Password Resets

[wanttaja]

Built up a new PC last weekend, and thus lost my old POA password. I've submitted my email address several times on the "lost password" process and haven't gotten a response.

I'm posting from a work computer that still has the original password, but even using the Control Panel password change function, I need the original password...

Ron Wanttaja

 

[gprellwitz]

Built up a new PC last weekend, and thus lost my old POA password. I've submitted my email address several times on the "lost password" process and haven't gotten a response.

I'm posting from a work computer that still has the original password, but even using the Control Panel password change function, I need the original password...

Ron Wanttaja

If you're using FireFox on the work computer and it's actually storing the password (as opposed to just remembering your login), you whould be able to go to Tools -> Options -> Security [tab] -> Saved Passwords [button] to see your saved password.

 

[wanttaja]

If you're using FireFox on the work computer and it's actually storing the password (as opposed to just remembering your login), you whould be able to go to Tools -> Options -> Security [tab] -> Saved Passwords [button] to see your saved password.

Thanks much. Your suggestion gave me an idea...I put my old hard disk on a external USB enclosure, and copied *all* the files from the Firefox section of my old user directory into the new one. Worked great, got all the user names/passwords back, plus some of the custom settings I had for POA.

Thanks again!

Ron Wanttaja

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Thanks much. Your suggestion gave me an idea...I put my old hard disk on a external USB enclosure, and copied *all* the files from the Firefox section of my old user directory into the new one. Worked great, got all the user names/passwords back, plus some of the custom settings I had for POA.

Thanks again!

Ron Wanttaja

Praise the Lord!! Somebody actually made and used a backup!

 

[wanttaja]

Praise the Lord!! Somebody actually made and used a backup!

Sorry to disappoint you. The disk I took the data from was the master hard disk of my *old* computer. I always have my hard disks on travel carriers, so I pulled it out of the old machine and plugged it into the new one to transfer files. My old computer was limping along, but it hadn't died yet.

But you aren't THAT wrong. My wife's computer crashed Friday, and I'd made a full-system backup a month or so ago when it started having trouble. Bought her a new machine, too, and used a USB external hard disk carrier to copy all her files from the backup HD.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Praise the Lord!! Somebody actually made and used a backup!

Bah. Any Mac user (10.5 and later) who owns an external hard drive would be a complete idiot to not make use of Time Machine.

Setup:
1. Plug in external hard drive. A dialog will appear asking if you want to use it as your backup drive.
2. Click "Yes."

Doesn't get much simpler than that! I actually used a backup for the first time ever when I installed a new 500G hard drive in my laptop. I just did a quick force-backup to get a last incremental on the old drive, swapped the drives, and did a restore. Sweet.

 

[gkainz]

I'm not sold on the use of portable external hard drives as my main backup. In my opinion (MTBF not researched, so I might be all wet) a portable drive has a greater potential for failure just due to portability. Then what? Backups are unrecoverable? However, all my old tape backup units are so old and small that they're practically unusable as well. ... So, I back up to a NAS drive. I'm not a whole lot more confident of that backup solution as I am a portable drive, but at least it doesn't get moved, bumped or jostled.
Still need backup from disk to tape (or other medium) for me to feel more comfortable... then need to include off-site storage.

 

[SCCutler]

Bah. Any Mac user (10.5 and later) who owns an external hard drive would be a complete idiot to not make use of Time Machine.

Setup:
1. Plug in external hard drive. A dialog will appear asking if you want to use it as your backup drive.
2. Click "Yes."

Doesn't get much simpler than that! I actually used a backup for the first time ever when I installed a new 500G hard drive in my laptop. I just did a quick force-backup to get a last incremental on the old drive, swapped the drives, and did a restore. Sweet.

This is simply brilliant, good design.

 

[jmaynard]

This is simply brilliant, good design.

Not only that, but the restore interface is astonishingly easy to use: navigate to the file you want to restore, select the time you want to restore from using a timeline that makes the window move backward and forward in time, then tell it to go, and it does.

Anyone who has a Mac needs to get Leopard installed and Time Machine set up, ASAP. Time Machine is Leopard's killer app.

 

[SCCutler]

See, I read stuff like this and wish for all my legal apps to be Mac-ified. That and WordPerfect, as I cannot possibly imagine the horror of having to use MSWord.

 

[mikea]

See, I read stuff like this and wish for all my legal apps to be Mac-ified. That and WordPerfect, as I cannot possibly imagine the horror of having to use MSWord.

It's very doable now that you can make your Mac filesystem transparently available to a Windows VM.

It really is "My Documents" in Windows is Home/Documents on the Mac. B)

I just installed VM Ware fusion for a buddy and he was mystified as I told him it's not supposed to be that easy to see your your Mac home folder in Windows. Sorta like with kids thinking that we always had remote control on our TV.

AFAIK, the current versions of Parallels do that, too. I haven't sprung a for an upgrade yet.

Up til now, you could set up a common folder for sharing but not necessarily just use your home folder.

Spike: Click on the Blue Tag: http://store.apple.com

You want an 24" iMac and Parallels and a Time Capsule and you need a full copy of Windows XP.

