Computer Repairs Are Less Painful When You've Got Redundancies In Place

Having owned at least one computer (and often many more) since I first tapped in my first program on a TRS-80 Model I in 1979, I've had many successes and failures with software, hardware, and other peripherals. Whether it was a seized-up hard-drive, a fried motherboard, or a missing crossover cable, I've had to face a multitude of challenges when it comes to repairing, restoring, and replacing computers (and not always my own!).

Over the years, I've learned to approach computer repair
passively, having learned early on that dropping, smashing, kicking, hammering, and yelling weren't effective methods for solving my computer woes. This more scientific approach allowed me to understand early on that the computers weren't deliberately trying to "get me", and that through thorough (and often painstaking) trial and error, I would usually be able to determine the problem (this is not to say that there was still some yelling involved).

Often the levels of frustration were reduced when I knew I had made back-ups of important documents (another thing I learned the hard way), files, images, passwords, and that screenplay I expect to finish one day. In the early days, this involved printing out pages of code written in BASIC, and then it progressed to tape backups, 5 1/4" disk backups, 3 1/2" disks, data tapes, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, server backups, online mirrors, jump drives, compact flash, SD-cards, jump drives, and so forth. It also helped that there was usually a second machine that could help me carry on with my work while the first one (or two) were being repaired. Knowing that there was always a solution for my "down time" made it less of a disaster, and also made the progression to a new computer system easier.

Fixing machines myself has been a challenge in itself, since I am more of a power-user than a computer repair specialist (I know my limits). My buddy, who is a walking parts code database, can usually tell me in an instant why my computer has failed (again), and what steps (and at what cost) I need to take to resolve the issues. Of course, just getting a new machine releases plenty of endorphines which I now know were created just to make those people happy who had just suffered some form of computer catastrophe.

If you own a computer (or any form of technology), you can expect at one time or another that there will be some sort of failure, whether it's a hard-drive, CPU, or total system melt-down. Unless you're a computer repair genius, you're better off just taking the precautions that I discussed, and always remember to back-up everything that has some importance to you (multiple redundancies are a good idea), and always have another device to fall back on, so that your interruption causes you as little pain and inconvenience as possible. (I saved this document in three places before publishing it.)