I Thought My Computer Broke

Last week my company's IT department installed some new software on my work laptop. This week it has been causing countless problems. I actually thought my laptop broke and needed to be replaced. Then I remembered the new software install and did some digging around. It isn't broke but sure feels like it.

Today the offending program is backing up my laptop to an Internet cloud without warning me. As it progresses, my computer keeps freezing up to the point that not even the cursor moves. If I wait a bit, it becomes unstuck and I can use my machine for a moment or two. Then it gets stuck again. When I put the machine to sleep, I can't wake it up again until I plug the laptop back in. I need a word stronger than "annoying."

For someone that stays put in the same office day after day, this wouldn't be a problem but right now I am on a mid-week business trip and am waiting for a late-night flight to San Francisco. I am at the airport using less-than-reliable WiFi. I would hope that the backup software would ask me if I wanted to delay the large file transfer. Nope. No matter what I do, I can't get the automatic backup to stop. I even opened the application and tried to pause all backups for 4 hours. That didn't work.

I must have started the backup before I even left on this trip. My dashboard says it is transferring 58 gigabytes of data. Some of that has been at the hotel, some at the offices I have visited, and some at the airport. I'm just glad I discovered this before connecting my computer and using my phone as a WiFi hot-spot. I think I would have burned through my monthly data plan in a matter of hours.

Interestingly enough, I discovered this problem during one of my meetings when I really needed to get into my laptop. When I couldn't get in, I thought I was going to have to have the company get me a new computer. Then I thought back to the last backup I performed (Tuesday of last week) and wondered how much work I would need to redo. Hopefully you see the irony of a backup causing me to think about my last backup and whether or not I did it recently enough.