you deleted an important email accidentally or a virus attack has resulted in data loss? If you thought that retrieving those important emails will not be possible, then dont get disheartened, you can easily recover your deleted, damaged or inaccessible emails. As we are all aware of the fact, that emails have become an integral part of our business lives and play a vital role in a significant amount of work that is carried out at office. There are important files and photos attached to them which are vital and if in case they get deleted, this might result in great loss. Email data becomes even more important if you are directly dealing with your clients and carrying out business deals through them.
Outlook PST file is the only copy of your emails, notes, contacts, calendars, archives, appointments, etc when you are not using Exchange Server account. Therefore email recovery is an important topic to be considered if a user deletes these useful items accidentally or intentionally. On the other hand, if Outlook is configured to utilize an Exchange account, administrator has the control to access all those deleted emails. Even in situations when users purge the emails, the administrator side can recover them through Exchange journaling and archiving. But the situation becomes critical when user is working on an account such as POP3. If the user deletes the PST email items permanently using Shift + Delete key or empties the Deleted Items folder, the solutions can be different; however email recovery is still possible.
Deleted items recovery from Outlook PST is possible. At times, when you dont have an updated backup to perform email recovery, a hex editor might work. These programs are usually available as freeware and allow you to manipulate the binary computer files and edit the raw file contents. So, you can easily use these tools to make required changes in any file, including corruption. Technique of recovering deleted PST items is started using Hex editor to corrupt the file and later repair it. But before, you do it, make sure you have a backup file for the same. If you have already compacted the PST and if the deleted item space has been occupied, then the process might fail. In order to perform email recovery using hex editor, follow the steps given below:
1.Open the PST file with a hex editor
2.Change the first eight bits of file 00 etc
3.Launch Outlook to view the PST file. Outlook will no longer recognize the file and state it as corrupt.
4.Access Scanpst.exe file to start Inbox Repair Tool and repair corrupt PST file
5.When you repair the corrupt PST, Scanpst.exe tool will recreate all the pointers and hence, the email items that you deleted get restored to their original location.
If you are not comfortable with this tip, then the only other option left is to use a third party Email Recovery software to recover deleted PST items. There are an array of email recovery utilities developed to scan affected PST to restore deleted emails, notes, calendars and other items.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Students Speak Out on Benefits of Technology
Each year educators across the nation spend some part of their summer attending professional development workshops or college courses in an effort to bring the latest techniques and teaching methods to their classrooms. Technology is a tool that has become the topic of many professional seminars and something that teachers are learning to use and add to their academic toolbox. In an article addressing technology as methodology not just design, John Williams writes, "Students should perceive technology as a thoroughly integrated activity, not one which can be separated into content and process, or theory and practice."
The benefits of technology in education were examined in a 1996 report to the nation on Technology and Education, "Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge", and the results were promising. Findings showed that there were numerous advantages including enhanced student achievement, advanced skills and problem solving opportunities, more comprehensive student assessment, increased student motivation, increased family involvement and instruction and experience in future job-related skills. Some other benefits cited were more individualized instruction and improved administration and management in schools.
After having written about technology in education here at Suite101.com and quoting from authorities in the field, I thought it might be interesting to hear what kids had to say. I took a survey in my computer applications class and had students anonymously submit their answers. I asked them to tell me what they thought were the benefits of technology in the classroom both for teachers and students. It's not surprising at what they had to say.
Hands down was the idea that technology makes learning easier and more fun. More than half of the students in class cited this as the number one benefit to education. I've never been a proponent of the theory that education should be a dog and pony show aimed at keeping students entertained and amused every second of the class period. However, technology integration, like other good teaching techniques, actively engages students in the learning process. Many students see school as an accepted ritual that one has to endure to move on to the next level - a place where educators are dispensers of knowledge and students are merely the vessels waiting to be filled. Learning should be interactive and involve problem solving, communication, and yes, development of new knowledge and products. When students are involved in the learning and participate in it by creating new information, they are more likely to view that experience as easy and fun.
The benefits of technology in education were examined in a 1996 report to the nation on Technology and Education, "Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge", and the results were promising. Findings showed that there were numerous advantages including enhanced student achievement, advanced skills and problem solving opportunities, more comprehensive student assessment, increased student motivation, increased family involvement and instruction and experience in future job-related skills. Some other benefits cited were more individualized instruction and improved administration and management in schools.
