The scenario is well known to most of us – you’re half way through that important presentation which needs to be finished by 4 p.m., you’ve clicked ‘Save’ and the screen in front of you goes blank – the computer’s crashed.

Computer failure is common but that’s no consolation when you are up against a deadline. Generally the problem is not as catastrophic as it may seem and often it is the result of something done, or not done, to the machine by the user rather than the failure of the machine itself.

Many problems occur as a result of the lack of regular housekeeping – being so busy using the computer that we forget that it’s just another machine requiring regular attention. Most people wouldn’t continue to drive cars without regularly making sure there is enough oil in them – or, more to the point, wouldn’t put too much oil in the engine and still expect it to run properly.

Some of the things you can do to prevent disaster are:

• Don’t allow uncontrolled access to a network appoint someone to take responsibility.
• Don’t install illegally obtained programs as they often contain viruses.
• Don’t download programs from the Internet unless you know what they are and trust the source.
• Regularly clear unwanted files which may be clogging up disk space.
• Uninstall programs in the proper manner – don’t just delete them and hope for the best.
• Have an up-to-date virus scanner – and obtain updates on new viruses.
• Consider separate PCs for business and pleasure – you are more likely to have problems with the latest disks and games than with business programs.

These should help, but should the worst happen, you may need to consult a specialist data recovery provider.