PROTECTING DATA ON YOUR COMPUTER

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No matter how carefully you use antivirus programs, firewalls, pop-up ad blockers, and anti-spyware programs, a new virus, worm, Trojan horse, pop-up ad, or spyware/adware program may still slip past your defenses. At the very least, such programs will just be a nuisance, cluttering up your hard disk or possibly slowing down your computer. At the worst, they could crash your computer or delete files from your hard disk despite your precautions.

The last thing you want to do is risk messing up any hard disk that contains important information. So if you’re going to engage in the high-risk behavior of sharing files, separate your important data from your file sharing activities. That way if you download a strange file that turns out to be the latest virus, or if a spyware/adware program latches on to your computer and wrecks it, your important data will still be safe.

MAKING BACKUPS

Computers are inherently unreliable beasts, whether you have to worry about viruses or other malicious programs, so the first rule for any computer user is to back up important data. Backups can be as simple as storing important files on a floppy disk, or as complicated as having a separate tape backup unit that automatically backs up your files

Other popular ways to backup files include connecting an external hard disk to your computer (so if your computer dies, you can just plug the external hard drive into another computer and transfer all of your files), storing files on a CD or DVD, or capturing your files, operating system, and operating system settings as a disc image file. By backing up your entire hard disk to a disc image file, you can restore your entire computer, operating system settings, files, and programs, to a new hard disk within minutes. Some popular programs that can save your hard disk as a disc image include Norton Ghost (http://www. symantec.com) and SecurePC (http://www.farstone.com).

Note

Note When you back up your files, make sure you don’t accidentally back up any viruses, Trojan horses, or spyware in the process. If you do, and you restore your files from a backup together with these malicious programs, you’ll just end up with the same problems once again.

USING SEPARATE COMPUTERS

The safest way to protect your data is to use two separate computers: one for your ordinary, everyday activities, such as tracking your finances and writing letters, and a second one to download files from file sharing networks. Whenever you download a new file, check it for viruses or Trojan horses on your second computer, and if the file appears safe, then copy it to your main computer. If a virus or tenacious spyware/adware program causes problems, just wipe clean the hard disk on your downloading computer, reinstall your operating system, and start from scratch. Almost any computer of recent vintage will do—you can probably pick up a suitable Pentium III or similar system for a few hundred dollars or less.

USING REMOVABLE HARD DISKS

Not everyone has the space or money to afford a second computer, even if they buy a used one. As another alternative, install removable hard disks in your computer. Removable hard disks are nothing more than trays that slide in and out of your computer, and inside each tray is an ordinary hard disk. That way you can have one removable hard disk holding your important data, and a second removable hard disk that contains all the files you download from the Internet.

To find a removable hard disk kit to install in your computer, visit one of these sites or try a search in Froogle (http://www.froogle.com):

Kingwin http://www.kingwin.com

DataCity http://www.datacity.net

StarTech.com http://www.startech.com

And if you’ve got a removable hard disk, you can just yank it out and hide it if the police start banging on your door.

PARTITIONING YOUR HARD DISK

If you can’t afford multiple hard disks, you can do the next best thing and partition a single hard disk. From the computer’s point of view, partitioning essentially divides a single large hard disk into several smaller disks. That way, one part of your hard disk can store just your operating system, a second part of that same hard disk can store your valuable data, and a third part of that hard disk can store all your file sharing programs.

Now if a virus attacks your computer, it will likely only damage the files stored in a single partition. With multiple partitions, it’s even possible to install Windows XP on one partition and Linux (or even a second copy of Windows XP) on a second partition. When you boot up your computer, you can choose which operating system to use, which gives you a chance to isolate your important data from your operating system and file sharing programs that may be burdened with spyware or viruses.

You’ll need software to partition your hard disk and allow you to boot up from multiple operating systems stored on different partitions. Pick up a copy of one of these programs:

PartitionMagic http://www.symantec.com

System Commander http://www.v-com.com or Partition Commander

Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com

CREATING A VIRTUAL COMPUTER

Using removable hard disks or partitioning a single hard disk can be cumbersome, so for another way to isolate your file sharing programs from the rest of your computer, consider using a virtual computer program instead. Virtual computer programs emulate an ordinary PC, so you can run another operating system in a separate window on your computer. This way, it’s possible to run Windows 2000 on Mac OS X, or Linux on a computer that runs Windows XP, as shown in Figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4: With a virtual computer program, such as Virtual PC, you can run multiple operating systems simultaneously to isolate data from each operating system.

With a virtual computer program, you can save your important data on your hard disk and then create a virtual computer running a second copy of your operating system (or a different operating system altogether) where you can run your file sharing programs. If a virus or spyware program gets loose on your virtual computer, it can’t migrate to your real computer and mess up any data.

Note

Note The music industry once sued a woman for illegally sharing copyrighted music over the Internet, but they later retracted their claim when they discovered she used a Macintosh, yet the file sharing program they claimed she was using only ran on Windows. Of course, she could have been using a Macintosh to run a program like Virtual PC to run Windows.

Virtual computer programs run noticeably slower than the same operating system running on a computer all by itself, but a virtual computer program gives you the advantage of running two or more operating systems simultaneously, so you can run Windows XP in the background and both Red Hat Linux and Windows 98 in two separate windows on your screen.

Two popular virtual computer programs are VMware (http://www.vmware.com ) and Virtual PC (http://www.microsoft.com). VMware can run on either Windows or Linux, while Virtual PC can run on either Windows or Mac OS 9/X. To learn more about VMware, pick up a copy of The Book of VMware by Brian Ward, published by No Starch Press.

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