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No, I have not gone, "icon crazy". This
section lists four things that must to be done. They deserve
learning, relearning, reminding or even a prod of the
buttocks every now and then to make sure that they are being done.
You would be totally shocked at
how many times I have seen and heard of large corporations having a
moderate glitch with a machine that has cost them HUGE money just
because they did not back up their work regularly or effectively.
Experienced computer veterans are
often guilty of leaving these things until "tomorrow"; the only problem
is that sometimes disaster strikes sooner than tomorrow!
Another thing that needs discussion is setting up a logical filing
system for your user data and emails. Just making a new directory
in "My Documents" every time you find something or write something will
soon have you in a labyrinth of dead and dying information.
Windows automatically sets up a number of files in your computer under,
"My Documents"; typically it gives you places for music, pictures,
received files and web sites. The rest is up to you. For
the average home user, there is nothing more confusing than having a new
directory in My Documents for everything that gets saved to your hard
drive. Be smart about your basic structures and maybe set up as
few primary folders under My Documents as possible. A typical
structure that I set up for anyone I install a system for looks like
this (not including Windows' default folders): Backups, Communication,
Drivers, Financials, Logs, Program Masters and Temp. Let's look
at each of these directories and what I place under each of them:
Backups - Subdirectories are each of the devices you backup on
your computer (like your mobile phone or PDA). Games saves are
here too! Communication - Under the name of each person in the
house, I have the following directories; Letters, Fax, Email, Phone.
Under each of these I have two directories, Incoming and Outgoing.
Drivers - System, Peripherals, Toys. Stuff for the computer is
system, printers, cameras etc are peripherals, flight sim controls
etc are toys. Financials - Again, a directory for every person in
the house. I typically set up a subdirectory for each
financial year and then keep the financial data there using whatever
program/s used. Logs - Again, a directory for every person in the
house. This is where I elect to keep my MSN and Yahoo
communications logs and histories. I also use a number of
industry specific programs which keep logs, each with their own
subdirectory. A number of programs like my FTP posting program
keep logs, they go here too. Program Masters - A directory for
each device you are gathering programs for. My typical install
has; WinXP, Phone, PDA and Peripherals. Temp - used for all
temporary functions. Nothing you put in this folder should
matter if deleted. I generally use it to save something which
I will either delete or save to another location later on.
Probably the worst thing you can do is make a quick directory
without considering it. You will end up with a directory structure
that looks like a bramble patch! Not only this, but you will not
find anything without looking through a lot of files, one at a time.
That is a really, REALLY painful way of doing it! One last note
on this subject, the reason I use the My Documents file like this is
that I only have to save and backup one folder to know that all of my
irreplaceable files and documents are safe. In summary, if you
write it, will need it at some time in the future or can't readily
replace the information, it should be in the My Documents folder and
backed up regularly. |