After having written about technology in education here at Suite101.com and quoting from authorities in the field, I thought it might be interesting to hear what kids had to say. I took a survey in my computer applications class and had students anonymously submit their answers. I asked them to tell me what they thought were the benefits of technology in the classroom both for teachers and students. It's not surprising at what they had to say.
Hands down was the idea that technology makes learning easier and more fun. More than half of the students in class cited this as the number one benefit to education. I've never been a proponent of the theory that education should be a dog and pony show aimed at keeping students entertained and amused every second of the class period. However, technology integration, like other good teaching techniques, actively engages students in the learning process. Many students see school as an accepted ritual that one has to endure to move on to the next level - a place where educators are dispensers of knowledge and students are merely the vessels waiting to be filled. Learning should be interactive and involve problem solving, communication, and yes, development of new knowledge and products. When students are involved in the learning and participate in it by creating new information, they are more likely to view that experience as easy and fun.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Cloud Computing Revolution
The Web 2.0 revolution has gifted us with a lot of new concepts and cloud computing is one of them.
The term "Cloud Computing" comes from the use of a cloud image to represent the internet. We depend heavily on this 'cloud' for reliably sending and receiving data. There were data pipes, routers and servers and now there are services. Cloud computing encompasses the entire spectrum of delivering hosted services over the internet. These services are broadly classified into three categories:
Infrastructure-as-Service (IaaS) - E.g. Amazon
Platform-as-Service (PaaS) - E.g. Google Apps
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) - E.g. Web-based E-mails
A cloud service has three basic features that distinguish it from traditional hosting; it is sold on demand, it is elastic (the user can have as much or as little of the service he requires) and the service is fully managed by the provider (the user only needs a computer and an internet connection). The world was never been so virtual before.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet (Amazon Web Services is the biggest public cloud provider). A private cloud on the other hand is a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud services to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud (or hosted clouds). Private or public, the goal is to provide easy and convenient access to computing resources and IT services.
A recent example of cloud computing I can think of is from the White House digital campaign. Obama administration wanted to host a virtual town hall meeting on the economy with plans to receive questions from people around the country through its website. But how would it manage all the questions asked by potentially hundreds of thousands of people?
Instead of forming a question box internally for its Web site, the White House media team used 'Moderator' - a service created by Google to broker internal meetings. The company built Moderator tool from two Google cloud services - Google App. Engine and Google Web Toolkit. This eliminated the effort of writing codes and saved hardware it would need to handle heavy traffic, since allocating too many servers would be wasteful and would cause the site to be sluggish and frustrate visitors.
Cloud computing has various applications across many industries, but the widely used ones are:
Collaboration Applications
Cloud Backup
Business Applications
Personal Productivity Applications
Web Applications/Web Serving
The goal of cloud computing is to use idle resources, validate the cost savings and obtain an insight of how to manage performance across a virtualized infrastructure. Chief companies providing cloud services are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, AT&T and Enomaly.
One of the major advantages of cloud computing is that both small and medium sized business can instantly obtain the benefits. Accessibility to multiple data centers anywhere in the globe is another benefit. This also means that companies don't need to pay for hardware if they require additional services from the cloud computing service provide.
Last but not the least and according to me the most outstanding feature is that - it is more environmentally friendly. Moving applications to the cloud reduces energy costs for running and cooling hardware.
Virtualization is the key enable of the next revolution in the IT production; it is already sparking a new generation of companies, innovations and investments.
The author of this article represents a professional Web 2.0 Development and Web 2.0 Design company specialize in offering custom website design, web development & internet marketing solutions.
The term "Cloud Computing" comes from the use of a cloud image to represent the internet. We depend heavily on this 'cloud' for reliably sending and receiving data. There were data pipes, routers and servers and now there are services. Cloud computing encompasses the entire spectrum of delivering hosted services over the internet. These services are broadly classified into three categories:
Infrastructure-as-Service (IaaS) - E.g. Amazon
Platform-as-Service (PaaS) - E.g. Google Apps
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) - E.g. Web-based E-mails
A cloud service has three basic features that distinguish it from traditional hosting; it is sold on demand, it is elastic (the user can have as much or as little of the service he requires) and the service is fully managed by the provider (the user only needs a computer and an internet connection). The world was never been so virtual before.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet (Amazon Web Services is the biggest public cloud provider). A private cloud on the other hand is a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud services to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud (or hosted clouds). Private or public, the goal is to provide easy and convenient access to computing resources and IT services.
