“It Won’t Happen To Me”

Actually, it almost certainly will and it probably has, even if you didn’t think of it this way before.
Losing data is a part of reality in our computer-oriented world.

How many times have you spent time working on a document, only to have something happen that makes the document vaporize? Or an FTP upload that dies as soon as you walk away from your monitor?

These may not be “disasters” but they indicate the basic frailty of digital data. The machinery on which that data runs and is stored is also at risk — and probably much greater risk than you’ve thought about before.

The good news is, as in many things an “ounce” of prevention beats a pound of cure.

Today’s data risks are higher than ever, especially for those of us who rely on digital media for our livelihood, but the solutions are also easier and frequently less expensive than ever before.

By the time you’re done reading my book, you’ll know everything you need to about how to keep your valuable data and systems humming along, so your cash register can keep ringing.

What’s A “Disaster”?

A disaster in digital media is anything that either costs you unplanned money or unplanned time or both — things like:

· Hard drive crashes
· Power interruptions and power surges
· Broadband or other connectivity interruptions
· System failure
· Fires and overheating
· Earthquakes…

There can be other disasters too, like when your top programmer quits without notice and doesn’t leave any notes on how to update her databases. But for our purposes we’re focusing on hardware maintenance related issues, software security and environmental impacts.

There are some things you can avoid, and some things you can only hope to minimize in their impact without being able to avoid.

There are some disasters you can avoid completely.

The fates won’t rest a Big Mac on your keyboard, but you might.

There are others you can’t — like acts of God, acts of your cranky neighbor, terrorists, or the weather.

The trick here is to plan for their possibility and take steps that make sense in context of managing risk

Heat Is The Enemy Of All Things Electronic

Pssst — fires are hot. Very.

While electronics generate their own heat (which can be significant, and if not managed well can be a problem too, see below) first we are concerned with external destructive heat like your building burning down.

A piece of paper can be locked in a box that will most likely withstand most any conventional fire. So can a data storage item like a diskette or jump-drive, in theory, but the damage point of such devices may be well below their melting point.

Fire Can Easily Destroy Everything In A Building

This might be obvious but we have seen smart people do some pretty dumb things, like keep the original of some data on a computer, keep a backup of the data on a CD in the desk on which the computer is sitting, and keep another backup in a lockbox in the closet six feet from that desk.

Sure, if the computer drive dies you’re fine, but how hard is it to imagine a fire that destroys everything in a single room? It’s easy.

We’ll consider how to survive a fire (from a data and systems perspective) in a few minutes, but first, let’s outline some guidelines. These are useful for more than just fires, too.

· Keep backups in separate physical locations. And we don’t mean here, and four feet from here. We mean here, and Cleveland. Or here, and the World Wide Web. Or here, and in a safety deposit box on the other side of town.
· Update your backups on some understandable schedule. We knew a guy who smugly told us (after his office burned down) he was “all set” because he had backups. Well, he had backups up until about two years before the fire and nothing sooner, which rendered them almost useless. Use it or lose it, as they say.
· Have good insurance on your office equipment. Also, pay the premiums…

OK, you have a Rambo complex which you are projecting onto your computers and data.
Your first line of defense is avoiding having the fire start in the first place. Your second is not caring that it did because you (a) wisely backed up everything to separate physical location and (b) had good insurance and paid the premiums.

But nooooo, you want equipment and data that will give the fire the proverbial finger.

One such option is The Information Safeguard System™ from The Datafortress™.

This system takes the fireproof lock-box to a whole new level. The Datafortress is intended to protect your whole system in the event the room in which it is housed burns.

These kinds of systems are very expensive, but may be important if you run the kind of business where downtime can cost you a fortune.

(The technologies in this area are so rapidly changing, and retail pricing is so scant, that I’m reluctant to give much guidance other than to say that yes, you can in fact put your entire computer system except the input and output devices into what amounts to a fireproof box. See Resources section for more on such boxes for your data and equipment.)

