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Disaster and Recovery of a Personal Computer

What would happen if your computer had been hacked or your hard drive had such severe problems that you had to completely clear out all your data and start all over?
Who would you call?
Would you think about unplugging your desktop from the network?

Have a plan in advance. Know what you need to do before a disaster strikes.

Clearing, or reformatting, your hard drive is something that is becoming more and more common as hackers invade local networks or viruses become more and more sophisticated. While these tips are biased towards MS Windows Operating Systems, they can be applied to other operating systems.

You can minimize your chances, at least your frequency, of needing a recovery, if you:

• install a firewall
• frequently get MS critical update patches
• disable file sharing
• and keep your antivirus software up-to-date

• Keep track of information that you cannot restore from software packages and back them up regularly. It may help to keep track of what you do on a daily basis, that will help you uncover the files that are changed regularly, and software products you use frequently.
  Information such as personal files, bookmark files of your favorite website addresses, digital camera archives, address book from your email client, emails, etc. Files must be backed up to CD, zip, tape or a file server on a regular basis. Backup software solutions are available.
• Keep CDs on hand of software you will need to reinstall. This would include (but is not limited to) Operating System (Windows 2000, XP, etc), email clients, MS Office products, Anti-virus software, Firewall software, photo software, HTML editing software. You will also want to keep the CD keys, or license numbers, in a safe place too.**
• Keep copies of all drivers needed.
  A driver is a program that determines how a computer will communicate with a peripheral device. For instance, your monitor needs a driver, so does your zip drive, your CD drive, your modem, ethernet/network card, sound card, printer, etc. Contact your systems administrator to get the drivers specific to your devices if you do not already have them. Many drivers come with your computer or can be found on the Internet, if you know the model number of the device.
• Some desktops come with recovery CDs or give directions for you to create them. Follow directions carefully. Make these CDs as soon as possible.
• Put copies of recovery CDs and backup data in a remote location, away from your pc.

AFTER the disaster hits:

Ideally, you would want to be able to restore a reformatted hard drive by reinstalling the operating system and other software from the original CDs, and then update your other data from backup files or servers. You may want to call a professional, like the FSU Computer Store, to see if files can be recovered.

If you have all your software and files ready, you can start reinstalling/rebuilding your hard drive.

1. The first thing you will need to do is unplug your machine from the network.
   You wouldn't want your pc online without all the proper safeguards installed.
2. Install software and restore files.
   The software should include your firewall software and your antivirus software.
3. Hook up to the network and immediately go get your updates including:
   Critical Patches from Microsoft.
   Signature (.dat) files from your antivirus company.
   Firewall updates.

NOTE: These general tips can also come in handy when you purchase a new computer and want to install new software and load files.
This guide may not be all-inclusive, but should get you thinking about what you will need to do to get your desktop back up and running in a timely manner. If all of this makes no sense to you, you will want to seek professional help from a systems administrator or local computer company.
** Some desktops come with recovery CDs or ask the user to create them. Follow directions carefully and create CDs as soon as possible. Many software installation CDs aren't included with your desktop purchase, but may be necessary to reinstall software. Talk to your computer company about software purchased for your machine, back up CDs and how to recover software that may be lost.

Tips from the FSU Computer Store:

• Never back up important information to a floppy disk. CD backups are the best.
• Back up data at least once a month to CD.
• If a you delete a file, it probably isn't really gone. For a fee, you can try to have the file restored.
• Keep important files in one location for easy backup and restoring.
• If your computer starts making a clicking noise or other odd sound, shutdown immediately and have a professional look at it. Your hard drive may be ready to crash.