A recent example of cloud computing I can think of is from the White House digital campaign. Obama administration wanted to host a virtual town hall meeting on the economy with plans to receive questions from people around the country through its website. But how would it manage all the questions asked by potentially hundreds of thousands of people?
Instead of forming a question box internally for its Web site, the White House media team used 'Moderator' - a service created by Google to broker internal meetings. The company built Moderator tool from two Google cloud services - Google App. Engine and Google Web Toolkit. This eliminated the effort of writing codes and saved hardware it would need to handle heavy traffic, since allocating too many servers would be wasteful and would cause the site to be sluggish and frustrate visitors.
Cloud computing has various applications across many industries, but the widely used ones are:
Collaboration Applications
Cloud Backup
Business Applications
Personal Productivity Applications
Web Applications/Web Serving
The goal of cloud computing is to use idle resources, validate the cost savings and obtain an insight of how to manage performance across a virtualized infrastructure. Chief companies providing cloud services are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, AT&T and Enomaly.
One of the major advantages of cloud computing is that both small and medium sized business can instantly obtain the benefits. Accessibility to multiple data centers anywhere in the globe is another benefit. This also means that companies don't need to pay for hardware if they require additional services from the cloud computing service provide.
Last but not the least and according to me the most outstanding feature is that - it is more environmentally friendly. Moving applications to the cloud reduces energy costs for running and cooling hardware.
Virtualization is the key enable of the next revolution in the IT production; it is already sparking a new generation of companies, innovations and investments.
The author of this article represents a professional Web 2.0 Development and Web 2.0 Design company specialize in offering custom website design, web development & internet marketing solutions.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Managing Scareware
Have you ever encountered pop-ups that scared you out of your wits with a message that said your system was going to crash if you didn't click a certain link they were leading you to? Scareware has been quite common these days and no matter how serious the situation they paint about your supposed vulnerability to attack, don't believe them. They're scareware and they're meant only to scare you so you'd come running to their sites where the real danger is.
You're probably wondering how on earth those malicious software have entered your system when you don't remember even having encountered them in the past. Usually, unwanted malicious software come from downloads you always thought were innocent until those pop-ups came popping around. For example, you downloaded a virtual guitar freeware thinking that was all you were letting into your computer. Then the pop-ups begin to appear seemingly leaving you helpless and clueless as to where came from.
So what do you do with these scareware pop ups start to pester your computing experience like crazy? The best thing would be to simply close them out and never ever click where they tell you to. Closing the browser lets you terminate the whole process and though you may lose some opened tabs, you will have also avoided a situation with great potential to put your computer's security at great risk.
Some scareware management steps you can take would be to run an anti-virus scan. Usually, scareware comes with a Trojan which is known for installing other nasty codes to to snoop on a victim's information. If this doesn't solve the problem, you can try getting anti-malware or superantimalware into your system. You can actually get more ideas on how to address scareware by joining a forum where you could ask questions and people in that forum give you answers.
To prevent having to deal with scareware in the future, use a browser that has security features such as blocking ads or verifying requests. Most scareware work by manipulating your browser so that even if you were trying to access one url, you would end up being in a hacker's site where some nasty code on a vulnerable or infected browser has redirected you.
Scareware, along with other unwanted codes such as Trojans, worms, and the like are better off prevented and this can be done by installing anti-malware on your system. However, the problem also needs to be uprooted right from where it begins. You would tend to wonder how those hackers managed to get to your system, for example. While there could be many ways, one of them could be simply your having surfed the web with your IP address exposed. There might have been a time when you accidentally landed on a hacker's site and that's how they got to your system.
If you want to be sure that hackers are kept at bay while you surf, you can install an IP hiding software in your computer so you can get online anonymously. Remember that computers on a network communicate through their IP addresses. If yours is hidden, then there's no way for a hacker to find a path that leads to you because you have been using a fake IP provided by your supplier, not your real IP.
In this case, anonymous surfing does help a lot when it comes to preserving your Internet security. In fact, it could be all you need when it comes to protecting your system from the threat of hacking.
In this case, anonymous surfing does help a lot when it comes to preserving your Internet security. In fact, it could be all you need when it comes to protecting your system from the threat of hacking.
