People go to great lengths to protect their data from hackers, scams, viruses, etc. and they should, However in this article, I am going to talk about simply not losing your data.

It seems every year I get at least one call from someone who says “I had a computer problem and lost all my data”. There is no reason for this and I am going to talk about two simple things that can help prevent it

Backups:

In my office, I don’t just do backups but I do many redundant backups. Every night each drive is backed up. Then that same drive is “cloned” to another drive. Then all file data is copied to another office computer. Critical data is then backup up offsite.

There was a time when this type of redundancy would not have been possible but now storage space is cheap and readily available. There is simply no excuse for ever losing “all your data”. I once had a main drive failure toward the end of tax season and was back up and running (as if nothing had happened) the same day.

Surge Protectors:

Everyone uses surge protected power strips. I have many in my office. They are convenient and they last forever (or do they?).

What many people don’t realize is that while the power strip may work forever, the surge protection does not. It will fail over time. It is generally recommended that these be replaced every 2-3 years. Even more often if your area is subject to a lot of brown outs or spikes.

What many people also don’t realize is that you can overload a power strip by “daisy chaining” them together (plugging one strip into another). Some appliances (such as printers) put a heavy load on the strip by themselves and plugging more and more into it not only diminishes its effectiveness but creates a safety hazard. Modern surge protected power strips have many outlets, configurations, and protections to suit your needs. You should make certain they are doing the job as intended.

While protecting your data from outside invaders is, of course, very important. Making certain your data can’t simply “be lost” should be your first line of defense.

As noted in a previous blog, Windows 10 support will end in 2025 (the 10 year anniversary). Thus, everyone must be running Windows 11 by that date. This is a free Windows 10 upgrade. However, as previously pointed out, older hardware may not run Windows 11 forcing hardware updates prior to that time.

My office is one of those where none of the current hardware (which is running just fine) meets the Windows 11 requirements. Thus, I will begin to transition to new hardware over this 3 year time frame.

I don’t view this as a necessarily bad thing as it forces companies like mine to evaluate the current hardware and start to make some upgrade decisions (a lot has changed over the last 10 or so years).

The disappointment comes when you actually see Windows 11. The desktop has changed in that it tries to look more like a MacOs with everything moved to the center and referred to as apps instead of programs. However, everything under the hood is still basically Windows 10 with some Windows 7 still preserved (in fact you can change the appearance back to the original if you like). While Microsoft promises performance enhancements, is if clear that this is just a Windows 10 patch rather than a revamped new operating system.

There doesn’t appear to be any reason Microsoft could not have made this a free upgrade to Windows 10 for those with older hardware other than Microsoft deliberately wanted to try and boost sales.

While there is certainly nothing to rave about with Windows 11, the new hardware will almost certainly be a significant enhancement to my office. More on that later….