Hard drive crash

Last week was the flu, and this week has been the dead hard drive. Our back-ups saved the files, but we lost a lot of time loading all the programs and updates again, along with spending some cash on upgrades. Odds are we could have done a better job preparing for this nightmare, and the ‘buttheads have offered a few suggestions to consider:

* From Larry Parrotta: Why not give some consideration to a RAID 1 array, disk mirroring. At least when a hard drive takes a dump, there's a second one with the info on it and the ability to re-create the array in a matter of minutes.

* From Jack Attridge: Scuttlebutt’s hard drive crash compels me to share my favorite tech tools with you…. 3 of 4 can help you in this situation. The first is online back-up through Carbonite.com. $50 per year for unlimited storage. Your data can avoid any disasters in your home and your data is safe. Crashed computer? Reload your new one with your data. Easy access to all of your files online as it constantly backs-up. Keep it clean with regular cleaning with Adaware.com and Spybot.com (both free). Finally, I love Logmein.com (free) as it allows me to have an account which lists all of my computers and allows me to work on any computer from any computer, transfer files and print or stream from any pc with their pro product. Having a home office computer, 2 at work, 2 more in the house, I can access files from any at anytime. It is also helpful when someone has a computer problem at home or someone needs help with homework.

* From David Shulman: Western Digital makes a 240GB harddrive that this powered by the USB port and is SO portable that you can put it in your pocket and literally take your "computer" along with you. It also (of course) can do incremental backups. I've got 2, one for the Mac which can use Macs built in Time Machine, and one for the PC which I use as described. I got them both at Costco for about $140 each.