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Laplink has solved another major problem that technology advancements have created, it goes by the name of PCmover Image Assistant, and we just released it. To date disk imaging software has fallen short. As technology has advanced, more operating systems (Including Windows 7) have arrived. When Windows 7 was released and integrated into nearly every new PC on the market, everyone’s old disk images were rendered useless. This is because if you use imaging software to restore say an XP image to a Windows 7 PC, the software will overwrite your new OS with the old one making your purchase a complete waste of money (Who wants to explain that to their spouse?…). Not to mention, you have now lost all of your programs, files and settings on the new PC. PCmover Image Assistant solves this dilemma and will calm the worries of many PC users.

The software has two key abilities that cannot be found elsewhere. First is what we call Operating System Independent Restore (say what?). Second, it will rescue your hard drive from a non-working PC. Let’s talk about the Operating System Independent Restore first shall we as it sounds the most confusing (but I assure you that it’s not)?

All computer users need an image or complete backup of their computer. PCs get stolen, lit on fire and get run over every day and yours could be next. Creating an image protects you against these unforeseen data loss scenarios. However if you try to restore an XP image to a Windows 7 PC, your new OS will be overwritten by the old one. Using PCmover Image Assistant you can restore XP images to a new Windows 7 PC without overwriting it. All you do is mount your XP image to your new Windows 7 PC and use PCmover Image Assistant to suck out and restore the programs, files and settings you want. Not quite as confusing as you first thought eh? There is one caveat though; the programs you wish to restore must be compatible with Windows 7. If you happen to be running Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise you’re in luck, you have XP mode. That way you can still run programs that aren’t compatible on your new PC. Sorry Home Premium users, that feature is not available to you, so take extra care in checking for Windows 7 compatibility.

PCmover Image Assistant will also rescue a hard drive from a non-working PC. We are human, by nature we can’t predict the future, and PCs ultimately decide when they want to turn against us. We also never know when a catastrophe will strike. Thanks to the advancements in hard drive technology, when a PC crashes the hard drive is usually still readable. Even if the OS has been corrupted and will no longer boot, PCmover Image Assistant can access its programs, files and settings and restore them. All you have to do is attach the hard drive to your PC and Image Assistant will do the rest. Just make sure to keep your drives away from large animals, they have a tendency to step on things.

These two abilities qualify PCmover Image Assistant as the ultimate PC recovery tool aka Hard Drive Hero. No longer are your past, present and future disk images rendered useless and your hard drives will live forever. And it’s really something you can’t afford to miss out on, unless that is,  you want to lose all of your data.

Sounds pretty cool huh? We think so too. Leave a comment and tell us what you think about it and we will email you a coupon code good for 25% off Image Assistant.  (Must add a valid email address to the comment. Offer Expires 6/9/10)

Let’s discuss trash for a moment. A by-product of human existence, our trash never really goes away. Sure, some of it might biodegrade into the soil, but most of it, unfortunately, just hangs out. Your digital refuse isn’t much different – the files and folders you “delete” or toss in the Recycle Bin don’t actually disappear from your computer, just like the old newspaper you throw in the garbage doesn’t disappear from the planet.

The only difference between your physical trash and your digital trash is in what’s being thrown away. Think about it: most people are not going to be interested in tracking down and retrieving an empty jar of peanut butter or burnt-out light bulb, but those old excel documents of financial information that you “deleted” from your computer before throwing it away or selling it might have a bit more appeal.

Fortunately, there is software available to address this problem. Programs like Laplink SafeErase serve to securely delete whatever data you choose from hard drives, ensuring that your digital trash is protected from those who would pick through it. But what is it that these kinds of programs do that you can’t do yourself? Why is a piece of software like SafeErase so critical to wiping files off of your computer? Well, we’re glad you asked.

The Recycle Bin

From unflattering photos to old resumes, your computer’s recycle (or trash) bin has seen quite a bit. Unfortunately, sending a file to and then emptying your recycle bin doesn’t actually remove the data from your hard drive. According to the Wikipedia page on data remanence, “The delete function in most operating systems simply marks the space occupied by the file as reusable without immediately removing any of its contents.” The data is then still recoverable until the computer rewrites it with a new file (like another unflattering photo).

