Backup Information In business environment: Child: daily, on-site Parent: weekly, off-site Grandparent: monthly, off-site, fireproof vault,

ult, etc. Full, incremental, and differential backups Full: back up all selected data from hard drive Incremental: backs up only those files created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. It marks files as having been backed up (the archive attribute is cleared). Differential: copies files created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. It does not mark files as having been backed up (the archive attribute is not cleared). Scheduling backups Win 98 and later provides scripting: My Computer a Backup software Scheduled Tasks

Windows provides good software a see Accessories menu Many commercial and free tools (free: SyncBack: http://www.2brightsparks.com/) Disk cloning software Replicates hard drive to a different computer or to another drive (bootable copy) Planning for disaster recovery is very important! Malware Virus Has an incubation period Is contagious; replicates by attaching to other programs; infected program must be executed for a virus to run Is destructive Worm Spreads copies of itself without a host program, overloading the network as it replicates Does damage by its presence Best defense is a firewall Trojan horse Does not need a host program to work Substitutes itself for a legitimate program Most cannot replicate Browser hijacker alters home page/browser settings Keylogger tracks all your keystrokes Spyware Software that collects information about users without their informed consent Dialer dials phone number without your knowledge Logic bomb Dormant code added to software; triggered at a predetermined time or by a predetermined event

Partitions Types Primary Partition is a partition that is needed to store and boot an operating system, though applications and user data can reside there as well, and whats more, you can have a primary partition without any operating system on it. There can be up to a maximum of four primary partitions on a single hard disk, with only one of them set as active (see Active partition). Active (boot) partition is a primary partition that has an operating system installed on it. It is used for booting your machine. If you have a single primary partition, it is regarded as active. If you have more than one primary partition, only one of them is marked active (in a given PC session). Extended partition can be sub-divided into logical drives and is viewed as a container for logical drives, where data proper is located. An extended partition is not formatted or assigned a drive letter. The extended partition is used only for creating a desired number of logical partitions. Logical drive is created within an extended partition. A logical partition is a way to extend the initial limitation of four partitions. An extended partition can contain up to 24 logical partitions (youre limited by the number of drive letters and the amount of hard drive space available for creating drives; of course, its senseless to use 24 partitions on a system in most cases, because it will be a data organization nightmare). Logical partitions are used for storing data mainly, they can be formatted and assigned drive letters; their details are listed in the extended partitions table - EMBR (Extended Master Boot Record). System Registry System registry is a database which Windows OSs use to store information about the computer configuration. Unlike previous Windows OSs the registry size is not restricted in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The registry keeps the data to which a Windows OS refers when operating:

users profiles; information about the installed programs and types of documents created by each program; properties of folders and program icons; configuration of drivers installed in the OS; info about the used ports.

The registry has a hierarchical tree structure which consists of sections, subsections (the left part of the registry editor window) and the keys (this is what we see on the right, when we highlight a registry section or subsection).

Antivirus Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware. Protection Make backups Use antivirus software regularly, update antivirus software! Keep Windows current with updates and patches Implement a firewall A firewall: system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network

Diagnostic tools Defrag Command and Windows Disk Defragmenter Detects and repairs fragmentation, which can slow down access time and complicate recovery of a corrupted file ScanDisk (replaces Chkdsk) Repairs cross-linked and lost clusters Checks FAT for problems with long filenames and the directory tree Scans the disk for bad sectors Repairs problems with structure of a hard drive that has been compressed Disk compression Store data on hard drive in one big file Manage writing of data and programs to that file Rewrite data in files in mathematically coded format that uses less space Disk compression in Windows XP and Windows 2000 - use the NTFS file system Disk compression in Windows 9x - use DriveSpace utility on a FAT 16 file system Disk cleanup Deletes various temporary files, can be also done manually.