May 31st, 2012
1,563 
0 Whether you own a Toshiba laptop, netbook, tablet or All-In-One desktop PC, by far the most important and personal part of any computer are the files you store on its hard drive. With that in mind, we’ve put together some top tips on how to keep your files safe and sound.
Back up your data
Without doubt the most important way to protect your files is to keep a full, up-to-date backup at all times. By saving your files to an external storage device, you can ensure that you’re well protected against any unforeseen disasters.
For even greater protection of your files, you can also back them up by signing up to an online cloud storage service. Removing the risk of losing your backup storage device, it provides a secure and easy to use solution.
Protect against malware
Malicious software – or Malware – includes viruses and spyware and can bring your laptop to its knees if given the chance, so always make sure to protect against malware, by using your preinstalled anti-virus software.
By keeping your anti-virus and Internet security software fully up-to-date, you can keep your Toshiba laptop protected against infection and greatly reduce the risk of malware corrupting your files and causing you to lose your data.
Move carefully
Another way that data can be corrupted or lost is through damage to the hard drive. This can happen as result of moving the laptop around while working, as the hard drive’s read heads can bounce and scratch the disk’s surface.
While most Toshiba laptops are fitted with advanced motion sensors to prevent any such harm from occurring, it is still good practice not to move your laptop around too much while working, to avoid accidental drive damage.
Always switch off
If you’re not going to be using your Toshiba laptop for an extended period, then always switch it off rather than leaving it in sleep mode. This lets the laptop cool down and also eliminates risk from events such as power surges.
Your Toshiba laptop’s sleep mode is perfect for use during the day, when you want to stop working for short periods of time, but for longer periods there is no harm on fully powering off to completely remove any risk of data damage.
Shut down properly
When you power your Toshiba laptop off, be sure to shut down correctly using the Windows 7 interface. This ensures the laptop saves everything correctly and keeps its system files in peak working order for when you next boot up.
If you power off your laptop by pressing and holding the power button, your laptop will be cut off mid-process and will have to repair its files next time you switch on your laptop, so avoid data damage by shutting down correctly.
Defragment your disk
Should worse come to worst and you experience any unexpected data loss, recovery of your files will be significantly faster and easier if your laptop’s hard drive has been regularly defragmented over the time you’ve been using it.
Defragmenting your hard drive rearranges your data into an easier to access arrangement, so to defragment your disk in Windows 7, open the Start Menu and type Defrag, to see the Disk Defragmenter appear in the menu above.
By following these easy-to-use steps you can add to the already rock-solid data protection features we’ve equipped your laptop with and make sure that your files are kept safe and sound, no matter what’s around the corner.
To check out the full range of Toshiba laptops, netbooks, tablets and All-In-One desktop PCs, please visit Toshiba UK.