Newegg sells the OEM version of Windows XP Home for $89. It's hard to find but it's there.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

See, I read stuff like this and wish for all my legal apps to be Mac-ified. That and WordPerfect, as I cannot possibly imagine the horror of having to use MSWord.

Spike,

WP *used to* be on the Mac at least, but it's been so long I don't know if they've maintained it. However, you could use Apple's excellent $79 iWork suite which has Pages, Numbers, and Keynote instead of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and is SO much nicer.

It used to be, anyway, that there was a much higher percentage of lawyers using Macs than the general population. Dunno if that's still true or not, but I would think that if it is, you'd be able to find equivalent software. What do you use besides TM?

 

[jesse]

I'm not sold on the use of portable external hard drives as my main backup. In my opinion (MTBF not researched, so I might be all wet) a portable drive has a greater potential for failure just due to portability. Then what? Backups are unrecoverable? However, all my old tape backup units are so old and small that they're practically unusable as well. ... So, I back up to a NAS drive. I'm not a whole lot more confident of that backup solution as I am a portable drive, but at least it doesn't get moved, bumped or jostled.
Still need backup from disk to tape (or other medium) for me to feel more comfortable... then need to include off-site storage.

Greg, hard drives do fail, but I'm way more comfortable using them for backups then I am tape. Tape is giant pain in the ass and getting a good tape backup followed by a good tape restore is something worth celebrating. Corruption, read errors, it's all too common..Plus a good tape auto-loader is just stupid expensive.

 

[gkainz]

Greg, hard drives do fail, but I'm way more comfortable using them for backups then I am tape. Tape is giant pain in the ass and getting a good tape backup followed by a good tape restore is something worth celebrating. Corruption, read errors, it's all too common..Plus a good tape auto-loader is just stupid expensive.

For home/small office use, I agree ... however, I guess I'm spoiled ... gotten very accustomed to doing hundred gig+ database backups using Veritas, Tivoli, et al, all taking to an autoloading tape robot ... nightly backups with very few tape errors (a few a year?) and monthly disaster recovery restore tests ... all on someone else's corporate dollars, of course.

My old home unit, single tape drive had it's practical capacity exceeded years ago.

 

[jesse]

For home/small office use, I agree ... however, I guess I'm spoiled ... gotten very accustomed to doing hundred gig+ database backups using Veritas, Tivoli, et al, all taking to an autoloading tape robot ... nightly backups with very few tape errors (a few a year?) and monthly disaster recovery restore tests ... all on someone else's corporate dollars, of course.

My old home unit, single tape drive had it's practical capacity exceeded years ago.

I'm talking about corporate / enterprise stuff. Disk based is just slick. For like $5,000 you can build a 13TB system that takes up 3U. Replicate data off-site hot for backups. Cost per dollar is much much lower and maintenance is much easier IME.

Rotating disks isn't that hard to do either. At my previous company, I just rotated the disks.

 

[ScottM]

Bah. Any Mac user (10.5 and later) who owns an external hard drive would be a complete idiot to not make use of Time Machine.

Setup:
1. Plug in external hard drive. A dialog will appear asking if you want to use it as your backup drive.
2. Click "Yes."

Doesn't get much simpler than that! I actually used a backup for the first time ever when I installed a new 500G hard drive in my laptop. I just did a quick force-backup to get a last incremental on the old drive, swapped the drives, and did a restore. Sweet.

What are you using for a back up drive?

 

[jmaynard]

For home/small office use, I agree ... however, I guess I'm spoiled ... gotten very accustomed to doing hundred gig+ database backups using Veritas, Tivoli, et al, all taking to an autoloading tape robot ... nightly backups with very few tape errors (a few a year?) and monthly disaster recovery restore tests ... all on someone else's corporate dollars, of course.

Lots and LOTS of them. I do backup system installation and configuration (with EMC NetWorker) for a living. Modern LTO3 and LTO4 tape drives have big capacities, run fast, and are quite reliable. The downside is that they're very, very expensive. Even a small tape library will run you tens of thousands of dollars, and those 800 GB LTO4 tapes will cost a hundred bucks each.

I use Time Machine at home.

 

[wanttaja]

Greg, hard drives do fail, but I'm way more comfortable using them for backups then I am tape. Tape is giant pain in the ass and getting a good tape backup followed by a good tape restore is something worth celebrating. Corruption, read errors, it's all too common..Plus a good tape auto-loader is just stupid expensive.

I had a situation at work a few years back where we needed data from a program ~10 years in the past. The system had been completely archived on tape. NOT A SINGLE TAPE could be read.

In contrast, we had many Syquest removable hard disks that had been left over from the era. We also had a couple of conventional PC-type hard disks, including one that was still installed in a Power Mac. There were only a couple instances where were couldn't read the old hard disks.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[flyingcheesehead]

What are you using for a back up drive?

A La Cie 1TB RAID connected via FireWire 800. Nice and fast, and easy - I do kind of wish it was wireless, but sooner or later (okay, later) I'll get a Time Capsule so that it is wireless.

 

[gkainz]

I've had a number of clients that have a multi-year retention policy, and a few that have had a "forever" requirement for database backups. The irony of the Oracle backup is that after a few years, the likelyhood of being able to restore that backup is small to nil, as database releases are upgraded, not to mention the above experiences with older tapes that Ron noted...