INGO IT guys... computer problem

[gopher]

That's cool and all? But I backup my email, contacts, new designs, accounting, etc once a week to a thumb drive and my 'data' drive once a week.
Worse case scenario? I reinstall xp onto a system, and copy the data back to it after re setting up the shares. 2 hours tops... Not that I discount those services? I just think one could be better served doing local backups... I mean if anything major happened, I still have my local/thumb drive/sdsc backups to copy the data back. Yes it sucks installing programs (and iso's are good), but this is a file server... it doesn't host programs... just data files... of which I have multiple copies.
Switching it all to a nas, is only going to save me electricity bills... something I should have done long ago... plus, I free up a monitor.

Fire or flood will likely destroy both your computers PLUS the locally stored backups (since this sounds like your business, a "flood" can be the building sprinklers being inadvertently activated). You need an offsite backup of some kind -- cloud, removable hard drive, tape, DVD-ROM, etc. Choose whatever suits your fancy.

I wouldn't personally consider anything stored on a thumb drive/SDSC card to be a backup; they just aren't reliable enough. For backup you should be using a RAID array of some kind so that when a drive fails you can rebuild the array from the remaining drives (a NAS is typically configured with a RAID drive setup). Something like CrashPlan may not be conducive to your computer setup, but you need some kind of off-site backup. I don't think you've actually considered a "worst case scenario" yet where everything in your house/building is destroyed...

"Two is one, one is none"

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Once a week a mirror copy of data files is done, and stored offsite (for work stuff). This data is already backed up to a nas onsite.
For home, about 4 times a year I backup everything and store in the safe deposit box. With exception to banking stuff, not a whole lot changes. Weekly backups for that data are on an sd card carried with me, and another card stored in the safe.

 

[Ericpwp]

FYI you can just jump the power supply. Green wire to any black. I just bend a paper clip and stick it in. See if it spins up.

 

[PistolBob]

If your business is dependent upon Windows XP...I hope you have enough money saved for retirement. It'll be coming sooner than you think.

 

[bigretic]

Except Microsoft discontinued support for:
1-Fox Pro Database Software (which was all the rage in the 90's) and that we paid 25k for custom programming for our accounting/production.invoicing software. oops. sorry 'bout ya. SQL now? Yeah, lets see where yer at 10 years from now?
2-Bi directional parallel port. Yeah, we have a thermal wax printer that cost us 20k in 1996. We've been making bank on it ever since. I just upgraded this machine from win 98SE last fall to Win XP. And now I should upgrade to win 7 which doesn't even support bi directional parallel ports... yeah... rights... cuz, too much support on that. Guess we just throw that printer away cuz... Microsoft.. win 7... betterer...

My question is... how many other manufacturing jobs out there rely on tech that the deskjobs wish to discontinue?...

If it ain't broke? Don' fix it. plain and simple.

XP? I've got 10 boxes running xp because I know it works.. win 7? It's a crapshoot whether it will run our proprietary stuff or not.
Want to surf the internet? Bicker which OS is the best? Want to make a living? Let's dig a little deeper.

Ick. FoxPro... I got suckered into supporting a large FoxPro db accounting etc... system a while back. Had to corral a copy of v9 out of the msdn account or somewhere. friggin mess, but I got it going and kept it running on a 7 box and integrated to an iis web server for a long time until the company moved into a hosted cloud package.
NEVER want to see that crap again. I'd rather go back to DOS and AREV3.1 on a Novell network.
Still have 2 xp boxes running machinery here (CNC & Dowelling) No reason to change them just "because". All they do is run the process control software. zero time is spent in the OS or anything else. They do burn up once in a while from age. Power supply on one about 6 months ago and actually had the cd rom in one short out at the power connection and flame itself a while back. That was a weird one. I just patch them up and turn them back on.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Indeed. Our business doesn't depend on them, but it makes zero sense to discontinue a couple of printers that continue making money just to upgrade the OS.
Hell the one I 'upgraded' from Win98SE to XP a year and a half ago. These are not being used for email, day to day paperwork, etc... Just printing. I suppose when the printers die beyond cost effective repair, then we'll look into upgrading the printer and OS at that time.
The custom (to our industry) accounting software was another story entirely, and pretty costly. As is much of our print/rip software, which runs anywhere from 2k-5k each seat.