Help! My Computer Crashed!!! (Part 5)

Now I’ll talk about Error Checking (A.K.A. ScanDisk or ChkDsk) and Disk Defragmentation. These two programs are essential to the continued good health of your computer. Running these two programs is like changing the oil in your car and getting a tune up. They don’t perform the same functions, but if your forget to change…

Help! My Computer Crashed!!! (Part 4)

Next up is Virus Scanning, so to start with let’s talk about what is a virus. If you go the McAfee web site, their glossary defines a virus as “A computer program file capable of attaching to disks or other files and replicating itself repeatedly, typically without user knowledge or permission.”  This is probably as…

Help! My Computer Crashed!!! (Part 3)

Moving on to some hardware issues now. We are living in dangerous times now here in California. (And if you believe the news, other parts of the country will have the same problems soon) I am referring to the dangers to computers from power outages. As mentioned yesterday, power surges are disastrous to electronic equipment…

Help! My Computer Crashed!!! (Part 1)

Sooner or later, we all experience a computer crash.  This is the first of a series of what to do when that happens…and before! Here is the dirty little secret of technology, both hardware and software…It doesn’t always work. Even the best software and hardware companies have products that just don’t work in every possible…