Computer Readiness for Hurricane Season

Does your disaster plan include safeguarding your computer?  Getting ready for hurricane season is more than just having fresh water and supplies.  Think about your computer preparation too. What are the threats and what is at stake?  Power outages, surges, and flooding from the storm could cause permanent data loss and equipment damage.  Imagine all your photos, documents, music, and movies lost forever because of a hurricane or severe storm.  It doesn't have to happen that way.  Even though computer hardware is replaceable, there is still time and cost involved in getting your computer system back online.  Saved memories on the damaged computer are extremely expensive to recover at best, and most times lost forever.

Follow these steps to prepare for the storm:

1. Back up regularly to prevent data loss - consider online, off site, water and fire safe storage
2. Invest in surge protection and uninterruptible power supply
3. Unplug your during computer during lightning storm
4. Create an inventory list complete with photos, model and serial numbers, receipts

Pocket Flash Drive Saves the Day

My Handy Dandy Flash Drive

Today I was out on a laptop hunting mission.  I got a call from a lady who wanted to sell her old Gateway laptop. There was only one thing wrong with it.  It was missing a the "O" key on the keyboard.  She couldn't log in anymore because of the missing key.  She had already purchased a new Acer laptop, so she didn't want to get it fixed.

I asked if she had any information she wanted to save before selling it.  She said she needed her family photos.  I asked if she had a back up drive, external hard drive, or flash drive or blank CD.  She didn't have anything, but fortunately I came prepared with my 2GB PNY thumb drive.  I offered to transfer her photos from the old laptop to the new one for her.  She happily agreed.  I popped the drive in a side USB port on the old laptop and navigated to the "My  Pictures" folder. I drag and dropped the folder on the the portable drive.  A few minutes later, it was done copying so I pulled out the flash drive and plugged it into her new laptop.  I dragged the folder of pictures to the "Pictures" folder.  Afterwards, she mentioned that she liked my thumb drive.  I offered to sell her mine and she said yes. I had recently bought a new 4GB flash memory drive.  I unplugged collected the laptop power adapter and I was on my way.

Now, I'm home and its time to work on this keyboard with the missing key.  Fortunately, its only one missing key, so I pulled one off another laptop used for parts.  Fixed in five seconds, I was back in business!

Back Up your PC

Spilled Drink on Laptop

You are working on your notebook computer drinking a coffee, when someone bumps your cup and it spills all over your new computer. You desperately try to wipe of the keyboard but it is too late.  Your computer stopped working.  You think, at least I have insurance that covers accidental damage.  The problem is you have just lost all your valuable information.  You don't have a recent back up.  You are not alone. Over 85% of PC users don't back up data regularly.  What will you do?  Hours of work are lost.  Irreplaceable photos, videos, and personal files are lost forever.

You could get back to work in a flash if you had a portable external hard drive.  Contact IQ Computer Services for data recovery in Alexandria VA.