I was hours away from my computer crashing. This is not the blog I had planned, but it underscores the importance of infrastructure and processes for solopreneurs. These are the under-the-desk parts of running a business, because without them our desk would have no legs.
My computer was 7 years and 3 months old. I had planned on replacing it in July. Two years ago a line of pixels on the screen had failed, creating a thin red stripe along the left margin. More worrisome, this past summer, is that I could hear the fans revving at the end of the day. More than this, operations had begun slowing down randomly and then more consistently during the past few months.
I was doing more than watching my little boat spring leaks over the past 2 years. I began backing up key files daily in addition to the weekly backups of all data files.
Never lag in backups more than you are willing to lose.
I also have security hygiene processes. I subscribed to a reputable purveyor of security and disk management software. Security apps I set to run in the background. Management apps, I run offline at the end of week before initiating the weekly backup.
Far less time is spent avoiding malware than is recovering from malware.
Another benefit of weekly reviews of what is being stored on my computer is knowing how much space is being consumed and by what. Over the decades, the issue I have run into by keeping computers for a long time is that the new generation software takes up much more space.
File management becomes more important the older a computer gets.
In addition to tossing junk, I have selected to migrate some software to the cloud. A stop-gap measure is to defragment the disk. With older computers short on space this can be dicey. I have done two with this computer. The last one was about a year ago. Both improved the speed of operations.
To address the heat issue, as denoted by the fan revving, I carefully removed the back of my computer, to suction off dust that collected on the housing interior and around the fan. Do not touch the boards or wires. If dust had been excessive on the guts of the computer I would have taken it to a local computer tech. I do not usually take such invasive measures, but I was focused on keeping afloat until July.
When my computer suddenly tilted from manageable to going off a cliff last week, it took less than an hour to order a replacement. I had already identified the specific components for my new computer last summer and researched manufacturers. I only needed to review what was on the market that fulfilled the specifications. That was Sunday night.
The projected arrival of this new computer was Wednesday. My systems management processes and tactics allowed my old PC to creep, but it required unusual vigilance. I kept a window open on the C drive to monitor how far below 2MB the disk was sliding, then I would decide on the next piece of software that I could without, Then, I ran a file cleanup to make as much empty space as possible. By Tuesday I could not remove any more software and still get work done.
Better than USPS tracking delivery was my dog barking at the front door mid-morning on Wednesday.
I had planned for a half day on Wednesday and again on Thursday for file transfer and new system setup. File transfer with the help of an application and cable was smooth and as lengthy as expected. I did it in stages. I wanted all my data files and user settings from the applications, but only select applications. There would be a fresh version of Windows on the new computer, and since Windows was triggering freezing on my old computer I did not want to port over any complications. To stay on schedule, I finished file transfer before I went to bed on Wednesday night.
Thursday, I scheduled a half day to set up the finer details. I was feeling optimistic about being back to work while the sun was high. This did not happen.
What I had not anticipated was that Microsoft 365 no longer included Publisher, an application they announced the previous week that they would discontinue support as of October 2026. All my client forms and so much more are built with Publisher. I thought I had 20 months before obsolescence.
I could repurchase a version I still owned when I used Microsoft Office or I could go back to my old computer and see if I could retrieve that one piece. The answer was that Publisher exists in a small pile of pieces and I am not Windows Office savvy enough to know which pile of pieces I need.
I wondered what was on the market that could convert Publisher files and had a track record so I could count on its durability. It took less than a half-hour to decide on Adobe InDesign. I made this purchase and converted a few compound complex files to test the results.
Over the 7-plus years other things were different with Windows and what was formerly Office. The user interface had become more smartphone-like. The ways I organized the desktop were no longer available, so I adapted. Yet, the speed of adapting is like encountering an unfamiliar recipe for a new cuisine you want to try. I was no longer breezing through setting up my new computer. I was plodding, watching each footfall, and planning for the next.
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I was thankful, that I had earlier in the week moved Friday’s appointments until next week, as I was getting behinder than behind. I was thankful that I kept a barebones structure up on my old computer as I wrote this post, did emails, and a couple of virtual meetings. Isn’t it according to Hoyle, things take longer than expected.
You may be wondering, why I was waiting until July to replace my computer. This quarter I am paying for a website. This quarter I set aside some hours in my weeks for website miscellany and to develop a group experience I will be launching this summer.
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. – Dwight D Eisenhower
Here is a useful summation for all solopreneurs.
· Build some capital to provide durability to your infrastructure.
· Invest in tools to protect your data.
· Have processes in place to maintain critical pieces of your business infrastructure.
It could have been much worse than lost time, but it wasn’t, and I am thankful. There was no customer impact, a testament to infrastructure.