Update on office organizing

17 years ago

As many of you remember I posted a rant about my friend who overstepped her boundries and set up my office with a system that was awful and messed up a lot of my files and computer programs. I was so furious. I spent days getting things like I wanted and was almost there when our hard drive (on our NEW computer) died! I lost everything! I thought this was going to push me over the edge . . . you know the feeling . . . the twitch in your forehead right above your eyebrow, the feeling that your chest is going to explode and the steam coming out of your ears . . . well, anyway, we got it fixed (it was on full warranty) and back, but in the meantime I lost files that I really needed. Many I was able to get back from our artist, but some are lost for good. Anyway, the lesson I learned is to always back EVERYTHING up that you need to keep. I would never have imagined our new computer crashing, but it did. I wasn't prepared for it and it really caused havoc for our new business. So learn from my hard lesson! Back everything up!

Brenda

By the way, "hi" to everyone!!

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Comments (6)

talley_sue_nyc
17 years ago
Brenda, I wonder if you can get someone to help you automate the backing up process? Our Norton Utilities runs as part of the shut-down process every time.

Or, simply try to make it part of your own human "shut down" routine--you never leave the computer for the day until you've backed up.

In my job (magazine edit), I'm supposed to run a spell check every time before I print a story. I always forget--until the "print" menu pops up. I gave up feeling stupid, and decided that I would USE THE PRINT MENU AS MY CUE. So, when I get the print menu, I always say, "oops, spell check," click "cancel," and run the check.

When you go to shut down, do you get a "are you sure you want to shut down?" sort of message? Then you could click "cancel," drag your hard-drive icon onto your backup, and THEN shut down again.

Someone here once strongly recommended buying a separate external hard drive to use as backup--you don't need to label it, file it, worry about someone overwriting on it, etc. And the chances of BOTH hard drives (internal & external) going bad is pretty small.

Sounded good to me; if I were in your shoes, that's probably what I'd do.
quiltglo
17 years ago
The DH leaves his system on and the IT set it up so that it backs up nightly at midnight. Slows him down when he's still working.

Don't forget to get a backup off site on a regular basis. You never know what could happen.

Gloria
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intherain
17 years ago
Brenda, thanks for the reminder! My DH is always telling me I need to keep backing everything up, especially since I have a lot of files for my job.

(Nice to hear from you again!)

Sheryl
artmom
17 years ago
Wow Brenda, sorry to hear you had more problems. Sounds like you got some good advice tho.Other than the computer crash how is the new business going? Do you have it down to a science yet?
B
steve_o
17 years ago
And you folks running Windows PCs need to keep your virus and spyware definitions up to date. If you let the subscription expire or you unchecked the "update automatically" checkbox, get on it! Virii and spybots really can slow you down or kill your data.
talley_sue_nyc
17 years ago
you folks running Windows PCs

Does this mean you're on a Mac, Steve?