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Computer Disaster Prevention

Trying To Recover From a Disaster Might Be Too Late

To sum up the importance of computer disaster prevention, here is a statement that is easy to remember; never trust a computer!
Computer disaster prevention is not very commonly sought, but computer disaster recovery is. This is unfortunate because your success in computer disaster recovery is directly related to how well you have prepared for it.

You deserve a sincere compliment for being here. That is because a very low percentage of people seek out computer disaster prevention. There are lots of people seeking computer disaster recovery, but most will find out it's too late. In fact, think of 4 small businesses besides your own. If all 5 of you were to have a computer disaster, only one business will survive.

The other 4 will go out of business!

The only way to assure that you can recover from a computer disaster is to back up all of your data, both onsite and offsite. A good backup strategy will include both. There are numerous sources for backing up data over the Internet. One thing I would not recommend is a free service. The idea of trusting that your valuable data will be available if needed from someone with no motivation to care just doesn't seem logical to me.

Computer disasterWith computer disaster recovery, you are seeking solutions after a problem has occurred, and both the recovery and the downtime are costly. The old proverb about an ounce of prevention certainly applies here. Prevention can help you avoid a most disasters, and speed the recovery of anything that could not be avoided. Prevention is never convenient, but the likelihood of being glad you took the time to do it anyway can be almost guaranteed.

If your idea of computer disaster prevention is installing a virus detection program on your computer, it would serve you well to read this information. Virus protection and disaster prevention are two entirely different subjects, even though a virus can cause problems that qualify as a disaster.

If you're counting on any type of computer warranty, these can easily provide a false sense of security because they only cover equipment failure due to manufacturing defects. Even if a failure really is the fault of the computer, some damage cannot be undone, and it is not covered under a warranty. To graphically illustrate this point, imagine a defective toaster that burns your house down. Under the terms of the warranty, you get a new toaster, but it does not cover the house that burned down.

It is important to either have a professional check your computer or computers over for potential problems, or to do it yourself using the information presented here. These are some reasons why:

 

Why Worry About Computer Disaster Prevention?

How important is it to heed all the gloom and doom warnings about a computer disaster? Let's begin with some interesting facts about the computer hard drive.

When you are driving your car at 65 miles per hour down the highway, most engines are running at approximately 2000 rpm. The hard drive in most computers is constantly spinning at 7200 rpm. The heads that read and write to the hard drive are hovering back and forth across that rapidly spinning drive, suspended so close to the surface that a human hair will not fit in the gap.

This relationship between your computer hard drive and those read/write heads has been described as being like flying a 747 jetliner 6 inches above the ground at 600 miles per hour, and keeping that plane steady.

Now you know why they call it a crash when a computer hard drive fails. Do they crash? A lot more than you probably realize, and when they do, they also burn; nothing on that hard drive will be recoverable.

With this in mind, there are two important things you need to know. First, never move a computer without shutting it down beforehand, and second, back up the important information on your computer hard drive with religious fervor.

Our Computer Backup Archive outlines conventional backup methods that were common before today's online services made off site backup easier, but the information is still very useful for providing easy to understand explanations of file structure advice and computer backup terminology.

 

Secure Yourself From a Computer Disaster

Many computer users are now aware that the dire warnings about computer security are not merely scare tactics. There are some very real and serious threats out there.

If you think you are safe because there are millions of computers on the Internet and the odds are in your favor, then you are not familiar with scanners that literally scan the Internet for certain vulnerabilities. Your computer will be a target if those vulnerabilities exist on it. These programs can scan at a rate of tens of thousands of computers per minute and report all vulnerable computers found to those doing the scanning.

Perhaps you believe it is not important to secure your computer because there is nothing on your computer hard drive worth stealing. You still have at least one good reason to secure your computer anyway.

Not all intruders are looking for valuables. Some only want to use your computer to mask their own evil deeds. They can launch attacks pretending to be you, and you will have no knowledge of their activities until the FBI comes knocking on your door. If this happens, your computer will be confiscated, your assets can be frozen, and your business can be shut down pending an investigation.

Don't panic. Although I want to make you aware of some of the computer security threats by telling you how serious this is, the main purpose here is to show you what you can do to minimize the risk. This is more about solutions than problems.

How do you protect yourself? Knowing what you face is a significant step toward victory. It is as simple as the old saying, “Know thine enemy!” There is a ripe harvest field of easy targets out there for the scourge of the Internet to attack. Simply taking a few precautions will send all but the most determined looking for one of those easier targets.

Being an easy target will basically guarantee you to be hit sometime. The computer security information provided here will help prevent you from being too easy. Then you can reduce the chance of becoming the victim of a malicious computer disaster.