We have all had that scare…we turn on our computers and it starts to act funny, won’t boot up or worse, we get the blue screen with nothing there! When the computer starts working again, we furiously back up our files and thank our lucky stars that we didn’t lose all our files and family photos.

When a computer crashes it can be devastating! I read recently that 85% of people who own a digital camera do not print any of their photos. I wanted to pass on some information I found on the Preserving My Heritage website.

They have answered a number of questions on “Caring for Computer Hard Disks and Diskettes”. If you have a minute take a look. They have some really good advice for people who like to make slideshows of their family photos.

How do I preserve computer diskettes?
What is the lifetime of CDs, diskettes, ZIP disks, hard drives, tapes, etc.?
If my hard drive won’t start up the operating system (such as DOS, Windows or Mac OS) or if it stops spinning permanently, what can I do?
Can I prevent my hard drive from burning out, making my computer files inaccessible?
Can I retrieve a file that I have erased? Why or why not? What is the key to success?
If my computer or program crashes and I haven’t saved the file I was working on, how do I retrieve my file?
If I have created complex files or multimedia files, such as Adobe Acrobat files full of images and tables and things, how can I be sure to retrieve these types of files in the future?