Tech Tip #3

Tip #3 is so common sense oriented its scary, but still we all hate to do it! Backup, backup, backup.. I know, it's a pain in the butt, but I assure you, the pain will be worse when you lose everything you hold precious that is stored in the computer. Your computer is a machine, machines fail for whatever reasons. Backing up is now simple to do and fairly quick. Win Xp comes with a built in backup tool or use a free one like Cobian Backup. You can backup to cd or dvd but nowadays it is best to use a large capacity external harddrive. They are reasonably priced for what they offer and can be used for more than just backing up. I do not recommend a tape backup system for home users, too expensive and limiting. Before creating a full system backup, make sure to clean out your harddrive. Use at a minimum Win Xp disk cleanup utility and defragmenter. If you are only backing up certain files or folders this is not neccessary but should be part of a regular maintenance program, say quarterly.