Agency Technology: How to Save Yourself Before Your Computer Crashes

Writing a regular technology column is an interesting challenge. While there is certainly no shortage of new technology marvels to write about, the challenge is to bring a fresh perspective to technology topics that relate to everyday agency life.

About a month back, I was visiting with a couple of agencies with very little in common. They are located on opposite coasts and have successfully niched their business into different areas of expertise. But it is what they had in common that can potentially apply to every agent reading this column. Someone in each agency had experienced one of our worst tech nightmares: their PC workstations crashed, taking with them years of information, programming and data.
One of the first things I learned as a systems analyst is to never underestimate the ability of a user to break a perfectly good application. I find this truism to be just as true for the average computer user.
If you have ever experienced the "blue screen of death," you know the frustration of wondering "Why did this happen to me?" Believe it or not, computers are really quite logical. They behave in a programmed way until something happens that it is not programmed to do. When that happens, they can simply shut down.
Our first impulse is to repair or replace the damage as quickly as possible. This is much like reaching for aspirin when we have a fever. Even though our bodies have a wonderful mechanism to get rid of infection (fever), we choose to bypass the "system" so we can get up and running as quickly as possible. Sound familiar?
Computers have their own version of "fever." Taking 10 minutes to boot up. Mini-crashes during the day. Taking forever to load files. In addition to frustration, these annoyances also have a clear message--your computer is sick.
Why does a computer crash?
Ready to listen to what your computer is telling you? Here are some common "illnesses" your computer may be telling you about.
o Hardware conflict Hardware such as printers and video cards can potentially crash because they are trying to share one or more system resources. If your PC is running slow or if you frequently get the "blue screen of death," take a minute to check out the Device Manager on each computer. If a device has a problem, a yellow "!" appears next to its description in the Device Manager.
To get to your Device Manager, click on Start, then click on Control Panel. On your Control Panel, look for an icon for System. When a dialog box appears, click on Hardware, then Device Manager.
And here is a great tip: Keep a log that records every new piece of hardware, including the date, manufacturer, type and any other specific information about the device. This information can significantly reduce the time and expense required to recover from a crash.
oBad RAM
Random access memory (RAM) is one of the first things I talk about with agencies who are experiencing system problems. If your PC has less than 1 gb of RAM, you are either having performance problems or you probably will at some point in the future.
My recommendation is that you have a minimum of 1 gb of RAM. For workstations that run multiple applications or do a lot of numbers crunching, you probably want to consider 2 gb of RAM. You will also want to make sure that your new RAM matches the old. Mismatched RAM can force a computer to run all the RAM at the slower speed, resulting in a crash.
o Hard disk drivers
A hard disk is the cyber equivalent of a filing cabinet. The better the "filing system," the easier it is to locate what you need in your filing cabinet. However, computers store new data in whatever free space is available. This means data files can become spread out across the hard drive as they are updated. Even a new computer can quickly become fragmented.
One way to prolong the life of your hard drive is to "defrag" your drive. Simply put, this function gets rid of empty spaces and restores organization to the filing cabinets.
But one word of caution. De-fragmenting your hard drive can, in some cases, actually cause a crash. Before you perform any critical operations such as a defrag, make sure that your files are backed up and that you have a start-up disk for your computer. To create the start-up disk, go to Start, then click on Control Panel. In the dialog box that appears, click on Add/Remove Programs.
o Viruses and spyware
Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are essential resources in your technology toolbox. But they are not infallible. Regular updates for Windows and your anti-virus/anti-spyware software are good examples of due diligence for your technology resources.
o Registry
Your computer's registry is like an engine. Overloading this engine with "junk" from installing new software, viruses, etc. slows your processing speed and can even cause your system to crash. If your registry database gets too large, memory resources can be overwhelmed, leaving very little RAM to run your application. This means your computer may crash.
Several products are available on the Internet to clean up your registry. One that is very easy to use is www.freeerrorscan.net .
What is the plan to restore the data?
Now that we have looked about some of the ailments, let's imagine that this unimaginable event happens to you. How do you plan to get your data restored in the event of a crash?
Your agency management system is probably safe because you back up your server every night. Some of your data is probably included in this automatic backup. But what about individual workstations? Proposals, customer communication and e-mail are just some of the examples of business critical data that could be at risk because they are stored on the staff's computer rather than the server.
Before a crash happens to you (or happens again), here are a couple of great ideas to consider:
o Save all data to the server
Most agencies have a "shared drive" that allows staff to save data to the server. My suggestion is to save all data to the server. This way, everything is backed up at night and can easily be recovered in the event of a crash. If you are concerned about sensitive data, talk with your IT person about using Windows server security to protect files or folders.
o Offsite backup
Although my first recommendation is to make good use of the server, backing up data offsite is also a good alternative, particularly when you consider that doing nothing is not an option.
A Web site worth taking a look at is www.carbonite.com. At $50 a year per user, this is a very reasonable precaution.
What programs were on the PC that should not be reinstalled?
Our final consideration is to decide which programs will be reinstalled on a computer that crashes. License, federal privacy laws, litigation holds, spyware and corrupt programming are five excellent reasons to decide what programs will be restored to a PC before the crash takes place.
License violations can present significant monetary and legal problems. If someone in your agency decides to install illegal software on their workstation, your agency could be legally responsible for anything from a small fine to thousands of dollars if a litigation hold requires your agency to have an attorney sift through megabytes of non-agency-related documents and programming.
Consider this simple and important business rule: No unapproved software should be loaded on any agency computer at any time for any reason. This includes screen savers and other "how could this hurt anything?" applications.
Once you have some control over what will be restored in the event of a crash, make sure you have all approved software documented in the agency so you know exactly what to do when needed. A log can be a great way to document the software, system requirements, license updates and other information that can significantly reduce the time it will take to get your ailing computer back up and running.
I realize that "computer stuff" can seem a bit overwhelming. However, simple planning before the unimaginable happens can save time and money and keep frustration to a minimum. The best ideas are often the simplest. Start today by putting a plan in place for taking care of your technology network.
Tom Baker is the Solutions coach for Advanced Automation's Solutions agencies. For the past 17 years, Advanced Automation has offered agency consulting services to address a variety of management and agency development issues. Tom can be reached at questions
@advancedautomation-inc.com.