Christian Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 My computer crashed what a nightmare ! Never happened before. Only just now was able to access this forum. 2 Quote
Randall Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 Whew! What timing. I'm planning to get a new computer later this year. Hopefully I won't have this problem the rest of this tax season. Quote
Margaret CPA in OH Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 Christian, I feel your pain. Mine died last fall and that was the impetus to get a new one (my tech guy builds mine) with Win 11 Pro. It was such a pain restoring, moving data, reinstalling programs, fortunately he did 90+% of the work. I'm glad it wasn't now. Hopefully you are back in business now! 2 Quote
kathyc2 Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 LOL! I thought this post was going to be in regards to the current state of stock market. 3 Quote
mcb39 Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 One of my jump drives; full of info crashed. Apparently my assistant pulled it up as she pulled it out and broke the end off. Since she has been off since Thursday, I went on her computer and downloaded all of her returns to a newer and tougher flash drive. Unfortunately, when moving her clients to my computer, I lost all of my clients in the Netherworld somewhere. IT came in yesterday; couldn't find them so we both have new jump drives; which unfortunately are identical (because that's what I had). Putting a dab of nail polish on mine for identity. Never use the stuff on my nails anyway. What a time for these things to happen and in the midst of a Wisconsin record-breaking ice storm., and another on the way. So far I have not lost power at this location but am working long hours just in case. By the way, all of my info was still correct and where it was supposed to be on my computer and ATX. A firm reminder to run a backup of the harddrive. 3 Quote
Margaret CPA in OH Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 Yes, to backups. I have a second hard drive in my computer to back up and a small external hard drive I keep in a small safe as well as BackBlaze for continuous backup. And my trusty tech guy who performs miracles. 4 Quote
Abby Normal Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 Not having a full and complete backup of all of your files is foolish. In addition to backing up the entire Wolters Kluwer folder, you should at least backup your documents and many other things in your Users folder, plus anywhere else you keep important files. It's important that you end the ATX servers, all of them that are running, before backup up the Wolters Kluwer folder. Occasionally, I turn off all the ATX servers and copy the entire Wolters Kluwer folder to My Documents and then it gets backed up with all my other documents. I name the folder Wolters Kluwer yy-mm-dd and keep the latest 3. 3 Quote
mcb39 Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 3 hours ago, Margaret CPA in OH said: Yes, to backups. I have a second hard drive in my computer to back up and a small external hard drive I keep in a small safe as well as BackBlaze for continuous backup. And my trusty tech guy who performs miracles. All of the above! Quote
Slippery Pencil Posted April 5 Report Posted April 5 My main computer crashed 3/6. I usually have two computers. I've never had my main computer die, it's always been the older one. It took the repair shop a week to figure it out and get it running. Then it took me 4 days to load programs and data. I've had worse weeks in my life, but that one is near the top. Lost about 30 returns I was in the midst of and about a dozen completed returns from the previous two years that I hadn't backed up properly. I have PDFs and paper copies of the past years' returns, so I might rebuild those later in the year. Since I had the older computer, I still had internet access, but couldn't do any real work. Clients seem to be understanding. I can tell some were a bit anxious, while some who dropped their info off right before the crash aren't fazed at all that it took me five weeks to complete their returns after I told them 1 to 2 weeks. Because I was totally unaware of the shit storm I was in the midst of, one client emailed me last Saturday, "Hope you are having a super Saturday. Gentle check in on completion of my tax return. A kind reminder that tax returns are coming due. Please provide status. Much appreciated." 1 2 Quote
Randall Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 17 hours ago, Abby Normal said: Not having a full and complete backup of all of your files is foolish. In addition to backing up the entire Wolters Kluwer folder, you should at least backup your documents and many other things in your Users folder, plus anywhere else you keep important files. It's important that you end the ATX servers, all of them that are running, before backup up the Wolters Kluwer folder. Occasionally, I turn off all the ATX servers and copy the entire Wolters Kluwer folder to My Documents and then it gets backed up with all my other documents. I name the folder Wolters Kluwer yy-mm-dd and keep the latest 3. Abby, what do you mean 'end the ATX servers'? and 'turn off'? Does turning off my computer at night do this? Quote
BulldogTom Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 2 hours ago, Randall said: Abby, what do you mean 'end the ATX servers'? and 'turn off'? Does turning off my computer at night do this? If your computer is turned off, you can't be backing up. I think what he is saying is that ATX backup files will not backup properly onto another file location (like a flash drive or second hard drive) unless you go into the background tasks and "end service" on each "ATX Server" running in the background. He can answer for himself, but that is how a non-techy accountant reads it. Tom Longview, TX 2 Quote
