Real Bytes…

Don’t backup your data….

Everyone knows they should backup their data.  Why is it then, at Computer Troubleshooters, we spend an inordinate amount of time recovering data for people?  Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt…

Since everyone knows you should backup your data, I’m not going to bang the “backup” drum any more.  I’ll instead talk about the right way to protect your data.   Basically there are 2 ways to back up your data, a traditional backup (save a copy to a safe place) and an archive (a series of backup files).

Think of a backup as single photo and an archive as a movie.  With a backup you can get to a very specific moment in time.  That photo of you at the party with the lampshade on your head.  Imagine this is the only photo of you available.  Is it accurate?  Does it represent YOU?

Well, it is accurate in that it is you at that moment in time, but it may not be the photo you want people to remember you by.

Imagine you had a movie of you at the same party…you’re happy, you’re smiling, you’re having a good time, then, your wearing the lampshade and the movie ends.  You can rewind to the points you like and skip the points you don’t like.  This is an archive of you at the party.

Ok…so we have two ways of representing you at the party.  Now, what if we want to show someone YOU having fun at the party.    If all you have is a single backup, your stuck with the lampshade photo.  But, if you have the archive, you can find a variety of happy moments (with or without the lampshade).

Having a backup, a single copy of a file at a single point in time, is better than nothing.  But, what if you want to see a previous version of that file, to go back in time to an earlier edit; you can’t.  You only have that single backup file.

An archive is a series of backups, taken over time, that let you rewind and fast forward to any point in time.  Lets try a real world example (sorry, no more parties).

Tuesday morning, someone accidently erases your cost tracking spreadsheet.  The system is backed up Tuesday night, and you come in Wednesday, and voila, no spreadsheet.  You have a backup, but its after the file was deleted, you have nothing to restore.  You have a backup, but it doesn’t help.

If you had an archive, where you have a series of backups over time, you could rewind to the last known good backup that included the spreadsheet and restore it.  This is why you need an archive, and not just a backup.

When you create your backup strategy, ensure you include archiving procedures to allow for increased data protection flexibility.   Many backup tools and software allow for archiving.  We use products from Storagecraft, Carbonite, and Mozy Pro which all provide archiving as part of their feature set.

Grab the bucket of sawdust…

Back in the day when I was in grade school, there was a janitor at our school with a keychain full of keys.  You could hear him walking down the hallway, the mass of keys clanging away.  There was something else that the janitor was known for.  His bucket of sawdust.

If a student was, well, sick in class or the hallway, the janitor would arrive promptly with his bucket of sawdust.  He would sprinkle it around the affected area and come back a short bit later to sweep the area clean.  A very effective method.

We have our own bucket of sawdust here at Computer Troubleshooters.  Tools that we use to fix up a system that is, well, sick.  Below is a list of what we keep in our bucket.

ccleaner: Cleans temp. files, Windows Registry, Secure delete, etc.

jkdefrag: an open source, disk defrag utility.

malware bytes: One of the newest, and best, malware cleanup and prevention tools.  Free to try, but a commercial product.

These 3 utilities form a core of our bucket.  There are many more utilities we use, but on a daily basis, this is our sawdust.

Something fishy…

What do fish have to do with a technology blog?  More than you may think….

The goal with this blog is to share and educate.  Here is where I share my experiences helping people deal with technology.  I own and operate a
Computer Troubleshooters franchise.  I like to think of Computer Troubleshooters as the glue between people and technology.

Every day I see the real impact of technology on people and their businesses.  Not the slick, glossy, packaged experiences you see on TV or on the Web.  No, we deal with technology reality.  The reality of a notebook computer that won’t boot, an iPhone that can’t get email, or a business with a crashed server and no backups.  These aren’t the moments that make good ad copy.

When you boil it down, what we do is help you navigate these technology waters.  We want to minimize stress and make technology closer to what you see in the ads.  We can’t promise you’ll be dancing with your iPhone or declaring to the world you’re a PC or a Mac, but we can help make technology work for you, instead of the opposite.

So….what does all this have to do with fish?  In creating this blog I was reminded of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi who stated:

Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime

I hope in sharing with you my experiences with technology reality, you’ll gain enough skills to safely and comfortably cast your own lines into the technology waters…