Twenty Nickels
If you save twenty nickels, you’ve made a dollar
by
Raymond Matkowsky
www.datastats.com
email: rdm@datastats.com
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Issue 2-14 April 2014
Windows XP® Backup Files Restored To Windows 8®
by
Raymond Matkowsky
Last fall I had a virus attack my Windows XP® computer and totally destroy the usefulness of my hard drive. This was the first time I picked up a virus in twelve years. In order to do so, this piece of malware had to circumvent three layers of protection. I still do not understand how it did so! I can only guess that I took some sort of action that allowed it in.
After having a technician unsuccessfully try to remove the virus, I was forced to either replace the main hard drive and lose all my data or buy a new computer and lose all my data. I chose to buy a new and advanced computer. After all, I have been backing up my data for years. My thought was just to restore from my back-ups.
Originally, I was making back-ups with software from a third party manufacturer. After a while though, my back-ups became too time consuming so I switched to the built-in XP® back up program. However, I never considered that Microsoft®, in its wisdom, would not make XP® back-ups compatible with their newer systems. This is a big shortcoming for small businesses and is not like the Microsoft® of the past. I had ten years of business data which I was not able to recover.
Months went by and I consulted with many people, a Fedex® outlet tried to extract and failed to get this data. A number of other office outlets said they would try for a very high price with no guarantee of success. I had given up hope of extracting this lost information until I discovered Systools Software and their BKF Repair Tool. This appears to be one of the few tools available to accomplish the task.
You can download a demo version from www.systoolsgroup.com/bkf-repair.html. With the demo version you can only preview your files. You cannot extract them. After previewing your files you can decide if you want to purchase the program. In my case, I had one file that consisted of about $2,000 worth of language translations. So, it was well worth the purchase price.
Going Solar?-Revisited
The February 2014 Small Business Management article dealt with some of the pitfalls with establishing a solar panel array on the roof of your building (or home). If you wish to review this article, it can be found in the archives. In comparison to other recent winters, the weather in the northeast United States has been very harsh. We have had eleven major snow storms. Many flat roof buildings could not withstand the weight of snow and collapsed. Some of the early collapses were roofs equipped with solar panels. As my article in February pointed out, many fire departments are fearful of entering buildings with solar panels on their roof because of a potential collapse.
It is debatable whether or not some of these snow covered roofs would have still collapsed if the solar panels were not present. However, it is not debatable that the added weight of the solar panels can hasten a collapse. This is just another factor that must be weighed before installing panels on the roof.
Our recommendation is the same as before: Try to locate your panel in some other location than your roof. If you must place on the roof, strengthen the roof underneath it. By all means, take your local weather into consideration also.
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A Call For Reader Input
We at Data Stats would like to see this newsletter become a reader supported forum for help questions, answers, or general comments on anything appearing in this newsletter or Data Stats’ website. If you have a question, answer, or comment to contribute send them to me at newsletter@datastats.com. I will try to publish it here.
If you have an urgent question to ask, you don't have to wait for our newsletter to come out. We will try to find you a reader or one of our experts that may be able to help you. So, if you have a question, comment, or think that you can be of help, send us an email at once to: newsletter@datastats.com.
Also, in your email, please let us know if we have permission to share your email address with experts that may be able to exchange ideas with you directly.
Raymond D. Matkowsky
Copyright © 2014 Raymond D. Matkowsky
Data Stats
P.O Box 672
Old Bridge, New Jersey 08857-0672
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