Do I need to back up my computer?

Even if you've taken precautions to protect your computer from malicious software, other potential dangers could destroy the information it holds. A power surge, lightning strike, hardware failure, or natural disaster could leave you without your important data or the use of your computer.

Backing up your files can help you avert disaster. Backing up is simply making an electronic copy of files and storing that copy in a safe place. If you back up your files regularly, you can retrieve some, if not all, of your information if something happens to the originals on your computer.

Here are some tips for backing up your computer:

* Use an external hard disk, CDs, DVDs, or other storage medium for your backup copies. Or upload data to an Internet-based file storage service. Whatever you do, don't just copy files to another location on your hard disk.

* Label the medium with the date and time of the backup. Don't erase the previous backup until you have made a new one.

* Back up anything you can't replace easily such as financial information, digital photos, music or programs you bought and downloaded from the Web, and school projects. For these types of files, you can simply copy and paste the file into the backup medium.

* If you use an email program that is installed on your computer (such as Microsoft Outlook), back up important email messages and your email address book. Some email programs include an export feature for backing up important data.

* If you're trying to save time or space when backing up your computer, consider backing up only your personal data. Don't copy programs like Microsoft Outlook or your operating system. They can be reinstalled from the original CDs you purchased or the System Restore CDs that came with your computer.

* If you use your computer occasionally, back up your data once a week. If you use your computer every day, a daily backup of the files you use most often or modified that day is a good idea.

* To be sure you've backed up every file, use backup software. You can find a list of backup products in the website. Your operating system may also include backup features.

* Make sure you have a copy of your operating system on a CD for re installation in case your computer's hard drive fails. If your computer shipped without a copy of the operating system, contact the manufacturer for a copy.

How do I get rid of viruses, adware, or spyware?

If you suspect that your computer is infected with a virus or other malicious software, remove it as soon as possible.

Unlike other software, malware can't be completely removed using your operating system's Add/Remove Programs feature. Some bits of malware may still be hiding on your hard drive, doing its damage behind the scenes. To get rid of malware, use software specifically designed to find and delete it.

Many solutions are available for ridding your computer of malicious software. You can find these programs by searching the Web for virus protection. I would advice Symantec Endpoint Protection as a good anti virus. Whatever software you choose, be sure to keep it up-to-date.

In some extreme cases, anti-virus programs may not be able to remove all malware. It may be necessary to reformat your hard drive and reinstall its operating system. If you're using a laptop computer, installing the operating system from the partition backup may not completely remove malware. Instead, be sure to get installation disks for your operating system from your hardware vendor and use those to reinstall your operating system.

Are Hard Disks Going to be Obsolete in a Few Years from Now?

Are Hard Disks Going to be Obsolete in a Few Years from Now?

Hard drives have ruled the roost in the world of computers and laptops for the last few decades. They enjoy complete dominance as primary data storage devices and have now even begun to be used in such consumer electronics devices as DVD players and mobile phones.

There has been no technology until now that was able to come close to hard drives in terms of data storage capacity, reliability, functionality and cost. The commonly available hard drives have capacities of 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB. This is a huge amount of storage space available to a typical computer user. Hard drives are also quite cost-effective and easily affordable by anyone.

However, they have some drawbacks. The drives are based on decades-old technology and their basic design has remained more or less the same over the years. They are notorious for crashing unexpectedly, leaving the users staring at the prospects of total data loss. Also, hard drives are mechanical and have many moving parts which undergo tremendous wear and tear in the space of just a couple of years. There is an entire range of data-recovery companies which today caters exclusively to recovering data from crashed or damaged hard drives! It seems, though, that things are finally going to change in the near future.

Over the last three or four years, an entire new data storage industry of solid-state devices (SSDs) has emerged that has begun to look like a serious threat to the market dominance of the tried and trusted hard-disk technology. The flash-based drives and data storage media have steadily gained in popularity with computer users.

SSDs have always been the storage devices of choice for use in digital cameras. Commonly available flash-based memory cards come in capacities of 1 GB to 5 GB and can store thousands of high-resolution pictures. SSD storage media is also being used in mobile phones to store pictures taken from built-in cameras as well as for holding hundreds of songs that a user can listen to anytime.

