New Sharon residents approved up to $10,000 in funding to buy a new server and pay for data retrieval after the town’s computer system crashed last month.
Thirty-two residents attended a special town meeting Friday night at the New Sharon town office and were asked to approve the use of up to $10,000 from surplus to buy and install a new server as well as cover the costs of data retrieval conducted after the town office’s computer system crashed on Oct. 25, Select Board Chairwoman Lorna Nichols said.
Nichols said that two-thirds of those in attendance approved the use of funding for a new system that she hopes will be installed by the week of Nov. 23.
When the server crashed last month, two months worth of data, including vehicle registration renewals and tax bill information, was temporarily lost, Nichols said. At the time the system crashed, it was discovered that it hadn’t been backed up properly in two months.
After the system crashed, the town hired a Wilton computer service company, Expenet, to scan and retrieve files from the hard drives. The files were recovered, but they were corrupted and therefore unusable. The hard drives were then sent to a New Hampshire company that was able to retrieve usable data from the corrupted files.
Nichols says that Expenet will be hired to install the new server. It is expected to take a week to retrieve and upload the missing data onto a new server.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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