The idea I put forth earlier this week (a personal network) can be created for free (that is, if you have a reasonably large thumbdrive…). With your thumbdrive firmly in hand, I think the first place you should go to would be the Portable App’s site. This site gives you a pretty good start on portable apps in an easy to install suite of apps and tools (you just download and click on install…first have your thumbdrive connected to your system…).
This Portable Apps suite has a pretty handy interface to access your app and other files on your thumbdrive. Of course, this is only the start, there are likely a few other apps worth picking up. A good place to start looking would be at some of these sites:
70 Free Useful Portable Applications You Should Know
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-free-useful-portable-applications-you-should-know
Good tools that fit on a thumb drive
http://serverfault.com/questions/261/good-tools-that-fit-on-a-thumb-drive
If you can’t find exactly what you are looking for there is a new app out there (Cameyo) which allows you to easily create your own portable apps:
Cameyo Creates a Portable Version of Just About Any Program
http://lifehacker.com/5635017/cameyo-creates-a-portable-version-of-just-about-any-program
For me I also have a couple other small apps which I have used, such as TrueCrypt (an encryption tool). TrueCrypt becomes more and more useful in this sort of environment because you may have some need to ensure that if this thumbdrive were lost (or stolen) that you wouldn’t also lose any of the possibly important files you would keep on the drive… With TrueCrypt you can also encrypt the rest of the thumbdrive to ensure that anything else you add will also have this level of security (i.e. a good idea!).
TrueCrypt
http://www.app-stick.com/appDetail.php?appid=truecrypt
For me (a blogger), I do most of my blogging on Window’s Live Writer, and with this adaptation, I have been able to actually write blog posts from almost anywhere I could carry a thumbdrive (and, of course, have access to a computer…). I’ve used this app to write posts using institutional computers in a small rural middle school in South Korea without a flaw.
Windows Live Writer Portable 2.0 Now with U3
http://www.techlifeweb.com/2007/09/08/windows-live-writer-portable-20-now-with-u3
Finally, with enough apps set up on your drive, you need to start to:
1. Think about which files to add…think in terms of “what will I need if my house burned down’ as a good start.
2. You need to find a clean and easy way to keep all of these files synced. Windows has a tool (which I am not as impressed with as I would wish). I have been using GoodSync for years and it is (once you have it set up the way you want it…) about as simple and idiot–proof as anyone might want.
At this point you are almost done with this emergency backup…
