can do it.

Once really quick and easy way to recover deleted Internet history is to use the 'System Restore' feature. You can find this is in the Windows Registry located at - Start, Menu, Programs, Accessories, System tools. All you need to do choose a date you want it to be restored to and you have it.

Data Backup

However in some systems this may be disabled or not possible. Another way of doing this is using Profession Desktop Search which can work on Windows and Vista platform.

How to Recover Deleted Internet History

Sometimes, you may have accidentally deleted it and want it back at any cost. You can browse through the log files where all user activity is stored. Also if you have a backup system, you can use that to get the history.

There are also data recovery professionals who use various techniques. They work on your hard disk and trace the information for you. Another method of doing it yourself is to recover from C: in My Computer, but you may damage your hard disk. If you still want to do it, you have to go to Program Files.

You cannot forget the cookies that have got downloaded temporarily, you can use them. For this you need to go to the Tools on top of your Internet windows, click on Internet Options and then click on General tab which will open in a new window. From these you can recover deleted cookies and can also choose number of days to retain the deleted cookies.

How to Recover Deleted Internet History

To get more help to recover deleted internet history just click here

How Do I Read Deleted Text Messages From Mobile Phones?

If you accidentally deleted an important text message or contact number from your phone and are looking for a way to get them back then you've come to the right place. You see many people often ask me how do I read deleted text messages from my phone. All of them have their own personal reasons for wanting to recover their deleted messages but nonetheless I tell them it can easily be done if you have the right tools. Continue reading below to learn how to read deleted text messages from mobile phones...

By now I'm sure you will be wondering is it really possible to read deleted text messages? Well my friend it certainly is and it is possible because your mobile phones on board memory and SIM card work just like any other storage device.

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Like all other devices they don't immediately delete data once it has been deleted, instead they mark the space that was occupied by the deleted file as new re-usable space. So until that space is overwritten by new data, in your case new messages, contact numbers etc, most of your deleted data is still there and can be easily recovered with the right tools.

How Do I Read Deleted Text Messages From Mobile Phones?

The tools you will need are a USB SIM card reader, which you can get for a couple of bucks from Amazon, and a good SIM card recovery program. The recovery program works just like any other data recovery software but it is specifically designed to recover lost SIM card data. Now believe it or not but these programs are quite effective at recovering lost/ deleted messages, contact numbers and any other SIM Card data, you will be amazed at the results.

The good news is you can download some software for Free right now and check to see if your messages are actually recoverable. It is a program I have used in the past and it got the job done quite nicely, you will find it very easy to use and it should recover any lost data from your SIM Card if it is retrievable. You can download the trail version for free by visiting the link below...

So for anyone who needed to know how do I read deleted text messages from a mobile phone, the info above should be more than enough to get you on your way. You can recover almost any type of data from your mobile phone, even deleted pictures, songs, videos and more, check out the link below for more info...

How Do I Read Deleted Text Messages From Mobile Phones?

Did you delete an important text message or number from your Mobile Phone? If so DON'T Panic! With the right SIM Card Recovery Tool you should recover your deleted messages in no time.

Personally I used a program called SIM Card Data Recovery, it is very easy to use and Free To Download. Not only can you retrieve deleted text messages but also deleted call logs, phone numbers, call locations and much more... Check It Out!

How To Put Music On Iphone

How to put music to iPhone is something that a lot of people are going to want to know as the weeks go by. The Apple iPhone is going to be a very popular piece of hardware, and if you'd like to know how to get your favourite songs on it, you'd better read on.

The iPod took the world by storm, and now we have the possibility of a machine which can integrate your on the move entertainment with your cell phone, and even provide access to the internet.

Data Backup

If you are new to the world of hand held entertainment systems, you will probably want to know how to get music from two different sources. You will want to know how to take the music from your own collection and put that onto your new iPhone, and you will also want to know how to access the huge libraries of music available on the internet. You will need a computer to do either of these, but it can be anything fairly recent. From the internet, you can get a software program which will make a copy of your CD music to your hard drive, and then you will need a connecting lead to effect the transfer to your iPhone.

How To Put Music On Iphone

The first step will be to get your existing music transferred. This will not take too long, as the software programs called "rippers" are capable of transferring music at much higher speeds than normal playback. If your hard drive is large enough, you can rip the music from all of your CDs in one go, before transferring it.

The biggest challenge of how to put music to iPhone is with finding reliable sources of music to download from the internet. Many new people get caught in a very dangerous trap, by using P2P sites. These are against the law, and the quality of the downloads is really poor. Often files are not what they are supposed to be, and they can easily contain malware which can be dangerous to your computer. Join a reputable site, where you can pay once for lifetime access, and you will have a completely different experience.

By joining a good site like this, and ripping the tracks from your existing CDs, you will soon find that you have plenty of music to transfer to your iPhone. Connect your iPhone to the computer, use iTunes to make the transfer, and you will learn the last part needed in how to put music to iPhone.

This article should have made it a little easier to get your music onto your Iphone. Check out the links below to see some of the best Iphone download sites.

How To Put Music On Iphone

Click HERE to get free Iphone downloads-whether you want games or movies it's right here, and it's fast and easy!

If you are looking for the best Iphone download resources on the net, CLICK HERE and we'll tell you where they are-this will save you a fortune!

Jonathan Webster is the webmaster at IphoneDownloadsReviews.com!

