Monthly Archives: December 2009

Real Estate Ramblings, Technology

Project of the week; Data storage/backup

datastorageIs your data safe?  If your like most…  not as safe as it should be.  I have used a variety of data storage/backup over the past few years.  CDs, flashdrives, and web-based. 

Currently I use a web-based backup service  that I pay a monthly fee for.  I have used the same service for about two years.  It comes in extremely handy when I reformat and need to reload my data, also when I am away and need to grab a stored document.  I usually purchase a new computer every year or two, and the transfer of data is a breeze.  

I have a slr digital camera.  The stored images can be fairly large, 5-10 mg each.  My photos, like most, linger on my computer and rarely find a frame.  I have years of photos, organized by year and month, that I want in a safe place. 

Unfortunately, as my storage needs are growing,  I am finding the current service I use to be fairly costly.  Coming in at about 25$ a month!  Yikes… time to check out some other options! While still leaning toward the safety of web-based storage… I may consider a portable storage options.  Time for some homework!  That is going to be my project of the week!  What do you use?

Technology

Syncing Data

It’s that time of year and I am focused on cleaning up my contact file! Like so many people, I work from a desktop and a laptop, syncing data is extremely important.

What I have: Outlook 2007 to manage my contacts and calendar.

I have a PC running Win7

I have a laptop running Win Vista

I also use an Iphone which needs to have all my contacts current.

When I am working with a new client or a new agent, right from the start, I enter their data into Outlook; name, office, phone, email, fax ect… It IS very time consuming and likely very inconsistent, to enter a new contact into my laptop Outlook, then into my desktop Outlook then sync that contacts using iTunes to my iPhone… so the search was on.. Although I use my laptop daily, my primary “work station” is my desktop.

After some research I downloaded a trial version of PSTSync, this I discovered had issues with pst passwords, and after a couple hours of working on it, testing on both computers, I just decided to try another program.

So after a little more research, I downloaded a trial copy of Synchpst for Outlook at www.synchpst.com This program installed easily and within a few minutes I was able to sync my data on both computers and my iPhone. I created a test contact, applying categories and notes, both of these came through great in the sync!

 According to their site, you can sync different versions of Outlook, and only need to buy one license to synchronize two computers on the same network. The price is $39.95, which is cheaper than the first program I checked out. There is 12 month renewal of $20. I consider this very affordable for a clean and complete contact file.

Need to know: PST files are hidden, and you will need to go to “folder options” in the control panel and under “view” set it to show hidden files on both computers you are linking.

Your pst file is typically located at C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook, you can also get to this under “file” from Outlook menu, then “data file management” click on the pst file and select open folder…

You will need to “share” the file on your network. I actually shared each file on the path to the pst file.

Pst password, although using PSTSync, I couldn’t resolve the password issues, on the second program; Synchpst I used my email password and it worked great!

I am curious to know how many are currently using one of these types of program, let me know. If not, I hope you find this useful, email if you have any questions I can help with.