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Backing up data is easy. Not doing it can be a catastrophe.
I provide computer support and infrastructure services for small businesses in New York City and New Jersey. I often get frantic calls from businesses begging for help because a primary computer or shared server has failed.
Data recovery has advanced so much that unless the hard drive has physically failed, I can usually recover their important data files. When Im successful, its one of the most rewarding events I experience.
Here are some true stories of amusing client situations involving inadequate backup that had happy endings. Im still amazed that, to this day, most businesses dont follow adequate backup practices.
The Author
I got a call one Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm from an author in New York. She said: David, you dont know me. A nearby friend who knows you referred me to you. (Pause.) I dont care what youre doing or what your plans are for the weekend. Ill double your fees if youll drop everything and drive into New York City NOW! My laptop has seized and I have all the chapters of my new book in it and Im two weeks away from deadline. This book is worth thousands of dollars to me. Can you help me?
I told her I happened to be available (I was looking forward to unwinding with my family, but duty called). I agreed to do the work at my regular weekend rate and I drove to her home.
I worked on the laptop for an hour, and was having some difficulty finding the process that was freezing Windows. She stood up, handed me a blank, signed check and told me she was going for a walk. When she returned, if I hadnt fixed it by then, I was to go out and buy her a new laptop of my choice, add whatever fees I wanted, then get her set up so she could start recreating the book by her deadline.
Shortly after she left, I isolated the process and fixed it. Windows returned to normal. I did some other maintenance, fixed a cellular adapter that had never worked, did some maintenance and backed up her files to her husbands computer over their network. (He didnt know I was doing it.)
When she came home, I calmly told her she was all set, and her laptop was running like new, and I had backed up her work. She just looked at me. I thought shed be happy, but I shrugged and started packing up to leave. All of a sudden, she burst into tears of joy and jumped into my arms. She hugged me tight, and gave me a huge kiss on the lips in front of her husband. All I could think of saying was, Please! Take her back! I already have one wife, I cant handle two!
I visited a hair salon in northern New Jersey in 2010. The owner was still using a hair salon management program written in DOS and running on a Windows Millennium PC.
First thing I do before I work on a PC, especially an old one, is ask whether the backups are current. She beamed and said that she backs it up every day. I asked her to show me what she does. She turned and pointed to her long-time assistant and said she does it for me. Uh, huh. I turned to her assistant and asked her to show me what she does. The assistant pointed to the Windows Desktop and said she clicks on an icon and it just runs. Uh, huh.
I checked the properties of the shortcut and found it pointed to a program in a folder. The program was a simple batch file that runs copy commands. I reviewed the commands and looked at the folder it was backing up files to. I found the files in the destination folder were 15 years old. I told the owner; the color drained from her face.
She said, We also have a USB hard drive we back up to! I asked her to point me to it. She showed me the drive. I said, I see. So youre backing up to this drive that is turned off and unplugged?!
She sighed, and then asked me to set her up with a working backup method.
Talk about luck! She hadnt had a successful backup in 15 years, but hadnt suffered a serious failure in all that time. Wow!
David Streit is an IT consultant and an entrepreneur, as principal of Stephill Associates, LLC. in Manalapan, New Jersey. Stephill provides IT infrastructure and technology advisory services for small business clients in New Jersey and New York City. Streit has worked with PCs and technology for more than 25 years. He and his wife, Claudia, have two daughters, Hillary and Stephanie.
Stephill Associates website: http://www.stephillassociates.com