As the regular readers of this blog know, my PC conked out between Christmas and New Year, and I had to work from my schlepptop for about two weeks. Since my CAT tool, memoQ, gives me two licenses, I had it installed there already, as well as an e-mail program (with the IMAP option set-up on my accounts) and my digital dictionaries, so I was in a good position to keep working.

I don’t think any of my clients noticed that I was operating in emergency mode, and luckily I wasn’t swamped with work as I had been a few weeks before, so all things considered, it was ok. Having done regular backups before the PC broke down, allowed me to
continue working, using all my TMs, TBs, Glossaries, reference material
etc. without missing a beat.
What I did miss very much, though, was my second monitor, and typing on the notebook keyboard is just not the same as doing so on a regular one. So after it became clear that I would have to do without the PC longer than expected, I pulled out my old notebook stand and attached my keyboard and mouse to it, which improved things considerably. I was even considering hooking up one of the monitors, as well, but that would have involved some major rearranging action of my desk, so I just grinned and bore it.
During this time, I did daily backups of all my work and sent translation packages to my online storage, since I was a bit paranoid about the notebook giving out on me, as well, and the external hard drive deciding to not work, either. Highly unlikely, I know, but still… I’d rather be safe than sorry.

After my PC was finally back from the shop for good, I felt somewhat hesitant to use it, even after I had taken my time to set it up properly, taking all the advice the repair guy had given me to heart. I guess getting burned twice within such a short time really shook up my faith in technology…
Well, in the meantime, my fears have subsided and I am working from my PC as I did before, hardly thinking about a possible crash anymore. After all, it really wasn’t so bad, since I didn’t lose any data and was able to continue working – but only because I had a well-prepped notebook on which to fall back!

Even if I never left the office, I now think having one is a good idea, since most people probably don’t have a spare PC sitting around (except for Jill, I guess… *gg*). Notebooks have become so affordable today, that it really is a good investment.
Or does anyone have another, maybe better, idea on how to be prepared for a PC crash?