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Uh Oh - Crash. Is There a Cloud in My Future?

By Karen Crowson

Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage BRE#01732313

July 13, 2012 01:37 PM

Computer Crash We all hope it will never happen to us. But that’s a rather myopic view. When you spend most of your work-life dependent upon technology, things go pear-shaped when it breaks down on you. My reliable IMac has one unreliable component – Parallels which allows me to run Quicken and Microsoft Publisher. When trying to launch a flyer template for a new listing, something got hung up. Seemed like the right thing to do was close everything and start fresh. Hmmmm. DO-OVER PLEASE!!

Things went from bad to worse at that point. A little at a time I was losing ground. Thank goodness my oldest son worked in IT for the Navy for 10 years. He’d been here the previous week, but of course had just moved to San Diego 3 days before this happened. But he's an ACE remotely, and for the next several hours we did all sorts of trouble-shooting to determine the root of the problem. Unfortunately, it was a total hard drive crash.

But due to his best practices I did have a back up in place, and now with a new hard drive and a restored Snow Leopard operating system, we can hopefully re-build my data. Won’t that be a fun way to spend a Saturday?

But of course an experience like this makes you consider – what if the back up wasn’t current? Do I want to feel this vulnerable again?

I’ve been a resistant Miss, that’s for sure. But, I certainly see the value in moving my work and personal life to the cloud. I still have some reservations, but I sure don’t like the situation I find myself in now.

Luckily, earlier this year I had gone through the pain of a CRM. And I had started using Dropbox for transaction files, so my current client files are all accessible. Here’s my game-plan:

Migrate all email over to Gmail (the Google guys tell me that there is a way to do this from Outlook. Yeah for that).
Get a larger DropBox account and put all my photos in there. I had just taken a slew of photos to use in blogs, and of course, they’re all on the harddrive. Not to mention family photos from a recent visit with my Granddaughter.
Find a Mac-compatible solution to replace Quicken. One BIG reason I’d been using Parallels. Any ideas out there?
Find a good graphics solution for Mac. Love Publisher, but Parallels needs to go bye-bye. Any cloud-based programs for this?

I’m sure my AR friends will have lots of suggestions. Please share your best practices and ideas so I won’t feel this vulnerable ever again!

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Dr. Paula McDonald

Beam & Branch Realty - Granbury, TX

Granbury, TX 936-203-0279

Oh the headaches for us when our technology isn't working. I am looking into Carbonite too. Just learned about it recently. Might be a good thing.

Jul 13, 2012 11:21 PM

Lorraine or Loretta Kratz

Crescent Moon Realty, Inc. & Land N Sea Auctions. - San Marcos, CA

Certified Negotiation Consultants

The labor pains you are going through. No one realizes the time consuming effort it takes when you a computer glitch occurs, how nice that you son could assist. I have been on the phone to India, recently to get help with my HP, and its very complicated when the other person does not have a total grasp of your language nor do I of his. So, I ended up going to Office Depot.

Jul 13, 2012 11:51 PM

Todd Clark - Retired

eXp Realty LLC - Tigard, OR

Principle Broker Oregon

My computer crashed last weekend and I have been in the cloud for over a year now. It saved me, I wiped my drive, reloaded everything and I was back in business like nothing happened rather quickly.

Jul 14, 2012 12:18 AM

Kenny Qiu

Tierra Antigua Realty - Tucson, AZ

Hi Karen, sorry to hear your computer problem. I used virtual box (free) on my MAC so I have windows OS running on the top of MAC OS. I have been using for last 3 years and rarely have any problems. MAC also comes with a free back up program called Timemachine. You can set it up so it backs it up to another external hard drive. I have my own cloud drive at home. You can set up your own clod pretty easily if you have a router that has USB connection. Just plugin the USB ( go with USB 3), and your MAC will find it easily and tell time machine to use that HD for backup. Time machine is one of the nicest backup/restore program I have ever used (you don't pay extra for that). In terms of graphic program, I used iPhoto (latest version) for simple photo editing. I also use GIMP (free, open source, equivelent of Adobe Photoshop) to do some heavy photo editing. This program has some learning curves. Another paid program I'd recommend is Apperture ($199). I never used it, but I hear a lot of goog things about. My friend told me is worth every penny of it. Since I am already familiar with GIMP, and didn't want to shove out that much money. Hope this helps.

Jul 14, 2012 12:42 AM

Ruthmarie Hicks

Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

Hi Karen,

I have Carbonite on my computers, but I feel your pain about Parallels. Slow, clunky, and crash-prone. I was very relieved when my MLS finally made everything Mac-compatable. They resisted it for YEARS, but I had always used macs and HATE PCs, so that was my only alternative.

I'm glad you have an IT expert for a son! That helps a great deal.

I am currently using photoshop elements on my Mac for photo editing. It is not that "user friendly" but once you learn it, it is a powerful program. Eventually I'd love to upgrad to Photoshop, but I don't have the $$$ for that right now. I also will be switching to Lightroom for storage purposes.

