I got this customer on referral, and when I called, they said they could not start their Windows 10 system.
I got on-site, and realized this was an old Windows 7 that was updated to Windows 10. The repair option would not work because those recovery files are designed to work with Windows 7. The system was about 9 years old, and I advise the customer of the difference, and I asked them if they had a backup of their operating system, and of course they did not.
I got the computer back to my office lab and tried to restore the Windows 10 boot files which proved to be a futile effort, and I ran diagnostics on the drive. The drive had significant wear-areas not repairable through software.
The only thing left was to try to recover as much of the data as possible. As it turns out, this customer was very lucky, I got about 98% of it. When I called back, they were very happy about the data recovery.
Because the old hard drive was essentially dead, I informed them that I needed the original Windows 7 CD and programs to reinstall to a new drive. The customer did not have any of the old software, which in the end significantly drove the recovery cost. When a new computer is purchased, roughly a little more than one third of the cost is software – Windows, Word processing suite, Antivirus – Proprietary programs if any …
After a few quotes from Arnold Consulting, the customer decided to go with a new low-end Inspiron system from Dell, not a bad choice, with windows 10 professional and a new software suite. The customer bought time to install the new system, and we estimated 3 1/2 hours for basic programs, email configuration, and transfer of recovered data.
(The average time spent re-configuring a new computer after primary install is about 3 to 4 hours of user time.)
The total cost to restore the system was about 12 hours. Arnold Consulting did not charge the full 12, at some point time just gets crazy. We did charge 7- combination of diagnostics – recovery -reinstall of new computer.
Postmortem: Why did this have to happen
The customer ignored several important ideas surrounding computer ownership.
Age of the components in a computer:
A computer is just like anything else and has a limited life. The best way to illustrate this is a failure rate curve. The curve is a representation of failure over time. As computers get older their components start to age, and the first thing that usually fails is that mechanical hard drive, as the case with this customer. If the customer had only made a windows image backup, using the utility in Windows10. The hardware still worked and Arnold Consulting could have used that backup to restore everything including Windows, programs, and data.

This illustration talks about several things that happen to most products not just computers.
Initially, when you first get a computer, or something new the failure rate out of box is potentially high. If the product has not failed in the first year, then it probably will perform as its intended for a number of years. However, as the computer or product wears, failure goes up rather quickly, and tails out over time.
Meaning if your computer is at the 5,6, or 7-year mark, it will fail, it is just a matter of when, and it could be 10 years or tomorrow. It is totally unknown.
Backup Strategy:
Having a working backup of your computer systems is so critical. It is not just failed hardware you have to worry about viruses, accidental/intentional deletions, theft, and weather events, these are just to name a few.
However, it is not enough to have a working backup, that backup must also be replicated somewhere else. When you have the backup in two places, you have true disaster recovery and business continuity.
Planned Obsolescence:
Planned obsolescence is about timely computer hardware replacement. After year 5, 6, or 7 according to the failure curve, the percent chance of failure starts to increase exponentially. The curve does not indicate a precise failure time only an increase in chance.
Some users boast, “I have used this system 10 years and still going strong”, but what they fail to realize is that servers or computer systems are living on borrowed time, and tomorrow maybe its last day.
If tomorrow is its last day, how does that work for you? Will you be able to cut checks without the system? It is far better for you to plan the failure rather than the failure planning your time.
Program Installs:
A little more than one third of the cost of the computer is software. If the customer had a Windows backup, and their Line of Business programs, LOB, the cost to recovery is significantly less.
Most OEM, Original Equipment Manufacturer, computers do not come with software sent to you in a box like they did a long time ago – they come with recovery partitions. If the software becomes non-operational for some reason, the end user can restore back to factory, to restore Windows software, or both.
What happens if the hard drive fails? That recovery partition is lost along with windows and any software that came with the computer, and now you have a really expensive piece of hardware that you have to rebuild from scratch.
At that point, people decide to get a new computer because of the software cost trade off, and that is such a waste. Back up the computer and a lot of headache and time is saved.
Infrastructure Refresh:
So, these ideas discussed just don’t apply to workstations, but to the infrastructure of the network, servers, and routers that run the business. There has to be some kind of on-going corporate refresh. I tell my customers to budget at least as much money as this, whatever I replaced, to make sure the money is there, but more importantly, it is replaced on a timely basis.
Arnold Consulting specializes in systems backup, disaster recovery / Business Continuity systems, network planning, and design. We also have a line of antivirus and encryption products.
Call us today and we will help you make sure you can recover your business systems.
Sincerely,
Rick Arnold, Arnold Consulting
847 464 5855