My day at work was certainly a tech support nightmare. Get this: as soon as I walk in, I’m told the server is down. Thinking (hoping) they meant the connection to the internet is down, I clarified the issue.

Nope. The server. Damn.

This is the main file/print server that everyone in the office uses to store their work on. Excel, Word, Publisher, QuickBooks, you name it, it’s there. Plus, it houses the intranet I developed (and the MySQL database that backs it), Microsoft Mail server (which thankfully no one much uses anymore), and the Intuit Master Builder server software the company relies on.

(I know, I know, words of caution about putting all your eggs in one basket, I know.)

There had been a power outage the night before, and now the server was completely dead, no power at all; but the server had been plugged into a UPS, which was still on and working. Odd. Tried plugging it into several other outlets, nothing. Tried a different power cord, nothing. At this point I deduce it’s the power supply, and that’s hopeful because if that’s all it is, nothing’s lost except some productivity time.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a spare, so I have to wait til the local computer store (who originally built the server, so we have an account with them) opens at 9am to get one. Luckily, I get through to someone in the store at about 8:40 when I’m calling to leave a message, and they’re sending the tech right over with a new power supply.

And guess what? I was right—the power supply died, and everything else was intact and fine. We got the server up and running again by 9:10 tops.

Talk about sweating bullets. Even though we had a full backup of everything important made the night before, there’s still nothing quite like that head-pounding, sweat-behind-the-eyeballs, bowel-clenching feeling that you get when something like this happens.