I’m not sure whether it is an age thing but I find many, shall we say more mature, computer users seem to have a distinct reluctance to regularly save their documents or files while they work.
Why exactly this is so remains a mystery to me since without exception this is the same group who throw their hands up and gnash their teeth when the document they are working on inexplicably disappears from their screens.
One offender, I know well, maintains it is because her usual machine at work does not operate like a PC and she only has to save after a complete document has been created.
While this may in fact be true, in her case, it is a risky practice that most PC/Mac users with any real world experience would studiously avoid.
When I think about the reluctance to simply Ctrl S (Command S for Mac Users) regularly I shake my head but at the same time must confess to a distinct reluctance to back up my whole system on a regular basis.
In fact I have a whole box full of back up drive devices I have either never got round to fitting or, if fitted, never used on a regular basis.
“Is this a case of do what I say?” I hear you say.
Well, I do have my own explanation for this behaviour. And my strategy is pretty basic. If I don’t think I would like to do the work all over … I save. If I don’t care … I don’t bother.
Since I work online nearly all the time I am continually creating documents which, when they are posted to the web, are automatically archived and duplicated on a back up server, but if the server farm, or my rack, in Sydney falls over for some reason I definitely will have a real problem!
This approach does, however, still expose me to a risk in the time between when my document is first created and when it appears online. Usually I do not worry about this – no need to go getting paranoid since even my least robust machines (7 PCs and a Mac in YOC office) usually only crash very irregularly (without human assistance that is) perhaps once in 3-5 years at worst.
To put this type of problem into context it probably applies to a large proportion of small businesses and by that I mean firms with less than 10 employees - which in Australia is still an awful lot of PCs.
I say this because most medium-sized organisations will have automated the back-up process and/or have some individual responsible for this activity, which means it is no longer a task individuals have to get worried about.
You know what they say about people in glasshouses, well now for a ‘war story’ of my own.
I am currently writing this column on Sunday morning at home on my daughter’s Mac because my work laptop will only operate in Safe Mode and I can’t rely on it till I get it completely rebuilt and of course in its present state it can’t connect to the net or even print.
My problems first started when I encountered the dreaded ‘blue screen’ which, it must be conceded, followed a period of irritating email problems with my Outllook which, looking back, I had perhaps unwisely chosen to ignore. To make matters worse I had several months prior completely disinfected my PC and also downloaded an application to clean up my registry.
My reluctance to bite the bullet was twofold. Firstly, as a die hard Macintosh user from way back I am not used to coping with viral infections (not talking swine flu here).
And secondly it was the troubling thought that I would have to completely remove all files and applications and rebuild the machine from first principles.
Saving the files to a removable hard drive was the easy part – although it took several hours to complete. Finding the original disks for all my applications took longer.
But the remaining step I will have to get a technician to perform for me. And it is this final step I have stalled on until my annual accounts were completed since just the idea of having to input 12 months’ data into MYOB for a second time was starting to make my head hurt.
Physician, heal thyself … | 
