The next day when she turned on the computer, it got as far as that Windows XP boot screen with the little green bar that bounces back and forth on the screen similar to the car in the old TV show, Knight Rider (but the car’s lights were red).  After a few seconds of displaying that screen, it flashed blank and the computer rebooted, similar to what might have happened if you clicked the reset button just then. Remember the instructions on the back of the pet rock that said “turn me over” on each side?  Well that is what this computer was doing, locked into a cycle of booting up to that point and then rebooting again.

Unfortunately for the customer, she did not have any of the manufacturer’s recovery disks available to her because her employer (who had provided the computer) had kept those disks to prevent potential licensing violation issues from arising away from their head office.  If she had those CDs, we could have easily restored the operating system with drivers and had her back in operation within a matter of a couple of hours.  Instead we had to use a new copy of Windows XP Home and reinstall the operating system (using her original serial number).  Fortunately, because Windows XP recognizes more hardware than ever before, it automatically loaded the Ethernet drivers and enough of the other drivers to get functional once more. Then using her DSL line we were able to connect to the manufacturer’s web site, go to the support page and download the rest of the drivers (software) needed to get her video, sound, modem and other hardware functioning back to normal.

When we reinstalled XP, it gave us the choice of erasing the old c:\windows directory or creating a new directory with a new name.  I chose to create a new directory, thus preserving her data stored in the c:\windows directory.  If we had obtained the “upgrade” version of XP, perhaps we could have simply reinstalled on top of the old system, but that wasn’t an option provided to me at this particular time.  This course of action (installing into a new directory) meant also that all of her application programs (Microsoft Office, ACT contact manager, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) had to be reinstalled, and all of her e-mail settings restored.

Fortunately for her, the hard drive errors which led to the crash (corruption in a section where part of the windows operating system was located) was not bad enough to need replacement of the hard drive nor result in 100% loss of all of her data. She did not need to use the services of a drive recovery company to pull her data off onto another drive (very expensive service most of the time).

For this customer, there is Life after Crash, but part of my services was to also teach her how to use her CD-RW drive to make backup copies of her data, or Norton Ghost to make a drive image onto CD-RW disk in case her hard drive does finally decide to take a permanent vacation after all.

While it may not be cost effective for most home PC users to consider using an off-site back-up service, this is a direction that many business users are heading.  There are many companies who provide this service, including Digital Fortress of course.  Many home computer users tell me they have nothing of great importance on their computer needing to be backed up.  But did you keep a printed out copy after you did your taxes on Turbo Tax last year?  How about all of those letters you wrote protesting your increase in property tax assessments or other legal matters?  Would you be out of touch if you lost all of your e-mail address book entries?   Do you write a newsletter for your club or other organization and, if so, did you keep a copy of it on paper?  Are you using the same ole floppy disk or zip cartridge over and over and over again?  If so, when is the last time you checked it for disk errors by using the surface scan or “advanced” option?

If your computer died today, and you had to replace it with a new computer, how much would you have to re-enter manually to get back up and going?  How long would it take you to recover, or could you?

You can take steps to increase your success rate only if you prepare in advance by backing up critical data, keeping your original installation CDs where you can find them (not loaned out to your daughter’s boyfriend’s cousin), keeping your driver disks for all of the hardware in your computer handy for reinstallation, and running regular system maintenance (disk check, defragment, virus updates weekly, etc.).

There is Life after Crash, but only if you were properly prepared to handle it.  All computers fail eventually, and just like humans, we never know when our day is coming.

And last, but not least, I wish to thank all my regular readers who called or sent me e-mail messages inquiring why my column was missing in action for the April 2004 issue.  Due to time constraints on my end, not the editor who gave me extra leeway (no pun intended), I was unable to get an article written in time to meet the publication deadline.  In fact, even this month’s column was a few days late.  For that I apologize to both the editor and my readers, and will endeavor to remedy that “problem” in future months.  Rest assured, my intentions are to continue writing these monthly columns for as long as the editor permits and the readers indicate they are interested.

Don’t forget…if you haven’t updated your anti-virus program recently you are at risk of catching some of the newer viruses that have been released this month.