PC Protection Guide

Actually, it almost certainly will and it probably has, even if you didn’t think of it this way before. Losing data is a part of reality in our computer-oriented world. How many times have you spent time working on a document, only to have something happen that makes the document vaporize? Or an FTP upload that dies as soon as you walk away from your monitor? These may not be “disasters” but they indicate the basic frailty of digital data. The machinery on which that data runs and is stored is also at risk — and probably much greater risk than you’ve thought about before. The good news is, as in many things an “ounce” of prevention beats a pound of cure. Today’s data risks are higher than ever, especially for those of us who rely on digital media for our liveli- hood, but the solutions are also easier and frequently less expensive than ever before. By the time you’re done reading my book, you’ll know everything you need to about how to keep your valuable data and systems humming along, so your cash register can keep ringing.

What’s a “disaster”? A disaster in digital media is anything that either costs you unplanned money or unplanned time or both — things like: • Hard drive crashes • Power interruptions and power surges • Broadband or other connectivity interruptions System failure • Fires and overheating Earthquakes... There can be other disasters too, like when your top programmer quits without notice and doesn’t leave any notes on how to update her databases. But for our purposes we’re focusing on hardware maintenance related issues, software security and environmental impacts. There are some things you can avoid, and some things you can only hope to minimize in their impact without being able to avoid. The general issues, options, best practices, and a few products to consider are the subject of the next thirty pages.