- Why You Should Worry About Keeping Your Computer Safe
- Getting to Everything Security Related in Vista
- What Spyware and Malware Are and How Your Computer Gets Them
- Symptoms of Malware on Your Computer
- Getting Rid of and Keeping Malware Off Your Computer
- Windows Defender
- What to Do If You Suspect Malware But Can't Get a Pop-Up to Close
- What Is a Virus and How Is It Different from Spyware?
- Protecting Your Computer from Viruses
- Determining If You Have a Virus
- The Importance of Automatic Updates
- Turning On Automatic Updating
- What Is Windows Firewall?
- Why You Should Back Up Your Computer
- Backing Up the Files on Your Computer
- Backing Up Your Entire Computer
- Where to Store Backups
- Restoring Your Computer from a Backup
- Automatically Backing Up Your Computer
- What Is Service Pack 1 (a.k.a. SP1)?
- How Do I Get SP1?
- How Do I Install SP1?
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Why You Should Back Up Your Computer
©ISTOCKPHOTO/EMRAH TURUDU
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True story. As I sit here and write this tip, I’m thinking of a conversation I had yesterday with my buddy Steve. See, Steve was telling me his hard drive started making this weird noise, and then his computer wouldn’t boot anymore. While I’m not a computer technician, I’ve had this happen enough times to me (about three times in the last five years) to know that it’s the sure sign of a hard drive crash. So, I asked if he had a backup. As you can imagine, I wouldn’t be telling this story if he said yes. Steve didn’t have a backup. I asked him why and he said, “I just never thought it was going to happen to me.” He knew that it had happened to a lot of other people, but for some reason he thought he was immune to a hard drive failure. Here’s the thing: it’s not if your hard drive fails, it’s a matter of when your hard drive fails. At some point, you will be affected by the loss of your precious computer files. These files probably have your financial information in them, important work information, addresses and email messages, and your family photos, which are irreplaceable. So make sure you read the rest of this chapter to help minimize the damage.