SSDs have many advantages over hard disks for storing digital data. For one, they are very small, no larger than your thumb, and weigh very less. This considerably reduces the weight of digital cameras, laptops and mobile phones which a typical user has to carry with him in person.

Additionally, SSDs have no moving parts. Thus, there is no question of wear and tear or generating heat through friction. There is no maintenance cost involved with SSDs because there are no mechanical components which may go bad or need replacement over time.

Another benefit of these SSDs is that they hardly use any electricity to store or access data. There are no platters to be spun around by a spindle motor like in a hard drive and there is no elaborate circuitry that may get fried or corrupted. It is simply one single piece of solid state memory with a tough plastic coating. This energy-saving feature of SSDs is a boon for laptops which currently have to expend a large amount of battery power in operating their hard disks on which reside all data, software and operating system.

Flash-based SSDs have long been used in computers and laptops in the shape of tiny USB Flash drives for storing and transporting digital data. These drives have had a couple of drawbacks – price and capacity -- that until now prevented their large-scale use in computers as primary storage media. However, recent developments have given a major boost to the potential of flash-based drives as an alternative to hard disks.

Early this year, SanDisk corporation launched a new 32-GB solid-state drive for use in computers and laptops. It is unbelievably fast, boasting of a data-access speed that is 100 times faster than a hard drive. One can only imagine the speed at which it will allow a computer to boot up as well as load software! If this is the shape of things to come, then, indeed, it seems that the mechanical hard drives are going to be an endangered species in the next six or seven years.

The only problem with SSDs is their price, which is exorbitant compared to the storage capacity that hard drives can offer for the same amount of money. However, it is still early days. As the technology matures and scale of production increases manifold, it is only a matter of time before flash-based drives become as high capacity and inexpensive as hard drives.

When that happens, there will be a paradigm shift overnight and large-capacity flash-based drives will take the place of hard drives as the primary storage media of computers and laptops. The hard drives would then become obsolete and go the way of floppy drives – consigned to the history bin of the information technology industry.

By: James Walsh

A Guide To Recover Lost Files on Your Computer

Computers are a blessing, until you get the infamous blue screen of death, or perhaps less dramatic, you accidentally erase a file. In many cases of deleted files, the file can be retrieved.

If you recently deleted the file, look through the Recycle Bin (or Trash for Macintosh users). In the Recycle Bin you can browse through a list of deleted items, or search for a specific item. Restoring the file from the Recycle Bin is simple. You can restore it directly from the Recycle Bin, move the file to the desktop for restoration, or open the file and resave it.

If the Recycle Bin or Trash does not have your file, look throughout the computer for a back up. The back up could have been manually created by you, or automatically created by your computer. If you are in a network, look through the server's files for your missing file. If you find a backup, be thankful and resave the file.

If at this point you still have not been able to find the file, you will likely need to start spending some money. Be sure to consider how much time and money the lost file is worth. If it is not much, now would be a good time to cut your losses and recreate the file. If the file was one of a kind, not redo able, find a file recovery system program or hire a human recovery specialist. These specialists understand the ways of a computer and where it puts things; but will not be inexpensive.

If you lost your entire hard drive (this may or may not have activated the blue screen of death), first take a deep breathe and let it out. Secondly, use the disk repair program included with Microsoft and Macintosh software. If the software disk does not help, move onto a disk repair program purchased from another company. Your last choice is to have a specialist come in, or bring the hard drive in to try and recover as much information as possible. This option will be costly with no guarantee of success. Once you go through this process once, there is the guarantee that you will not want to do it again.

To avoid losing every file you have made, back up every file you have made to a location other than the hard drive. Disks, USBs, CDs or servers are all good options. After each major change to your file, remember to save the file to both, or all, locations.

When installing a file recovery program, use the program from its installation device to avoid accidentally rewriting any of your files. Lastly, try to install this program before you have lost files. The likelihood of recovering lost files greatly increases if the program is installed ahead of time.

By: Gregg Hall