Back It Up! Then Backup the Back Up!

Last week I had the joy [sarcasm] of restoring not 1, not 2, but 3 staff computers to factory default settings. That means a complete wipe of the hard drive and a clean install of Windows Operating System.

Library the First: had an automatic back up to an external hard drive set up, yay! But something went wrong with the program and it hadn't backed up since February 2016. Yikes! This computer had the financials for the library on it! I spent most of my time trying to find a current backup of the financial files as Quickbooks wouldn't open to make a backup.
LESSON: Even with Automatic Backups setup, periodically check your backup to make sure it is working.

Library the Second: got a keystroker trojan that captured all the passwords (by recording keystrokes) and had hijacked her email. The Hacker had put a forwarder on the library email so nothing came to the inbox. To remove the virus, I had to make a clean install. Virus prevention post to come...
Before I could do anything, I had to backup the library files. There was no backup setup.
LESSON: Hope for the best, plan for the worst...back up your files!

Library the Third: This was a staff member at the home office! A coworker's laptop would not boot. Luckily she had noticed the computer was acting funky and had backed up her files the week before onto her external hard drive. I was able to push a new clean Windows 10 onto her laptop and get her set up in 2 hours.
LESSON: Pay attention to your computer. If he's acting funny, BACKUP!

So, here's the quick and dirty back up plan.
Get a DropBox account. Get on Google Drive. Save your files there.
Get a 64GB flash drive or a 1TB external HardDrive. Save your files there.
Save your files Twice. Once in My Documents on your computer and Once in a secondary location.

Look into these backup programs: GoodSync, SyncBack or Oops!Backup.

Carbonite will automatically backup your files to the cloud...for a fee.

File management and Backup is the computer user's responsibility. Please don't place this burden on your friendly IT. You need to know where your files are.

Why We Weed: Computers edition

Libraries are excellent about doing more with less. We know how to be frugal and reuse, recycle, reduce! And thank goodness for donations from the community.

However, not all donations are appropriate to add to the library's collection. Medical books from 1980 for example, should be placed directly in the recycle bin.

The same can be said for outdated technology.

When weeding a book, it's easy to determine the condition. You just flip through the pages and look for tears, missing pages, water damage, smell.

Evaluating a computer or printer is not as easy. You have to plug it in and turn it on. And use it.

Is the computer used only as a last resort? Is it slow? Does it crash often? Can you have more than 1 program running at a time? How old is it?

I am giving you permission to discard your donated Windows98 machines.

Go ahead and say thanks but no thanks for dot matrix printers.

"But," I've had Librarians say, "this can be used for a children's computer. It has games like Magic School Bus." Played on CD-ROM or (gasp) possibly even floppy discs.
My answer:  If the computer is three times as old as the little kiddo you think will play on it, you're going to be disappointed. Sure it was cool to play on the first word processor typewriters, but I'm not going to seek one out today. Kids won't want to play the pixelated, slow, and dated games that play on WindowsME or 98. There are lots of great online sites and games that will hold their attention and suit their needs better.

So, here is a list of computers to weed:
Windows XP, WindowsME, Windows98 or older
Computer  that takes 10 to boot and another 10 to load
Dot Matrix Printers
Printers that constantly Jam.

And remember, having more computers isn't always better, if no one wants to use them. It is better to have 3 or 4 Windows 7 or Windows 10 computers that 8 outdated computers that sit unused.

Windows 10...should I upgrade?

For just a few more months (until July 31, 2016), Microsoft is offering to upgrade your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 computer to Windows 10 for free. But should you take them up on the offer?

As a IT Consultant that is constantly on the road fixing Windows computers at 54 public libraries, I know Windows OS. I know updates. I know reinstalls. I know building the thing back from a hard blue-screen-of-death crash. I like Windows 7. It runs well for Windows. It's stable.
I don't like Windows 8 or 8.1 and its made for touch screen setup. To me, Windows 8 in any version is just as bad as Windows Vista.

Windows 10 is better that Windows 8. It's almost as good as 10. So, if you have Windows 8.1, please upgrade to 10.
If you are happy with Windows 7, stay if you want. But know that you will eventually have to upgrade to 10, when your current computer bites the dust.

Things to know before you upgrade:
BACK UP ALL YOUR FILES! That means photos and documents and personal information. The upgrade should keep all your information, but I have had a couple upgrades "eat" files that I could not recover. It's just good practice to back up files when you are messing with an Operarting System (OS) anyway.

Windows 10 is set up to track you and your computer use!
But you can turn those setting off. After your computer has downloaded and initiated the upgrade, you are taken to a setup screen. From there you can turn off data sharing options.
Also, after 10 is installed, go to Start-->Setttings-->Privacy and turn off sharing there.