Everyone’s nightmare:

• You accidentally deleted important files
• Your hard drive crashes

There are a number of good tools available for free to recover lost files.  Here a a couple of good ones.  These run within Windows.

• Recuva by Piraform  http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download
• Free Undelete  http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

If the above programs won’t work with the damaged drive because the file system is corrupted, try Parted Magic.  This Linux boot disk can be very useful for recovering deleted and “lost” files, even from a hard drive that has a damaged file system.  If the included file explorer does not find them, try the file recovery program – Test Disk

• http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

It also has an excellent disk partition tool, hence the name, “Parted Magic”, as well as many other useful tools.

One of the most common, and most difficult treats to eradicate, are the various fake antivirus “programs”.

If you get one of these and it is not stopped immedialtely by you or your real antivirus program, it may be necessary to consult a professional because this treat can deeply infect your computer in a short amount of time.

A good article about this threat can be found at the following link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44523031/ns/business-consumer_news/t/how-avoid-nasty-fake-antivirus-scam