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Keeping Important Information

Recent disasters in Louisiana and other places, remind us of the need to keep important information readily at hand and transportable. As seniors this important information includes medical information on prescriptions, insurance information to substantiate disaster claims, and other financial and legal documents. Computer and networking technology today makes creating, retaining and carrying such records easy.

There are several ways to create the important information that we need. Prescription information and other medical data can be typed into spreadsheets or text documents and stored in a single folder on our computer. Information on bank accounts and other key financial data could be similarly created and stored. Important documents can be scanned and stored as images. This would include birth certificates, copies of blank checks, automobile registrations and titles, credit card account information, and other important legal documents. Finally, all of the important possessions in our home can be photographed enabling us to remember exactly what was there for insurance claim purposes. To keep this information secure, file compression programs like WinZip permit compressing the data into a single file and protecting it with a password. Our secure password protected information would be stored in a single folder on our PC.

Information stored as images on your PC is more secure and information stored in text files because image files are very large. Programs designed to take information from our PC and transmit it over the Internet look for very small specific password files created by Windows. Large, general purpose files are ignored. If a bad program were to transmit a large file across the Internet, it would most likely be noticed by the person operating the PC. Consequently, bad programs transmit only small amounts of information. Important information stored on our PC is secure.

Once important information is stored in a PC folder, we can easily copy it with Windows XP onto a CD. Windows XP supports saving data on both CD-RW and DVD-RW discs. One CD-RW disc stores 700 MB of data. If our folder contains compressed files, this can be a huge amount of information. One DVD—RW can store up to 4 GB or 8 GB of information. This is plenty of capacity for retaining all of our important information on a single disc. Other programs permit Windows XP to store information on CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs. An RW disc can be recorded on and read from many times. A ROM disk can be recorded on once and read from many times. Both have the ability to retain information for 30 years. The password-protected information could also be stored on your personal Internet web site. Internet web sites are backed up by ISPs and accessible from anywhere.

New thumb drives which connect to our PC using a USB 2.0 port bring new meaning to transporting our important information. These thumb drives are rewritable and can retain information for several years. They can be plugged into any PC USB port. Once plugged into a PC, they look like an additional disk drive. Storing information on them is a simple Windows drag and drop operation. These thumb drives are so small that they hang around your neck on a string like dog tags. In this manner your important information would always be with you.

If you own a PC, the additional cost to create and save critical information is not much. A scanner costs and a good camera cost less than $100 each, and thumb drives vary between $50 and $200. So you can spend as little as $100 or as much as $400 to make your important information easily transportable in the event of a disaster. Here's hoping such a disaster never happens.


Link to "Keeping your information confidential"

P. D. Moulton and Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server computer support, and virus & spyware removal. Dial-A-Nerd repairs PC (s), computers, networks, removes viruses & spyware and upgrades slow computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DialANerd provides immediate remote access as well as fixed price computer repair, network repair, virus & spyware removal services at its local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair shop. Repair completion is typically 24-hours to 48-hours. Dial A Nerd recovers hard disk data and saves your data. Each hard disk is tested for errors for free. Dial A Nerd makes a fixed disk image, recovers and saves your data for about a 90% of the desktop computer, laptop computer, and netbook PC (s) serviced. Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair business provides fast PC repair, computer repair, desktop computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, and virus & spyware removal services with a warranty. Dial A Nerd works on many PCs including Sony computers, Gateway computers, Hewlett Packard computers, Compaq computers, Toshiba computers, Emachines computers, Clone PCs, and Dell computers in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD). The Dial A Nerd mission is delivering the best quality, affordable cost effective PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, desktop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, virus & spyware removal, home PC repair, printer configuration, PC - desktop computer - laptop computer - netbook computer performance optimization & speed up service. Homes and small businesses with limited IT service and IT support budgets in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) hire Dial A Nerd.


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DialANerd
7146 Rivers Edge Road Columbia, MD 21044 US
Phone: 410-531-5890 Website: dialanerd.com