As long as your computer rewrites every file you delete, your information is safely deleted. However, your computer doesn’t have the threat of identity theft in mind when choosing which space to store a new file. There is no way to be certain that “deleted” files containing private information actually are deleted, which is where deletion software comes in.

The Software

Unless you want to resort to the fairly extreme (albeit cool) measures of drive slagging, a data deletion program will be your best bet for securely cleaning old or unwanted data off your hard drive. Because we love talking about our products and never pass up an opportunity for self-promotion, we’ll use Laplink SafeErase as an example.

SafeErase destroys data by overwriting it with layers of random numbers, making recovery impossible. SafeErase features six different deletion methods, each offering a different level of security:

Highest security method: 35 Cycles

Based on a process developed by New Zealand computer scientist Peter Gutmann, this method overwrites data with a series of 35 different deletion cycles, executed in random   order.

High security method: 7 Cycles

This method is based on the January 1995 “National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual” published by the U.S. Department of Defense. The seven cycles consists of three overwrites with the DoD 5220.22-M (E) Standard, a random value overwrite and then three more DOD 5220.22-M (E) overwrites.

Medium security method: 6 Cycles

As described in the “BSI IT Baseline Protection Manual” by the German Department of Security in Information Technology, this method overwrites data with a random value and then with its value compliment. The procedure is completed with three additional random value overwrites.

Low security method: 3 Cycles

While it offers a lower amount of security, this method is much faster than higher security methods. Based on the “National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual” (NISPOM) of the DoD, the data are overwritten first with a set value, then its compliment and finally with a random value.

Lowest security method: 1 Cycle

Even faster than the three-cycle method, this method overwrites data with a single random value.

Overwrite with Zeros

This is the fast method of secure data deletion. The selected data are overwritten with zeros to delete them completely.

And what makes the 35-cycle method more secure than just overwriting everything with zeros? For the answer to that question we turn to Laplink CTO extraordinaire Jack Wilson:

“The level of erasing will depend upon the level of concern of the person wiping the disk,” he said. “A simple overwrite of zeros is generally good enough so the files cannot be restored with typical retrieval programs. However this might not meet external requirements for sanitizing a hard drive as defined by HIPPA or DoD requirements. The more extreme methods allow the hard drive to be sanitized to the point that even extensive laboratory analysis, such as Magnetic Force Microscopy, will not allow data to be recovered.”

If this seems a bit complicated, think of it this way – your hard drive is like film on a videotape (a bit archaic, but we all still remember VHS, don’t we?) and your data is like the recorded images on the film. As many home-movie enthusiasts probably know, recording something new on top of what’s already on a videotape covers up the original footage, irretrievably. When Laplink SafeErase or other data deletion programs overwrite selected data on your hard drive, it produces the same result – the original information becomes inaccessible and securely deleted. The more times you record/rewrite over something, the more buried it becomes.

Makes the recycle bin on your desktop seem pretty irrelevant doesn’t it? At least now you have a better understanding of what all is involved in the secure deletion of data, and know where to turn when the time comes for you to make sure that those important super-secret files are properly destroyed.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t yet found the right product for securely deleting your data, why don’t you take a look at Laplink SafeErase. Did we mention that it features six different deletion methods?

There is little that rivals the mystique of disk imaging. If you perform an internet search of the term “disk imaging,” you’ll find that though imaging products may be large in number, there is very little information available on how they work.

Is it the fate, then, of PC users everywhere to remain in the dark, ceaselessly wondering just how products like Laplink DiskImage, Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost magically create images of their PC, which they may save for later restoration?

Nay.

After scouring the internet and picking the brains of Laplink’s finest software engineers, this Laplink copywriter has put together an explanation of the disk imaging process and publishes it now, here on this very blog, to spread the purifying light of knowledge to the far reaches of the PC user community.

