So You Just Got A Computer: What Now? - Part 2 Congratulations, welcome to the Electronic Age. "The only way to learn to use a computer is to use one." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Care and Feeding of the Computer: When opening the box, check the packing list to make sure you have all the pieces, and save the packing material in case you have to return one of the items. Call the store immediately if something is missing or damaged. Place the computer in an area with normal temperature and humidity. Keep the area around the computer clean and don't smoke or let your long-haired friends roam the area. The floppy drive and fan need to be kept free of dust and hair to work properly. Don't eat or drink near the computer, as peanut butter or soda won't go well with your keyboard and mouse. Position the monitor to reduce glare, which can cause eyestrain. Consider investing in a "Glare Screen" to protect your eyes and prevent headaches from harmful radiation. If you're going to be at the computer for long stretches at a time, invest in a "Wrist Rest" both for your keyboard and your mouse to reduce the risk of Carpal-Tunnel Syndrome. Get a chair that gives full support for your back too. Put the printer close by but not close enough to cause vibration or noise problems. Laser printers may emit ozone so keep the area well ventilated. Beware of Static Electricity if you have a rug under the computer desk. Static is one of the three major enemies of electronic devices the other's are dust and heat. You can lose data or even damage a computer with large static discharges. Use a mild fabric-softener solution, or "Static-Spray" on the rug especially during the winter when it's hot and dry. If static is a problem, invest in a "Static-Mat" or humidifier. In rural areas affected by lightning and power outages the best protection against lost data is to use an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) which has a battery backup sufficient to operate the computer and monitor long enough for you to save your work and shutdown. Don't plug the printer into the UPS as printers draw too much power and may damage the UPS. If you can't afford a UPS, at least invest in lightning protection by using a Power Surge Protector on both your power and telephone lines. When lightning hits a power or telephone line, it can send thousands of volts of electricity through your wiring into your wall outlet, or telephone lines, and ultimately into your computer. To protect your computer from lightning follow these rules: 1. Use a power surge protector between the computer and the wall outlet 2. Always purchase a quality surge protector. It should cost at least $25 or more. 3. Don't forget to use a power surge protector for your modem, if you have one. 4. Unplug the computer if a lightning storm is close. It is important to select a backup strategy now before you need it, rather than after you've lost all your work. If you will have business-critical data on the computer, get a Tape Cartridge Backup for it and use it religiously, and don't forget to check the backups to make sure they work. Buy a box of cartridges to save your work on and add a backup procedure to your menu or "Desktop" shutdown procedure to make sure you use it. All mechanical devices, such as the "Hard-Drive" you store your data on, will eventually fail so be prepared now. * 6-Cartridge Weekly Backup Procedure: This backup procedure requires daily backups (essenial if you're in business) and a single weekly off-site backup copy to provide a data history of up to two weeks. Friday backups are "full backups". Monday through Thursday are "incremental". 1. Label the cartridges FRI 1, FRI 2, MON, TUE, WED, THU. 2. Start the cycle on a Friday and back up the entire hard disk onto cartridge FRI 1. This is a full backup of you system. The data cartridge should then be stored off- site, perhaps in a safety- deposit box. 3. On Monday, use the MON cartridge and back up only the files that have been created or changed since the last backup (FRI 1). This is an incremental and can be stored on-site. 4. Repeat Step 3 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, using the corresponding data cartridges. 5. On Friday, take data cartridge FRI 2, and do a full backup. You have just completed a full rotation of the 6-Cartridge Weekly Backup Procedure. Again, be sure to store this data cartridge off-site. 6. The weekly process continues by repeating Step 3 and Step 4 using the same MON, TUE, WED,THU data cartridges. Step 5 is implemented by altenating cartridges FRI 1 and FRI 2. Use a hard disk testing software package on the hard disk, on a regular basis. I suggest using something like Nuts & Bolts from Helix Softwarre, First Aid 97 by CyberMedia, or Norton Utilities by Symantec Corporation. You can get them from most any mailorder company or local dealer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prepared by Peter Conrad Cumminsky, consultant, ASEE, CET, Team OS/2 (707) 987-9484 Visit my Computer Taming web site at URL:http://www.angelfire.com/biz/taming/ (C) Copyright 1993-1997 peterconrad@hotmail.com.