There are conventional fire-fighting methods also, like fire extinguishers.

Even if you never get near a fire, you still need to worry about heat, since your computer itself generates enough to cause harm!

Dangerous sources of heat can come from inside your computer!

There are several sources of heat inside your computer. These include hard drives, integrated circuit boards (ie “motherboards”), power supplies, and batteries.

You’ve heard that there’s “no smoke without a fire,” which is generally true, but there can be a lot of heat without a fire.

Microwave ovens make heat without any kind of flame.

So do a lot of the components of your computer systems

Any system that creates a lot of heat by its normal operation needs to be continually cooled or you have troubles ranging from reductions in performance to a complete failure. Think about your car — it makes a lot of heat burning all that fuel, and your car uses a system of fans, coolant, water, and outside air to regulate itself to keep functioning without anything going wrong or worse.

Your computers generate more heat than you think.

A typical desktop can generate 175 watts from normal operations!

As long as the system is being cooled this is ok, but when it is not, you can have serious problems.

How Your Computer Cools Itself

Your computer uses a combination of two basic methods of keeping cool.

One is a fan (or multiple fans). The fan works to either expel hot air from the case of the machine, or bring cool air in, or both.

The second is what are called “heat sinks,” small metal structures designed to keep heat generated in one area from reaching a more sensitive adjoining area and doing damage.

If you have ever used a soldering iron, you may have used a heat sink to keep a thin wire from melting — since the wire could handle much less heat than the circuit to which the wire might be connected.

Heat sinks generally don’t fail, though in theory they work something like a circuit breaker though when they “break” rather the circuit being stopped, the heat will flow to where it shouldn’t go and you’ll have the “meltdown” the sink was designed to avoid.

This is a comparatively rare problem, and would most likely be caused by the heat sink being asked to take a bigger load than it was designed for, which is probably a fan-related problem to begin with!

A much more common problem is fans being rendered ineffective.

There are several ways to keep computer fans in top running condition. Keeping your fans working well

· Do not allow anything to block the venting holes or slots in your computer cases. Locate them and keep them where they can “blow freely.”
· Do not keep computers in dusty environments. You may have heard that dust can hurt machines, and one of the most efficient ways is by slowing the effectiveness of fans, either by blocking intake or output ventilation, by coating the blades, or by coating the components themselves. Dust acts like an insulator, so a layer of dust on hot switches will make them even hotter.

Replace any fan that clicks, hesitates, or does not come on or run as smoothly “as it used to.”

Today computer cooling fans literally cost only a couple of dollars, and not doing so could cost you your much more expensive machine, or even your priceless data.

Are there different types of fans?

Yes, actually, like any “industrial” part it gets pretty complicated. Fans are classified and rated by physical size, the kind of bearings it has, speed, propeller design, and ‘CFM’ or the cubic feet per minute it is rated to move/cool.

For most purposes, if you have a fan that breaks, just replace it with the same size, model, and ratings.

Help! My Laptop Has the Hots for Me!

A lot of people ask me if a warm laptop is something to worry about.

Almost always, no (other than if it annoys your thighs if you are the rare person who actually uses a laptop on their lap).

The nature of many laptop batteries and their charging systems creates noticeable, but harmless heat — you may find this to be true of your cell phone or MP3 player also. If you’re concerned, do some research on your particular computer.

There have been some cases of dangerously overheating laptop batteries, but it’s rare.

Desktop machines, with all their additional components and much large power supplies, tend to be where the troublesome heat arises.

Keep the fans working!

Even with limited risk of fire and fully functioning fans, you can still create an environment in which more heat than is healthy for your PC can be generated.

Some Like It Hot!

But your computers do not.

