Basic Computer Tips
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Basic Computer Tips
1. Never, never, turn your computer off with the power switch until Windows has
shut down.
The one exception to this rule is when your computer locks up and your hard
drive is not running (hard drive light is not blinking). In this situation, you
can turn the power off without harmful effects to the hard drive. As cutting
the power can also result in lost data or Windows files, you should only do
this when you have to.
Following this rule will prevent permanent hard drive defects caused by the
hard drive heads contacting the surface of the drive disc, and it will prevent
a host of Windows problems.
Whenever possible, recover from crashes by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete
keys at the same time. Press them again to reboot your computer.
2. FrontierPC highly recommends that you purchase an UPS (uninterruptible power
supply) for your computer.
This will keep your computer from crashing during power outages, and will
protect your computer from low and high voltage occurrences.
An UPS is far superior to a surge protector and will save your computer from
almost any power type of disaster. (See #1 above for what happens when your
computer crashes.)
3. Backup, backup, backup, any data you cannot afford to lose to at least two
separate physical drives.
So backup data to floppies, Zip disks, CD-RWs etc.
The time to backup is when you create something you can't afford to lose. Don't
wait until tomorrow.
4. Never unplug peripherals from the computer when it is powered up. Unplugging
with the power on can short out the connector socket or the motherboard.
The only exception to this rule is if you know a peripheral is "hot pluggable".
If you do not know what "hot pluggable" means then ignore this exception.
5. Do keep at least 100 MBs of your C: drive free for Windows to use.
If you use Windows Me or Windows XP then you should have 200 MBs of free space
on your C: drive.
If you do not have enough free space you will choke Windows and it will start
dumping data to your hard drive, or it will just get really, really, slow.< |
