How to Survive an Operating System Crash

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows could not be accessed or located."

It happens to the best of us. A complete operating system failure. One day you might turn on your p.c. and that dreadful message is on your screen as plain as day. You don't know what you could have possibly done, as your computer was working fine just a little while ago.

Panic is usually the first thing to set in. Something like an operating system failure can literally put home business owners out of business indefinitely. The cost and time involved in trying to repair a p.c. and the months or even years of lost information is overwhelming and frightening to think about.

This doesn't have to happen to you if you are prepared.

When you think about it, our businesses are at the mercy of technology. The technology is only as good as long as it's working properly. What a wonderful world we would live in if technology were flawless.

The reality is that systems fail. Computers are machines and machines sometimes break down. It doesn't get any simpler that than. We have no other choice than to be prepared for when those times come, especially IF we want to make sure our home business suffers very little down time.

There are some very easy things you can do right now to make ensure your peace of mind for your business. You need to be back up and running as quickly as possible in the event of an operating system crash.

1. Document everything including usernames, passwords, merchant account numbers, important websites and especially software unlock codes. Anything that is not written down on paper is subject to be lost.

2. Back up your hard-drive as necessary for how often you have new updates that you cannot afford to lose or rebuild.

** Important! If you have to completely reinstall your operating system, the "My Documents" folder is usually lost. Make sure you don't forget this folder when you do the back up.

3. Make sure all of your .exe, zip and software install files are on a disk. This is easily done by backing them up or burning them onto a CD. You should already have the system restoration and any other store-bought software disks handy.

The actual repair or reinstall of your operating system may simple or it may be complicated. If you are well versed in this area, you may be able to restore the system yourself. If you're like most of us, you may have to call a computer repair professional.

When your p.c. is restored, you will be able to simply reinstall your software and documents files from the disks you created. If you have access to a secondary p.c., you can install your programs on the backup computer in the interim.

Regardless, you will rest much easier knowing that you have taken some basic steps necessary to prepare yourself and protect your business.

This very same scenario happened to me just recently. It could have been a disaster for my business, but it wasn't. I was prepared and was back up and running within 24 hours.

Don't wait until it's too late.

To Your Success!

Patty Gale

Patty Gale is a successful entrepreneur who specializes inpersonalization and customer care for all her clients. She exchangedher suits, hose and heels for working at home in her "jammies" and ison a mission to empower other women to do the same.

She can be reached at http://www.Home-Office-Recovery-Plan.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Data Recovery Information:

Related Articles

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - A Business Not a Technology Issue
Hackers, hurricanes, fires, flooding, power outages, denial of service attacks, application failures, employee error, sabotage and now terrorism are helping companies to focus on the necessity of a business continuity plan.Through the late 1990s as companies prepared for Y2K, many IT executives, risk managers, CFOs and corporate managers realized that recovering computing systems, networks and data was not enough.
The Importance Of Email Backup
Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!Most home computer users don't need an expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders with important documents and pictures to a CD-RW from time to time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily get them back. Togeder with documents and pictures, it's a critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book and other important data from within the email client; otherwise in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely on their emails.
I Lost It! Simple Guide To Recovering Corrupted Images And Files
WinUndeletehttp://www.deprice.
9 Things to Look for when Considering Data Backup Solutions
It's one thing to loose data and money because of hackers and thieves of various kinds; it's a different thing again when it's because you didn't back up your data properly or not at all. Value your data! Whether it's that critical business document, your thesis, your website or your home accounts and precious photo's.
Want To Beat The Odds? Disaster Recovery Planning is Essential
Statistics show two out of five businesses go out of business within five years of experiencing a major disaster.These statistics are staggering.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Selecting A Business Continuity Strategy
The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. Also, the potential impacts and probabilities of these risks as well as the costs to prevent or mitigate damages and the time to recover will have been established.
3 Ways Computers Can Hurt Your Ministry - Part 1 - Ineffective Data Backups
Our computers have become almost indispensable ministry tools. What would you do if the worst happened and you had to function without your computers? Would your ministry survive?This article is the first in a 3-part series on how to protect your ministry from serious computer-related loss.
Sea-Front or Action-gate
June 25, 2005Seagate Technologies' web site now indicates the company offers data recovery services. Further investigation shows the shipping address, the place to send your subject drive for data recovery service, actually belongs to ActionFront Data Recovery.
Is Your Backup Good Enough?
As someone who has seen quite a few hard drive crashes over the years, I believe that performing a full backup of your computer's hard drive should be an important part of your weekly (if not daily) routine. There's nothing more frustrating & costly than trying to restore a computer with only a handful of Floppy disk drives, a couple of scratched CD-ROMs or poorly stored backup tapes.
Computer Data Backups: Test Now or Cry Later
If you're like most small business owners, your computer data backups are one of those things that you rarely pay attention to. Computer data backups are kind of like flossing your teeth and eating low-fat, high-fiber foods? everyone knows what they're supposed to do? but how many REALLY do these things religiously?!?Unfortunately when it comes to your computer data backups however, complacency can be very dangerous.
Data Recovery The Easy Way
If you aren't prepared in advance, you will most likely have to use a data recovery service or data recovery software solution to help get back as much as you can of what was lost. This can be a very good idea if there is no other way to recover your files, but it doesn't have to come to that in most cases.
Bill Gates Made Data Recovery Easy
Bill gates provided a ready made option in Microsoft windows, which is very useful for data recovery.Several time we make mistakes unknowingly and we lost our data, then we need to recover the data.
Offsite Data Backup Not Just for Fortune 500 Companies Anymore
In today's high paced digital world there is a very high value placed on information. Not just the kind of information you read in the newspaper or your favorite trade journals, but the type of information that we generate on a day to day basis with our digital devices.
Data Recovery - You Can Get It Back!
Data recovery is a process whereby you can save data andfiles you accidentally deleted, had eaten by malicioussoftware or viruses, hardware failures, corporate espionageand many more scenarios. Most people believe that when thehard drive crashes their world ends also, but that's notusually the case.
Computer Data Backup - Data Backup Solution Will Give You A Peace Of Mind
Imagine that you have been working on a file for the entire day and there was a power surge that caused your computer to 'black out'. It would have been a frustrating experience for us as we had put in a lot of time and effort into it.
Backup -- But Where To?
We all know we have to backup regularly, but those backups files can get huge. Add that to your existing your files and your notebook computer hard drive seems to have shrunk overnight.
Backing Up Personal Computers
Backup on business computers is typically not the user's concern unless it's a small business. A business should have a policy in place for managing backups especially due to Sarbanes - Oxyley.
Learn How To Make Data Backup Over The Internet!
Why should you backup your data on the Internet?There are several reasons.* The backup is located at a secure place for away from your computer.
How To Limit Hard Drive Data Recovery Costs
With the value on information rising day by day, one of thegreatest threats to businesses of any size is data loss. If thedata centers in your business have ever experienced a hard drivedisaster, you quicky realized just how valuable the informationlost is.
Data Recovery
Every person who uses a personal computer will eventually face the challenge of data recovery. Computer hardware and software can be temperamental from time to time.