Unveiling a Mystery: The Disk Imaging Process

A disk image, as it turns out, is just that – an image of your hard drive. It is a single file containing the entire contents of a data storage device, such as a hard drive, optical drive, etc., ending in a .dmg, .iso, .cue, .bin or .img file extension. This file can be stored either a compressed state, to save space, or a “raw,” uncompressed state. Whether the file of a disk image is compressed, along with the size of the hard drive, determines how large the file will be. Images that appear as a separate hard drive to the computer are called virtual hard drives, and end in .vhd.

Though there are many different disk imaging software products available all the market, they all essentially do the same thing (though some may do it faster and better than others). By creating complete sector-by-sector copies of a hard drive, its structure and all its contents, the average imaging product constructs a perfect replica of an entire drive – a replica that can be safely stored in case of catastrophe.

For those at all familiar with disk imaging, the terms “forensic imaging,” “differential imaging” and “incremental imaging” might ring a couple bells. Aside from having an intimidating amount of syllables, these terms describe different imaging methods.

Forensic Imaging: Creating a forensic image of a hard drive means that the imaging software will read each sector of the hard drive, rather than just the files themselves, to produce a complete image. Because a forensic image picks up and copies whole sectors of a hard drive, the image will contain all the hard drive information – this may even include deleted files and partial data.

Differential Imaging: A differential image is created to add changes to a previous general or forensic image. This kind of image identifies and makes copies of differences made to the hard drive since the first imaging, and adds those changes to the complete image. So rather than having multiple complete images, you have one complete image – a very large file, and then a image of only what has changed – a much smaller file.

Incremental Imaging: Similar to the differential image, an incremental image also takes note of changes made to the hard drive. However, an incremental image picks up changes from the last incremental image. In this case you have one very large complete image, and multiple smaller images of what has changed since the last incremental image. Incremental imaging is often performed regularly by users who wish to maintain a recent image of their hard drive.

Once an image of a hard drive or other storage device has been created, it can be used to restore to a computer to its former glory. Like some shining combination between an angel of mercy and the ultimate “undo,” imaging gives users the opportunity to resuscitate a PC from the edge of oblivion and start over with a clean slate. And really, what more could you ask for than a new beginning?

Want an Ultimate Angel of Merciful Undo for your very own? Try ours – New Laplink DiskImage with PCmover Image Assistant: For fast, easy and powerful hard drive imaging and restoration.

Remember when making a back-up of your data meant calling in a scribe and dictating for hours to the rhythm of a quill scratching on parchment? Well. Maybe not. But imaging technology has come a long way since the dark ages of 8-bit graphics and floppy disks. Evolving since the early 90s, disk imaging technology has made three prominent leaps of progress over the last two decades, resulting in the imaging software we’re familiar with today.

Join us now, won’t you, for a journey along the Disk Imaging Technology Timeline:

Early to mid 90s: Disk imaging and cloning technology becomes readily available to consumers, but is fairly limited in function. Users may use software to create an image of their PC, but that image is tied to the computer – images can only be restored to the same PC. The process requires a large number of floppy disks; tempers flare.

Late 90s to 2009: New developments give disk imaging products the ability to create an image of a PC, and then restore that image to any other PC. However, limitations are still present: an image is tied to its operating system. An image of a PC running Windows 95 can only be restored to a computer running that same operating system. The total incorporation of compact discs (CDs) soothes the hearts and souls of the frustrated floppy-disk generation.

2010: The release of Windows 7 triggers the need to update PCs from XP or Vista. Imaging technology, as it was previously, is unable to restore users’ images of old XP or Vista PCs to new Windows 7 PCs. However, with the creation and release of PCmover Image Assistant, by Laplink Software, this gap in imaging technology is closed. The first and only software to restore images across different operating systems, PCmover Image Assistant completes another turn in the evolutionary path of disk imaging technology.

Be sure to check out next week’s posting about how the disk imaging process actually works.

The internet: it is impossible to ignore and nearly impossible to avoid. As our world becomes more interconnected, our standards for information access and data sharing are steadily rising. No one wants to wait for hours to download files, or to share them between computers – we need our information now. And that is why the CRS-3 caught my attention.

