How To Survive the Blue Screen of Death

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is a blank screen displayed when your computer has encountered a critical error. Most often, the basic solution is to reboot your computer. In this case you should expect to lose all the data changes or entries you have made since your last save preceding the error message. In the worse case scenario, the reboot process will not work, and may require a complete re-install of your operating system, possible hardware replacements, and total loss of stored data.

The trick to taming this wild beast is twofold. First, you can prevent BSOD by conducting some basic housekeeping; and second, you can minimize the impact of BSOD by preparing yourself ahead of time. As the adage states, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In the interest of preventing the BSOD, I suggest you conduct frequent disk cleaning and system checks. Here are a few things you should make routine:

1. Delete unused files and uninstall obsolete programs
2. Defrag your disks regularly
3. Perform a Disk Cleanup of your hard drive
4. Use Internet Options under Tools to delete cached files, cookies, and temp files

In my experience the BSOD only occurs at the worst possible moment. You have just spent two hours updating data or writing a critical presentation, when “poof,” it’s all gone. At times like this you’ll be wishing you had hit the save button more often. Worse, the BSOD may lead to a critical error that prevents rebooting—suggesting a total loss of your database and an expensive recovery process. There are numerous products and software packages that can reduce the chances of incurring a BSOD, and in the event the unthinkable does happen, may help mitigate the impact of the disaster. Here are the key areas to cover in your efforts to prepare for the BSOD scenario:

1. Reduce the risk of a corrupt Registry failure by performing regular Registry cleaning and editing. Be careful though, if you don’t know what you’re doing here, attempting to edit your Registry can be catastrophic. 2. Create a Boot Disk and have one handy for every computer in your home or office. 3. Use a CD-Rom powered operating system that runs secondary to your hard drive as a way to mirror your existing system. 4. Use RAM testing software to perform memory tests. 5. Use Data Recovery software and offline backup storage. 6. Conduct spin tests of your hard drive to monitor its health and isolate bad sectors.

We’ve all heard of creating backups, but the shocking truth is, we just don’t do them often enough. Get yourself on a schedule to perform data backups, and stick with it.

So far I have focused on the software aspect of BSOD. In my experience, however, the bulk of BSODs occur due to hardware problems—namely, hard drives, power supplies, and RAM issues. I suggest you replace hard drives with bad sectors, do frequent system checks of your RAM, and replace power supplies that can’t keep up with the power demands. As a last resort, you may want to re-install your operating system.

You can tame the BSOD beast and minimize its impact on your database by following the few simple rules I’ve discussed above. For links to some popular websites that offer Registry cleaning and free software, visit the website mentioned in my bio below.