You're probably wondering how on earth those malicious software have entered your system when you don't remember even having encountered them in the past. Usually, unwanted malicious software come from downloads you always thought were innocent until those pop-ups came popping around. For example, you downloaded a virtual guitar freeware thinking that was all you were letting into your computer. Then the pop-ups begin to appear seemingly leaving you helpless and clueless as to where came from.
So what do you do with these scareware pop ups start to pester your computing experience like crazy? The best thing would be to simply close them out and never ever click where they tell you to. Closing the browser lets you terminate the whole process and though you may lose some opened tabs, you will have also avoided a situation with great potential to put your computer's security at great risk.
Some scareware management steps you can take would be to run an anti-virus scan. Usually, scareware comes with a Trojan which is known for installing other nasty codes to to snoop on a victim's information. If this doesn't solve the problem, you can try getting anti-malware or superantimalware into your system. You can actually get more ideas on how to address scareware by joining a forum where you could ask questions and people in that forum give you answers.
To prevent having to deal with scareware in the future, use a browser that has security features such as blocking ads or verifying requests. Most scareware work by manipulating your browser so that even if you were trying to access one url, you would end up being in a hacker's site where some nasty code on a vulnerable or infected browser has redirected you.
Scareware, along with other unwanted codes such as Trojans, worms, and the like are better off prevented and this can be done by installing anti-malware on your system. However, the problem also needs to be uprooted right from where it begins. You would tend to wonder how those hackers managed to get to your system, for example. While there could be many ways, one of them could be simply your having surfed the web with your IP address exposed. There might have been a time when you accidentally landed on a hacker's site and that's how they got to your system.
If you want to be sure that hackers are kept at bay while you surf, you can install an IP hiding software in your computer so you can get online anonymously. Remember that computers on a network communicate through their IP addresses. If yours is hidden, then there's no way for a hacker to find a path that leads to you because you have been using a fake IP provided by your supplier, not your real IP.
In this case, anonymous surfing does help a lot when it comes to preserving your Internet security. In fact, it could be all you need when it comes to protecting your system from the threat of hacking.
In this case, anonymous surfing does help a lot when it comes to preserving your Internet security. In fact, it could be all you need when it comes to protecting your system from the threat of hacking.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
How to Clean an LCD Monitor
If you're like most households and own a computer or a laptop-then there's a good chance that you also have a LCD computer screen. The LCD monitor is one of the most fragile and expensive parts of the computer, thus, it pays to handle it with care.
LCD monitor screens are made of a soft film that can be easily damaged, by dust, fingerprints, smears and even scratches. In fact, even cleaning your LCD monitor improperly can cause irreparable damage. Therefore, in order to prolong the life of your computer, it's important to learn how to maintain a clean computer screen.
The following tips will guide you on how to best clean and preserve your LCD monitor and protect your high-tech investment.
1). Never touch or apply pressure on the LCD computer screen with your hand. You can leave behind oily smudges and even possibly cause the pixels to burn out.
2). Never use paper towels, tissue or even towels to clean your monitor. These textures can scratch your screen and damage it permanently.
3). Do use a soft cloth, such as an old torn t-shirt, an old cotton handkerchief or microfiber cloth to dust off and clean the screen. You may also purchase cloths as well as computer screen cleaners made specifically to clean computer screens.
4). Always turn the monitor off before attempting to clean it. This will enable you to see the dirty spots more easily and will prevent any cleaning solvent you may use from evaporating quickly and/or streaking.
5.) Many experts suggest thtat you purchase a monitor screen cleaner which is made specifically for cleaning computer screens, such as Klear Screen. However if you'd like to make your own solution-most experts recommend that you use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol which can be used to clean any LCD screen, monitor or TV.
6). Never spray any cleaning solution directly onto your LCD monitor, instead, spray it on your cloth and wipe gently in a circular motion.
7.) Make sure you dry off your monitor completely before switching it back on.
8.) Never use tap water as it may contain chemicals or salts that may leave a residue.
If you follow these tips you should enjoy your computer screen for many years to come!
It's recommended that you refer to the manufacturer's manual before you attempt to clean your LCD display. The manufacturer may recommend a particular brand of LCD cleaner to be used with their product. There may also be certain types of cleaning agents that are not to be used.
