So, you think the storms, power loss and heat are hard on you?  What about your computer?? Here are a few simple tips and facts you should know. Whether you operate a home PC for pictures, music and home taxes, or an office PC with substantial client information, knowing a little about how your computer works can help lengthen its life span.

Hard drives typically operate up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius) and spin around 7,000-10,000 revolutions per minute.  In comparison, we typically operate vehicle engines at around 175 degrees Fahrenheit and 2,500 revolutions per minute.  Hopefully that puts it into perspective just how hard we work our computers.  We're not asking for an oil change here, but there are some easy FREE things you can do to prolong the life of your hard drive and the data it is working hard to protect for you.

• Cooling - make sure you blow out the dust and animal dander from your case and fans!  Do this as often as you change the oil in your car, using an anti-static compressed air can available at your local grocery store (the Staples aisle). Most computers have only one single fan to blow air in through the front of the case, past the hard drive(s) and out the exhaust vent in the back of the case. You must keep this clean of animal dander, and you must provide adequate space for the hot air to escape behind the computer.  Increasing hard drive temperature by 5C (40F) has the same effect on reliability as switching from 10% to 100% workload. Each one-degree drop of HDD temperature is equivalent to a 10% increase of HDD service life.  In short, keeping cool is the key to longer life for your computer.  Plus - it's cheap.  Replacement cooling fans are under $10 for virtually any computer case.

• Power - provide CLEAN power -- this means ALWAYS use a battery back up (APC Smart-UPS) instead of a plain power strip or surge suppressor. Power strips protect only against voltage spikes and are just fine for stereos and appliances. NOT computers. The constant flickering caused by storms and even the stop/start of high energy appliances like dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and air conditioners can cause short bursts of insufficient power to your computer.  This is called a "brown out." During a brown out, high power-use components like hard drives get the short end of the stick.  Some components on your computer may turn off while others are still on.  This creates an extremely hazardous condition for your computer and has been the root cause of many data recovery efforts and operating system reloads. 

• As an aside, depending on the type of hard drive, data recovery can run anywhere from $500 - $5,000. If you need a free evaluation because you're already at this point, you can click here to read about starting a case. 

• In this issue we won't belabor data backup, because you have probably heard it a hundred times. We do of course offer several options; the least expensive is $50 for unlimited data backup with Carbonite.  Shame on you if you don't at least have that. What we WILL give you in this issue is a link to a FREE Microsoft add-in that does NOT come standard in the typical install of Microsoft Office.  Where would you be without your Outlook e-mails and contacts?  Check again -- if you are like 90% of our users, you don't have this plug in and you don't have a way of backing up your Outlook data.  Here's the link for Outlook 2002, 2003 and 2007 so you will have a File->Backup option in Outlook. 

Make sure you make a copy of your back up file somewhere... ahem... not on the same hard drive?  And, have a cool summer!