Just ask yourself . . .
Dec. 15th, 2008 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerHow much can you afford to lose? That's the question behind backups. And it's an important question for anyone using computers.
Our office secretary asked me to look at her machine today. She had just turned it on, and it was gleefully telling her that there might be a problem with her C: drive, and that it would check it. It was running CHKDSK by then, of course, and she wanted to know if it was okay to stop it. I suggested that she let it run.
And then I asked her about backups.
Turns out someone had suggested that she should make backups, but never explained what or how or why. Are they important? What do they have to do with the chkdsk problem?
At about this point, CHKDSK finished and the system started up. She looked at me and said, "Well, it's all okay now, right?"
I thought about it, and asked her a simple question. What would you do if your system crashed? How much can you afford to lose?
So we talked about it, and she's going to make copies of her key files on the little 1G USB stick that someone advised her to buy that she's never used.
It's such a simple question, and yet people seem to ignore it. Or take the time to explain to people how to avoid trouble. You can't go back after a crash and do the backups to reduce the loss.
How much can you afford to lose?
Our office secretary asked me to look at her machine today. She had just turned it on, and it was gleefully telling her that there might be a problem with her C: drive, and that it would check it. It was running CHKDSK by then, of course, and she wanted to know if it was okay to stop it. I suggested that she let it run.
And then I asked her about backups.
Turns out someone had suggested that she should make backups, but never explained what or how or why. Are they important? What do they have to do with the chkdsk problem?
At about this point, CHKDSK finished and the system started up. She looked at me and said, "Well, it's all okay now, right?"
I thought about it, and asked her a simple question. What would you do if your system crashed? How much can you afford to lose?
So we talked about it, and she's going to make copies of her key files on the little 1G USB stick that someone advised her to buy that she's never used.
It's such a simple question, and yet people seem to ignore it. Or take the time to explain to people how to avoid trouble. You can't go back after a crash and do the backups to reduce the loss.
How much can you afford to lose?
