It can be everyone’s worst nightmare when they use a personal computer, finding that a virus has made its way onto your system. Whether you are in business, a student, a writer or simply an innocent bystander who just wants to access the internet – it is a nasty surprise.

Prevention is better than cure is an old but still practical mantra that should be adopted by you. Make sure your firewall is up to date and that you have a reputable virus blocker installed. Since new viruses are popping up nearly every day – it is a good idea to use virus blocking software that will regularly download new lists of these little tinkers and block them. Data storage should consist of saving to the pc’s hard drive and saving onto a CD or USB stick to make sure you have a back up copy.

Sometimes, however, people will forget to make a second copy, nobody is perfect. But there is a possible solution to your storage dilemma known as data recovery software. You will need to exercise a great deal of caution when using any kind of software downloaded from websites. It is essential to note that data recovery software must be run from a CD, DVD or USB drive. If it is installed onto the affected drive it will overwrite the data permanently. If the recovery software needs to be installed, download it onto another drive.

We live in an age of information and the storage of this information has spawned a myriad of different ways of keeping it.

The smallest and yet most versatile storage device is a USB memory flash pen drive. Small enough to carry around on a key ring, these amazing devices can hold from 1 to 32 gigabytes of information. They are simple to use and inexpensive. The USB pen plugs into any spare USB port on a desktop or laptop computer. Data in the form of text, image, video or sound files can then be loaded onto the pen and held for later use or to transfer to another machine. Compact disks, DVDs and floppy disks offer other ways to utilise data storage.

However, as any student at school or university will confirm, not everything can be only held electronically in one place. Indeed it would be foolish to expect nothing to ever go wrong with computers or the disks and drives used with them. Essays and dissertations should be stored in at least two, if not three different locations. The computer’s hard drive, a USB pen drive and a CD are a sensible way of ensuring the data files are not lost.

The CDs or DVDs can be carried around in purpose made nylon pouches which will keep them from being scratched or smudged. However care should be taken where magnetic scanners are being used.

When completed the work should be printed out and stored in, for example, ring-binder folders. Combining the latest technology with traditional storage solutions can give you peace of mind.