Have you thought about what you might do if you had a hard drive crash and required a full desktop restore? Do you have an idea of what you should do to protect your data? Do you know what software to use? Do you know how to protect yourself for next to nothing? There is a laundry list of software on the internet that is available for use. You have the ability, today, to search for any type of software you need to get the job done.

Protect yourself now. Be proactive at home and at work. Did you know you can use techniques at home that multimillion dollar companies use to protect their data? Did you know that you can do it at a fraction of the cost and still maintain a high level of security and data protection? I want to be the one to let you in on a few little secrets.

Today you can go out and spend a lot of money on desktop restore software, antivirus software, and patching software. You don't have to spend a lot of money with some of the ways that I can tell you about. Let us take for instance patching. There are numerous software packages out there and available for the home user that can be purchased for $20 - $30 a pop. Why spend the money if you can use the Windows Update services that are available by Microsoft for anyone that owns a legal copy of their operating system. Think about it, it is free.

Sure, that was an easy one, but you might be wondering about antivirus software or even firewalls to protect yourself from being hacked. Well, many people these days already have a little protection with their broadband router that is between their computer and the internet. It may not be fail safe but it is there. The other option you could use is to use the built in firewall that comes with Windows XP or Windows Vista. Those are free. There are also free software packages on the internet that are certified and easy to download for free if you are looking for something for that old Windows 2000 or Windows 98 computer.

Ok, I haven't hit on antivirus yet but that comes now. You know as well as I do that the Windows Operating Systems doesn't come with an antivirus product and the majority of the time you have to go out and spend $20 - $50 for a one year subscription of antivirus. You don't have to. There are several free antivirus software packages that can be used for home use for free. You don't have to spend the money.

We have covered a series of tips that you can do to protect your computer data for free. Just think if you implemented each of these you probably would have a very good probability of protection as well as a good chance of recovery if something did happen.

There are other methods to protect your data and have desktop recovery; these were some of the basics you should start with. The more advanced areas could be image backups, using RAID technology for providing fault tolerance, and even having standby parts for that just in case moment.

Don't be afraid of technology. Embrace it, learn about it, and implement some of these best practices to protect your precious data. You never know when lightning might strike.