Download Free Ipod Music - The Legal Way

Many people know where to download free Ipod music, but sadly none of it is legal. The governments in the world are getting much better at tracing people's downloads and things like that, so unless you want to go to jail you are going to want to learn how to download free ipod music-the legal way!

Download Free Ipod Legal Music-Tip 1-

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Find a reputable download site. I don't mean some P2P site chock full of popups etc, I mean a reliable site that will let you download as much as you want and at high speed. It can be really tough to find a good site like this, so when you find one, stick to it like glue! I'll give you some advice on exactly where to find reputable sites below.

Download Free Ipod Music - The Legal Way

Download Free Ipod Legal Music Tip 2-

Don't believe the hype. If a site looks too good to be true it undoubtedly is. You'll come across lots of P2P sites and the like which will offer all kinds of "free" downloads, only to find that when you try and download something, it's super slow and most often isn't what you wanted anyway. P2P sites are one of the main ways for hackers to spread viruses-they simple upload any old file, put the spyware or virus in it, and then name it something exciting that everyone will want to download. Not to mention the fact that some of them will ask for you to pay for a download, even though they claimed it was free!

Download Free Ipod Legal Music Tip 3-

Don't break the law. As we said above, it gets easier every single day for the government to trace who is downloading what. I like free stuff as much as the next guy, but is it really worth going to jail just to get the last episode of the OC?

As mentioned above, thankfully there are a few sites starting to spring up which allow a legal, fast, safe way for you to download all the movies and videos you want, right onto your computer ready for you to stuff them into your Ipod.

There is a slight catch, in that you will need to pay an admin fee to get a membership in most cases. It's not a big catch though, as I think to is not much to pay for unlimited downloads for the rest of your life. The admin fee is necessary as it allows them to pay for upkeep on their servers and things like that, and is probably why they offer such a wide range of downloads at high speed.

As I said, I have sourced a few of these amazing sites for you, and you will see how to get to them from the blue links below. You'll soon see that downloading free Ipod legal music is not as hard as it seems!

Download Free Ipod Music - The Legal Way

Click HERE to find out where you can get FREE IPOD DOWNLOADS right now-And it's not just music either, Music, Movies, Games, Music Videos TV Shows and MUCH more!

Are you looking for the best Ipod Download Sites on the net? CLICK HERE and we'll tell you where they are-knowing these sites will save you an absolute fortune!

Sean Hamilton is the webmaster at http://www.ipodlowdown.com

The Importance of Data Backups

All computers and their components are subject to failure. In fact sooner or later every business will be confronted with some type of computer failure. The largest threat to businesses during a failure will be some type of data loss or data corruption. While the causes of data loss and data corruption vary, not all are easily fixed.

When a data loss or data corruption occurs, many times the only option is to restore the data from a previously created backup of the affected data. Many businesses today over look the importance of data backups until they suffer the unexpected loss or corruption of valuable data. Once this occurs it would be too late, unless the business is lucky enough to restore the data by physically recreating all the affected files from scratch. This of course is only possible if they have a hard copy or another source from which to recreate the data. It will also cost the business a valuable amount of man hours in recreating the data as well. That is if they are lucky enough to be able to even recreate the data in the first place.

Data Backup

If your business has made backups of all data stored on the hard drives, restoring that data will go much more quickly and require a lot less effort. It will also require a lot less man hours and tears shed over the loss that has occurred.

The Importance of Data Backups

Today there are many options available to businesses for storing and backing up their data. Some of the options available are tape drives and tape libraries, CD-R's and CD-RW's to DVD technologies. There is also the option to use NAS (Network Area Storage) and SAN (Storage Area Networks) and even remote backups over the internet. Even Windows XP/Server 2003 offers a restore point in case your system becomes corrupted. Of course just having these tools available to you is not enough. They need to be used properly and on a continuous basis to be effective.

Sooner or later all systems will face some type of failure that will require a restore from backup. The point is to perform those backups so they are there when you need them.

It is recommended that you sit down with your systems administrator to create a backup plan for your business immediately if you have not done so already. Also recommended, is that you review your backup plan yearly as well. When discussing your backup plan there are certain options to consider. Such as how often to perform the backups and what type of backup media is best suited for your business. Depending on your type of business and how much your data changes from day to day you may want to perform backups weekly, daily, or several times per day. For most small to mid-sized businesses I would recommend a full backup once per week with incremental backups at the end of each work day.

You will also want to consider whether or not to keep some of your backups off site in the case your business is affected by some type of natural or man made disaster. In addition you may also want software to monitor your backup process in order to ensure that your backups are not corrupted as well. This is a common experience with some types of backup media as well.

Finally you may also want to perform a system restore on an occasional basis so that you can check the effectiveness of the restoration process that you have set in place and to practice it so it goes as smoothly as possible.

Following these steps may be essential to your business continuity should your systems fail and you suffer a loss or corruption of data. Setting up a backup plan as well as a restoration plan will also go a long way in ensuring your business operations if you run into a system failure. This would help establish a "who is to do what" list if your systems should fail.

Failing to backup your business data, especially mission critical data is nothing short of a recipe for disaster. Nothing is as important to your business as the data that sits on the hard drives of your systems.

Copyright, Keith Erwood, Dynamic Network Technologies, © 2005 All Rights Reserved

The Importance of Data Backups

Keith Erwood is the head consultant and owner of Dynamic Network Technologies, a computer consulting and services business in New York City. Visit us at Dynamic Network Technologies