1. Rice is not a computer recipe for a laptop spill!
If your laptop takes a nasty spill, dumping rice in there is not the answer. Sure, the concept makes sense. Rice absorbs water, right? But, all it does in the end is make more of a mess of dry rice gummed up in all your vents, ports, and openings, typically making the original issue even worse.
Instead, a more effective approach is to lay your laptop face down with the screen as open as possible on a towel so the water seeps away from the motherboard.
2. Hard drive is dead. Stick it in the freezer. Really?!
So, this was actually a quick work-around 10+ years ago with older hard drives that were clicking. The big problem is that the keyword, “quick work-around” was that the drive potentially would spin up again but after 20-30 seconds would die a permanent death due to coming back to reality when thawed out. In any case, this crazy fix doesn’t work nowadays on more sophisticated drives.
Such extreme temperatures are a no no. Instead, seek out a data recovery professional.
3. I don’t want to back up my files online. It’s not safe.
Well, as long as you have an Internet connection, you’re not safe at all then! If you back up your files to an external drive, well, if a hacker wants to, they can commandeer your computer and then you’re totally vulnerable, external drive and all. The only way to be completely safe from the outside threats is to have no Internet at all.
How can you stay safe on the Internet?
Just like when you travel to the airport, there are metal detectors to ensure you’re safe. Similarly, you should beef up on your antivirus and firewall software to bat away nuisances and potential hackers. You can go an extra layer by installing a hardware firewall that will block spam and potential intruders. Checking in with a office IT specialist is a good route to take to ensure your business network is up to snuff.
