mozbackup

It's hardly been on the market a few weeks but already it seems people are customizing Google Chrome enough to want a backup of their Google Chrome profiles. And why not? If your PC or Chrome were to crash suddenly, you may lose all your add-ons and carefully customised Chrome interface.

Google Chrome Backup is a simple and easy to use tool to create, backup, restore and manage Google Chrome profiles. It can backup all the most essential components such as history, bookmarks, add-ons etc. It also works with Chromium which is basically the open source version of Google's browser. It works very much like MozBackup for Mozilla profiles simply requiring you to select the profile you want to backup. In addition, it also features a restore function for corrupted profiles, the ability to delete old profiles and also create a new one.

While Google Chrome Backup adds a bit of presentation and ease to backing up profiles, you can of course still back it up manually by simply making a copy of the file located in: Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Chromium\User Data.

Bookmarks are one of those little things in life we don't pay attention to, but which we certainly miss when we don't have them around. Our bookmark collection should be taken as seriously as backup copies or password managers: someday it can save your life – or at least save you the pain of recovering all those links one by one.

So if you've decided to take care of your bookmarks, the first thing you should probably do is grab hold of a bookmark manager, like URLBase. Yes, web browsers do have embedded bookmark managers, but third-party ones usually include more features and extended functionality. You may also need a tool to clean your bookmark database a bit, that is, scanning it for dead links and duplicate entries. AM-DeadLink is a good choice for this task.

Now, once your bookmark collection is perfectly organized, it's time to backup it. MozBackup is probably the best option for Firefox users, while IE supporters may turn to myFavorites, an all-in-one management and backup tool for Internet Explorer.

Finally, for those of us who use different computers in different locations (home desktop PC, office desktop PC, laptop while commuting) a bookmark synchronizing app is almost a must. You can use BookmarkSync for general syncing needs or the more specific Foxmark extension just for the Firefox browser.

If you're a user of Mozilla applications such as Firefox or Thunderbird, then it's a good idea to make sure that you backup your profile every so often.

One of the best things about Mozilla's products, especially the Firefox browser, is the ability to customise it to your heart's content until it's truly your own. Change the skin, add a load of easy to access bookmarks in your toolbar, plus tons of extensions make Firefox a tweaker's dream. However, if God forbid, the worst happened and your hard-drive dies or your profile file becomes corrupted, all that hard work will be lost and you'll have to start from scratch.

There are two main ways to backup your Mozilla profiles – manually or with a program called MozBackup. Doing it manually is not particularly difficult – it just involves backing up the files in your profile folder. However, locating these files can sometimes be tricky, especially since some of them may be hidden unless you've got "Show hidden files and folders" selected in Explorer. The location varies depending on the operating system you are using. In the case of Firefox, you can find a full description of the profile locations for your computer and exactly how to back them up manually on the Mozilla website.

However, if you're intimidated by this or you have problems locating the profile file, you can use MozBackup. This program is especially useful if you use several other Mozilla products, such as Thunderbird and SeaMonkey, as it automatically detects all the Mozilla profiles on your PC. MozBackup is really quick and will have your profiles backed up in a couple of clicks. It displays all the available profiles on your PC and backs them up to a location of your choosing. You can also use this program to restore a profile if you've suffered a system crash and lost all that precious data.

Of course, whatever you do with your backup files (which are very small), make sure you store them on a separate device to your main hard-drive in case it crashes.