When you run a business, you probably don’t want to worry about the tech side of things. But unfortunately, you have to because problems with tech can lead to greater issues down the road. For instance, if you have trouble with tech it could lead to a system crash. A system crash is going to take you off the market until you can enter a period of disaster recovery. During this time, you can recover lost data and files, but that will take some time. This is why it’s useful to understand some of the signs that there’s an issue with your tech and the fixes that can work to resolve the problem.
Sloooowwww Looooooadd
If your computers are taking an absolute lifetime to load up, we’d bet good money that you haven’t had a clear out in a while. Without getting too technical, you probably think that when you store data or files on your system, all the information stays together in a neat little clump, like a pair of folded socks in the drawer. But that’s not what happens. Instead, the data is spread around so it’s like having one sock on one side of the drawer and the other inbetween t-shirts. Or, in different drawers. Or, both socks cut into millions of tiny pieces and spread around. Unfortunately, this type of storage takes up a lot of space. So, you need to consolidate things by cleaning up your hard drive. How to do this will differ depending on the computer so look up your model online. It won’t be a massively complicated process, but it can take a few hours at least.
I Didn’t Delete That…Did I?
A hack can be a silent killer. Unless you are using VoIP solutions behind your IT setup with a security protocol, there’s a good chance that there is no sign at all. But, if you are looking for a sign a key would be if the computer’s antivirus system has been blocked or even deleted. Hackers don’t mess around and if they want to get in the first thing they’ll do is break the walls down around your network. When this happens, call your support team pronto.
I’m Sorry Dave I Can’t Let You Do That
Finally, has your computer taken on a mind of its own, locking you out of files or stopping you from loading programs. Don’t worry, it’s not the first sign that the computers are becoming sentient, that’s already happened. All joking aside, this is more likely to be a virus than rogue AI. In fact, a virus will automatically lock processes and programs that you can use to kill it. For instance, you won’t be able to turn on your firewall. At which point, you’ll probably scratch your head or whack the desk with something that looks fairly techy. Shockingly, that won’t do much at all. What you need to do is load the computer in safe mode. This will allow you to access files and systems that were locked, even deleting the file with the virus. However, do be careful because deleting the virus won’t kill it completely. Once you load up the computer normally, you’re going to have to run your anti-virus software and kill it again.
