How to protect your small business from computer failure. It happened to me recently, a big project in my inbox in and then I had a computer failure. A big batch of wedding photos ready to edit that morning .
I had started retouching them, when my screen went blank. I will not be focusing on what to do when your computer crashes, as I am sure we all know how to get a computer repaired.
I will be focusing on how to protect your small business from computer failure
I use an Apple Macbook Pro, as I find it more suited to creative tasks such as retouching photos. The simple way to protect your business form computer failure, would be to have a second computer. Ready with a backup of your system.
Unfortunately some of us cannot afford to spend more than $2500 for a new Macbook. Or an Imac with decent specifications. Enough to cope with high end digital image and video editing demands. Even a second had model with decent specifications could be more than $1500.
Finding a budget backup Mac
After researching a few articles and videos about upgrading used Macs. I decided to try and upgrade a used Mac Mini. You can also upgrade an Imac, it would have to be before the late 2012 version. The newer models are sealed and difficult to open, with fewer options on upgrading.
I managed to find a 2012 Mac Mini on Ebay for less than $150 including shipping. It was really slow on startup, and could only be used for web browsing as it lacked performance. I checked out Ifixit. They have some great tutorials on upgrading these machines.
I went ahead and purchased 16 gigabytes of ram to replace the 2 gigabits that came with the Mac Mini. I also bought an SSD drive, as well as the dual hard drive D DISK SSD flex cable replacement for Mac Mini on Ebay.
It only took me a little over half an hour to add the SSD hard drive, replace the ram and get the Mac Mini up and running. I chose the Mac Mini as it is really compact. I can leave it in a drawer in my office. It also easily connects to my external display that I use with my Macbook.
I was completely blown away by the performance of the Mac Mini now that is was upgraded. I ran a Black Magic speed test by Davinci Resolve – this is a free app you can use to test you hard drive performance. I would honestly say that it ran at around 60% as fast as my Macbook Pro!
I tried all my processor heavy applications. Adobe Photoshop, Davinci Resolve and Adobe Lightroom. They all worked without crashing and not too much lag. I now have a backup Mac Mini that cost me around $300 and works way better than some more expensive newer Macs.
Learning how to optimise Mac performance was both fun and saved me a lot of expense. I have recently got my hands on a 27 inch late 2009 Imac that did not switch on anymore. A few You Tube videos later, as well as purchasing a few parts on Ebay, I now have a working Imac!
Not all of us can afford to spend a ton of money on a spare computer. Once you learn how to optimise mac performance. You too can buy an affordable back up computer for your small business.
I hope this post on how to protect your small business from computer failure has been useful. Feel free to follow my blog for more photo editing tips and other articles.