Jul 14, 2012 01:18 AM

Kimberly Tapscott

Keller Williams Prestige Properties - Stamford, CT

Giving you the service you deserve!

Great post and it left me thinking at how much I would lose if my laptop went crazy....off to the cloud I go.It gives me such an wonderfully airy feeling! (couldn't resist!)

Jul 14, 2012 01:55 AM

Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker

Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA

Put 40 years of experience to work for you

The Mac version of Quicken sucks so you really do need to use the PC version. My solution for this was to dump Parallels (it was a PITA anyway) and I now use Boot Camp on my laptop. I am a Mac user all the way, desktop and laptop. I also have Carbonite which lets me access my desktop computer from anywhere, even my cell phone!!

Jul 14, 2012 02:02 AM

Adrian Willanger

206 909-7536 AdrianWillanger-broker.com - Seattle, WA

Profit from my two decades of experience

Karen, Years from now when everything is in the cloud we'll be talking about these days. I writing this from my six-month old computer which was purchase when my two year old crashed.

Best

Jul 14, 2012 03:18 AM

Pamela Seley

West Coast Realty Division - Murrieta, CA

Residential Real Estate Agent serving SW RivCo CA

I guess Cloud is it. I have carbonite which I bought after my computer crashed less than two years ago. The drive was corrupted and had to buy new computer. Luckily I had most of my important files and photos on several flash drives. My only other suggestion that I've learned from techies is to have a third place to retrieve files and photos, such as flash or media drive. Best of luck, hope you get the problem resolved quickly.

Jul 14, 2012 03:39 AM

Bill Gillhespy

16 Sunview Blvd - Fort Myers Beach, FL

Fort Myers Beach Realtor, Fort Myers Beach Agent - Homes & Condos

Hi Karen, We are so dependant on all this tech stuff ! Getting to the cloud as fast as you can makes sense. I'm also looking for a CRM to integrate with my WP site.

Jul 14, 2012 03:52 AM

Chris and Dick Dovorany

Homes for Sale in Naples, Bonita Springs and Estero, Florida - Naples, FL

Broker/Associate at Premiere Plus Realty

I think yours was assembled on a Friday just before happy hour started. At least with a MAC you don't have all of our PC problems. When I wake up in the morning I'm surprised if everything is working.

Jul 14, 2012 05:45 AM

Jane Peters

Home Jane Realty - Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles real estate concierge services

I just got Top Producer which really doesn't work on the Mac and was almost going to get Windows and Parallel to run it, but resisted, since it causes all kinds of problems. And I am the worst person to ask about backups. I need to do that.

Jul 14, 2012 06:04 AM

Kathy Streib

Cypress, TX

Home Stager/Redesign

Karen- I've been using Carbonite for several years now and in fact they've added a feature where you can access your data remotely. And, I've started to use the clouds for storage as well and.... we have an external hard drive. Carbonite runs in the back ground and you can schedule it to back up as things change or at a set time. And you can select what you want backed up. Good luck!!

Jul 14, 2012 06:53 AM

Morgan Evans

Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY

LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

I often find myself saving files onto an external drive, its a better safe than sorry approach that can happy to any one of us.

Jul 14, 2012 06:55 AM

Charlie Dresen

The Group, Inc - Steamboat Springs, CO

Steamboat Springs, CO e-Pro

It sounds like your son, with his IT experience, might be the man to talk to regarding your technology needs. I'll bet he has some great advice.

Jul 14, 2012 08:16 AM

Charles Stallions Property Manager

Charles Stallions Real Estate Services - Pace, FL

Pensacola, Pace & Gulf Breeze Property Management

We back everything to an external and the server but we need to look at the cloud but wow I can't get loaded down with all this technoligy.

Jul 14, 2012 11:30 AM

Christine Donovan

Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA

Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

Karen - I don't have suggestions on Mac though I love Dropbox. I'm still not totally cloud but probably should be.

Jul 14, 2012 12:07 PM

Karen Crowson

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Rancho Bernardo, CA

Your Agent for Change

So, if you can all believe this... I was on standby with my son to restore my hard drive, and then re-load all of the back up data. However, my Internet provider is Comcast, and they have been down in my area ALL day. So I still am dead in the water. Thank God for my IPad, and smart phone or I wouldn't at all know about the second offer I received on my newest listing! Now let's hope I can get it to them during their travels abroad for review!!

Jul 14, 2012 12:52 PM

Gita Bantwal

RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA

REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Thank you for the post. I hope you will have interent access on Comcast soon.

I will look into Dropbox for storage.

Jul 14, 2012 08:29 PM

Phil Leng

Retired - Kirkland, WA

Phil Leng - Retired

Hi Karen,

We are an entire team with 7 computers, three lap tops and an ipad.

The only way for it to work is that everything goes onto dropbox. Yes you have to pay pretty soon, but it is worth it. Any single computer can crash or freeze up and it would not affect anything.

Phil

Jul 14, 2012 08:50 PM