I have a column in the works about being a lifetime nerd. I have rewritten it a couple of times now, and it’s still not ready for prime time. Perhaps one of these days I will publish it. But as a Boy Scout, being a good nerd, I embraced fully what they told me. Specifically: "Be Prepared". And so I have been – well, most of the time. And so should you.
This column is addressed more to you businesspeople out there rather than individuals.
I have had a number of calls lately from businesses that have had their computers fail – sometimes from viruses, sometimes from lightning hits, sometimes from the random fickle finger of fate. Sometimes I can help, sometimes not. But here is some good advice to make the next occurrence a bit less painful.
If the day-to-day operation of your business depends on a regular PC, you are in for a rude shock sooner or later. The bottom line is that the hardware and systems of today’s PCs are just not all that reliable or recoverable. For example: you can get a hard disk system called RAID that will provide a very high degree of reliability. But a RAID system will cost more than double or triple more than a regular hard disk. You can also get hardware with redundant power supplies, multiple processors, and other high reliability features. But at a cost.
So, what can you do to protect yourself (to some degree) and still keep costs down?
1) Assess your hardware. If it is more than three years old, you may be reaching the end of life of that hardware. I recommend to my business clients that they replace 1/3 of their PCs every year – thus the life of any given PC is three years.
2) Consider a hardware system backup. This is a good thing to do with your old PC after you upgrade. Keep the old PC around and keep the software on it up to date. Thus if there is a failure you just have to swap back to the old PC. It may be slower than your new one, but probably adequate to keep your business going.
3) Find out what components are inside your PC and buy backup hardware to put on the shelf. Examples of this may be special interface cards you may be using; serial or parallel port cards; extra memory; network cards and switches; etc. The cost of most components is not too high these days; cheap for the peace of mind you will receive.
4) If you have a high-speed network (Internet) connection, you might consider keeping an alternate dial-up connection active also.
5) And, of course, ALWAYS keep good backups.
Just a little time spent looking at your hardware and software configuration and asking the simple question “What can go wrong” will be well worth your time.
On another topic, to follow up on my pursuit of computer DVD, I am getting closer, but not yet there. At least in theory, I have found a DVD player program that supports the 5.1 channel sound, and also theoretically the sound card drivers have been updated. But, it still doesn’t work fully. The saga continues.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).