After Katrina hit the Gulf coast, I decided to narrow my computer business down to providing disaster recovery help. Yes, I still do work on people’s computers, but will work on making contacts for the consulting side. In a funny bit of irony, I started a series of articles discussing disaster recovery, and while I was writing the first article, my computer started acting funny. Things were running slowly and I was getting messages about files not being saved. Not one to immediately panic, I did a quick backup and kept working. After I finished my article and printed out my invoice for a client for whom I had completed work, I shut down for the night. I woke up the next morning, headed to my desk and turn on the computer to check my e-mail and RSS feeds. Hit the power, ran upstairs to grab the coffee, I headed back into my office and beheld the hard drive on my computer had crashed.

It seems to me that most people I talk with on a day-to-day basis would be screaming or crying, one or the other. I, on the other hand, had a nice little smirk going. I don’t back up regularly yet, but I did have the software in place and ready to go. This allowed me to do a backup as soon as I started to notice problems. Not only that, but when I put together this screaming computer, 400mHz, I chose to install two hard drives. One was the OS drive, which failed, and I used the second to hold all my data. This choice, which we as IT Pros preach, saved my sanity and let me see the bright side of things. I can now reload my computer without all the other bits of software I have tried out and have not removed. Within the day, my computer was back up and running with my e-mail, and I spent the next day getting the software I wanted loaded and my RSS feeds redone without the ones I don’t read.

As an IT Pro, we need to practice what we preach. I can now tell my clients what the advantages are to running multiple drives, regular backups, and keeping your OS and data separated. Had I not practiced what I tell my clients to do, I am sure I would have screamed loud enough for everyone reading this to hear.

[Michael Merry]