What do you do when your computer crashes? Part 1

If you’ve ever experienced the shock of having your computer fail, you know how traumatic it can be. If you haven’t…thank your lucky stars because sooner or later, it will happen to you.

The sudden appearance of the dreaded blue screen, or the vague error message that says your computer doesn’t know who it is anymore, can send shock waves through your mind and body. It can literally take your breath away!

In today’s technological world, our computers have become the center of our lives for storing treasured items like photographs, music, home videos and whole host of other important information.

When a computer crashes, it rarely gives any warning. One day it’s working fine, you turn it off for the night and the next day…boom! It won’t boot up!

Older computers are even more likely to crash. If the failure is due to a virus or software failure (a critical file deletion), it may only require re-installation of your operating system to get you back online.

But, re-installing your system is no easy task. More than likely, you’ll end up calling in a specialist to do the work for you.

It will probably take several hours because after they re-install the system, they’ll have to reload all of your data files and programs…that is…if you have backups. Technicians don’t come cheap. Figure on paying upwards of $70/hour for their services.

If it’s a hardware failure, which means your hard drive has malfunctioned, you may have to buy a new machine. And, you may still have to get help from a tech-savvy friend or that pricey technician to re-install your data and program files…again…if you have backups.

Without backups, any games or other programs you’ve purchased for your computer will have to be re-purchased. This is also true for a lot of the software programs you’ve downloaded from the internet.

If you don’t have the CDs or DVDs for the games and software, you may not be able to re-install them. Most vendors don’t offer replacement software when your system fails.

So, do yourself a big favor. If you don’t currently create backups of your computer system, start doing it now; before you have a critical emergency. Because once the crash happens, it’s too late.

To be continued…

-Lyn Williams, Author, Speaker and "Love and Happiness Mastery" Coach
http://www.thewomanexec.com