I woke up Saturday morning to a sick computer. Upon calling my technician, I heard those dreaded words: “You’ve got a big problem. You’ve got to bring it in.”

Most of you can relate to that feeling of having to take your computer to the “doctor.” Dread (how serious is it going to be), losing communication (no email contact), information loss (I need that phone number), and work downtime, especially when it’s your livelihood. Even though it was a weekend, there were things that needed to be done.

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Updated November 14, 2007

You’ve not heard much from me recently, partly because I lost the use of my computer almost entirely for six weeks. I have often said that you could put me on a desert island and I would be okay as long as you also gave me my computer. At no time have I felt this to be more true.

This happened very close to the same time as the fires here in Southern California. Of course my computer crash pales in comparison to the problems faced by the fire victims in Southern California. However, these two events happening so closely together made me wonder: Exactly what are the steps one should take to prevent losing data either from a computer crash or because of a natural disaster? Read more