Guest columnist Mark has some harsh but fair words for anyone who isn’t backing up their data and shares the story of one fool who didn’t read the small print: himself.
Mark has some harsh but fair words for anyone who isn’t backing up their data and shares the story of one fool who didn’t read the small print: himself
Backing up is my passion; some may even call it a fetish. Many of my customers would no doubt tell you I bore them to the back teeth ranting on about how important it is. Nevertheless, I’ve seen the fallout of not backing up so many times over the years that I bring up the subject at any given opportunity.
A prime example of this came to me in the form of a Dell laptop. University student Lucy contacted me in a panic because the said laptop had got itself into a repair loop. Windows can sink into this state for many reasons, but I always start my checks by looking at the hardware. I’ve found that faulty memory or a failing hard drive are often the two primary culprits when dealing with a corrupted operating system. At worst, the tests eliminate them from the investigation.
Saying all that, with screams of lost wedding photos and university work ringing in my ears – and no backup – the first job was to try and recover the data. I grabbed a USB stick with a bootable version of Windows and, a few minutes later, I could see the hard drive. That was the good news. The bad news was I couldn’t access the files, and not because of corruption or other such issues – I couldn’t view the files because it was an encrypted drive.
The method used to secure the disk was Drive Encryption, Microsoft’s built-in Windows tool. I think of it as a poor man’s BitLocker: it uses the same system to do the job, but without any real control. There are specific hardware requirements needed for Drive Encryption to work, but a lot of modern computers will have it turned on by default. It exists on all versions of Windows 10 and, with all other criteria met, kicks into action when you sign in with a Microsoft account. That account then stores the recovery key in case it’s needed.
So, not a problem: all I had to do was get the customer’s Microsoft account details, obtain the key and retrieve the data. If only things were that simple. Lucy wasn’t aware she had a Microsoft account. After some prompting, I also found out she didn’t use a password to log in to the laptop and had umpteen email addresses – most not used any more – that may be “the one”. I have had to leave it with her to see if she can work anything out. With no easy account recovery options open to her, though, I’m not holding my breath.
It doesn’t end there. The hardware diagnostics duly told me the hard drive was faulty. I’m still hopeful I can get the data from it but, until I have that recovery key, it’s anybody’s guess. Thankfully, I made the laptop useful again with a shiny new SSD – and a cloud backup subscription.
Backup smarts
One device that doesn’t need backing up (as yet) is a smart TV. I seem to set up more and more of them lately as their capabilities in crease, hand in hand with their ability to confuse. Ken and Christine are two of my more elderly customers, and I initially popped in to help them with a printer issue. As is often the case, as I was preparing to leave, Ken asked the fateful question: “Oh, while you’re here, could you just…?”
They had treated themselves to a new telly and, although they could watch live programmes, the installer hadn’t connected it to the internet. Christine has a very active social life and liked the idea of catch-up TV. I knew this wouldn’t be a five-minute job so, with the kettle boiling, I grabbed a laptop and started by creating the accounts needed to access these services.
After much discussion about passwords and Ken’s complaints about the need for it all, we finally completed what was required. I drank my cold coffee and moved on to the TV.
Its OS uses Android, and after a quick connection to their BT router, a sign-in to Google and an update or two, I was ready to get catch-up sorted. I did iPlayer first and Sir David Attenborough soon welcomed us with open arms. Channel 4 also went without a hitch but, when I came to sorting out ITV, BT Smart Setup rudely interrupted my efforts. If you have n’t
had the pleasure, this is a wizard that appears on newly connected devices, and its purpose is to go through the services and features that you may need from BT. There are five or six pages to wade through, and you can’t use the browser until you have completed the stages. What’s most annoying is that it rarely appears straight away; it hides in a corner and pops up just at a point when you really need to surf the net. Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t things on there that might be useful, but to thrust it onto you in this manner is beyond frustrating.
The TV problem was even more infuriating as I had no easy means of negotiating the pages. The wizard hid behind the ITV hub app, and I couldn’t get anywhere with either of them. The answer to this dilemma was something I was well aware of: turn off the Smart Setup in the router. It wasn’t something I’d done in a while so, instead of wading through all the different settings, I picked up the laptop and asked Google.
One of the search results took my fancy and I clicked on it, hoping it would answer my query. Not only did it do so with great accuracy and clarity, but the author also had the same disdain for the setup as me. So much so that I went to see who had written it. It’s not something I usually do when seeking help, but it intrigued me to know. And who was it? None other than PC Pro’s very own Barry Collins. His article was on a website called The Big Tech Question
( bigtechquestion.com), and it certainly answered mine. So thanks, Barry – you made my day a little easier, and Christine can now enjoy her TV shows whenever she likes.
Elite onerous
Solving IT issues – whatever the device – is a central part of my job, but there are some problems I have no control over. A classic example being when an email provider’s system is down and customers aren’t receiving their mail. Customers nearly always believe instinctively that they or their device must be at fault. When the phone calls come, convincing them otherwise isn’t that easy.
I have sympathy for them, though, because I’m not immune to that way of thinking. With more time on my hands during the second lockdown, I decided to catch up on some gaming. Elite Dangerous was available for free on the Epic Games Store, so I signed up immediately. I’m a big fan of space combat games and, as a
Yorkshireman, getting summat for
nowt was also right up my street. After the usual creation and linking of accounts, I waited for the download and installation. While I marvel at today’s games, all this faffing around makes me yearn for a cartridge I can quickly shove in and start playing. Then again, gaming for me began with cassette tapes and RAM pack wobble, so I shouldn’t be too harsh.
Once Elite had installed, I was eager to get going, but it now wanted to do an update. Another five minutes of my life passed by before I could try once more, only to have the update message appear again. At this point, I confess that I went through this procedure five times before I noticed the writing in the box. It seems the makers of Elite have to send the update to Epic’s servers. The problem is it may not happen straight away and until it does, you can’t play. With this new knowledge firmly wedged in my brain, I shut down the computer and called it a day.
A few hours later, my trigger fingers were twitching, so I tried again. This time, I arrived at the splash screen with no complications. I only had to press Play and my spaceship was ready for action. Only it wasn’t – another box now appeared telling me that I needed to purchase the game to continue.
It was at this point that I made my mistake. The sensible thing would have been to hit the internet and see if others were experiencing the same problem. Instead, I decided it must be my fault and went into IT support mode to look for the answer. After half an hour of uninstalling, reinstalling and checking that I had linked my accounts correctly, I came to a dead end. It was then – and only then – that I thought to check the Elite support site. What did I find? A message across the top of the page telling me they were aware of the issue and were working hard to resolve it. It was a couple of days later before I got around to having another go and, sure enough, my Elite Dangerous journey started without a glitch.
It’s a lesson learnt. The next time I’m trying to convince one of my customers the problem is out of their hands, I’ll take a deep breath and remember that I don’t always practice what I preach.