MIS Recommendations to protect your consulting investments

After investing in a consulting solution, whether small or large, it makes sense to protect it. For a fraction of what it would cost to reinstall and reconfigure manually after a crash, you can take advantage of relatively inexpensive ‘off-the-shelf’ packages that will give you a second chance in the face of computer software or hardware failure.

The below listed products are all brands that we use in our office and are confident in recommending them to you¹.

• Acronis True Image 10 (or Norton Ghost 10): This product will take a complete snap-shot (or Image) of your Laptop or PC hard drive and copy it to an external drive. In the event of a disk failure or Windows meltdown, the entire drive can be brought back in a matter of an hour or so rather than having to rebuild your hard drive from scratch (Reinstall Windows, all programs and then your data which might be 5-8 hours).
  
  This product also does a data backup which all users need anyway. So, by doing a full image of your laptop and a daily backup of your changed data, you can recover your PC any time. Approximate Cost: $50 or less
• External Drive: This solution is a must for laptop and stand alone PC users. As I tell our clients, there are two kinds of computer users: ‘Those who have lost data and those who will.’
  
  It is recommended that you purchase an external drive at least twice the size of your hard drive. External drives keep getting faster, cheaper and bigger by moment. Used drives can even be found on the Internet. Maxtor makes some good quality drives as do quite a few others.
• Protecting your server: In a small business environment, the free backup software that comes with Windows is not enough to protect you from issues like a full server crash. While the free Windows utility only backs up data, a product like Retrospect can rebuild the entire Windows operating system as well as the data. EMC Retrospect 7.5 is more than powerful enough for small to mid-sized businesses, but not so complex to setup (as for exampleVeritas, a good but very involved product). When I say ‘not so complex’ this is a relative term, but working with EMC tech support or a professional IT firm are the best ways to go. They can help you pick the correct backup hardware solutions such as tape, removable hard drive, or even an external hard drive as pictured above.
  
  Why does everyone quote one of their parents as saying ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?’ Because it is TRUE. And in this context, painfully true. Losing laptops, crashing hard drives or losing key data can cost you thousands upon thousands on top of days of lost productivity and in extreme cases, loss of the entire business.
• Partitioning your drive: Especially with today’s large hard drives, partitioning can be a benefit to you on a number of levels. First, if you split your hard drive into 2 partitions, you will be able to separate Windows and your programs from your data. If you ever have a complete Windows meltdown wherethe C: drive has to be formatted to reinstall windows, your data remains safe in the process. Second, large drives are inefficient and waste the space that you paid for. Smaller partitions have less of a ‘slack space’ problem and will give you more of your drive to use. There are other benefits that could be discussed for the IT user; however, this was geared more towards the owner and manager.
  
  We use and recommend Partition Magic which gets top ratings from many respectable sources. Acronis offers Disk Director Suite and they are a company which I also know to produce excellent products.
• Tune your computer for optimal performance:
  • The Ultimate Troubleshooter: When you first purchase a Windows computer, you might notice that almost every possible option, service and startup program is turned on. Microsoft likes you to have all the options ready for you when you are ready to try them. The problem is, you won’t need everything and all of these extra services and feature ‘gum’ up your PC, use up memory and hinder performance. Enter TUT, The Ultimate Troubleshooter, which is a very well written little package that let’s us/you see into the computer, turn off unneeded options and keeps the user from making big errors in the process. How? TUT explains what each startup item and service is, warning you which ones not to touch and advising which ones to remove. You PC will run leaner and meaner and you will notice the difference. TUT can help you with inevitable software and widows issues that you will run into down the road
  • CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)
  • AnalogX MaxMem (freeware) Have you ever noticed how your computer always seems to run better after rebooting? Do you wish it could be that peppy all day? Well, now it can be with a little help from AnalogX MaxMem!
    AnalogX MaxMem is a realtime physical memory management program that automatically ensures that you always have as much physical memory available as possible. It does this by allowing you to set minimum amounts of memory to be made available under certain circumstance, and then passively monitoring how much system resources are being used. It runs in the system tray, and also shows you exactly how much memory you have available, plus graphs how you've been using memory over the last 60 seconds!
    

Please feel free to contact with any questions: info@mis-services.com

DISCLAIMER: MIS, its employees and contractors are in no way liable or responsible for claims made related to the performance or lack thereof of any third party software or hardware products which we recommend or are contracted to support including, but not limited to the loss of data, company time, and prospective business. MIS does not warrant or guarantee products or services provided or performed by any third party vendor, including products for which we hold certifications. MIS is not responsible for any errors or omissions of the producers of any third party product.