If you’ve had a computer system for a real period of time, chances are you’ve had at least one encounter where your system failed to boot or your hard drive crashed. In cases like that, we can lose practically everything we store on our computer systems, especially if we don’t have backup measures in place.

Such situations are not the kind of thing the average user thinks about. Like most, they are oblivious to the type of catastrophes that can occur, until they do. It is only the most experienced users who are far from this and therefore take the necessary provisions to protect themselves from such occurrences, when they do happen.

For this reason, it is so important that you understand the various measures you can take to protect your system.

Below is a list of the biggest mistakes the average computer user will make. Many of which may or may not be obvious to you. Therefore, knowing these things will put you in the best possible position, in case something unexpected happens to your system.

1. Use ransomware protection

One mistake many computer users make is not having some kind of ransomware protection on their system.

Ransomware is basically a malicious file type that, once it enters your system, will locate and lock confidential information on your computer behind encryption. Therefore, to access this information, you will have to pay the virus creator, hence the ransomware ransom.

This is undoubtedly one of the worst situations that could occur on your system, but it can be prevented, if you know how. The most effective thing you can do is use antivirus software, which will prevent any ransomware viruses from entering your system. There are a number of tools that you can use, some specialist anti-ransomware tools that you can examine, and also a built-in Windows feature called Controlled Folder Access.

This built-in Windows feature is very adept at keeping your system safe and works excellently in conjunction with Microsoft Defender. It is advisable that you use both, but at least controlled access to the folder, to protect your most sensitive data from hackers and malicious files.

2. Net Restart your system

Whenever your system seems to work, maybe things start to move very slowly, and there is no explainable reason for that, the first thing you should try is reboot the system. Restarting your system is one of the most effective ways to fix a large number of problems that occur on your system. Some of the things that you can fix on your system with a simple reboot include:

• Programs run slower than usual.

• Applications that consume a considerable amount of memory.

• Internet connectivity problems.

• Blue screen of death bugs.

3. Don’t back up your computer

Hard drive failure is one of the most disastrous things that can happen to your system and it only gets worse if you don’t have a backup plan in place. To keep your data safe, all you need to do is use cloud storage or buy another hard drive, either internal or external. Alternatively, you can use a flash drive, if you intend to back up only smaller documents.

When you have your backup system in place, you should perform regular backups on your behalf, provided you have enough storage space to do so.

When it comes to using something like a flash drive or external hard drive, you’ll need to connect them manually, at the right time, so that the backup can take place. This can be once a week or once a month, ideally you want to have as many backups as possible, but you don’t want to overdo it.

Of course, there is nothing to stop the flash drive or external hard drive from failing. However, with cloud storage this is minimized. You can use the cloud to back up literally everything, and it works considerably faster than other backup methods. If you are considering backing up your tablet or phone, cloud storage is something you may want to consider investing in.

Just make sure you keep track of what’s being backed up and understand how to restore this data, should you need it.

4. Not keeping your operating system updated

Developers are constantly releasing new updates to their software, and for good reason. These reasons can include, to fix bugs, add new features, patch known security vulnerabilities, and make the system more secure. When you refuse to keep your operating system up to date, you essentially leave it out to be exploited. One of the best things you can do for your computer system is to set Windows Updates to automatic.

5. Constant use of Disk Defragmenter

If you are on one of the latest Windows operating systems then you don’t need to think about defragmenting your hard drive, this is because your operating system is set to do it automatically. You should only consider doing it manually, if your hard drive is unusually fragmented. And this should only be done on standard hard drives. Your later SSD drives don’t need to be defragmented, nor do they benefit from the process in any way, as data is stored very differently on them.

6. Using the power button to shut down a system

Simply pressing the power button will execute the shutdown process. However, if you press and hold the power button, it will perform what is called a forced shutdown. This will abruptly shut down your computer, closing all files and programs in the process. This is not a recommended way to shut down your system as it can result in data corruption, data loss, and even hardware failure.

You may find certain discussions on the net that indicate that there is nothing wrong with shutting down your system in this way. But the reality is that they are very wrong. You should only use an automatic shutdown in emergencies.