Contributors Bryan

Does an external drive make me safe from crashes?

So you are saying to yourself, ”I keep all my data on an external hard drive, so I should be safe from crashes, right?”

Not necessarily.

Data backup is one of the most important things a person should do in relation to their computer, but it is one of the most often overlooked things as well. One should always have important data in at least two locations at all times. This means it should be in a primary location where you usually access it, as well as a secondary backup location. The primary location can be on your computer’s main hard drive, or it can be an external drive. No matter where the primary location, you should back up the data to a secondary location. The secondary location can be another local hard drive, internal or external, or it could even be online.

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Computer message says “Virus.” What should I do now?

I am getting a message that I have a virus or spyware, what should I do?

A message like this can be one of the most worrisome things in the PC world.

The first thing you want to do is not make any rush actions.  Often a virus or spyware infection will not be very severe, but misrepresent itself, telling you that your machine is infected with all kinds of problem.  The infection itself represents itself as a cure and asks you to purchase software to remove the bogus infection.  So don’t immediately take the recommendations of any popups on your system if you don’t know where they came from,  and definitely don’t purchase any unknown software that promises to fix your problems.

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Should I turn my computer off at night or just leave it on all the time?

The answer to this question is in the end left to you, but there are three things to consider when making this decision.

Hardware failure. The parts inside of your system move, moving parts wear, and parts wear out. This however may not be as big a fear as it has been in years past, many will tell you not to worry about it. Hard drives, fans, etc have all improved and last much longer than before. The operating system, OS X or Windows, will often be set to power down moving parts when they are not in use, check your settings to make sure this is happening. Be sure to keep the computer clean inside and out. Systems that fail that are left on all the time often fail due to heat from inadequate ventilation or dust buildup. Dirty power can also cause system failure and lost data. Getting an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, will help protect the sensitive hardware from blackouts and brownouts, that over time, can cause random problems to creep up by slowly destroying your hardware.

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