With computers, it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong. That is why I started this blog in the first place - I knew there would often be plenty to write about.

I have had this feeling for a while now. A feeling of worry. I am worried that my 120GB hard drive is going to crash - the 120GB hard drive that has all of my creations on it. All of my data. All of my programs and email and pictures.

Everything.

I have not taken the time to set up another RAID since the first attempt that caused me so much incredible grief (but was fortune enough to recover from). And just the other day, a friend of mine called to tell me that his computer is running really slow, and that the BIOS reported a SMART error when booting - which indicates that his hard drive is on the verge of failing.

This compounds my worry. Therefore, I am taking steps this week to attempt to set up another RAID configuration so I have a backup of the drive. I am also going to set up some backup software on the network to save my more important files onto a separate computer. Dual redundancy is always a good thing.

Also, I have been wanting to get a UPS for a while, since the power in this apartment is so intermittent. On the same day that my friend called about his disk crashing, there was a heavy rain storm, and the power went out in the apartment. Twice! I had all my computers on at the time and I lost some unsaved work, but not much. I just hate that I lose any work at all. I typically have a lot of things open, and the computer(s) remain on all the time, since I just sort of continually work as I go along from day to day.

Anyway, my friend sent his ailing drive to me so I can save it for him. In fact, it just arrived literally this minute (funny how that happens). He is also sending me a new drive that he just bought on ebay yesterday that will replace the ailing drive. I will create a mirror of his ailing drive (if all goes well!) on to the new drive and send them back to him so he can get back up and running. The new drive should get here next week.

Well, I'm off to do a little data protection planning. Keep your bits intact!