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Protecting Your Computer against Lightning and power surges

The importance of backing up your files

Protecting Your Computer against Lightning and power surges

Is your computer protected against lightning and power surges? Even a slight surge can do expensive damage your computer, scanner, and printer; in the worst case scenario it can completely and irreparably damage all components inside the tower, including the total loss of all your valuable data, files, photos.

How can you protect your computer against these?

The way to protect your computer from lightning and power surges is to use a good surge protector. Don't be confused. A power strip, which is a simple strip of outlets, is not necessarily a surge protector. A surge protector may look like a power strip, but it has built-in protection against power surges.

A good surge protector should offer four features.

The surge protector should cover lightning strikes. Some do not.
The surge protector should offer insurance to cover the loss of properly attached equipment.
If you have a regular modem or a DSL connection, get a surge protector with an RJ-11 telephone jack where you can hook up your telephone line.
If you are using a cable modem, get a surge protector that will also accommodate your television / Internet cable.

Damage can occur regardless of whether the computer is on or off. While surge protectors offer protection for normal surges and nearby lightning strikes, nothing will protect your equipment from a direct lighting hit. During storms, you can add further protection by unplugging your computer power supply and any telephone or cable line from the wall. Although it is not absolutely necessary to do this, unplugging your computer equipment during a severe storm may give you added piece of mind.

The importance of backing up your files

The cost?

Ask a person or business that has lost all their files, and they can answer the question: how important is backing up my files?

It is not until you have lost valuable data, precious irreplaceable family photographs, or you cannot run your business, that you realise the importance of backing up. For businesses, the cost is enormous – productivity issues, loss of customers, financial impact can be enormous.Recently, we have had many customers who have come to us after their computers have crashed, asking us to try and recover their lost files, as they have no backups – both business and home users. The data recovery programs cannot always retrieve lost files. So rather than take the risk, ensure your files are backed up regularly and correctly?
How often should I backup?Ideally, you should be backing up your computer files daily, or at least weekly as minimum. For businesses, we recommend backing up daily, as the cost is much greater.

What to backup?

Deciding what to back up is different for each person and business. Go through your computer files and make a list of the files you want backed up. This list can later be used as a reference list, for what you want to retrieve from your backed up file(s), after your computer has crushed and you have lost all you files. The types of files to backup can include but not limited to:

banking and other financial information
digital photographs (personal or business)
projects, study notes
email address book, emails and calendar entries
software purchased and downloaded from the Internet, e.g. stock share programs
files under My Documents folder
any information that is essential to you business or home use

Important note: Do not backup programs like Microsoft Word, Outlook, MYOB, in-house business programs etc - they can be reinstalled from the original CDs you purchased. Also the operating system software – e.g. Windows itself and any software provided by your PC supplier - can usually be recovered from the installation or System Restore CDs that came with the computer.

Where do I keep my backed up files?

The backed up files should be stored on an external source, not on your computer itself. This includes external hard disk drive, CDs, DVDs, or some other storage format. It will depend on the size of your files, as to what you select.The backups should be kept in a separate room, in a fire-proof box. If you use a safety deposit box to protect valuable paper documents, keep your backup disks there, too. It is also important, especially for businesses, to keep backups off site. If your computers are stolen, or the office burns down, it is easier to make a quick recovery, using the offsite backups. In these hard financial times, it is essential you get your business up and running, as soon as possible – it could mean the difference between survival or going bankrupt.

Networked Computers

If your business uses a network, you'll have to decide whether to back up all of your computers over the network or back up each computer separately. In most cases, you should back up all of the computers on a network along with your file servers; that way, you can purchase a single high-end backup system for your whole network. It's much more expensive to buy a separate backup unit for each computer, and it's a waste of time to lug a portable backup drive from one computer to another.

Why not let the computer experts at Lightning PC and Designs take care of your computer needs! We are the people to call when:
you wish to buy or upgrade your computer your PC is slow, playing up or has stopped working have a virus have computer security issues	need to set up or having networking problems lost files need backup procedures set up need a web site set up