Cisco CRS-3 (Credit: Cisco Systems)

On March 9^th, Cisco introduced the CRS-3, a next generation internet router. The new router offers 12 times the traffic capacity of its predecessors, while handling 322 terabits of traffic per second. Now, don’t confuse this router with the one sitting below your desk; this router will be sold to the world’s largest internet providers (AT&T, Verizon, Level3, just to name a few) and will benefit high-speed internet users around the globe.

Although the incorporation of this new technology will occur relatively soon, you probably won’t notice much of a difference – the improvement is not intended to boost the general internet. However, it will boost a growing necessity: video.

How many times have you suffered through slow buffering and poor picture quality on YouTube, Hulu or any other video site due to internet limitations? Enter the CRS-3. By increasing capacities for the nation’s core internet providers, the use of HDTV, video conferencing and even 3DTV, can now be offered to the mass market, aka you. Rumor has it that it will upload any movie ever made in as little as four minutes!

This opens a door of online opportunity to EVERYONE. We at Laplink will be able to apply this resource towards the development of new software products to provide you, the consumer, with cutting-edge programs to better your life and your business.

As a software company, this has gotten us excited, but what about you?  Does this excite you, and why?  What other technology has gotten you excited?  Go ahead, we want to know!

Link to initial story on Cnet:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10466043-266.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Laplink Software, Inc. and Enterprise Integration, Inc. today officially announced a partnership to provide Windows 7 upgrade services to enterprise clients throughout North America. We sat down with Tracey Brown, Enterprise Integration’s Chief Operations Officer, to find out a little more about the obstacles his clients face everyday and what computing trends he sees in the future.

What is the background of Enterprise Integration [EI]?

“EI has a rich background from both a technology delivery and a technology training perspective. As a company we thrive on the “Raving Fan” brand of service where going above and beyond for our customers is first and foremost in our action and intent.  We started off as a small business with a very big client and were able to leverage lessons learned, create a solid vision and execute to share that knowledge across a much larger base of mid-sized clients.  We are a managed service provider for all of IT Operations, from Service Desk to Operations Architecture Strategy.  We are Gold Microsoft Partner, Platinum Citrix, Advanced Cisco, VM Ware Enterprise, Riverbed and Net App.”

What do you see as some of the biggest obstacles your clients face right now?

“Our clients are facing the virtualization dilemma; many are struggling to identify the appropriate solution. VMWare worked great in the data center where it reduced a few thousand servers to a few hundred, but will it scale to the to tens of thousands of desktops?  And if it does how do I get there from here without impacting my workforce?  Where does XEN APP fit into the virtualization strategy?  When is a shared server / Shared App better than a Shared Server / Virtual Desktop?  How does Network Bandwidth impact my decisions?  Should I leverage an Aging Desktop hardware as my virtual client access or should I look at Thin Clients?  Many IT departments fail to acknowledge that the user to application interface is how the workforce views IT’s value.  Getting the desktop experience right the first time is critical.”

EI recently became a Laplink Partner, how do you plan on using tools like PCmover to help you clients?

“We are a 24 X 7 technology workforce, we needed a tool that fit into our process model, not a tool we had to develop a process around.  When multiple people are touching a desktop or laptop during a migration or upgrade you have to have a great process so nothing falls through the cracks.  We needed a comprehensive tool that could greatly reduce the opportunity for error, and increase our ability to deliver the work remotely. For years we have customized and used Microsoft User Migration Toolsets, however the cost of keeping these tools in sync with a changing environment became several full time jobs. And then Windows 7  was released and all that effort was again wasted. We wanted our onsite agents to be focused on the customer so they need to touch the hardware as minimally as possible while the agents on our Centralized Service Desk controlled the migrations remotely during slower times throughout the day and night shifts.  So the PC Mover Tool combined with a great process reduced our onsite footprint, leveraged our service desk and improved consistency for the customer.”

How has your industry changed in the last five years?

