How to make sure floods, faulty sprinklers, and even spilled cups of coffee don’t put a damper on your computer systems
The biggest threat to your computer systems probably isn’t a nefarious hacker, a freak tornado, a major power outage, or a lethal case of malware. It’s something much more innocent-looking: a ubiquitous part of the modern office and a little productivity-boosting device that’s just as valuable as your Android, iPhone, Windows Phone or BlackBerry.
It’s called a cup of coffee.
This innocent beverage, if it happens to spill on your laptop, could spell major disaster. Computer technicians will probably tell you that spilled coffees have spelled the deaths of more hard drives than power surges, dropped laptops, or other common accident categories combined.
Of course, Death By Liquid can take other forms as well. Floods can easily destroy not only tens of thousands of dollars of computer equipment, but whole offices. A leaky roof can quickly escalate from an annoyance into a major threat to equipment. And faulty sprinkler systems – or, for that matter, working sprinkler systems that come on when there’s a real fire – can destroy your computers in a matter of minutes.
When it comes to computers, moisture is your enemy. Here’s how to combat minor spills – and how to prevent major data loss.
The key with a coffee spill is to act quickly. Cut the power, unplug the computer, and remove the battery. (The thing that will kill your computer isn’t actually the water; it’s the electrical current.) Then, gently turn your laptop over to let the liquid drain out. Blot away whatever runoff you can catch.
Prop up your laptop to dry facing downward. Then, wait for time and evaporation to work their magic.
If you happened to spill a soda on your laptop instead of coffee, you might have serious residual stickiness issues to contend with. You can try dismantling the computer and carefully rinsing the individual parts in distilled water – but at that point you might as well just call CMIT and get an expert to help you out! Any laptops that we purchase for our clients come with a very strong recommendation for accidental (oops, I spilled a drink on the keyboard) care warranty.
For major water disasters affecting a whole office full of computers, you’re going to have to go a different route. You may never be able to resurrect all of your equipment. But if you’re smart and plan ahead, you can at least resurrect your data.
By running regular remote backups, you ensure that your data will live on even if your in-office equipment suffers from some untimely disaster. It protects you not only from equipment failures but also from local data corruption due to viruses, bugs, or just plain accidents. A remote backup is one of the best insurance policies you can have for your business data. To find out more about CMIT’s remote backup solution, check out CMIT Guardian.
