Maintaining Your Computer
By Tim Fisher
About.com Guide to PC Support
If you've ever fried a CPU because you didn't clean your fan, lost a decade of your digital life to a hard drive crash, or spent four hours trying to remove a nasty virus, you learned a valuable lesson about the need to maintain your computer.
Medical experts remind us that "prevention is the best medicine" so as your personal computer support expert, I'm going to strongly advise that you apply the same logic to your computer!
These resources will help you keep your computer running in tip-top shape for as long as you choose to own it.
Backup Your Data
The most important thing you can do as a computer owner is to consistently and reliably back up the data stored on your hard drive. Hardware used to be the most valuable part of a computer but those bits and bytes are now the real investment.
You've spent huge amounts of money on software and digital music and video, and countless hours authoring documents and organizing your digital files. If you don't regularly backup this information, a serious computer problem could leave you with nothing but a huge feeling of regret.
Now that I've scared you a bit, use these resources to keep your data safe!
Update! Update! Update!
Keeping the software on your computer updated is no longer an optional part of computer ownership. Viruses, worms, junk mail, security breaches, hardware incompatibilities, and software conflicts are all now part of your daily digital life.
Updating your computer with the latest patches, fixes, and device drivers really can keep these annoyances at bay. Updates are freely available on the Internet for just about every antivirus program, email client, operating system, and piece of hardware you could possibly own.
These resources can help you locate these updates and keep your computer out of harm's way.
Keep Your Computer Clean
We all know that most things run a little better when they're clean. Water flows easier when your plumbing is clean, your car's engine runs better if you've been taking care of it, and your dryer does more in less time when you clean out the lint.
Your computer is no different. Keeping your files and folders tidy in your virtual world and clearing the dust and grime that builds up inside and outside your computer all play a part in keeping it running smooth day in and day out.
Article reprinted with permission
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