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Preventing and overcoming Windows problems by taking some necessary precautions. |
 MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A WINDOWS STARTUP DISKETTE
The Windows Startup diskette is necessary to (re)install Windows or to start it up when it's unbootable from the hard drive. The disk comes with the Windows cd, but if you have an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) version (a Windows version that is included with a new PC), you'll probably have to make one yourself. If you don't have one, do it now. (Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Diskette.).
You will need your own Startup disk; you can't lend someone else's, because every system and every boot disk is unique. System files can change when you install new programs, so it is advisable to update the Startup disk regularly. The 'emergency' or 'rescue' disk(s) that you can make with utility programs, are usually more advanced than the rather lean Windows Startup diskette.
The self-evidence of this precaution doesn't mean that it's always consistently taken. While the system runs well, most people tend to 'forget' making backups.
The easiest way not to become sloppy about this, is to seperate your data, programs and operating system on different partitions of your hard disk. You should use a special program to make those partitions, because things will definitely go awry if you use Fdisk, the old DOS program--you can use it on an empty disk, but even then it's not to be recommended.
This way you can easily make it a habit of saving your data on the data drive, install programs on the programs drive, etc. If Windows should crash and no other solution is possible than to reinstall it, you can reformat the Windows-drive without having to clean up your whole disk. You will have to reinstall your applications afterward, though, which is why you should never delete setup- and/or zipfiles that you have downloaded from the Internet. (More details on this in the section on reinstalling Windows.)
This is all fine untill your hard disk goes to pieces, a rare event these days, but still: what if it happens? Floppy disks are insufficient, of course. Home users hardly ever have the possibility to use tapestreamers, so the only alternative is an external drive.
Even the remotely serious computer user can't do without the basic utilities to more or less get aware of what's going on in times of trouble, and, primarily, to be able to solve it without having to pay an expensive professional. DOS has a few utilities, but they are all too basic if you ask us, not to speak of their legendary user-unfriendliness. Windows 98 has a few basic but fairly advanced utilities. To know what you need, read about it our Tools section.
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BACKUP YOUR DATA AND PROGRAMS
GET YOURSELF EQUIPPED WITH UTILITIES