One thing you need to be extremely careful about is keeping duplicate disks with copies of all your important files. During the fall semester, several computer viruses infected computers on campus. Any time a disk is inserted in an infected computer, there is a risk of contamination. Some viruses are relatively harmless; others will destroy all the files on a disk or infect the hard drive and possibly disable the computer. 

Check for viruses regularly. If you have an old version of a virus checker, it may not recognize new viruses so you will need to download an update. In addition, you will need to back up disks because you may damage a disk during the semester. Last semester one student lost an entire research report and had to retype it from notes. Not having sufficient time to proofread the paper, the student turned it in loaded with errors.

I have had disks infected by viruses, and I had to completely redo assignments. Now I make copies of everything.

Remember -- If you have an assignment due on a specific date, you WILL NOT be given extra time because of a virus or a damaged disk.

Make sure the disk you are going to copy to is blank. When the computers copies on to a disk, it erases all information on the disk you are copying to. 

Double click on My Computer
Click on the a drive - floppy to highlight it
Click on the File Menu - go to Copy Disk
Insert the original disk with your files - click Start
When the instructions indicate, remove the disk and insert a blank disk - click OK