@Ping-TechTips I consider myself to be quite savvy when it comes to my laptop. I work on it from home and work every day and I know how to keep it running smoothly. Each week the disk defragmenter runs and I keep everything in order making sure the bin is emptied and program files deleted that I don’t use. As a regular techy laptop user, you would think that I would have covered all the usage and maintenance basics, but I found that I was lacking in one vital area.
Backup is a Must
When my laptop picked up a virus I realised that I had not performed a backup in months. During those months I had added important files and documents for work, created important spread sheets for my accounts and added several pieces of useful software. In addition to these important files I had also uploaded hundreds of images. Included in the images were my sister’s wedding photos I was to edit and the photos documenting the arrival and first few months of my best friend’s baby. There were also lots of family shots such as my daughters first day at high school.
Infection Not Only Damaged My Hard Drive, It Upset Me Too
When the virus took hold I was unable to get past the start-up screen for Windows 7. I tried to start the computer in safe mode but this wasn’t working either. I had no choice but to reinstall Windows and start all over again. Sometimes it is possible to back up your files before the reboot, but it wouldn’t work for me. In just a few hours I discovered I would lose everything which I had not backed up.
I was heartbroken and so was my husband. Some of the images had been uploaded onto my social networking sites but not many. This was a bit of a blessing but the bad news is that all images shared on Facebook are not kept to the same resolution as the file you upload. So I had some of the photos still but they weren’t as clear or as large. As for all my documents and files well they were lost and never to be found.
Always Make a Backup Copy of Your Files
I learnt a few hard lessons that day. Firstly it is vital that you make a backup copy of everything you put on your laptop or PC. This is a job which is easy to overlook. When I first got the laptop I would make a backup disk once a month. When I ran out of disks I kind of forgot about it which led to me losing all of those files. Since the incident I have purchased a portable hard drive so running out of disks will not be a problem again.
The second lesson I learnt that day was to use a good antivirus program. I did have a program installed on my laptop but it wasn’t very good. I don’t think I had run a full system scan for a couple of weeks either as I turned off the automatic scan one day when it interrupted my work. When the scan ran it would slow down my laptop terribly.
Simple Tasks Make all the Difference
I have upgraded my antivirus program now and I set the scan to run first thing each morning. It may sound excessive but I never want to lose my files ever again. It’s all well and good being confident with using a laptop but it’s also very easy to forget about vital jobs which can save your hard work and memories from being lost forever.