“From my perspective the industry has changed greatly and a lot of the change in the corporate IT environment is driven by the change in home IT adoption.  In many cases our customers have more powerful desktops and Internet connections than they are provided at work. At home, a customer will have DSL or Cable Internet Connections at 1Mb to 12Mb per second with a new flat screen monitor, computer with Vista or Windows 7, color printer etc… Then they come to work, and they share a T1 WAN with 20 other users and the computer runs Windows XP.   Needless to say they get a little frustrated.   The frustration is growing.  WAN optimization has provided a big change in the last five years and of course server virtualization has come into its own as well.  Storage de-duplication is a big winner.”

How do you think it will change in the next five years?

“The focus will and should be on the workforce: how do we improve how they interface with the application and knowledge of the enterprise. Successful computing environments will be focused on end-to-end delivery of services that is flexible to the subscriber who is ultimately our customer.  Other big opportunities I see are:

1. Optical storage media coming back in the form of multi-terabyte Near line Disk Storage Juke Boxes, companies are having a hard time deciding what data to keep so they are keeping it all…

2. WAN Compression, De duplication and protocol optimization will continue to change the design of the WAN and improve the customer experience.

3. Virtualized Desktop (VDI) will take root in the cubicle farms, however, with a larger mobile workforce and still slow wireless infrastructure, the dedicated computer will still be heavily depended on by the road warriors along with the power users that want to eat up 8 processors.”

As an automobile enthusiast, what model of car is your favorite?

“1969 Road Runner is my favorite, but I have a C3 corvette as my latest project car.”

To find out more about Enterprise Integration Click Here.

We sat down with our Chief Technology Officer Jack Wilson and asked him what he thought were some of the most import features of the new and upcoming PCmover Image Assistant. Here’s what he said:

“Many times in the past people have contacted us saying that their computer died but they have an image of the hard drive – and how can the image be restored to a new PC.

“Often, this can’t be done easily. Even when the imaging software supports a “hardware independent” restore there can be problems. Sometimes it is because the computer is different or the image expects the hard drive to have the same format, partitions or size.  PCmover Image Assistant will give you complete independence by allowing the PC user to take a disk image (or even the actual hard drive itself) from any computer and restore it to any new computer, regardless of the hardware or the operating system on the new machine.”

Jack continues, “These users are often stuck with two choices:  either restore everything including the old operating system (and then upgrade the OS) or painfully copy folder by folder and reinstall all applications.  Of course, if the image is of a PC that was running Windows XP, then restoring and upgrading to Windows 7 isn’t an option because Microsoft doesn’t support that scenario. In this case, PCmover Image Assistant is really the only option.”

“I am thrilled that we have a solution for the PC gone bad. We all have had a PC fail unexpectedly, but in many cases the hard drive is still okay. The problem is how to get everything to a new computer – especially when the operating system is different (and without running into legal licensing issues). PCmover Image Assistant solves this problem – and even allows for ‘selective restore’ where the user can choose to not restore certain applications, files and settings.”

“The selective restore is a great benefit that PCmover Image Assistant provides. Most people don’t realize how much time this will save them. Searching for old serials and transferring old programs, files, settings, pictures, videos and emails off an old hard drive is a process that can take weeks of effort. Even after you think you have everything, most people will still keep that old hard drive around just in case there is something they missed. With PCmover Image Assistant, all this work is handled automatically.”

“PCmover Image Assistant will change how we think of disk imaging software because it offers a solution for image restoration and hard drive transfers without regard to operating systems and accommodates selective restore processes.”

Windows 7 adoption has been very strong. Below you can see how quickly the OS has been gaining share in its first few months compared to Windows Vista’s first few months according to Net Applications, a sales intelligence provider. Net Application compiles data from numerous different sources including people who visit their website as well statistics from their customers. According to their website, they track 160 million computer users per month. But with still almost 68 percent of us using XP, that’s 108,000,000 PCs, if you’re counting.

Operating System Market Share

December, 2009

While Vista was at 0.93 percent after a month, Windows 7 was at 4.00 percent; when Vista jumped to 2.04 percent after two months, Windows 7 hit 5.71 percent.

So why is this happening? Here’s what I think. Although Vista gained a lot of market share, Vista was still competing directly with XP. Fast forward four years and Windows 7 is still competing with XP but has a lot more differentiators. XP was released in 2001 and a lot has happened since then so Microsoft has been able add a lot more functionality.

