What Would You Do If Your Computer Died?

Well, mine just did! It went 'ping' on Monday morning, before I'd even got started on planning out the week.

I'm guessing the hard drive just gave up, as I couldn't get the PC to restart and after several attempts trying different things, realised that this could be serious but hoped that it was recoverable.

I took it down to the local PC Repair shop - handily, just down the road and they said 'worst case' it would need a reformat but they'd save the data first, so I left them to it.

Several hours later after having heard nothing and hoping that I'd be getting it back at the end of the day, I called. They were just starting work on it and would leave the back-up running overnight.

Next morning and after three hours of effort - they'd given up. It was pretty terminal and the only solution was a new hard drive! :( So, a few more hours later, my laptop was returned with the operating system but not much else.

Fortunately, I have got a backup of the data - unfortunately it's only from mid May, so I've lost a few weeks work ... but better than nothing. I've also got the entire C: drive backed up from the beginning of the year - again not current but better than nothing. I'd set up a weekly data backup but it wasn't working and I hadn't managed to sort out why and of course you never think it's going to happen.

If you lost your computer - what would the impact be to you and your business? How would you function? What would you need to keep going?

• Make sure you backup your data regularly - not just the documents you use but also your mail files, calendar etc.
• Sync up with a PDA/Blackberry/Mobile Phone - for your calendar, contacts and email.
• Have an online mail system - at least you can temporarily access your email. Most local libraries offer free internet access.
  
• Keep a note of userids/pswds somewhere - in coded form obviously.
  

It's an ideal opportunity to declutter the hard disk and get rid of all those programmes you rarely use but I don't recommend it.

The older your computer is - the more likely it is to happen. Of course, we all know we should take regular back-ups but how many of us actually do?

Don't get caught out.