Before we go any farther, let’s take a moment to talk about an important difference in the computer-related disaster-recovery business. That’s the difference between “backing up” your data, and doing a “system recovery.” Many times, I’ve received angry phone calls from clients who’ve been told they needed to do a “full system recovery” on their computers by some long-distance telephone tech support person. And only when they’re finished with the recovery process do they find that the important personal data that had been stored on their PC is totally, completely gone. Wiped out. Never coming back. Yikes! Now, I need to say here – in the interest of full and fair reporting – that some recovery systems on new computers will attempt to save and restore that all-important “user data” – the stuff you create and save in the course of using your PC for business. But instructions for doing that are not always clear and easy to understand, and some people may be under the (mistaken) impression that doing a “system restore” will not remove their personal data.
So, what is a “system restore?” As you boot up your PC each time, you may notice some text messages on the screen before the Windows “splash screen” appears (that’s the screen with the Windows logo, which leads to your user sign-on and workplace desktop). If you read carefully and quickly, you may see that those messages are offering “startup options” for your computer. Often, those options include the ability to interrupt the regular Windows startup process and go instead to some other functions. One of those functions is usually the recovery process. If you press the right buttons (it’s different for each PC manufacturer, so I can’t tell you which ones it will be for your PC), you’ll get to some definitely non-Windows screens of information. One of those will be the option to perform a “system recovery.” Your computer manufacturer may use a slightly different term, but the idea is the same.
A bit of computer history: In the “old days,” computer manufacturers used to include all kinds of software – on original disks – along with manuals and other materials right there in the box with your computer hardware. Of course nowadays, that’s all over, and most new computers come with a large-sized poster to show how to hook up the new PC (connect speakers, mouse, keyboard, etc.), but not much other information. If you set up the PC, get it turned on, and up and running, you’ll often find the “documentation” for the machine is on the hard drive of the PC – as some kind of word-processing document or Adobe Acrobat PDF file. (A special kind of document file that can be read without any particular kind word processing software.) While that’s all good and useful, if you don’t know the information is there, or don’t know where to look, you won’t find it and use it. But anyway, back to our history lesson: Nowadays, most computers come with a recovery system built in. Part of the internal hard drive (where all the PC data is stored) is specially “partitioned” to hold a backup copy of Microsoft Windows, and all the software that came pre-installed on your PC. If some major disaster should strike your PC, you can use the backup software on that partition to “restore” your computer to the exact same condition it was in when you first took it out of the box.
That’s an important distinction! If some major virus should attack your PC, or something else go wrong, you can restore the system to it’s original condition. Of course that’s provided there hasn’t been some kind of damage to the internal hard drive that prevents the restoration program from doing it’s work. Also – and this is the really important part – the restoration process generally wipes out everything that’s currently stored on your PC, and replaces it with a “fresh” copy of Windows and any other software that came as “standard equipment.” If there was important user data on the PC – that’s the stuff you create and save – that needs to be backed up separately, so it can also be restored after the rest of the system is put back in proper shape.
So keep that important distinction in mind as you plan your data backup and recovery. The full system restore process is a good tool to have on hand if a major disaster strikes, but it’s only one piece of the entire backup and recovery process. The other piece is the system you put in place to back up that all-important “user data.” As I’ve said, that’s the really important stuff stored on your PC – all the documents, spreadsheets and e-mails you’ve written, downloaded and saved; all the pictures you’ve stored, and music too. Being the good businessperson you are, it’s critically important that you have some kind of system in place to make a regular “backup” copy of all the important (the fancy term is “mission-critical”) information on your computer. The stuff you would be out-of-business without. Documents, legal papers, important e-mails, client records, customer forms, all of it. (By the way, all that “stuff” can be termed a ‘document’ … even if it is an e-mail, spreadsheet or other type of data file.)
