327
If Something Goes Wrong
Develop good computing habits
5.375 x 8.375 ver 2.3
Develop good computing habits
Save your work frequently.
You can never predict when your computer will lock, forcing
you to close a program and lose unsaved changes. Many
software programs build in an automatic backup, but you
should not rely solely on this feature. Save your work! See
for instructions.
On a regular basis, back up the information stored on
your hard disk.
Here are some ways you can do this:
❖
Copy files to diskette.
❖
Copy files to an external storage device.
❖
Connect a CD/DVD to the system and use specialized
software to copy everything on the hard disk to a
CD/DVD.
❖
Connect your computer to the office network and copy
files to your network partition.
Some people use a combination of these methods, backing up
all files to tape weekly and copying critical files to diskette on
a daily basis.
If you have installed your own programs, you should back up
these programs as well as your data files. If something goes
wrong that requires you to reformat your hard disk and start
again, reloading all your programs and data files from a
backup source will save time.
Read the user’s guides.
It is very difficult to provide a fail-safe set of steps you can
follow every time you experience a problem with the
computer. Your ability to solve problems will improve as you
learn about how the computer and its software work together.
