One of very basic computer 'rules' is to always make backup copies of your important files.

That is not only good advice, it's extremely essential.

You've probably heard saying that it's not IF your hard drive will crash, but WHEN!

But crashing is not only way to lose files. What about accidently deleting files, and then emptying Recyle Bin?

Suppose you wanted to delete files on a floppy in your 'A' drive. Also suppose that you forgot to switch to 'A' drive before you hit "delete." I hate to admit it, but I've done this TWICE. (Some of us learn hard way.) So, I lost everything on hard drive.

Everything...

Then, of course, I had to reinstall Windows, and find all floppies that contained my backup files, and reinstall everything. Very time-consuming.

It wasn't too bad at that time, because I had just started fooling around with computers, and didn't have much on mine. Hadn't even signed up for an online service, yet.

But what if my online business had been up and running at that time, and I had no backups...?

Just other day, my computer started running a little slow. Kind of puzzled me. And I put up with it for a while.

But then it got a little irritating. While trying to surf web, I noticed that web pages were taking much too long to load. This is always an irritant. And, Internet Explorer was also taking its time coming up.

Now, I'm no novice on computer, but, sometimes we humans can get a 'lapse of memory'. Anyway, that's my excuse for forgetting one of basics of computing; and that is that computer uses up SYSTEM RESOURCES.

Every program on computer, including icons, uses some SYSTEM RESOURCES.

Whenever a program is started, it loads into your computer's memory. Memory is a resource. Some programs will release memory it was using, when you quit program, and some will not. So, part of a resource is not being made available to you. Get enough of these, and guess what? Slow Downs! Hang-ups (freezes).