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Posts Tagged ‘yourself’

Top 10 Ways to Protect yourself From Computer Viruses

July 18th, 2010

As more and more people are becoming comfortable using their computers at school, home or in the office it’s only a matter of time before they encounter a computer virus. Here are our top 10 steps to protect you from computer viruses.

Use a high quality anti-virus program. There are many different anti-virus computers programs on the market some of them are better than others. Look to reputable computer magazines or websites for ratings to help you find the one that matches your needs.

Always use your anti-virus software. Make sure your anti-virus software is always turned on and scanning, incoming and outgoing email messages, and any software programs you run.

Keep your antivirus programs up to date. Most programs come with a yearly subscription make sure you take advantage of the updates. More advanced programs allow you to schedule updates or full system scans for “off hours” like 2AM when you aren’t likely to be using your computer.

Keep your computer up to date. From time to time operating systems fall victim to security holes or issue updates. Make sure you check periodically to make sure you are running stable up to date versions of your software.

Backup your data regularly. Most windows computer users keep their documents in the “My documents” folder. This makes it easy to back up all of your important documents. Make weekly or monthly copies to CD or USB drives.

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Do it yourself Data Recovery Software – Which One to Go For?

July 7th, 2010

Earlier, the only means of recovering your data was to go to companies that offer these services. This could cost any where from $500 – $8500, depending on what exactly was wrong. Now there are many websites offering downloadable, do – it – yourself software available on the internet to resolve this issue.

You can just go to the particular website which has the software and download the same on to your computer. The rest is taken care of.

Different Types of Data Recovery Software

There are different types of DIY software available on the internet to suit your needs. The first step you need to take is to identify the cause of media failure. Once this has been identified, browse the internet for a suitable software option to resolve your issue.

There are software options for different requirements – if you have formatted your hard disk and need to recover data or even if your hard disk suddenly crashed. There might also have been a partitioning error. Whatever be the case, you will be able to recover photos, documents, e-mails etc.

How to Select the Appropriate Software

There are many websites that offer these services. Be careful to choose an authentic one that will resolve your issue. The DIY offers specific software for specific data. You will find software to recover deleted e-mail, deleted documents, deleted archives, Digital Photo Recovery etc. You can also recover deleted music and videos.

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Why you Shouldn’t Try Data Recovery yourself

June 28th, 2010

In the world of computers, data recovery is something we all know and rely on to recover lost of missing data. The process of data recovery is very complicated, one that you should never attempt to do yourself. Hard drives especially, are very fragile and need extra special care when they are worked on. You have to be careful with the small components inside of them, which is why only a trained specialist should be attempting data recovery.

When you first take your hard drive to a specialist, they will perform an evaluation then get back to you and tell you the problem, as well as the cost. When most people get their price quote, they immediately think the price is too high. As this happens, the individual will decide to try their own data recovery. This isn’t the smartest idea, as it normally results in your data being lost forever. In most cases, where individuals attempt data recovery themselves, the data is so far gone that even the best data recovery specialist can’t bring it back.

When the hard drive crashes and data cannot be accessed, most people will think about using a disk repair utility. This isn’t a good idea, as the software will normally write to the disk, causing the data that is currently stored to be overwritten. These types of software programs can be very complex, and in most cases, won’t fix the problem. They should be avoided at all costs, for the simple fact that they won’t bring back your data – they will only make things worse.

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Home Computer Repair – Do It Yourself?

June 28th, 2010

Home computer repair is not brain surgery! Most computer repairs can be broken down into two specific areas, software and hardware. Now I do admit that in some people’s hand, a screwdriver can be a dangerous object. But if you can change a light bulb without shocking yourself, I’d bet you could swap out a computer part. Software gets a little trickier but is still within the grasp of most computer users.

I’ve been involved in computer repair in one way or another for over 25 years. The three major repairs I get called for on a weekly basis are:

Spyware/Malware Issues
Hardware failure (power supplies, hard drives, and ram usually)
Computer boot problems (lost password, toasted OS, hardware failure)

All of these can be quite a challenge depending on the value and risk of losing important data, which can be anything from tax records to photos. Any computer can be repaired; it just depends on time and budget. But not all data can be rescued. If a hard drive suffers a catastrophic hardware failure, data recovery is doubtful (unless you want spend 100’s if not 1000’s of dollars for special services).

So the best scenario in any home computer repair solution is have a good backup of your important data before you start any repair. I never work on anything for over an hour without immediately backing it up on another media (USB thumb drives are only about $30 for up to 5 gigs of storage and CD or DVD prices are under a buck). I learned the hard way very early in my computer using experience. It’s much easier to deal with any home computer repair if you don’t have to worry about important data. *Please, backup your data right after you finish this article and start doing it on regular basis.

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Read These Guidelines Before You Buy Computer Hardware for yourself

June 1st, 2010

Hardware is the most important aspect of a computer. However, a majority of people focus on buying quality software for their computer and finally end with replacing them over and over again due to frequent attacks by viruses and spywares. The fact is that your computer won’t function properly until you purchase good quality computer hardware for yourself. Once you purchase quality computer hardware you’ll be free from any hardware problems.

In order to buy computer hardware, you must have sufficient knowledge about the various hardware components. You must know that the motherboard is the most important aspect of your computer hardware. It consists of many resistors, diodes and capacitors that constitute the electrical and logical connection of the computer system. The motherboard is placed in the CPU of a computer. The CPU performs various logical and mathematical operations that lead to proper functioning of software.

It also consist of a visual display controller that provide you with good resolution, therefore you can watch images, videos and flash images with more clarity. Moreover, the RAM should have sufficient memory to support smooth functioning of various software. Therefore, you must make sure that you buy quality hardware components that accurately support your system software.

Therefore, one must be really cautious while purchasing computer hardware for themselves. Generally, people prefer buying branded computer hardware in order to avoid any fake components. However, branded computer dealers don’t guarantee you with a fair deal for components. Therefore, one should buy computer hardware through online computer hardware dealers.

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