There are many ways to prevent data from being lost on your computer. Following
these guidelines will help you to keep your data safe and hopefully you will not
have to come to us for our services. While we appreciate your business, we would
rather see our clients prevent data loss before it happens, thus saving them time
and worry.
Backup - Data can usually be easily duplicated. It is important
to make backups of all of your most important data, documents, and programs.
Shut-Down - Be sure to properly shut down your computer. All
data should be saved and applications closed before the operating system is shut
down. After doing so, you can safely turn off your computer. Even though the
computer may appear idle, there are often many tasks still in progress and a
computer should not be turned off unless the proper steps are followed.
Viruses - Take steps to protect yourself from computer viruses.
It is likely that in the near future a virus will spread that has the ability
to actually destroy your hard drive. Keep a virus
detection program on your computer.
System Protection - Keep your computer safe from human error
(children, computer illiterates, etc.). Use passwords on important programs
or files to help prevent accidental erasure.
Equipment - Here are some examples of equipment that can
help prevent data loss.
Place a cooling fan within 4 inches of the hard disk and in a position
where it will force air directly onto the drive. This can reduce the
operating temperature by as much as 112º F!
Use an un-interruptible power supply with a built-in line noise filter.
We recommend using APC UPS supplies. Using one of these will also
eventually save other equipment in your system.
Install more RAM into your system. This will prevent the system from
accessing the hard disk as "cache." We recommend 128MB for Windows
98 or earlier versions of Mac OS, and 256MB for Windows NT, 2000,
Linux, Unix, and Mac OS 8.1 or greater.
Use a shock-absorbing hard disk mounting device, available at most
computer shops, or from Datarecovery.com @ $34 a piece.
Abuse - Although this may seem like common sense, it is
important to be gentle with your computer. Avoid moving the computer while
it is in use. The components inside the computer are very precise and
jostling them may cause data loss or failure.
