PC Fear Factor: Inside the Book
The Ultimate PC Disaster Prevention Guide
The Book
Disaster Prevention
Other
Quick Links To Our
Most Popular Pages
Rather than bore you with a table of contents, I seek instead to entice you with a glimpse of the revelations within PC Fear Factor, chapter by chapter.
You can either click on a link below for a specific chapter, or just scroll down the page to see them all:
-
Chapter 3: A Disaster Prevention Plan for Your New Computer: Part 1, Before You Buy
-
Chapter 4: A Disaster Prevention Plan for Your New Computer: Part 2, Before You Try
-
Appendix B: How To Install and Remove Programs From Your Computer
Chapter 1: The Root of All Computer Disasters
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
The mysterious blue screen of death
-
Why you are just millionths of inches and a cushion or air away from a computer disaster.
-
Why you should never have to perform such technical tasks as formatting or partitioning your hard disk if you follow the advice in PC Fear Factor.
-
How a lazy, incompetent technical support specialist might convince you to do something that results in a self inflicted computer disaster.
-
Why your hard disk isn't perfect, even when it leaves the factory!
Chapter 2: The Threats and the Tools
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
How disaster prevention and recovery software vendors confuse consumers by encroaching on each other's turf.
-
How to avoid common mistakes that render your surge protector useless.
-
Why there are so many compatibility issues between CD-RW hardware and CD-RW software.
-
Why tape backups are a must to avoid.
-
Why you shouldn't backup your data to you hard disk.
-
How to avoid a disaster when buying a CD writer.
-
Why you should delay buying a DVD writer for at least another year.
-
Why the free firewall provided in Microsoft XP is not nearly as good as another free firewall you should download and install.
-
Why firewalls should monitor and block certain outbound traffic from your computer, as well as block unauthorized incoming traffic to your computer.
-
How rogue applications invade your computer. (The culprit will surprise you!)
-
How you can replace the 80 step email backup and restore process provided by Microsoft with a simple 2 step process.
-
Why you probably can't store all of your data on a separate partition of your hard disk, even if you try.
-
Why you probably can't use the Windows XP backup utility.
-
Why deleting your data and reformatting your hard disk still doesn't prevent other people from recovering your deleted files.
-
Why Windows Registry cleaners often do more harm than good.
Chapter 3: A Disaster Prevention Plan for Your New Computer: Part 1, Before You Buy
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
The biggest single mistake most people make when they purchase a new computer.
-
The myth of local support.
-
The incredible benefits of having identically configured computers.
Chapter 4: A Disaster Prevention Plan for Your New Computer: Part 2, Before You Try
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
The biggest single mistake most people make after they purchase a new computer.
-
Why your new computer is especially vulnerable to computer disasters.
-
A great feature in Windows Millennium and Windows XP that helps you recover from certain types of computer disasters.
-
The important utility Windows XP tries to hide.
-
Why you might want to delete some of the applications that were preinstalled on your new computer.
-
Secret, private information about you that is automatically created and stored on your computer without your knowledge.
Chapter 5: Protecting Your Computer From Cyber-terrorists
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
Why anti-virus software and firewalls are just the first line of defense against cyber-terrorists.
-
Why Norton AntiVirus Automatic LiveUpdate feature doesn't keep your product and virus definitions completely up to date - and what you can do to solve the problem!
-
How your computer can get infected with a virus even if you are using anti-virus software in the most effective manner possible.
-
Why anti-virus software products can't repair, quarantine, or delete infected files in one very special Windows folder - and what you can do to work around this limitation.
-
Why it may make more sense in some cases to restore from a recent hard disk backup than to remove a virus from your computer.
-
How a new feature on Norton AntiVirus may spare you the embarrassment of infecting others with viruses.
-
How restoring your system with Windows' System Restore feature can leave your computer more vulnerable to viruses - and what you can do to fix the problem!
-
How restoring your hard disk from a backup can leave your computer vulnerable to viruses - and how you can address this issue.
-
Why virus hoaxes are even more dangerous than computer viruses.
-
Why your computer is still vulnerable to hackers even if you have a firewall installed - and what you can do to minimize your risk.
-
How your data can be hacked even if your computer has not been breached!
-
Why tossing your cookies is a good thing!
-
How to prevent your computer from being hacked from outside your house.
Chapter 6: Backing Up Your Data
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
The advantages and disadvantages of three different data backup strategies - and how to select the strategy that is right for you.
-
The two fundamental technical flaws inherent in every backup strategy - and what you can do to mitigate their impact.
-
The differences between protecting your data and protecting your data backup.
-
How to find and backup data that your applications may be hiding from you.
-
Some tricks for storing your daily backups offsite without ever leaving your house!
-
A technique called progressive revisioning that can protect your data from yourself!
Chapter 7: Backing Up Your Hard Disk
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
The one task even computer experts fear.
-
Why you might want to delete some of the data off of your hard disk before you take a hard disk backup.
-
Why it is extremely important to keep a running system log of changes you make to your computer.
-
How you still might be able to use Norton Ghost even if it is not compatible with your CD writer.
-
When it is not a good idea to backup your hard disk.
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
Why what most people would consider the worst kind of computer disaster is actually the "best" kind of disaster.
-
Why restoring your hard disk after a computer disaster may be the wrong thing you can do.
-
How a counter-intelligence technique called walking back the cat can help you recover from computer disasters.
-
A class of applications that is infamous for creating the appearance of computer disasters.
-
What you need to do immediately after you restore your hard disk to prevent another disaster.
Chapter 9: Keeping Your Computer in Top Shape
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
When the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" approach to updating your computer makes sense.
-
Why you might be more inclined to keep a Windows Millennium or Windows XP system up to date than a Windows 98 system.
-
Why your computer will likely experience performance and stability problems with the sheer passage of time, and what you can do to fix the problem.
Chapter 10: Tips for Avoiding PC Disasters
In this chapter you will learn about:
-
Why installing a new operating system on an old computer is the biggest mistake you can ever make.
-
Why you should beware of most freeware.
-
Five high-risk changes to your computing environment to avoid whenever possible.
-
Why bold is bad.
-
How to avoid self inflicted computer disasters.
-
Why a system administrator should also be a preacher.
-
Why redundancy is good. Why redundancy is good. Why redundancy is good.
-
How to tell when somebody is leading you down the path to disaster.
-
How a Party PC can act as an important buffer against computer disasters.
Appendix A: The System Restore Feature.
In this appendix you will learn about:
-
Why some application install and uninstall programs create a vicious cycle I call the DO Loop of Despair.
-
When you should manually create restore points in addition to those automatically created by System Restore.
-
How to determine which disaster recover tool to use: System Restore or Driver Rollback.
Appendix B: How To Install and Remove Programs From Your Computer
In this appendix you will learn about:
-
How to avoid a computer disaster before you install a new program.
-
How to save disk space during the installation process.
-
How not to uninstall a program.
-
How to avoid a computer disaster during the uninstall process.