Backup Guidelines GUIDELINES FOR BACKING UP FILES Make back-up copies daily of all your data files to ensure that your work is protected in case damage or corruption happens to the information on the hard disk. To avoid copying bad data onto your only good back-up files, you should rotate your backups. Use five sets of backups in the rotation. At the end of each day, make a back-up copy of your hard disk onto your back-up disk(s). Label the backups Monday, Tuesday, etc. Use a new set of backups for each day. At the beginning of next week, start over again, using Monday's disk(s). By using this method, you will never worry about accidentally copying over the only good back-up copy of your files. It's a good idea to keep your newest back-up disk(s) in a different place from the others. See your Windows Help for specific methods of making back-up copies. GUIDELINES FOR REMEDYING HARD DISK PROBLEMS If a power surge or some other problem messes up the data on your hard disk, you should back up all your data files immediately. It is important to have two or three current copies of your files on back-up. After you have successfully backed up your hard drive, you are ready to reformat your hard disk drive. See your Windows Help for instructions on reformatting your particular computer. After you have formatted your hard disk drive, restore your data back to the hard disk drive. See your Windows Help for instructions on restoring data on your particular computer. The computer screen will prompt you to place your back-up diskettes into the computer one by one. Follow these instructions carefully. After you have finished the restore procedure, you are ready to use your computer again. Topic 15e