Exercise an extra level of common sense here:

· Keep computers away from any external heat sources. These include heating equipment like radiators, heating registers and space heaters — but also less obvious ones like TVs, microwaves, some refrigerators, large stereo components, musical instrument amplifiers and the like.
· Keep computers out of direct sunlight! Think about what a couple of hours in the summer sun does to your car seats. Ouch — exactly.
· If possible keep your PC in an air-conditioned environment. Some companies get a little crazy with this (you could hang sides of beef in some of the computer server rooms I have seen) but a normal home or office air conditioning system is plenty.
· Keep some dusting spray around and use it. Falcon’s Dust-Off or any equivalent will do. For about 7 bucks this is a good investment. It has use beyond avoiding heat build up, too, as we’ll discuss later.
· Make sure your computer’s vents — and for laptops also the keyboard area — can “breath”.

Man, it’s getting hot in here.

If your business is so “hot” your fans might need some help with their job, liquid cooling systems and other products are more available, and more affordable then ever.

And just when you thought it was safe keep on working with all those fans spinning happily, here comes a thunderstorm to poop on your parade.

Lightning can of course cause fires, but this is comparatively rare.

Lightning has a much more direct impact on electronics in the form of what are usually called “surges.”

A “surge” is actually a number of different possible things — let’s get scientific for just a quick second— including voltage surges, also known as over-voltage, and voltage spikes.

Some of you more technical types may point out that actually many so-called “voltage” surges are more precisely energy spikes are measured in Joules not volts, but the result is the same. (It’s useful to think in Joules because the commercial packaging of most higher end units will have a rating in Joules).

Here’s the important point:

Without adequate protection your delicate electronics can get fried in a matter of seconds.

While there are causes of energy spikes other than lightning (for example, a nuclear bomb gives off a hell of an energy spike called an electromagnetic pulse or EMP), the typical day to day concern is lightning. The good news is that protection is simple, reliable and best of all very inexpensive and easy to use.

Surge Suppressors

Basically what a surge suppressor does is creates an extra circuit, with a breaker, between your wall outlet and your equipment

If a power surge or energy spike is enough to potentially harm your equipment, the breaker trips, and your stuff shuts off temporarily instead of getting zapped and very possibly damaged or destroyed.

Like any circuit breaker you then simply reset the circuit — there is usually a switch or button helpfully labeled “reset” — and turn everything back on.

Common questions about surge suppressors:

· Are they all the same?

No. There are cheap junky ones and high quality industrial grade ones. Always buy good ones, most of which come with a warranty, as well as lights that indicate not only power but the “health” or status of the circuit breaker itself. There are also different methods of stopping the “surge”

· Are power cables the only thing I need to worry about?

No. You should also protect all RJ11 (aka “phone”) lines and all coaxial (aka “cable”) lines from energy spikes also. Most high end surge suppressors include in and out loops for these connections as well. Phone and coax are copper wire based, and copper is an excellent conductor.

The typical surge suppressor is a strip of grounded (three prong) outlets, with a couple of switches and as mentioned, these days often a set of “in” and “out” jacks for phone, Ethernet, and cable lines.

The mechanism in most surge suppressors is a fairly simple — reliable and repeatable — circuit breaker, or a kind of electric switch that simply turns off power in the event of too big a load. A high quality circuit breaker can be reset many times.

If the circuit breaker uses a fuse, or if there is a simple fuse only without an electric circuit breaker, a single event will burn out the fuse and it will need to be replaced. This is usually easy and inexpensive but can be annoying.

Some cheaper surge suppressors use only what is called an MOV which is a form of ground. These are OK but are generally only good for one “surge” and this part is not easily, or advisedly, replaceable.

Stick with high-quality circuit-breaker equipped, warranted and rated UL listed equipment. This is not the place to try to save $20, $30, or $50.

UPS

We don’t mean the guys with the brown trucks, but “uninterruptible power supply.”

A few minutes ago when we mentioned how a surge suppressor shuts off electricity instead of overloading your equipment, some of you got very unhappy expressions and started calculating how much money you’d lose if your systems all shut down for say, 15 minutes every time there was a bad thunderstorm in your neighborhood.

Fear not. For those inclined, uninterruptible power supplies are no longer the province of the technically elite and ultra-wealthy. You can buy pretty good ones from any office supply store and use them with or instead of a standalone surge protector/suppressor.

