One of the worst things that could ever happen as a Virtual Assistant is for your computer to crash and all your data, including that spreadsheet you just spent the last 4 hours putting together, just disappears.

But I have good news! There ARE ways to keep that from happening.

Step Number One: BACK UP YOUR DATA. It really is that simple. But many people don't do it, mostly because they forget, can't find the time, or just don't like having all those extra CD's floating around their workspace. It's true, it can be a time consuming chore... if you do it all by hand. Fortunately for us the internet has come to our rescue yet again!

There are several programs available online for FREE that can automatically backup your computer(s) on a regular basis. All you need to do is download the program and set it up with your preferences. You will never have to worry about all those precious family photos stored on your computer and you will save yourself a bunch of heartache when you can recover all of your hard work with just a couple mouse clicks.

You can find many free, high quality, programs on the net. One that I found very helpful is cibecs.com. I liked Cibecs because they have very informative video tutorials about their system, and the best part is they have a free version that can be used on up to 10 computers - so now you can back up every computer in the house and protect all your client's records and documents.

Step Number Two: If your computer has already crashed there is still hope for you yet. Here is some helpful advice that Free-Backup.info offers:

1.As soon as you realize your data has been deleted, stop using the computer! The less activity the better to avoid dangerous disk-swap activity.

2.Find and download data recovery software on another computer.

3.Save the recovery tool to a flash drive and run it directly from there.

4.Save the extracted data back onto the flash drive for added safety.

You can find data recovery software with a simple google search or Free-Backup.info has links to several different data recovery programs.

However; don't forget that you will save yourself a lot of grief in the future if you back up your files BEFORE your computer decides to crash.