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Recently, my PC started misbehaving so I had to backup my files, format and reinstall it. Usually, I ought to have avoided it if I took system restore seriously.

Whenever I reinstall my PC, the first thing I think of is installing an antivirus. After that, I proceed with basic software like my printer and scanner, web cam, browsers and yahoo messenger..etc.

This time around, however, I decided that after reinstallation, I should create my very first system restore point so that in the case where anything goes wrong, instead of reinstallation I would just restore the PC to the first system restore point and it would appear as a brand new PC.

System restore is a very vital process and easy as well, so that even a caveman can do it. Let’s see how it is done in Windows XP.

1. Close any programs that are open.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Restore. The System Restore Wizard opens.Note If the System Restore Wizard does not open, the System Restore feature may be turned off. To turn System Restore on, see the “More Information” section in this article.
3. Click Create a restore point, and then click Next.
4. In Restore point description box, type a description for the restore point. Use a description that is easy to understand. If you are creating a restore point before you install specific software or hardware, you could use that information in the description.Note The date and time are automatically added to your restore point. Therefore, you do not have to use them in your description.
5. Do one of the following:
   • To finish creating this restore point, click the Create button. The System Restore Wizard notifies you when the restore point is created.
   • To stop creating a restore point and to return to the Welcome to System Restore page, click the Back button.
   • To stop creating a restore point and to exit the System Restore Wizard, click the Cancel button.
6. When you are finished, click the Close button.

Are you a heavy surfer? Do you have tens of accounts on different websites? I guess you must be aving fun saving your account details (username and password) on each site so that you don’t have to retype them each time you want to log in. Cool! However, do this if and only if you are using a private computer. Never try it in public places.

When signing into a site for the very fisrt time, firefox asks you permission to save your log in details. To avoid saving the wrong password, wait until you are successfully logged in before clicking on the “remember” button.

Darn!
How do I get my files back?
Never you say “I am in trouble”, until you ask yourself the above question. That is really what the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English should call “Trouble”.

I can’t stress much on the importance of a computer in our modern society. Even in my native Africa, many people have started realizing what they have missed so much for decades and are madly leaning on their computer for various tasks. A computers main functions are data communication, data processing and storage. Yeah, you heard me, “Storage”, and I think that is even more important than the other two.

We normally store the processed (and unprocessed) data on the computer’s hard drive. For us to be very confident that we can have that data any time we want, is nothing but a dream. Your computer’s hard drive, just like any other mechanical or electronic device can fail at any moment. They say prevention is better than cure. The fact that you have been using it for

Backing up your data is the only guarantee that they are safe, especially if you back them up in multiple locations. There are numerous ways of backing up files, so you can’t blame anyone if your files get lost due to hard drive failure. Most interestingly, most of the methods are well within the reach of an average PC user. Below are some backup procedures.

Manual Copying: This is probably the easiest means of creating a back up. You simply manually copy your files from your hard drive to another storage device such as CD, DVD or a floppy disk (if the data is not much). I will highly recommend you get a CD or DVD burner so that you can easily burn important data on CD or DVD and keep them in a safe place. Nero and many other burning software have made burning easy even for a caveman

External Hard Drive: The name talks for itself. These devices are just like your hard drive, but are independent of your computer. You can just simply plug them through USB or Firewire. Since an external hard drive is independent, your backed up data won’t be affected when your computer crashed.

RAID: RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. This is probably the most trusted form of backup to rely on. Imagine your data being backed up on multiple disks, all of which are independent of each other. This way, if any of the disk fails, your data will still be available on the others.

REMOTE BACKUP: If you can’t do it yourself, then maybe an online service can do it for you. One easy method of backing up your data is uploading them to a server that offers free file hosting. Some are completely free while others charge a small amount for account setup and/or maintenance fee. However, if I were you, I will like to personally take responsibility of my data. Though privacy and security is hardly an issue with online storage services, I won’t really bet on that.