The worst thing in the world to happen to some people is to find out that their computer has been ravaged by some virus from the internet. Sure, it is not as bad as a relative dying but it can be a disaster for some people. They may have all of their personal mementos on the hard drive. Or they may have all of their work information on the computer. No matter what is on the system, losing all of their data can be rough to a person that relies on their computer a lot. This is why you must be prepared just in case something like this happens. You must be ready for all of the problems that might come across on your system. One of the ways that you can be prepared is by using a restore disk. This way, just in case something happens, you will be able to use our computer again. In this article we will show you what a restore disk is and explain to you how a mixture of that and backing up your data can save you from disaster.

What is a restore disk?

Before we go any further, for the people who are not quite as technical in the audience, we will let you know what a restore disk is. It is a disk that will allow you to reset your computer to the state it was in before it became messed up by the virus. This is a little bit different than an installation disk because a restore disk will give you other options besides just reinstalling the operating system. It will allow you to do a memory check and other types of diagnostic checks on the system.

Another good option when it comes to the restore disk is that it will allow you to reinstall the operating system on your computer without losing the data that is already on it. If you have a lot of files that you worked on over the years, you would hope that you would be able to save them and not have to destroy them because of a reinstall. With the restore disk you are able to do this. But even though you have the ability to do this, it might not be the best option for you to choose. If you keep the data that is already on the disk, you might also keep the infection that is on there as well. Sometimes it is necessary to get rid of the data as well so that you can start fresh. But there is a solution that will help with that as well.

Back up your data

Not only should you use a restore disk but every month or so, you should back up your data as well. This means that you will be able to format your data on a restore and you will still be able to have your data. That way, you can get rid of the infection as well as keep your data. You can store the data by using a second hard drive or by using an online backup service.

Using a restore disk is a great way to bring your computer back to life when a virus tries to kill it.

There are certain threats that will take out your computer. Your computer may be able to turn on and do some of the things that it was able to do before the threat hit but for the most part it is dead. You are not able to hit certain buttons, pops ups are flying everywhere, you cannot log onto the internet, and basically everything that can go wrong is going wrong. If this ever happens to you, you need to make sure that you have a way to fix it right away. There are a couple of things that you can do. You can keep a back up of the computer so that you can reinstall it to a point where everything was working fine. Or you can do that with something less than a back up. There is a feature in all Windows computers that is called System Restore. We will take the time later on in the article to explain what System Restore is and how you can use it to come back from a serious computer problem.

What is System Restore?

System Restore is sort of like the back up that we talked about earlier in the article but instead of it being on a new device like an external hard drive, it is a snap shot stored in the computer. It mainly saves the settings of how everything was at a previous date on the computer. A pure back up would save all of the data and the settings of the system from that time. With a system restore point, saving the settings is more than enough. With any luck you will be able to go back to a time before everything turned crazy.

Even though you have a system restore point ready to be used, it is still a good idea to try to get out the infection before you try a system restore. The infection that is in the system will not be erased by just you having a system restore point active. As we said before, it changes the setting of the system and not the data. All that will happen is that the malware will infect the machine again. That is not always the case and sometimes a system restore point is all you need. But in the case of a bad piece of malware you will need to do more to make sure you do not have to deal with the same infection again.

When malware attacks you system, you need a good way to be able to fight it. The tools that you have such as antivirus software and antispyware software will be able to help but sometimes you need to do a little more. Sometimes the infection gets so deep that you have very few options. In cases like this you need to set up the system restore on your computer and go back to the past when the system was still working.

When you are looking to make sure that your computer is protected from the bad guys, you must make sure that you have the right software installed on it. If not then you will find that the bad guys may be more than you can handle. There are several components to having the right security software on your computer. Some people will think that all that it takes is having a simple antivirus installed on the system but that is not the case. You must be ready for all of the threats that are out there. That is what we plan to do with this article. Make sure that you are ready for all the threats that are out there. So let’s take a look at what you will need to have a secure operating system.

Of course we need an antivirus software package

Without antivirus being installed on the system, you are going to be dead in the water before you even begin. So you need to make sure that you have a handle on that before we move on. Antivirus software can be tricky since there are so many different offerings out on the market. Will you get a free version or will you get a premium version? Do you need one with a heavy feature set or do you just need the basics handled. How everyone uses their computer is quite different so you need to make a checklist on how you use the computer and pick the right version of the software for your needs. Once you have done that and have it installed on your system, now it is time to move on to the next step.
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Which type of anti spyware software will you need on the system?

So now that you have the right software to keep off the viruses, Trojans, and other malware of that nature, now it is time to attack the software that is keeping track of you. Some spyware type of software is legal while others are clearly not. There is a fine line and it gets crossed all of the time. So why take the chance. You need to pick up an anti spyware software that will cut off the ability to track you and your internet activities. It is nobody’s business where you go after you leave their web site so make sure that you do not forget to do a scan every now and then to make sure that all of the spyware is off of your system.
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And now time for the firewall

Now that we have software that will take care of the malware and the spyware, it is time to keep remote intruders off of your system. The bad guys will sometimes try to attack you directly by getting into your system through open ports. Stop that from happening by installing a firewall on your system. Or you can use the firewall that comes with Windows 7 directly. No matter which method you take, be sure that the software comes highly rated.

It takes time to create the right security system for your computer. You need to make sure that you review the software that you install on the system. Once you do you will find that you are protected from most threats out on the internet.