Martarius' Realm

On behalf of martarius.com, may I wish you a happy, safe, prosperous 2010.  May if be full of joy, peace and love.

It is amazing to me how seeming intelligent people do not backup their data.  Especially important data such as Quicken.  So, as have so many in the past, I guess it's time to bring my two cents into the ring.

People...  let me explain to you the working of the average consumer grade, internal hard disk drive.  This device is unlike a file cabinet.  It is used to store data that you have installed or created on your computer.  It is also a machine.  Most hard drives have a tiny little motor that turns the plates.  These plates are what your data are stored on.  The data is retrieved by the read/write arm.  (Think of the arm of a record player, if you were born before 1980).   And like any machine, a hard drive is prone to failure.  Those little motors can burn out.  And if that motor dies, the plates will not turn, the read/write arm will not see the data.  And all those pictures and documents and movies and music are long gone... unless you have a few thousand bucks laying around and take the drive to a facility with a clean room; so they can remove the platters without dust damaging them.

So, how can you prevent this, you ask?  BACKUP YOUR DATA!!!  Quicken even asks you before you quit the program.  There are so many ways to keep that important data save.  Here is my recommendation.  It is a two fold system.  First, backup your data to an external device:  a flash drive, external hard drive, even CD or DVD disk.  Secondly, sign up for a online file storage provider.  I recommend Carbonite, but there are others.  Mozy is another good one.  These usually run about fifty dollars or so a year.  And there are more that I can't think of right not...XDrive comes to mind as well.  Microsoft has one called SkyDrive that is free, but has size limitations.  Mozy does as well.  Google has a pay file storage that run five dollars a month.  Google "online file storage" or "free online file storage" and see what it brings up.  You can also backup those important files and store them in a safe deposit box or mail it to Aunt Myrtle.  Make sure you do it!  And do it often.  And, for heaven sake, don't send your backup to the same hard drive!

We have a opportunity now in the digital age that was not available before.  If, heaven forbid, your home caught fire, or you wereburglarized , even a within a few years ago, many important documents or beloved photos were lost.  Now, with digital photos, and optical scanning, we can save these items, and be able toretrieve them if something horrible happened.  So think about this.  It is not difficult.  Please, just make sure you do this.  You may not have the latest Quicken file, but it will be easier to recover with a couple weeks old then it is starting from scratch.

Oh, one last thing.  Don't take the hard drive apart yourself.  Even though you don't see dust in the beam of you desk lamp, as soon as you open that drive up, you'vecontaminated it.

We at martarius.com wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  May this holiday season be full of love, peace and joy.

I can’t believe I am actually saying this, but I had a pleasant experience install a Microsoft product.  I am still amazed on how easy the Windows 7 install was!

Now, a caveat:  I did a clean install of Windows 7 Professional.  I wanted to go from 32-bit to 64-bit, and the upgrade option did not allow me to do this.  So, I threw caution to the wind and rebooted to the DVD.  I did not even hesitate when I chose the Custom install option.  I sat there, watching the install (which is still like watch paint dry), wondering on what I may have gotten myself into.  I was active checking Paul Thruott’s SuperSite for Windows for ideas on what horrors may lay before me.  The time came to enter the product key.  My hands were sweating as I typed the key.  I was making contingency plans on reinstalling Vista, just in case the install did not work.  Then the computer rebooted.  I held my breath…

Then, it finished, rebooted, and voila!  IT WORKED!  IT WORKS GREAT!!!!  Even the printer install for my old HP LaserJet 8150 went great.  Windows 7 did not show the printer on the initial group of printer choices.  But Microsoft had an option to go online to search for more printers.  It took a few minutes, but the list updated, and there it was:  HP LaserJet 8150 PCL6.  Even my DVD software suite installed fine. 

So, stay tuned.  Twelve hours have gone by, and my system hasn’t exploded yet.  It looks like I may be in for a nice ride.

Here is a query for all the subjects in the Realm:

I have been trying to find a way to take the calling that God is giving me and my love of computers and all things technology, and put them together.  Perhaps a technology consultant towards churches.   Please leave me feedback and comments on your feelings on this.  I would love to hear your input.