The UPS runs off a battery system. The battery is charged while the electric current is on. Then, due either to a complete power failure to your building or a surge that trips your surge suppressors, the UPS takes over, keeping things running smoothly.

Like a generator for your home or cabin, a UPS will supply a certain amount of juice for a certain amount of time. Needless to say, the more of either, the more expensive the system.

Duh.

Fire and lightning — and earthquakes and terrorist attacks, which we’ll come to shortly — these things are not your fault.

Putting your computer under your desk between the space heater and your cat’s litter box, that’s just stupid.

Then maybe light a fat stogie and let it burn two inches from your server’s air intake.

And don’t forget to put an overfull cup of coffee balancing precariously on your wireless keyboard. Keep wires out of places where you can easily trip on them, or your pet ferret will snack on them.

Little things like that.

Human folly can be avoided!

We all do dumb things. All we’re saying is, try not to do them around your computer equipment, if you rely on that equipment to make your living. Simple mistakes can cost you thousands in lost time, lost business, and lost data!

The next couple of sections may border on the obvious, but in these trying times, common sense is often anything but.

While smoking isn’t a very good idea in general, we realize you need to eat and drink, and probably like to do these things while you work.

“Mmm…delicious. Hello snack time, bye bye keyboard!”

We all spend a of time in front of our computers, and as Internet marketers probably more than most (yeah, you’d rather be golfing, but most of the time you’re not, so think this through.)

The main likely and quite possibly catastrophic victim of food and drink if you behave in the normal manner is your keyboard, which is perfectly positioned right under your face and hands, and provides hundreds of convenient places for liquid or little bits of lunch to go and wreak havoc.

Coffee and computers might go “hand in hand” like movies and popcorn, but if you drop a piece of popcorn while watching Steven Segal in “American Asskicker 9” all you’ll get is a crunchy sofa. If you spill coffee in your keyboard, your keyboard is very probably toast, and if you’re like most of us, you don’t have spare keyboards sitting around.

Though actually, you should.

Most serious Web users these days have wireless input devices, that is, mice and keyboards. That’s great but presents a unique problem — other than the cost — if you wreck one with your triple double half-caffeinated latte.

The irony is that in order to load the software to install your new wireless keyboard you will need a working keyboard.

We find that a nice simple solution to this is keep a plan old serial-port keyboard (retail cost in 2006 about $12) sitting around someplace, so that if and when you drench your keyboard in Mountain Dew, coffee, or beer, you won’t be out of luck, since Windows automatically recognizes plain old keyboards.

That way you can plug in your backup while fixing or replacing your drowned QWERTY buddy.

Laptop users are not so fortunate. Laptop keyboards use a membrane system in most cases, which is somewhat “sealed” (though not really sealed) and will be slightly more forgiving of very minor oops moments, but once a laptop keyboard stops working — which usually happens in the form of a single key or two refusing to respond, you have a very annoying and expensive problem on your hands.

I tried typing for a while without an e or r but it just didn’t sm to go all that ight fo m.

OK, the keyboard isn’t drunk, it’s more like slightly soaked, and there aren’t really 12 steps, just a couple.

If your keyboard does get wet under the keys, first stop using it because using it will just move the liquid around and possibly put it into deeper places.

Next, and this is obvious but we’ll say it anyway, is turn the keyboard over above a couple of paper towels and gently shake it. A good part of the liquid will come out.

Next, gently spray up and down each row of keys with a dusting spray, with the keyboard at a slight angle. A few drops of liquid spray will probably come out.

Then place the keyboard upside down on some dry toweling for about a day and see if it will work. Generally speaking you can get a keyboard to come back from the brink of death if:

· The volume of liquid is fairly small
· The liquid contains very little starch or sugar. For example, black coffee and water are good candidates for recovery. If there is starch or sugar — aka “sticky crap” — in your offending drink you may be out of luck as the gunk may make keys simply stick too much to work.