Biennial Crash Testing

[Ron Jarrell]

At 08:58 AM 5/13/99 -0400, you wrote:
>My PC crashed yesterday, taking all of my mail, a fair amount of my 
>checkbook data, and fortunately, none of my writing.  I'm in the 
>process of rebuilding my data right now, and not having a pleasant 
>time of it.  
>
>PCs have done this to me on a semiregular basis since I got them -- 
>this time, it seems to have been a Windows 98 problem.
>
>I think, at the point where I can afford it, I'm going to change 
>platforms completely.  Anybody out there have longterm experience 
>with Macs?

Yes, having been a fan since I bought the original one...  I even used
the Lisa before that.. (We made all our students in the CS dept buy one
to run unix on at one point.. Kinda scary now that I look back).

Realistically, from the POV of what you're complaining about, they're
not any different.  They have their own problems with the occasional
haunting, and come with new ones like lack of software.  

The real solution is not to invest in a new platform just because you're
afraid that the old one is crashing too much, but rather to invest in backup
hardware, and then proceed to actually use it religiously.  Something like
a Jaz drive can be had quite cheaply, as these things go, and has removable
2G cartridges.  Ideally, you dump your life to it once a week, and start the
morning out each day with a refreshing snapshot of changes over the last 24
hours.  (Using real backup software, not the stuff that comes with windows.)

There's also, if you've got the online access to handle it, which usually
requires a flat rate plan, several interesting online solutions, where for a
monthly fee, their software will scavange your disk for changes, encrypt
and compress it, and upload it to a highly redundant server somewhere in
the world, which can return it to you on demand.  I've been considering
switching to one of those services with my laptop since I'm fairly often 
on a lan, with good connectivity.