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Update - Sunday - May 2nd

It has been a while since I bored folks with yet another entry.

So, here goes.

Last fall I picked up an industrial sewing machine and, as I never took Home Economics in High School, I enrolled in a one night class in what to do with a new machine. Taught by a really nice guy he walked the other student and myself thru all one needs to know of where the thread goes, bobbins, quality stitches, tension and needles.

Now to patch some blue jeans for the garage. And, a Cockpit Cover, Boat Cover, Cushion Covers, man, I am juiced, ready to go ...

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Since Marcia' return from Hagerstown, she interviewed in Portland Maine. We spent a weekend there to look things over. First time in the Nordeast for both of us. The clime could have been better, and in the winter, it is 20-30 degrees warmer than here, and in the summer, 20 degrees colder than here. Or so. Right on a bay, lobster, seafood in all its forms is readily available when the boats come in, or from any of the excellent restaurants in Portland. A town of 60,000.

The downtown lies right off the bay, about four blocks deep and around 8-10 blocks wide. Nice, clean, quaint. All within walking distance.

Stay tuned ...

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Then, I want to suggest something that I have struggled with for two weeks now. Over 75 hours, evenings and weekends.

Busted Computers.

One day, I was just goofing along and the power dumped. Windows was in the process of writing something to the disk drive and it corrupted a file. As a result, I could not launch Windows.

Then, an hour later, my Server also dumped. It has two pairs of drives that mirror each other. ie: Data written to one pair, is written to the other. If a drive fails, you replace it and it gets rebuilt from the other pair.

Well, one disk drive failed.

"The Shoemaker's Son"

Well, I had data on my pooter that was 5-8 years old and it was dead. 40-50,000 digital images without any backup. And thousands of other files/programs I really did not want to lose. Server, dead.

Like a drunk the next day all hung over, I regretted my folly.

Long story short, I replaced the failed drive and the Server was functional. I also put a spare drive in the Big Box and installed Windows on it. Then, using that version, copied all the data from what was (C:) now (D:) to the Server. Then I rebuilt that box from Windows on up. Copied all the data back onto it and reinstalled Office, Photoshop etc etc etc.

A disk drive can fail mechanically. A bearing fails or a head crashes onto the surface. It can fail logically. Where Windows crashes and corrupts a file. Then, your home can be hit by lightning. And everything plugged in will get fried.

Here will be my new setup.

I purchased two Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) from APC. Each will give either box 15-20 minutes of up time and then, notify Windows to shut down peacefully.

The server will be on a UPS and up 24x7 again. I replaced all four drives with new ones as the ones in there are 5-6 years old with alot of time on each.

On my Big Box, Marcia's laptop and my other laptop, I am installing a product called (FolderClone). It will monitor the files that get changed and copy them to the Server. Once the parameters are established, it all happens in the background. That way, the Server will always have the most current data for each box.

When we can afford one, I will get a 2tb NAS drive. It is a Data Server without a Computer. It is plugged into your Lan and all it does is serve data. That will replace the Server and will be up 24x7.

The Server will then be turned on once a week, and will receive the data that has changed. It, and the NAS box, should be identical at that time. Then, I will unplug it from all cables and that will help keep a lightning strike from toasting it.

Folks, Lesson Learned ...

You may consider something like this. One can purchase a UPS for $75-100 that will shut down Windows when the power dumps. If all you have is a a Drive (C:), have a Dive (D:) installed and back up to that. Or get an External Drive for backup that plugs into a USB Connection.

But, back up your data. Now, I am ...

My spanky blue sewing machine. Learned about needles and thread too.

What makes this one so industrial. The foot, moves with the claws on the bottom. Pulling the heavy fabric through the machine. It can sew 6-8 layers of naugahyde as well.