Being Completely Ready for a Catastrophic HDD or SDD Event

Catastrophic in this case means one cannot boot to the desktop due to HDD or SDD failure, be it electronic or mechanical problems. These tips will also apply to a badly infected operating system.

1. If you have not done so yet, be sure to use the manufacturer's software to create recovery DVD's. You will find that application in any new computer from HP, Sony etc. (This is a must do task.) Tuck those DVD's away in a safe place.

2. As soon as you have your operating system customized the way you like it and all your third party programs are installed create your first System Image onto an External Hard Drive or a second Internal HDD.

3. Whether you use Windows 7 Backup and Restore or a reputable 3rd Party Backup Program, making a new System Image on a monthy basis is going to save you huge hassles should there ever be a hardware or system melt down.

I personally make a system backup every day. This is because I don't keep too much data on my C: Drive. I have a total 40GB on the C: Drive and that drive is an OCZ Solid State Drive. This means the entire backup procress takes about 20 minutes.

WARNING: Be sure to do a quick scan with Malwarebytes before creating a system image. If you have never used Malwarebytes, it is free to use and is IMO the best anti-malware product on the Internet. It easily works in tandem with any Anti-Virus suite. My combo is Malwarebytes and MSE. If you've not run a Full System scan with both Malwarebytes and your favorite Anti-Virus program for quite some time, I would recommend doing so before creating your first system image. After that, doing a weekly quick scan with Malwarebytes would be a good addition to your weekly mainteance of your system.

The easiest method to make a system image (for most PC owners) is to purchase an External HDD. They are not expensive and you can use it for many computers in the home or office.

The fastest transfer rate of data is to have a second Internal HDD for data storage and a system image.

Backup often and you'll never get stressed out if the C: Drive or the OS goes belly-up!

agree
Rich