Thursday morning started like every other. I was training a new hire in the Gardner location so I did my morning routine and ended up in Gardner to open at 10:00AM. I placed my keys on the counter as I have done for ten years and started helping customers. This Thursday proved to be more chaotic than usual.
One of my first customers was a mid-thirties mom to what looked like a three year old girl. Mom had a MacBook Pro that we diagnosed with a faulty logic board. As I was explaining pricing and options I could see tears start and an explanation that money was tight. As she was gathering her equipment I started helping another customer not noticing my keys were missing.
After a few hours searching the store, it hit me that not only were my keys missing but the two USB thumb drives on my keychain were gone. One of the drives contained my utilities and basic files I use for repairs and the other contained business and financial data.
Some data was easy to recreate. Most of the software we use in our day-to-day business is off-the-shelf stuff downloadable from sources like Filehippo.com. The bulk of the titles were downloaded within minutes. However, some of the software is based on scripts I wrote years ago and have modified for every change of Windows and new virus.
Most of the one-off software and scripts have taken me hours to find in my backups. You’d think having backups (which I preach) would be a good thing, but in this case recreating something that’s been recreated hundreds of times has not been a fun task. I simply can’t recreate years of iterations.
In the case of my business paperwork I haven’t been able to duplicate it easily. We have standard forms for everyday customers; however, the odd jobs are assigned custom forms. In other words, if I quote a job to Joe Blow then I may have it on my key drive but my co-worker may not. This took hours of time filtering old e-mails and pulling the attachments. After each was backed up I made calls to each customer asking for their notes and modifications for each.
My financial information was the toughest to recoup. I update my financial software weekly and keep the most current information on my USB thumb drive. Luckily for me I don’t keep banking information on the drive, but I do keep weekly sales, payroll, and sales tax information until it’s downloaded to my accountant’s computer.
I had planned to ask the bank to print my last month’s statement until I met the new Financial Services Representative (FSR). My favorite super suave FSR had been replaced with an oddball. Because I didn’t like this person I opted to do my research online adding a couple hours of work.
I’ve been razzed by my employees, ribbed by my peers, and am the laughing stock of the computer world. I preach data backup and redundancy and didn’t follow my own rules. One new rule I did follow is to start putting my keys on a nail. Had I kept a duplicate of the drives in the first place I wouldn’t be in this predicament.
I’m hoping someone knows the Mom who may have mistakenly grabbed my keys. She was in her mid-thirties, had a curly blonde haired three year old daughter, and drove a Honda CR-V. I believe she mentioned she was a veteran. With the return of my keys I will backup her baby pictures and data for free or will perform the logic board replacement for the cost of parts.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)