[some helpful advice for all computer users.]

Some Losses Are Gains

Edition #74 — October 17, 2005.

After both Hurricane Katrina and Rita tore away at the Gulf Coast, I tried to imagine what it would be like to lose everything like many of those people did. I can't though — it's just not possible. I also lean toward seeing the losses in my own narrow terms — what must it be like for the guys who lost their computers and recording studio gear?

My greatest ongoing concern over the years has been to prevent the loss of my computer files. Most of my life's creative work is stored inside my computer and on backup CDs and DVDs. If I were to lose that stuff, I'd lose almost 15 years of hard work. So I try to plan ahead.

I back up my files religiously and make sure that I have everything set up for a quick grab and dash escape. My songs are backed up on DVDs inside boxes with handles, as are my books. Everything digital that's important to me is backed up plenty and ready to go.

But despite all this protection, there's always some unforeseen circumstance that can come along, as recently I found out.

Um, Has Anyone Seen My New Hard Drive?

In early September I bought a new external Firewire hard drive for storing my growing collection of audio samples — drum and orchestra sounds, etc. The HD ran without a hitch for three weeks. Then, one day I started up an application that I rarely use; it searches for sample CDs to convert them. For some reason this piece of software had an adverse reaction to the presence of my new hard drive; within seconds my computer could no longer read its contents.

Uh oh.

I switched over to another operating system on another internal hard drive and salvaged some important files I hadn't backed up yet. Luckily I have a regular backup schedule, otherwise I would have been screwed. My biggest mistake was putting some original folders on the new drive. I was busy elsewhere and hadn't backed them up in five days.

Luckily I recovered all my folders and made DVD backups of them. Some files were corrupted, but not the newest ones; one a song lyric, the other a new book chapter. Eek.

I erased the new firewire hard drive and started fresh. Since this was before I knew the source of the problem, I filled it up with samples again and started up the same application as before the crash. This time the hard drive took such a hit that all the information on it was unrecoverable. I did lose one folder of content which I thought I had backed up elsewhere. Luckily I still had the original archives, but restoring them still took two full days. I came out ahead because I did a better job of organizing them this time. But still, that's not the point. I screwed up.

I ran a lot of diagnostic hardware tests and determined that the source of the problem was not my new hard drive, but the firewire enclosure I'd bought separately to house it in. Cheap and popular, like McDonalds and Walmart, I should have spent a bit more...

I narrowed the problem down to an incompatibility between that one software application and the "firmware" in my Hard Drive enclosure. My solution? Turn off the new Firewire HD when I'm running that application. At least till there's an update.

Addicted To The Learning Curve

Working with computers has been a blessing to my life. I can do things now that I couldn't have imagined 15 years ago. Today I have a virtual recording studio inside a box smaller than my TV. I also recall when the word "website" still held a certain mystical allure. "Must be compicated," I thought. Now it's child's play.

Along the way I've learned a lot about my Macintosh and computers in general. Today I install all my own components, from hard drives and RAM to DVD burners and audio PCI cards. I'm also an expert in about twenty different applications, from Photoshop and layout programs to digital recording software; the ultimate gift to my creative life. Anyone who has visited my website knows that I can use this technology with the best of them. And sometimes I even have something to say with it...

To know how to do things correctly, I've had to make a lot of mistakes. I've spent a lot of days pulling out the last of my seven hairs to come up with solutions to my problems. Today, there's not a lot standing in my way as far as technological know-how is concerned. But, as the above story reveals, the unforeseen still happens. No one is 100% secure.

Some Computer Tips

Beyond taking up your valuable time, I also wanted to use this newsletter to share some of my insights so that a happier you will emerge from a potentially devastating hard drive crash, should you ever have one.

RULE ONE: Save. The first commandment of computing we always learn the hard way is to save your work regularly. Anyone who isn't familiar with their computer's "SAVE" and "SAVE AS" functions should be working in another field — perhaps an opium field. There is nothing more important than constantly saving your work. Nothing. Well breathing is, but not by much.

