电脑问题束手无策?5个小建议帮你摆脱困境

Always have a reliable backup. You never know when disaster will strike. But mark my words: Every hard drive fails eventually, and if you don’t have a good backup of your personal data (pictures, music, documents) then when your drive does fail, all that data will be gone forever. I recommend a dual backup. Use an external hard drive and a simple backup program so you have easy access to your stuff if you need it, but also spend a little money on a cloud backup solution like Mozy or Carbonite. That way, if your computer is ever stolen or it bursts into flames, you have a reliable copy of your data stored online.

总是有一个可靠的备份。你永远不知道灾难什么时候会发生。但是记住我的话：每个硬盘最终都会失效，如果你的个人数据(图片、音乐、文件)没有一个好的备份，那么当你的驱动器失效时，所有数据将永远消失。我推荐双重备份。使用一个外置硬盘和一个简单的备份程序，以便你在需要时轻松地访问你的东西，但也花一点钱在像Mozy 或Carbonite那样的云备份解决方案上。这样，一旦你的电脑被盗或起火，你在线存储的数据就有一个可靠的复制。

Keep a recovery checklist. If you ever have to “rebuild” a computer – reinstall programs, set up email, reconnect to your printer, and so on – I’m sorry. It’s no fun. But it’s even less fun not knowing what to do, or having to aimlessly browse the Internet looking for instructions. Here’s what to do instead: Take the time right now to write down all the steps you need to get a new PC up and running, including all the special settings. Keep that paper printed out (not just stored in your Documents folder) and in a location that you can easily get to when you need it.

记录一份恢复清单。如果你曾经“重建”过电脑，重新安装程序，设置电子邮件，重新连接打印机等等——我很抱歉。这没有任何乐趣。但不知道做什么更无趣，或者不得不漫无目的地浏览互联网寻找指令。这是要做的事情：现在花时间写下你需要重启并运行电脑的所有步骤，包括所有特殊设置。把那张纸打印出来(不仅仅是储存在你的文件夹里)放在一个你需要时很容易找到的位置。

Only change one thing at a time. Need to upgrade, fix, or replace a few things? Make changes to your PC or network one at a time. Adding new memory to your computer? Install it, make sure everything still works for a day or two, and then replace the video card. If you change two or more things at once, it can be really hard to know how to troubleshoot the system when things go awry.

一次只改变一件事情。需要升级、修理或更换一些东西吗？让你的电脑或网络每次只改变一件东西。要添加新的内存到你的电脑吗？安装吧，确保一切仍能正常运行一两天，然后更换显卡。如果你一次改变两个或两个以上的东西，当事情出错时很难知道如何解决系统故障。

The simplest solution is usually the best solution. One of the problems with my home network was that it was needlessly complicated. My wireless extender made my entire network more fragile and convoluted. I tried troubleshooting for a spell, but in the end I did what I should have done to begin with: I replaced the router with a new, high quality model. Miraculously, the new router had the range to reach all around my house and solved all my glitchy network problems without the need for an extender.

最简单的解决方案通常是最好的解决方案。我家庭网络的其中一个问题并没有那么复杂。无线扩展器使我的整个网络更加脆弱和复杂。我试着修复一段时间，但最后做了我一开始就应该做的事情：用一个新的高质量的路由器替换了原来的。奇迹般地，新的路由器覆盖了我房子的所有范围，在不需要扩展器的情况下我解决了所有缓慢的网络问题。

Have a cookie. Having computer trouble? It can get really frustrating, really fast. Remember to occasionally walk away – take a break, have a cookie, and decompress. Then take a fresh look at the problem a bit later, knowing there are more cookies what last one came from.

吃块饼干。遇到电脑麻烦？这真的会很快变得很沮丧。记得偶尔走开——休息一下，吃一块饼干，减一下压。然后稍晚会儿用新的眼光看待这个问题，清楚还有最后一个灵感到来的更多饼干。