Mainly though I think it comes down to customer experience. Windows 7 had a very successful beta program, with both public and private involvement. Microsoft has received mostly good reviews from the media thus far, something Vista lacked. There is a lot more momentum and confidence in Windows 7 than Vista.

Now the question is, when you get your new Windows 7 PC, how to you get everything from you old PC to your new one?

Q&A with Laplink’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Jack Wilson:

What’s new with PCsync 6?

Of course the biggest change in PCsync is the ability to connect, transfer, and synchronize files with a Mac.  However there have also been many changes to PCsync to allow it to work faster and better than ever before between PCs.

What goes into the development of a product like PCsync?

What’s a typical day like in software development?  One of the biggest challenges in developing a software product like PCsync is ensuring the compatibility across the many different connection types (network, USB, and local devices), and the many combination of operating systems. For example, there are 6 versions of Windows 7, plus 32 bit and 64 bit versions. A lot of time was spent determining how best to communicate between the Mac file system and the PC. Modifying PCsync so the USB cables also worked on a Mac was also a challenge.  Not too many people realize the amount of testing involved in all that.

Who should buy PCsync?

Since PCsync can be used as both a file transfer and a synchronization product, anyone who is challenged by trying to connect and transfer files between PCs will love PCsync.  More and more users are confronted by this as having multiple PCs in the office or household is becoming more common.

What makes PCsync better than other competing products?  How is it better than Sync Center in Windows 7?

PCsync is by far the easiest way to synchronize files from PCs to PCs and PCs to Macs.  Try using Sync Center to connect to a Mac or XP!  Sync Center is mainly geared to network servers, not desktop to desktop computers.  Also certain features of Sync Center don’t even work on the ‘Home’ versions of Windows software.  

Any other exciting news from Laplink’s development team?

Of course the Laplink development team continues to work on updated versions of our PCmover product, especially features for our corporate users.  We are also looking at new innovative methods to make communication between your computers even easier.  Take for instance our Laplink Everywhere product.  With that product I can get to my work or home computers from any computer with a web browser, even Internet mobile devices like cell phones and PDAs.   What other product can you remotely access a PC from an iPhone, search for a file on that computer and then e-mail it as an attachment to anyone in the world?  All securely without having to setup complicated servers, VPNs or special firewall rules.   Now as far as PCsync is concerned, did I hear anyone say “What about Linux”?

A recent study from Gartner suggested the cost to deploy Windows 7 across an organization running XP could be as much as $1930 per user. This figure may seem high but here are some items every organization should look at before migrating to a new operating system.

When we talk to most of our clients or prospective clients we break down our cost analysis into two separate categories.

1. The real costs, which can be realized very easily. For instance, this would include cost to upgrade software to run on a new operating system or the cost to have technicians travel to a remote location and deploy new PCs in a remote office. Though these costs can be significant, these expenditures are often the only costs organizations will include in a cost analysis.
2. In order to get a complete view of the costs it takes to migrate to new PCs or to a new operating system, organizations must also include cost that might not be as tangible. We refer to these as the “soft” costs of migrating to a new PC. These costs include loss of worker productivity because they didn’t save a file to the network before their PC was replaced or the opportunity costs for that technician to find the file for the end-user when they create a helpdesk ticket.

Where does Gartner get its $1930 per PC cost? Aside from some of the larger costs, they come from items such as a complete audit, application testing on the new operating system, and training for IT and end-users. The largest category Gartner outlines is what they call the “Individual Variable Costs.” This basically means giving the end-user their new PC and making it work to their liking. Gartner includes three hours to reinstall software per user and two and a half hours to get the new PC to the end-user and reimage it. One major note, Gartner devoted six hours per user to what they categorized as “self support/informal training/downtime.”

We advise any client to do a comprehensive cost analysis before starting a major migration.  This includes trying to quantify their real costs, and their “softer” costs (user downtime, lost opportunity costs, etc). We have developed an Excel spreadsheet that will help organizations help quantify some of these costs. If you’d like anymore advice about an upcoming migration, please fill out this form and one of our experts will contact you.