What do you do when, either by human error or mechanical failure, all of your work is lost?

A "Bad Technology Day" can happen to anyone. You press a key at the wrong time, your system starts making grinding noises or smoke begins pouring out of the computer. What this usually means is that something you have been working on has been lost. With this month's bulletin we would like to offer some suggestions when this happens to you.

1 - FAILURE IS INEVITABLE - Since computers are mechanical devices they are prone to failure. In general it is not so much a question of "If" a computer might fail as it is "When" a computer will fail. A computer typically has a life expectancy of about five years. If you are using an older system you might want to think about replacing components that are more susceptible to wear (such as the hard drive and cooling fans) or replacing the entire system (and gaining a performance enhancement in the bargain).

2 - BACKUPS ARE THE BEST MEDICINE - Given that almost all computers will fail, the only solution to prevent un-recoverable data loss is to back it up. In a previous bulletin (November 30, 2004 - Protecting Your Data) we discussed various methods by which you could protect your data from human error or system failure. In the event that your computer dies, taking your work with it, recovery of your data will be much less troublesome. If you suspect that your computer might be about to crash you should perform a backup as soon as possible. Make sure that you do not overwrite your last good backup, if a hardware failure occurs during the backup you will not only loose the backup that is underway but also whatever was written to the backup media prior to this backup.

3 - TAKE A STEP BACK FROM THE PROBLEM - Whether you have a backup of your data or not when disaster strikes the best thing you can do when it happens is to take a break. Make sure that your computer has been turned off then do something that gets you away from the computer for ten to twenty minutes. This will give you a chance to settle down, evaluate your problem and will reduce the potential for impulsive action that could make a bad problem worse. When you come back to the computer turn it back on to see if the problem re-appears. Whether the problem re-appears or not you would be well advised to contact a trusted IT service (such as ELM Computer Systems) to have your computer examined for problems.

4 - CALL FOR EXPERT HELP - If the problem re-appears turn off the computer immediately and ask a computer expert examine your system. In many cases the data will not be lost but merely inaccessible if the hard drive itself has not been damaged. Data recovery may be as simple as the installation of a new computer system and copying data from the original hard drive to the new system. If only a component on the computer has failed then the problem can often be resolved simply by replacing it. Newer systems may still be covered by the manufacturer's warranty which in some cases will also cover the labour required to make any required repairs.

5 - BE FLEXIBLE - If your data is stored on a network server you should in most cases be able to relocate to an other workstation and continue with your work. You will not see any changes made since you last saved your work but if you save your work every five or ten minutes you will minimize the amount of work that would be lost in the event of a system crash.

While the above is not an exhaustive list we hope that it will help you to take appropriate action when you are confronted by a computer failure.

 Previous ELM Bulletins are available at: www.elmcomputers.com/bulletin.html

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.

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