Best Practices

Every now and then while performing routine tasks on your computer, something goes wrong. You download a file from the internet only to discover that your system finds it unreadable or corrupted. The power fluctuates for a moment while writing to the disk drive and your computer suddenly reboots or stops responding. You save a file to your computer and realize that you have no idea where it is located. These random mishaps can and do happen once in a while due to, for example, program conflicts, system updates, voltage fluctuations and bad storage sectors. Often they can be prevented by taking a few simple precautions:
  • When starting up your computer, be patient. Even though the computer is a paragon of multitasking, a surprising number of errors are attributable to not letting the system finish running processes until it enters its "ready" state. This is especially the case when performing program installations or system updates that require a reboot. Wait for the hard drive activity light to subside before setting to work.
  • Reboot after every hardware or software installation, even when the software says it isn't required or when using hotpluggable items for the first time. Part of the appeal of some products is that rebooting is unnecessary, and manufacturers will tout this, but it doesn't mean it won't help it to run smoothly from the get-go.
  • Cold reboot (power off) your computer every now and then. With the advent of "always on" broadband access, many users clutter their desktops with a multitude of browser windows/tabs and multiple tasks pending while never bothering to restart their systems. This can eventually lead to program conflicts, stopped services and random memory errors. Finalize your tasks and "clean up your room" once in a while to give your computer a rest and prevent work from being lost.
  • When downloading very large files from the internet, try keeping the number of open applications that access the network to a minimum. Even when bandwidth is not an issue, conflicts can occasionally arise when establishing too many connections.
  • When transferring important files from one drive to another, copy and paste them, then verify that they are intact before deleting them from the original drive; don't simply cut and paste or move them and assume that this was done correctly.
  • Similarly, when downloading a file to your computer, pay attention to where it is being saved or specify its location and verify afterwards; don't just click "Save" and assume you'll find it intact and where you expect it to be later on.
  • While entering extensive text into an online form field, you may wish to copy and paste updated versions of the message to a separate text file or document on your desktop. This is in the event the connection is lost or reset due to inactivity, which can happen frequently with secure connections.
  • If an application suddenly freezes or an expected object doesn't appear right away, give it some time. Sometimes application processes, especially those involving an internet connection, can be slow to complete and hold up the rest of the system. Repeatedly using your mouse or keyboard to send a flurry of commands can potentially flood the process queue and lock up the system completely. Instead, try moving your mouse cursor or bring up the task manager by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys and check to see that the application is still running. Try also Alt + Tab to shift between applications and the Windows Key + L to return to the login screen. If none of these are possible, chances are your computer has irreversibly locked up and needs to be forcibly powered down.
  • If you see the lights flickering in your home, especially during a storm, you may be about to experience a power surge or outage. Unless your computer is plugged into a surge protector and/or UPS, save your work, shut it down and unplug it from the wall.
  • Always safely remove any mounted storage devices, including flash drives, memory cards and external disk drives, by using the corresponding icon in your computer's system tray. Even while the drive is not being read from or written to, data corruption can occur any time a device is abruptly unplugged from its computer port.
  • Be careful with older storage drives or those with a history of heavy use. Although you may not be experiencing any errors, the accumulation of bad sectors on a drive can slow it down and eventually render it unusable by some programs. Some poor quality drives even come fresh from the factory with a significant number of bad sectors. Invest in a higher-end storage drive because, among all parts of the computer, this is where all of your invested work and important files will be held.
  • If you start to hear clicking noises coming from your hard disk drive (not your optical disk drive), it may be close to failing. Back up your files and replace the drive as soon as possible.
  • If your computer exhibits any persistent abnormal behavior such as an error alert, blue screen, freeze, flicker or display glitch, it means that something is wrong. It could be due to, among a myriad other things, an improperly configured program, program conflict, virus, hardware or memory error. Try troubleshooting the problem or have it looked at because certain errors beget other errors which can eventually lead to system instability and lost data.
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