If Something Goes Wrong

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Develop good computing habits

solely on this feature. Save your work! See Computing tips on page 59 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 in Windows 98 Second Edition, following the steps in Saving your work on page 67

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

❖Copy files to your network partition

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

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

Read the user’s guides.

It’s 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 use.

Your local computer store or book store sells a variety of self-help books you can use to supplement the information in the manuals.