Helpful Hints

Below are some helpful hints that will prevent a lot of problems.

• Label your diskettes and write your name and course/section number on the diskette labels.
• Save your work to your diskettes - Do Not save your work to the hard drive.
• Saving files to your diskette, rather than printing it, saves time, space and paper. It also provides you with an easily portable and "searchable" copy of the document.
• Save files frequently. Avoid losing your work due to power outages, lockups, etc.
• Keep a current backup. Back up your files on a 2nd set of disks. Diskettes may contain or develop bad sectors, or otherwise become damaged.
• Don't put too much on any given disk. For general files on a 3.5" disk, a good guideline is: start a new disk when your current one has 30 files or has 75% of its space used. With graphics or multimedia files, start a new disk even sooner.
• Exit your application before removing or changing diskettes.
• Scan your disks frequently for viruses - an icon is available on the Windows Desktop.
• Shutdown all applications and Windows fully and properly before turning off the workstation.
• Always start the workstation from a power-off condition.
• Make sure you have all your belongings before leaving the lab (diskettes, too).