How to feed and care for your PC
Most of the computer problems I hear about are of three kinds:
- "My hard drive died and I lost all my stuff."
- "My computer is running really slowly."
- "I got a computer virus and my computer is behaving really weird."
As a public service, I'd like to offer a few tips on how to keep a computer running smoothly.
1. BACK IT UP
Hard drives die suddenly, even new ones. And when they die, you lose absolutely everything on them that you don't have backed up: photos, email, music, financial records...
What you need:
- An external USB hard drive, like a Western Digital My Passport Elite 320GB drive ($90 from Amazon.com). I like this one because it's physically small and connects by a single USB cable, no additional power cord required.
- Good backup software, like Acronis True Image Home 2010 ($40 from OfficeMax). Don't use the freebie software that might come with your hard drive; it's often harder to use.
Install the backup software on your PC. Plug in your hard drive. Run the backup software; it will take a few hours to copy everything to the backup drive. Every few days, run another backup; it'll copy only the files you changed, and it'll only take a few minutes.
Then, if the hard drive in your computer dies, you simply put in a new one, restore from your backup, and you're back up right where you left off - no hassle.
2. SPEED IT UP
A PC these days should have at least 1 gigabyte (1024 megabytes) of memory in it to run modern programs smoothly. Ideally, put at least 2 gigabytes in it for a comfortable amount of space.
However, many PCs are trying to make do with 256MB or 512MB. This makes them very sluggish.
Adding more memory to a computer is easy. Go to Crucial.com, run their "Scan My System" tool, and it'll tell you exactly what's in your computer and what you can add to it. There are plenty of videos on YouTube with demonstrations of how to install the memory when you receive it.
3. USE ANTI-VIRUS
You need to have up-to-date antivirus software on your Windows PC. Otherwise, your PC can be taken over to throw popup ads at you, steal your personal information, or unknowingly help to take over other PCs.
I used to use AVG Free. I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials. Both of them are free. I don't see much benefit in the paid antivirus services like Norton or McAfee.
Some common sense is recommended, too. Don't open email attachments you weren't expecting from people you don't know. Don't download pirated software from illegal file-sharing services. In both cases, the files you get may be trojan horses, trying to trick you into running something that'll take over your PC.
(Disclaimer: I wrote all the above. I have no affiliation with any of the companies or products mentioned here.)