LCD monitor screens are made of a soft film that can be easily damaged, by dust, fingerprints, smears and even scratches. In fact, even cleaning your LCD monitor improperly can cause irreparable damage. Therefore, in order to prolong the life of your computer, it's important to learn how to maintain a clean computer screen.
The following tips will guide you on how to best clean and preserve your LCD monitor and protect your high-tech investment.
1). Never touch or apply pressure on the LCD computer screen with your hand. You can leave behind oily smudges and even possibly cause the pixels to burn out.
2). Never use paper towels, tissue or even towels to clean your monitor. These textures can scratch your screen and damage it permanently.
3). Do use a soft cloth, such as an old torn t-shirt, an old cotton handkerchief or microfiber cloth to dust off and clean the screen. You may also purchase cloths as well as computer screen cleaners made specifically to clean computer screens.
4). Always turn the monitor off before attempting to clean it. This will enable you to see the dirty spots more easily and will prevent any cleaning solvent you may use from evaporating quickly and/or streaking.
5.) Many experts suggest thtat you purchase a monitor screen cleaner which is made specifically for cleaning computer screens, such as Klear Screen. However if you'd like to make your own solution-most experts recommend that you use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol which can be used to clean any LCD screen, monitor or TV.
6). Never spray any cleaning solution directly onto your LCD monitor, instead, spray it on your cloth and wipe gently in a circular motion.
7.) Make sure you dry off your monitor completely before switching it back on.
8.) Never use tap water as it may contain chemicals or salts that may leave a residue.
If you follow these tips you should enjoy your computer screen for many years to come!
It's recommended that you refer to the manufacturer's manual before you attempt to clean your LCD display. The manufacturer may recommend a particular brand of LCD cleaner to be used with their product. There may also be certain types of cleaning agents that are not to be used.
A Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up a Wireless Net
Wireless networks are getting more popular as more days go by. They are easy to install and practical to use when it comes to surfing the World Wide Web from anywhere inside the house. This is why wireless networks are attractive in the eyes of internet users. It is fairly easy to set up a wireless network; however, you have to know several simple things before trying to begin your setup. To get better understandings of wireless networks, you can read on protocols of wireless networking.
To set up your wireless network, you would require a broadband online connection with either a DSL modem or cable. Usually, the regular home setup involves a desktop computer that is directly plugged into a modem. If you are reading this, we can presume that you already own a laptop which you wish to wirelessly connect to a personal computer which has an internet connection. You will require some hardware to do this, such as a wireless router, a wireless USB network adapter for your desktop computer and a card-based personal computer network adapter for the laptop. Obviously, it would be recommended to opt for the same vendor as any extra hardware that you purchase. Refer to documentations that come with the hardware for any process of installation.
After installing all of the required hardware, you can start with the setup. First of all, you have to turn off or unplug your DSL modem before connecting your wireless router onto the modem. If you need help, simply check your hardware's documentation. After this has been set up, your computer is going to connect to the router wirelessly. Next, you have to configure the wireless router. You can use Internet Explorer to go to the configuration page of your router.
The majority of default settings are safer to be left alone; however, there are several things that will need configuring. You have to choose a one-of-a-kind SSID or name for your wireless network, which will also be your network's name. Ensure that nobody near you is making use of the exact same name. Next, if the router needs it, provide a one-of-a-kind passcode which it will put to use in order to generate several keys. The last thing to do before finishing your router configuration would be to set an administrative password. Pick a password which is long and hard to guess for security purposes. Ensure that you save each configured setting. Actual steps that are involved with setting configuration may vary, depending on your type of router.
Next, configure the network adapter of your laptop. It is quite easy to follow the on-screen instructions on Window's XP when it comes to this. Right-click on the wireless network icon within your taskbar and go to "View Available Wireless Networks" after the menu appears. The window of Wireless Network Connections will show up. Here, you should see your chosen name listed for the wireless network. Click on "Refresh network list", if the network does not appear. After that, you will be asked to enter a key as you have written down within the key boxes of Confirm network key. Choose Connect. Then, you will see the progress of your connection while it connects to the network. Once you are connected, feel free to close this window. Your wireless connection is now set up.