It is also highly adviseable to have an uninterrupted power supply or UPS in your arsenal. This is a backup power supply between your computer and the wall socket. They're cheap and if your power goes out, at least your computer will stay on long enough for you to "SAVE" whatever you're working on and let you shut down with some dignity rather than panic and frustration. Nothing's more distressing than an unscheduled shutdown. I get power outages quite often and my screen doesn't even flinch.

RULE TWO: Backup all your documents on a regular basis. That means that if you have only one copy of something you can't afford to lose, then you should be backing up right now.

It is also important to have at least one full back up to an external storage device, such as Firewire Hard drive (oh, shut up!) or a CD. After all, what good is having two copies of an important document on the same computer? In case of fire or hurricane, your external drive will act as the "take out" version of your work; something you can throw into your car. You should also consider having some backups "off site." Leave some DVDs with your parents — just remind them that they're not drinking coasters.

Here's a great tip for a storage device. Never mind some useless CD wallet, etc. Go to a chain store and buy a molded plastic toolbox with a handle on it. I stumbled upon this idea recently and got two of them the other day for $3.99 each. They hold a lot more CDs securely than any other cheesey consumer storage product I've seen. And, you can stack them in a closet; they're uniform, practical and cheap. Put an old shoebox in them if you like wallpaper...

Now think carefully about this: do you have anything on your computer that you can't afford to lose? What about that important phone number and contact information? Old emails, bookmarks, receipts, software authorization codes, original stories, books, graphics, photographs, pdf documents or original songs that can't be replaced? Then get your butt in gear. Back them up!

I can now buy 50 DVDs for about $25 in Toronto. That's over 210 Gigabytes of backups for next to nothing — 4.7GB is not the real world backup capacity of a DVD; it's somewhere between 4.2GB and 4.4GB. Still, for that $25 I now have 840 times more storage space than my Mac Quadra 650 had ten years ago. Unbelieveable. And CDs are even cheaper. If your most precious files are collectively less than the volume of one CD, then you really have no excuse to leave your digital empire so vulnerable to self destruction. Back it up one hundred and eleventeen times.

RULE THREE: Have data recovery software ready and on a separate CD or DVD that's bootable. That means it has system software on it so that you can start your computer and operate it from that CD. I can boot up from 4 different hard drives, so I can access a faulty hard drive from a number of directions. But if you're computer has only one front door and you can't open it to get to your applications, then you're obviously screwed.

RULE FOUR: Follow a regular schedule of computer
file maintenance. As a Mac computer user I've had only three incidences where I've lost some files on a hard drive. And never to a virus. It's always been my fault whenever I can't recover a file since I should have made at least two backups. Until my recent crash I had enough confidence in one piece of software called Disk Warrior that I didn't worry about falling behind a few days. But that application didn't work for me this time, so backing up is still our only real safeguard against data loss.

There are also applications that defragment your hard drive and fix little glitches in file locations. These can turn into major headaches down the road. I have an archive (.sit file) from 1998 that I can no longer open because it was messed up by a bad hard drive directory. Live and learn.

You should always have maintenance software handy like Norton Utilities, Disk Warrior, Drive 10, etc. They will detect and fix glitches on your Hard Drive. And use them on a regular basis. We amass so many files that occasionally our computer needs to be reorganized. There is always a need for good housecleaning. If your house is a mess, imagine what your computer must look like.

And that's it for me, I guess. I've said my peace. There are obviously a lot of good websites out there with valuable in-depth information to help you with your particular computer system. Yet the most common mishaps are not usually system specific at all. They're user specific. So remember, always SAVE your files at least every five minutes if you don't have an auto save function; double backup everything you can't afford to lose on CDs and store it in a grab and dash toolbox, and always, always, keep some "in case of emergency" software handy.

And then you will live a long, happy and prosperous digital life.

 

000110011111000101110001110111100000110101011100001,
Roland K.

 

P.S. If your hard drive does crash and someone tells you
to erase it because — as far as they know — you've lost everything: tell them to go to hell. I once called up Apple tech support 4 times when Norton utilities had destroyed my hard drive when I first installed OSX. The last two guys told me to wipe my drive. Um, yeah, right! After a bit more experimenting I was actually able to recover all my files. Follow your gut instinct, not the voice of some distant stranger. Always. Bye.

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