I have been teaching people how to use computers since around 1984 and have always recommended that users back up their data. In the early days of personal computers, failures were a lot more common than now. In particular, hard drives were more prone to “crashing,” which is literally when the read-write heads, which float or fly on a cushion of air over the spinning disk, actually crash into the surface of the disk. That is not a sound you want to hear.

Other types of hardware and software failures could also cause data loss. Even undeleting a file, which is taken for granted now, did not come around for several years after I started using computers.

Today’s computers are much more reliable, but still subject to data loss from software glitches, hardware failures, viruses, malware, fire and theft. It is still very important to back up your data. How you do it is also important, as I learned recently.

My own computer woes

I came into my office, as I do every morning, and started my computer. I left for a few minutes to get a cup of coffee. When I returned, there was a big message on the screen from my backup software that said my data drive could not be found. My computer is configured with a small solid-state drive (C) for the operating system, and a large traditional hard drive (D) for my data. Unfortunately, the message from my backup software was correct. Every attempt to access the D drive yielded a message—the drive could not be read.

I took the computer to a technician, hoping they had some tools that could access the drive. No such luck. Still, I did not panic. I had a spare computer in the office that was a little newer and faster than the one I was using. I quickly got it set up with my programs and started restoring data from my online backup service. 

However, the database file for my estimating software could not be found. That’s when I started to panic. After four hours on the phone with tech support, I still did not have my file. The tech support was elevated to level three the next day, and they still could not find my file. Now I was in full panic mode. The loss of 2½ years of estimates was a big problem. The loss of my active estimates was huge.

After taking some time to do some deep breathing and find my inner calm, I analyzed my position. It was not as bad as I feared. My on-screen takeoff files were all intact. For three projects, all I had to do was re-enter the takeoff into my estimating software. I did have one project where my takeoff had all been entered directly into the estimating system, so I would have to remeasure those feeders and enter them again.

Backup, backup, backup

The time lost setting up a new computer and restoring my most vital files took about three days, and it put a major crunch on my schedule. I ended up working several long days and two weekends to recover, finish and deliver the estimates that were due.

So, what did I learn from this disaster? A single backup source is not adequate. I never imagined an online backup service could lose a file. It was time to learn about more complete backup solutions.

After a little research, I found a lot of options. First, I purchased a Western Digital EasyStore external hard drive. It came with Acronis True Image software, which was easy to use to create automatic backups on any schedule I might want. I can also manually launch a backup at any time. It has an advantage over the online backup—it is much faster at backing up and restoring files, since it plugs directly into a computer’s USB port. I learned my service was very slow when it came to restoring files from the cloud. I also received advice from a customer about using my one terabyte of cloud storage that comes with Microsoft Office 365 for automatic backup.

The solutions I adopted are great for individual computers, and in some cases several in a single office. There are other solutions for companies with large computer systems connected to a server. I also learned that I should have read all the fine print regarding the online backup plan I purchased—it turns out that there are several file types my plan does not back up automatically.

So here is my advice for all computer users, not just estimators: compute safely, and back up redundantly.

Header image: stock.adobe.com / McCarony