To set up your wireless network, you would require a broadband online connection with either a DSL modem or cable. Usually, the regular home setup involves a desktop computer that is directly plugged into a modem. If you are reading this, we can presume that you already own a laptop which you wish to wirelessly connect to a personal computer which has an internet connection. You will require some hardware to do this, such as a wireless router, a wireless USB network adapter for your desktop computer and a card-based personal computer network adapter for the laptop. Obviously, it would be recommended to opt for the same vendor as any extra hardware that you purchase. Refer to documentations that come with the hardware for any process of installation.
After installing all of the required hardware, you can start with the setup. First of all, you have to turn off or unplug your DSL modem before connecting your wireless router onto the modem. If you need help, simply check your hardware's documentation. After this has been set up, your computer is going to connect to the router wirelessly. Next, you have to configure the wireless router. You can use Internet Explorer to go to the configuration page of your router.
The majority of default settings are safer to be left alone; however, there are several things that will need configuring. You have to choose a one-of-a-kind SSID or name for your wireless network, which will also be your network's name. Ensure that nobody near you is making use of the exact same name. Next, if the router needs it, provide a one-of-a-kind passcode which it will put to use in order to generate several keys. The last thing to do before finishing your router configuration would be to set an administrative password. Pick a password which is long and hard to guess for security purposes. Ensure that you save each configured setting. Actual steps that are involved with setting configuration may vary, depending on your type of router.
Next, configure the network adapter of your laptop. It is quite easy to follow the on-screen instructions on Window's XP when it comes to this. Right-click on the wireless network icon within your taskbar and go to "View Available Wireless Networks" after the menu appears. The window of Wireless Network Connections will show up. Here, you should see your chosen name listed for the wireless network. Click on "Refresh network list", if the network does not appear. After that, you will be asked to enter a key as you have written down within the key boxes of Confirm network key. Choose Connect. Then, you will see the progress of your connection while it connects to the network. Once you are connected, feel free to close this window. Your wireless connection is now set up.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Back Up Your PC
Do you have digital images and family photos stored on your PC? If you do, what value do you put on the family photos (from the last year, or two, or three)? What if you lost all those photos the next time you went to turn on your PC and it didn't boot up (drive failure etc.)?
Do you have music (iTunes) stored on your PC? How many songs do you have on your PC? 25, 50, 100, 200... 500? At roughly $1.00 per song you can do the math. If your hard drive crashes your songs are gone.
Do you have personal files stored on your PC? Do you have personal files on your PC (MS Word, Excel etc.) that may contain your finances or other type information that should be backed up?
Do you have software installed the required a "license string" to activate it? If you have additional software installed on your PC (MS Office 2007, Adobe products, PaintShop Pro etc.) that required a "license string" for you to enter to activate it and if you didn't have the install executable file (or CD) and license string documented, then that software would be lost and have to be purchased again. Even if you had CDs of your original software, if you didn't have the license string (code) documented then the software would be useless.
First: You need to make sure you are not backing up viruses. Make sure you have a good anti-virus software.
Second: Purchase an external USB hard drive (at least a 320 gig). You can buy these at your major retailers (we recommend eBay), for roughly $70. This is where you will target and store your backup file(s) (you don't want to store backup files on your hard drive).
Third: Purchase Backup software
You have to prepare for PC failure at some point. Your PC is a machine and it's going to fail at some time. Be prepared.
Do you have music (iTunes) stored on your PC? How many songs do you have on your PC? 25, 50, 100, 200... 500? At roughly $1.00 per song you can do the math. If your hard drive crashes your songs are gone.
Do you have personal files stored on your PC? Do you have personal files on your PC (MS Word, Excel etc.) that may contain your finances or other type information that should be backed up?
Do you have software installed the required a "license string" to activate it? If you have additional software installed on your PC (MS Office 2007, Adobe products, PaintShop Pro etc.) that required a "license string" for you to enter to activate it and if you didn't have the install executable file (or CD) and license string documented, then that software would be lost and have to be purchased again. Even if you had CDs of your original software, if you didn't have the license string (code) documented then the software would be useless.
First: You need to make sure you are not backing up viruses. Make sure you have a good anti-virus software.
Second: Purchase an external USB hard drive (at least a 320 gig). You can buy these at your major retailers (we recommend eBay), for roughly $70. This is where you will target and store your backup file(s) (you don't want to store backup files on your hard drive).
Third: Purchase Backup software
You have to prepare for PC failure at some point. Your PC is a machine and it's going to fail at some time. Be prepared.
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