Avoid Disaster

There are several things you can do that will prevent or minimize the impact of most computer disasters. The first is to back up regularly. Tech support specialists from every software company can talk for hours about people who call up in a panic to get a problem solved that would not be a problem if there were backups available. What do you tell someone who says that he or she restored last year's data and now can't access this year's data and this year's data was not backed up?

Some people do back up, but only at year end "for archival purposes". That is not a good backup plan except maybe during January. We are often asked (after a disaster), "How often should I back up?". The answer is simple. How much data are you willing to sit down and reenter if the system goes down? Would you be willing to reenter six months worth of data? Then you only need to back up once every six months. Most people are not willing to enter more than a weeks worth of old data at the most. That means weekly backups. The safest course, however, is daily backups. With the cost of tape units now being under $200.00, cost is no longer a major factor. Daily backup to tape is easy and simple and takes only a few minutes.

If you can't backup every day, then consider the use of a program such as PKZIP which will create a second copy of your data in a compressed archive file. The compressed copy could be as small as 10% of the original file. Once set up, PKZIP usually takes less than a minute to create a "safety copy" of your important data in a compressed archive file. Some users have a "DATA SAFETY" selection in their main menu that quickly makes a compressed archive with a single key press. It is easy to hit that key when you go on break or leave for lunch and when you return the deed is all done, even on the slowest system.

The second thing you can do to help prevent disaster is to get a UPS or backup power unit. These units can run your computer for several minutes once the power line goes down, giving you ample time to save your work and turn off your computer. Today, some of these units can be had for as little as $89.00 retail. Larger and more expensive units can run your computer for hours while the power is down or even sense a power loss, save the status of your computer, your program and your data, and then turn off power to your computer automatically and safely.

Many computer users who have had multiple hard disk problems per year now report no hard disk error except in the case of defective hard disks AFTER a UPS unit had been installed. It turns out that many "hard disk" problems are really power problems! If you have to regularly reformat your hard disk, put up with scrambled data on a regular basis, replace computer power supplies every year or so, or if your location frequently experiences brownouts or power outages, a UPS will solve your problems. (Unless you have a virus)

Virus protection is another form of disaster prevention that all computer users must deal with. No one has ever obtained a virus through CMS because every machine here gets a regular virus check and all disks are formatted in house. CMS has many measures in place (most of which we can't reveal publicly) to prevent virus infections. Not every software vendor is as careful. We have seen customer's machines infected through utilities, games, accounting software, internet downloads, and software demos. Don't trust any file that gets on your machine. Virus checking software is inexpensive and effective. Most programs have background routines that can sit in memory watching every program that runs for virus activity. When detected, the virus software immediately takes over and saves the day for you. Most virus software can also be set to run unattended checks of all the files on your machine while you are doing something else. Some Windows virus checkers can even run in the background while you are using your machine. Contact CMS or your local software dealer for information on obtaining effective virus protection.

For further information, contact CMS: