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When Computer Crashes Lead to
Business Meltdown! By James Martell In many ways, we’re all the same when it comes to technology. Most of us spend too much time on the computer, rely on it to perform our dirty work, and become angered when our systems don’t respond as expected. While computers are great, one downside to the latest advancements in technology is that we have finally started to take them for granted. Have you ever stopped to think about your computer’s memory? Even though it stores astronomical amounts of data on your behalf, what happens when your computer’s brain crashes? Simply put, if you don’t perform regular data backups, you’re teetering on the brink of a catastrophe. In my case, I noticed that my computer was getting slower and slower. It seemed to take forever for a program to open, and pages on the Internet were loading sluggishly. My anti-virus software identified a Trojan that could not be easily removed, so I downloaded Windows Live OneCare. Although it helped a bit, it didn’t take care of the virus. I even tried using Norton Registry Cleaner, compliments of my son, Justin – without any success.
...and then came the dreaded Windows "blue screen of death". I took it to a local computer store, where a tech ran a few diagnostic tests and determined that there was a problem with the motherboard. Skeptical, I checked with another computer store, where two Trojans were discovered. Just as I dreaded, the only way to destroy the Trojan was to wipe the computer clean, reformat the hard drive, and re-install the operating system. I paid the $83.00 charge – a far cry from the $450.00 quoted by the first tech to replace the motherboard, which wasn’t even causing the problem. I hate the thought of reformatting my hard drive because of the amount of software that is lost in the process. It takes time to gather all of my discs and find my usernames and passcodes (which thanks to Affiliate Organizer I do have at my fingertips). It wasn’t my first time tackling this tedious task. For whatever reason, reformatting is often necessary to eliminate viruses and rid the computer of downloads, programs, and data that is no longer needed. Fortunately, I signed up for Carbonite last year. The automated backup service protects my information by backing up my data on a regular basis, giving me less of a reason to worry about computer problems. Once my computer was repaired and ready to go, I logged into the Carbonite website and used a simple wizard to replace all of my data. With the click of a button, my hard drive was restored. It’s a lengthy process; it took about 36 hours for Carbonite to reinstall 55,000 files to my hard drive, including my Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, websites, images, audios, videos – everything! It was a beautiful sight to behold, as I waited patiently for the process to wind up. I was back to work in no time. If your computer plays a big role in your livelihood – like it does for me – or even if you just use it for fun, a service like Carbonite will leave you with no regrets. No one wants to risk losing their software, letters, and photos, but at the same time, we constantly hear stories of failed hard drives and lost information. I strongly recommend that you subscribe to Carbonite right now, before you fall victim to a computer disaster. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up an account and you don’t even need a credit card to take advantage of their no-obligation, 15-day trial! Even if we take the necessary precautions, computer issues, freeze-ups and viruses are an inevitable part of online communication. With Carbonite, IF and when disaster strikes, you will be able to take the headaches out of restoring your data… just like I did. All the best,
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Eventually, the issues
progressed to a point where
it became near-impossible to
accomplish anything. If I
attempted to run a few
programs at the same time,
the computer froze solid... 
