My PC Lost my File! That’s Unlikely
To give you a break from further Windows 10 talk this week we are going to do a mythbusters special on IT. The number of fallacies that seem to propagate in this industry keeps it interesting. This is no more apparent when I get to talk to a customer and need to gently convince them that what they previously thought was purple is in fact orange!
So, topping off the list for this article we have “my PC lost my file”! While it is nice to blame a machine that can’t defend its own position (especially a machine that many of these victims hate) it is rarely ever the PCs’ fault. If a PC were to lose your file then it most likely would have a failing hard drive and it would be also losing operating system files. In which case it would start failing altogether and refusing to boot.
People often come unstuck with lost files when they are working from an attachment that is still in an email or when they download a file from the Internet that they need. You have to be very careful with email attachments that you first save them to a documents folder and edit them from there. Once edited you can then go through the normal processes of attaching them to a new email to be sent.
“Two virus scanners are better than one”. This is a definite fallacy not much different to suggesting that having two drivers for the one car is better than one. It might work on the straights but they are going to fight on the corners! If you don’t want to pay an annual subscription to an Anti-virus company then consider the free Avast Home Edition which is a very good one.
While on the subject of viruses the age old “it is the anti-virus companies who create the viruses in the first place” statement is also far from the truth. This conspiracy would get blown wide open given the number of people in the industry. They too get disgruntled with their employers or change professions and word would soon get out if this rumour held water.
“Only every odd numbered edition of Windows is any good” – seriously? Would Microsoft set about only caring on every second operating system, and what ‘number’ do we give to the old Windows XP? Windows 7 was good, Windows 8 was good with some simple visual changes, Windows 10 is so far looking fantastic.
“I shifted my photos off the PC to a backup drive” – Not a good idea if you didn’t put them in duplicate onto two backup drives. There is still a widespread perception the user data slows PC’s down however this is not the case. Having too much software on a PC slows it down and as long as you have enough hard drive space a PC with 10,000 photos will be just as quick as the same PC with no photos.
As a second whammy from the point above, too many people think that putting all of their data on a backup drive will keep it safe “because it is a backup drive”. This is certainly not the case and we encourage people to always have at least two copies of their files (one on the PC & one on a backup drive). In many respects backup drives are less reliable than an internal desktop hard drive.
“Laser printers are cheaper to run than ink printers”. If you only need monochrome (black & white) then this tends to hold true, however if you need colour then other factors come into play. For colour printers between the $50 specials & right up to around $800 the ink based ones are normally cheaper to run than colour lasers (in cost per page).
Next week we shall bust some more IT myths and maybe talk a bit more about Windows 10.
Until then future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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