world_of_hurt.htm

It is not a question of "if", but "when" you will have to rebuild your computer. There are so many things that can happen; the drive could have been marginal when it was manufactured; a surge from a nearby lightening strike; a virus; or something stupid was done; let me count the ways.

One area of extreme importance, are your drivers. - those nifty little pieces of software that make the hardware on your computer work properly. If your system does go "belly up", and you need to redo your system, one of the most frustrating parts
of the job is to locate and reload all those drivers.

What you need is a program to back up the files for you. One such program is called Drivers Guide Toolkit which is available
as shareware. You can download the software at: http://www.jermar.com and if you want the full featured version there is a cost.

It finds all the non-Microsoft drivers on your system (You don't need the Microsoft Drivers as they are installed automatically)
and then queries the web and downloads the software for these drivers. I recommend that you copy these drivers to a CD or
floppy, and keep them in a safe place.

Most of us basically have three types of software on our computer. The first came with the computer, the second we
purchased and have the "Install CDs", and the third we downloaded from the web. One and Two are usually not a problem
as we have the CDs and can easily reinstall them.

If you have download ed programs from the web, losing your "Install" programs can be a huge problem. Some of the gurus say
you can delete them after the software is installed Phooey! A program can become corrupted and must be reinstalled.

Can you imagine if you ever lost them? Where would you go to get them even if they were still available? While you probably
could, it would be a real time consuming chore. If you are short on disc space, and have them backed up to external media, you can then safely delete them from your computer. You don't have a CD burner that you can copy data to you say. Have you ever heard the term "penny wise and pound foolish."

I recommend that you set up a folder called "Downloads" - hey that's original. <G> But wait - if you loose your hard drive,
you're going to loose that folder as well. Back that folder up to a disc or CD and keep it in a safe place as well.

Finally, there are the data files on your computer that you create. Since we all use our systems differently there really is no easy answer. Let me share with you what I do, and some of it might make sense for you.

In my email, there is not a whole lot that I would really miss if it were lost, but there are some things. These I maintain in
a separate folder called "Action". If something is important such as a receipt or important correspondence, I move it to that
mailbox. I also created a folder on my computer called "Data Backup", and use this to store things such as forms, letterheads, and billing statements in a sub-folder within that folder. My rule of thumb is how long it took to create the document in the first place. If it only takes a few minutes, I don't back it up. If it took more than that, I do.

The rest of the "stuff" that I think is important gets shoved into this backup folder as well. If you're creating a document on your word processor that you don't want to lose, in addition to saving it where you normally do, pop a copy into your back up
folder as well.

I copy all these to a CD once a week. There is also a D: drive on my computer, and once a week when I go through the entire
backup process, I copy everything from the C: drive to D: as well. That alone should suffice you might think, but there are
things that can happen that will also wipe out all the information on all your hard drives. The risk of losing everything simply isn't worth it.

If all you really do is surf the web and correspond with friends and family via email, the data backup isn't so terribly vital.
But at least back up your "Drivers" and any software you may have downloaded from the web. And always keep a separate record of any passwords or "unlock" keys for your software in save place.

Believe me, this little extra effort on your part can well be worth the effort if you ever do have a problem. If you don't have a recovery plan, you will face a lot of heartache, lost time and unnecessary expense.

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