I used to have a sign in my office that read, “Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.” There are fewer more harrowing moments than the one in which you realize that, not only has your computer just become a boat anchor, but that the documents, spreadsheets, pictures, databases, music, emails, Internet Favorites and more that your computer contained might also be lost as well.

It is at this point that most people say something unprintable. I don’t blame them in the slightest, because when they bring the computer to me and, despite my best efforts and tools I cannot recover their data, I say a few unprintable things myself. Force of habit. People are attached to their data and I’m empathetic – I’m attached to your data, too. Thus, in the next few articles, I’ll be talking about data health and backups. Especially backups.

Question One: Do you have something to back up your files to? Forget about floppy drives. On computers made in the last five years or so, even if the computer came with a floppy drive – and many of them didn’t – actually using them has become much more cumbersome than it’s worth. Not nearly as many people have piles of floppy disks lying around waiting to be used (primarily because America Online stopped sending us free floppies in the mail every week). I’d venture to say that half of the floppy disks I try to use fail. Do not trust your data to a floppy drive!

The most accessible way for a standard user to back up their files is with a USB “thumb drive” or with a CD writer.

Question Two: Do you know what to backup, and where to find it? There are several places where Windows and other applications store the files that you’ll want to have in case of a computer emergency. For most people there is one single folder that most likely contains all of the data they would care about. Unfortunately, Windows tries to keep this folder hidden away from users because it gets kind of “technical.” Plus, there is a lot more contained in this one folder than you would actually want to back up, such as tons of “temp files,” application settings and superfluous junk that you absolutely would never need to use to restore your files. Some data, such as your Outlook Express email and settings, is buried so deep in this folder that most people would never find it nor know what to do with it if they had it.

Enter one of my favorite utilities: “Fab’s Autobackup.” Autobackup has a firm grasp on how Windows stores its important data and can quickly find it and make a copy of it elsewhere. That’s great and all, but it doesn’t stop there: It knows how to put it all back when it needs to, and it’s fairly easy to maneuver. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of room for this week’s article, so we’ll pick up next week where we left off.

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[Author’s Note: “Ask the Geek” is published weekly in the Stratford Star - the penultimate reading experience for residents of Stratford, Texas, population 1,920. It is posted on WritersCafe.net for posterity. Feel free to comment, but I can’t promise you’ll make the Star.]