Abby Normal Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 Bring up Windows Task Manager and end the ATX Servers tasks. You end them by right clicking on them and choosing End task, or by selecting them and pressing the Delete key (DEL). Knowing how to end or restart tasks is an essential ATX skill. To start Task Manager, you can use the menu and type 'task' or right click the taskbar and choose Task Manger or my preferred method, Ctrl+Shift+Esc. 1 Quote
Randall Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 1 hour ago, BulldogTom said: If your computer is turned off, you can't be backing up. I think what he is saying is that ATX backup files will not backup properly onto another file location (like a flash drive or second hard drive) unless you go into the background tasks and "end service" on each "ATX Server" running in the background. He can answer for himself, but that is how a non-techy accountant reads it. Tom Longview, TX Bullldog, I do back up (not frequently enough) but I don't do the auto overnight. I do it during the day while I'm here and the computer is on. Quote
Randall Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 18 minutes ago, Abby Normal said: Bring up Windows Task Manager and end the ATX Servers tasks. You end them by right clicking on them and choosing End task, or by selecting them and pressing the Delete key (DEL). Knowing how to end or restart tasks is an essential ATX skill. To start Task Manager, you can use the menu and type 'task' or right click the taskbar and choose Task Manger or my preferred method, Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Thanks Abby. I thought that's what you meant. The Task Manager. I have had occasions when the ATX would not start and had to end task. I'm not sure if I ended the server part though. Good to know when I do my backups. 2 Quote
jklcpa Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 For future use for everyone using ATX, I'm going to copy Abby Normal's instructions to a new post of how to backup ATX data outside of the program and pin it at the top of general chat. 7 2 Quote
mcb39 Posted April 6 Report Posted April 6 That is a lucid, important and good post to have at our fingertips. Backups are SO important and too few preparers realize this or understand how to do it properly. Thanks Judy. 2 Quote
ILLMAS Posted April 7 Report Posted April 7 Just out curiosity @Christian how old was your computer? I retired my Dell XPS I bought in 2019 due to slowness and the fan turning on out of the blue at full speed. Quote
Christian Posted April 7 Author Report Posted April 7 I think I bought it around then. I kept receiving a notice once in awhile the hard drive was approaching being full so I deleted ATX 2018 but was taken aback when on shutting it down was advised it had shut down incorrectly. HD advised they would attempt a remote repair which they did but after a time advised they were unable to repair it. I ordered a new computer the next day but plan on having a tech check it hoping to keep it as a stand by. Quote
Randall Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 11 hours ago, Christian said: I think I bought it around then. I kept receiving a notice once in awhile the hard drive was approaching being full so I deleted ATX 2018 but was taken aback when on shutting it down was advised it had shut down incorrectly. HD advised they would attempt a remote repair which they did but after a time advised they were unable to repair it. I ordered a new computer the next day but plan on having a tech check it hoping to keep it as a stand by. Whoa. I'm planning to buy a new computer later this year and my current computer will only be five years old. I don't trust them to last very long. Quote
Abby Normal Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 My last computer lasted 12 years, thanks to swapping in a solid state drive. I ran Windows 8 that entire time. I thought Windows 8 was the best OS Microsoft ever made, and I'm not sure my opinion has changed, yet. I skipped 10 and I'm tolerating 11. 2 Quote
Slippery Pencil Posted April 8 Report Posted April 8 I bought my Win7 machine Dec 2011. Had to replace the cooling system and reinstall Win7 in 2018. Seems to buffer videos longer than my Win10 machine, but otherwise seems to run ok, though I'm sure it doesn't have long for this world. 1 Quote
BulldogTom Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 I was going to get new computers before this tax season, but I held out waiting for the Win11 OS to mature a bit. 6 tax seasons on my current machine. I need to find someone to set up my system for me. I love Dell, but all the crap they pre-load takes forever to find and delete. Anyone here who knows about setup willing to clean up a Dell system for me? Not naming names, but his initials are @Abby Normal . Brisket on me, and when the humidity gets to you, you can hop in the pool. August in the South is wonderful if you love to wear the air. Tom Longview, TX 1 2 Quote
Randall Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 I'm not a techie or as techie as some of you. I don't even want to open the back and dust it out. I'm on my 5th tax season with my current computer. I was waiting for Win12 but I don't know if they're coming out with that or not. I'm currently on Win10. I plan to get a new computer later this year even if it's Win11. I guess my new computer will be better to upgrade to Win12 if they do come out with it. Quote
Abby Normal Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 2 hours ago, Randall said: open the back and dust it out I only buy positive pressure cases. Are they all made that way now? 1 Quote
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