pcAmerica Newsletter #142-September 6, 2005
Backing Up Your Data In previous issues of our newsletter, we have emphasized the importance of backing up your data. Backing up your data is your job. No matter how much or how little you know about computers, you must learn to back up your data.

Less than 30% of PC Users have adequate backup. Only 70% of large corporations have adequate backup. It’s your job to make sure your data is safe.

You actually need more than one backup each day. You need a backup on premises. For example, we have strongly recommended the Maxtor II drive for your daily backup. You can easily and quickly set up this backup so that your entire computer is backed up daily, let’s say for example at 2:00 AM.

The problem with your daily backup (perhaps using a Maxtor II disk drive) is that your daily backup remains on premises. What happens if your business is robbed, burned down, or flooded. You need a daily backup of your data off premises.

We have talked about those tiny flash USB Flash Drives that fit in your pocket. They are great and the price keeps coming down. A 4 GB Flash Drive now sells for less than $400. 2 GB Flash Drives now sell for under $200.

 

Another comparatively new alternative is a slightly larger, but still pocket-sized, 4 GB Flash Drive. This is available at Staples (and lots of other places) for about $149.95. It’s a bargain, and a great way to bring your data home. At 2.5"H x 2"W x 0.5"D, it is easy to carry around. The built-in USB attachment is part of the unit. It is not quite as sexy as the Cruzer Flash Drive pictured above, but it’s half the price.

 

See more information about this drive at:

http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=124982&cmArea=SEARCH

Or, you can back up your data directly to the internet. The advantage is that your data can be retrieved from any location, and you don’t have to carry anything with you.

You can find lots of internet backup services by going to google.com and searching for online backup. Xdrive.com is one such reliable web site service that you can send your files to. Just go to xdrive.com, insert your password, and you can copy files right to their hard drives. It’s a great service. It does cost $9.95 per month for 5 GB’s of storage. That may sound like a lot of money, but think of it this way. It will cost you $150 to buy, for example, the GigaBank unit above. Let’s say you lose one per year. You can save $30 per year by using Xdrive.

How much backup space do I need? If you are using Cash Register Express or Restaurant Pro Express, you probably need less than 2 GB’s of storage space. You can use the additional storage space to backup other important documents that you may need.

Remember, you need to backup your data. If for example, your computer is stolen or destroyed, you are going to by a new computer and reinstall your software (such as Windows, Cash Register Express, Microsoft Word, or whatever). Your software is relatively unimportant since you can always buy new software or just reload your CD’s. What is more important and not replaceable, is your business data and documents. If you backed it up, restoring your old data is easy.

Cash Register Express contains ONE extremely important file. This file is normally located at c:\cre2000\data2000\cre2000.mdb. This is the one CRE file that contains all of your data. You need to either learn to back it up, or have someone help you back it up.

Below is a very simple tutorial to backup up this one extremely important file. I know that only 50% of you will understand the instruction. You really need to either do it yourself, or find someone that can help you do it. If you do purchase a backup system and need help backing up this file, and you do have an up to date tech support contract, our tech support staff can walk you through the backup instructions below.

 

 

 

  1. Double click your mouse on My Computer (on your desktop).

     

  2. Double click on Local Disk (C:) (or if you are on a network, you must double click on the drive that contains your Cash Register Express Data such as F:).

     

  3. Double click on the CRE2000 directory.

     

  4. Double click on the Data2000 directory.

     

  5. Right click on the file called cre2000.mdb.

     

  6. Left click on copy.

     

  7. Now double click your mouse again on My Computer.

     

  8. Double click on your backup drive (perhaps G:). Put your mouse into the middle of the box. Right click. Go down to paste, and then left click.

 

OK. I will admit that I lost 2/3 of my audience now. The important thing is, you need to learn to do it. Find someone who can help you. Or, I can teach it to you in just a few minutes. If you have your drive and have a technical support contract, just call our tech support department. Or write to me at or call me directly at 845-634-4708.

If you don’t have a backup system, YOU LOSE!!! If you lose your data, YOU DESERVE IT!!!

Even More About The Cost of A Printer Last week I showed you how a $99 Dell Laser 1100 will cost you about 6.4 cents per printed page and that a $299 Dell Laser Printer 1700 will cost you about 5.4 cents per page. So, if you print 16 pages per day, you will be saving $60 per year by buying the more expensive printer. That $60 per year savings is after the extra $200 that you will be paying for a better, more expensive printer.

Remember, our discussion is limited to printing in black. Most small businesses do most of their printing in black (as opposed to color). Most pcAmerica customers use a printer for end of day, week, or month reports. If you need a color printer, that’s another discussion. If you get bored with the math, just shoot down to the end of this article.

I know that pcAmerica has an awful lot of customers who use an inexpensive Inkjet printer for reports. I know that many small businesses don’t like to spend money, especially on things like printers. These $99 Inkjet Printers appear to be very inexpensive and certainly very popular. Let’s look at the real cost of a $99 Inkjet.

We are going to use the same parameters as last week (printing 18,000 pages over a 3 years period of time or about 16 pages per day).

So, you buy an inkjet printer for $99. I don’t care what anyone says. I haven’t had very good luck with inkjet printers. I think they only last a year. The paper jams, the ink dries up, something breaks. They are great for printing a few pages. I don’t believe they can print 16 pages per day for three years. My best guess is, you are going to need three of them to match a laser printer. So, that’s $297 or .0185625 per page.

Paper sells for about $8.49 per 500 sheets or about $8.49/500=.01698 cents per page.

Now here’s the tough one. What is the cost per page for ink? I spent about 2 hours on google searches and couldn’t find an acceptable answer. Inkjet printer manufacturers just don’t want you to know the true cost of ink. I did find some estimates ranging from 3 cents per page to 9 cents per page. To make it even more complicated, manufacturers sometimes give you an estimate based on a 5% ink page coverage. Experts believe that the true figure is around 15%. So, even if you do find a figure, it is likely to be inaccurate. Based on my research and experience, I am going to estimate that ink will cost you about 7 cents per page.

The cost of printing on an inkjet becomes .018 + .017 + .07 or about 10.5 cents per page. That’s almost twice the cost of a laser printer.

Here are my recommendations.

Never buy a $99 printer (for black and white report printing). Buying a more expensive $200 or $300 printer will almost always be more cost effective.

Don’t buy an inkjet for black and white (in excess of 8 pages per day).

If you need to print in color, buy two printers. A laser printer for black and white printing and an inkjet for color printing.

In general, don’t buy a color laser printer just yet.

If you have another point of view, I’d be happy to hear from you. Write to:

Foiled Again! ”By most estimates, professional shoplifting costs U.S. retailers approximately $13 billion annually.” Many stores use EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance). These are those alarm-enabled microchips embedded in merchandise and or packaging. If the chip is not deactivated, the alarm goes off as the “crook” leaves the store. Crooks have figured out that multiple layers of foil will prevent the exit readers from detecting tags that have not been deactivated. Sometimes these thieves wear foiled layer clothing or use foil-lined bags in order to shoplift more efficiently. As a result, the manufacturers of these “shoplifting” systems have upgraded their systems to detect foil-lined clothing and bags.

What’s next?

Read the entire article in Suppy Chain Systems magazine at:

http://www.scs-mag.com/index.php?ption=com_content&task=view&id=844&Itemid=88

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More information related to being a pcAmerica Reference is available in Newsletter #136 at http://www.pcamerica.com/newsletters/newsletters.htm

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