Toshiba P100/P105 Develop good computing habits, Read the user’s guides, Save your work frequently, On a regular basis, back up the information stored on your hard disk

214	If Something Goes Wrong
	Develop good computing habits

Develop good computing habits

Save your work frequently.

You can never predict when your computer will lock, forcing you to close a program and lose unsaved changes. Many software programs build in an automatic backup, but you should not rely solely on this feature. Save your work! See “Computing tips” on page 83 for instructions.

On a regular basis, back up the information stored on your hard disk.

Here are some ways you can do this:

❖Copy files to diskette.

❖Connect a tape drive to the system and use specialized software to copy everything on the hard disk to a tape.

❖Connect your computer to the office network and copy files to your network partition.

Some people use a combination of these methods, backing up all files to tape weekly and copying critical files to diskette on a daily basis.

If you have installed your own programs, you should back up these programs as well as your data files. If something goes wrong that requires you to reformat your hard disk and start again, reloading all your programs and data files from a backup source will save time.

Read the user’s guides.

It is very difficult to provide a fail-safe set of steps you can follow every time you experience a problem with the computer. Your ability to solve problems will improve as you learn about how the computer and its software work together.

Get familiar with all the user’s guides provided with your computer, as well as the manuals that come with the programs and devices you purchase.