To the people of Mississippi and Louisiana, Katrina is the big one. For south Florida, it is Andrew. But for the people of South Carolina, Hugo is our big hurricane. Hugo was the most intense hurricane ever to strike the US coast north of Florida*.  It killed 35 people in the U.S. and caused billions of dollars in damage.* Everyone who lived through that hurricane has a story to tell and most of us will never forget it. One of the things that made Hugo so unforgettable was that it wasn’t limited to only the coastal communities. Hugo roared inland, cutting a huge swath across South Carolina. Even Charlotte suffered, with parts of the city without power for nearly two weeks.

Today, September 21, is the twenty year anniversary of Hurricane Hugo.  (Since the eye of Hugo actually made landfall near midnight on the 21^st, we officially remember both the 21^st and 22^nd as the Hugo anniversary.)  If you don’t remember Hugo, or you want to reflect on it after the passage of twenty years, the Charleston Post and Courier has posted photos, stories, videos and more online. You can also find links to helpful hurricane preparedness resources there. The SC Bar disaster and emergency preparedness page contains even more links to other resources. Be sure to click the link to request a free copy of the Bar disaster preparedness handbook, Prepare, while you are there (or follow this link).

Perhaps we should set aside September 21 every year to review and update our firm’s disaster procedures. Even solos should do this, particularly where technology is concerned. Everyone should be able to answer this question with certainty: “If something happened to my computer today (theft, hard drive failure, flood, fire) can I be up and running on another computer – with all my previous work and programs – quickly and simply?”  If you can’t answer this question in the affirmative, contact me.

If you were practicing law during Hugo, please comment below and share your memories and tips — they may benefit other lawyers.

I reported recently that I started backing up my work files to CoreVault, the online storage company recommended by the SC Bar. Yesterday, I pulled up an old column of mine in Word, meaning to edit it and save it as a new file. Well, you know what happened. I accidentally clicked “save,” not “save as.” (I click “save” every few seconds without even thinking now – one never knows when the power might blink.) The thud feeling in my stomach was quickly replaced by the realization that I could restore the file from CoreVault.  It has been a few weeks since Edward at CoreVault helped me get started and at first I wasn’t sure where to go on my PC to restore a file. I was determined to try to figure it out before I called CoreVault for help.  But I found the CoreVault software in my Windows programs list, and the rest was a breeze. I was able to connect to my online backup and navigate to the file I needed, then restore it to its former location. I also noticed I could search for the file in CoreVault if I didn’t remember where it was. Voila! What could have been a disaster for a practicing lawyer was a mere hiccup in the day.

Ben Schorr, CEO of Roland Schorr in Hawaii and author of one of my favorite new books, The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007 (which you can check out from our lending library or purchase your own online) has a tip for testing backups that I love. It’s simple and it makes sense.

Most experts agree that if you haven’t tested a backup, you can’t be certain you really have a backup. Ben’s tip is this: An easy way to test backups is to create a small file called “#BackupTest” and put it with your documents.  It can be a Word document or whatever; it doesn’t really matter.  Every now and then, delete it from your system, then try to restore it from your most recent backup.

Throughout the years I’ve talked to lawyers who found out the hard way that their computer backup wasn’t functioning or was corrupted. A test restore of a document could have prevented a lot of expense and anguish (not to mention protecting the lawyers from possible ethics violations).

I did it. I backed up files from my PC at work to the CoreVault “vault” in the sky (well, really it’s two secure locations a mid-west state).  Last week, I decided to find out first hand how easy or difficult it would be to backup some of the critical folders of data on my PC using CoreVault’s services.  Turns out it’s easy. A CoreVault representative (Edward) called me at an appointed time to assist me in the process. In a matter of thirty minutes, I was ready to backup.

First, Edward had me download some software that allowed him to access my PC. This sped up the process and also allowed him to check my PC’s resources to make sure that I had the requisite processing speed and memory. After installing software to use for backups, he walked me through the options for selecting what files to backup and what time to schedule the backup. He answered all my questions and offered other information throughout the process, like telling me what kind of encryption was used. He also showed me how to restore a document or file  if I need to.

We scheduled the backup to run overnight. CoreVault will monitor my backups now and send me an email should they not backup as scheduled. All in all, it was painless and I feel relieved knowing my documents are safe!

If you want to check out CoreVault, be sure to use the SC Bar landing page: http://www.corevault.com/scb