Mannage Newsletter

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Getting Fired 101

Some couples divorce but remain friends and simply agree that “it wasn’t a fit.” – Small businesses and IT professionals can learn from this. How do you get properly fired? Don’t think it’s within your control?

Quick Tip: Keep Your
Electrons Happy

Did you know that keeping your notebook and other portable devices always plugged in to charge will actually decrease the life of the battery? Apple recommends http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html completely discharging and recharging laptop batteries once per month (this is referred to as a battery cycle). Current MacBook Pros will retain up to 80% of their battery capacity after 1,000 cycles. So keep those electrons happily bouncing around: the next time you pick up that notebook for a few hours, unplug the charger cable.

Awesome Apps

Quick Tip: Restoring Files

If you're lucky, you haven't needed to restore files from a backup. But chances are good that eventually you'll need to. Don't wait until you need to restore a file, test your backup software's restore function now. Verify you understand how to restore a file, selecting the appropriate revision, source location, and destination for the restored file. Look for a few different types -- Word, PDF, JPEG, etc. -- and sizes to restore. If you don't already know the procedure, see if you can restore files to another computer or drive location; if your computer fails, you probably won't be able to access the backup software you installed either.

Why are you receiving this?

Mann Consulting provides all of our clients with complimentary subscriptions to our tech briefings.

July 2010, Issue 170

Why Is My Computer Dying?
By Isaac O.

Most computers have a hard drive inside which stores all its files including music, movies, documents and e-mail. These drives contain platters that spin at up to 170 MPH for hours each day. Sudden movement can cause the heads to scratch the platters which will render parts unreadable normally called "Bad Sectors". Symptoms include an inability to start, freezing of the computer, loud clicking sounds or slow file access.

Laptops are most prone to this failure as they are portable and frequently moved around. Here are steps you can take to reduce your risk of disk wfailure and reduce your risk of data loss.

Back up frequently, having a backup is the best protection against data loss due to a drive failure.

Avoid sudden movements with your laptop running. After closing your laptop lid wait for it to sleep before moving it. On Apple laptops wait for the status light to start pulsing on the front. This can take up to a minute while your computer finishes its tasks.

Upgrade to a Solid State Drive (SSD). SSDs contain no moving parts so the risk of failure is significantly lower, and installing one can result in a huge speed increase on your computer. The downside to SSDs is that their current capacity is much lower and they carry a much higher price tag.

Store your data on a multi disk device, such as a Drobo. These devices keep copies of your data on multiple disks, if one drive fails your data will still be accessible.

Perform regular maintenance on your system. Just like your car your computer needs regular maintenance and tune ups to ensure it's properly running. This can help identify failures before they become catastrophic. Scheduling an hour or two with a consultant to perform these procedures can keep you ahead of any possible failures.

Store your data in the cloud. Services like DropBox, Box.Net, MobileMe, and Google Docs enable you to get to your files from wherever you may be.

What tools or services have you found to be instrumental in improving your productivity? Let us know at info@mann.com