We hear about it all the time, but how good are we at doing it? Backing up our files, that is. I wanted to share what recently happened to me in hopes it makes you all think a bit and be sure you have your back-up process in place…

I was out working in Connecticut for 10 days at the end of April. Little did I know when I got back to my office I’d be greeted by a computer who didn’t like that I had left him behind. I would have thought he would have enjoyed a little vacation time, but I think he misunderstood and decided on his own it was time for retirement. Before I left I shut him down. When I returned I started him up. I could feel the power running through his veins and I could hear his little fan blowing, but alas, no power light came on. I tried again and again, but to no avail. He was gone, and not coming back to work. I think the computer-to-human-year conversion is something like 1 computer year = 20 human years (you know, kind of like 1 dog year = 7 human years). He worked a long, long life. Given the conversion rate, he must have been about 100 years old! I get it – he needed to quit. But he could have told me first! My files!! I could have transferred my files!!

At this point many people would be freaking out. I was disappointed, but not freaking out. I knew I had a back-up plan in place and would be able to access the files another way. There may have been a few things not there, but nothing so important that they couldn’t be re-created. My plan includes external hard drives, Crashplan, and yep, I still back up client files on DVD. I know too many people, though, that don’t have a good plan in place, and if their computer decided IT was time for retirement, how many clients would they need to notify that their files are gone (or hope to God the client never wants to place an order!).

I did decide, since the computer was powering up, to pull out the hard drive and plug it in to a new computer, just to see if those few things could be retrieved. I got the tower open and found a thick coat of dust covering everything, so I took my canned air and blew it out (and then vacuumed the floor!). I thought, “Hmmmm…I wonder...” After removing the dust I plugged him back in. He came back to me! Power, fan, lights, etc. So I plugged in the monitor and sure enough, everything was accessible. I ran out to pick up a new external drive and was able to successfully copy everything from the computer onto the new drive. Then I kissed my old man and let him go. It’s been a good ride!

Thanks to you all for being a part of this wonderful organization we love!