Office of Educational Technology
What Not to Do
Don’t get caught without backups
Before you make any major change to your system, make sure you have an extra copy of anything you can’t afford to lose! It’s rare, but occasionally things do go wrong during these procedures, sometimes even requiring a format of the hard drive to fix. The best place to keep your files is, of course, your H: drive, but for temporary storage, it’s fine to use a DVD, USB flash drive, or external hard drive.
Don’t fall for a scam
Anyone who’s spent much time using the web has run across ads that prompt you to purchase software to clean your system.
It looks like a tempting quick fix, but don’t be fooled! There are a lot of programs floating around the web that claim they’ll speed up your system or internet connection, but will actually slow it down with advertising software or (in extreme cases) viruses. Before you install software, ask yourself if you know and trust the folks who make the software and the folks who are distributing it. As always, if you’re not sure, contact OET before you install.