By: Trevor Creech

First semester here at EBC saw an extraordinarily high number of computer problems among students. For some, this involved the inconvenience of a couple hours of repair; for others it meant lost papers on which they had already spent hours of work. Sadly, the majority of these problems could have been avoided, or at least made much less severe by following a few simple steps.

1. Backup what you’re working on. Imagine the sinking feeling of losing an almost completed paper to a computer crash. The prospect of rewriting an entire paper is terrible. However, if you have backup copies, you can keep working from where you left off, even if it means using a library computer. Completed papers aren’t critical, since you probably have a printed copy, and you won’t need them for anything particular. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of keeping extra copies of your works in progress. Now, how would you go about doing this?
   1. The simplest way to backup your EBC assignments is to use a USB key (Also know as a flash drive). You can get these very inexpensively, from $7.99 at Best Buy, and $9.99 at Future Shop. Just plug it in, find the drive in “My Computer”, and drag your assignment folder(s) onto it. If something does happen to your computer, you’ll have all your current assignments easily accessible, allowing you to work on them in the library, or on someone else’s computer.
   2. A better solution for the rest of your data, if it includes larger files such as photos or music, is to burn it to writeable CD’s or DVD’s. If you plan on doing this regularly, make sure to get re-writeable disks, so that you can use them over again. Assuming your computer has a CD/DVD burner, you just need to put the disk in, find it in “My Computer”, erase it if it already contains data, and drag your files onto it.
   3. Make sure that in both of these cases, you keep your USB key or backup CD’s in a place where they’ll be safe, and you’ll remember!
   4. If you only have a few items you want to keep backed up, you can email them to yourself as an attachment, and be able to download them at any time later on.
2. Keep your Microsoft Windows CD with your computer, wherever you take it. Namely, bring it to EBC with you. If you don’t have it, get it as soon as possible. If you run into computer trouble, it can be reasonably easy to fix if you have that CD, but without it, there are no guarantees. This CD will have come with your computer when you bought it.
3. If you do run into any problems, files missing, computer not starting up, or strange error messages, don’t try to fix things yourself. If you’re positive you know what you’re doing, then go for it, but in most cases you should find one of the techie-minded guys on campus. You can contact:
   1. Me, Trevor Creech in Lower Warder, Room 6. My email is trevor [AT] trevorcreech [DOT] com.
   2. Wesley Hague in Lower Warder, Room 1. His email is wesleyhague [AT] hotmail [DOT] com.
   3. Brian Blake in Lower Warder, Room 3. His email is bcblakerules [AT] yahoo [DOT] ca.

Follow these guidelines, and you will greatly reduce your chance of encountering major computer problems. If you have any computer-related questions, feel free to contact any of the guys in the list above.