Taking your computer to the shop for troubleshooting? Keep in mind that a PC is no ordinary household appliance. Many people store private or valuable documents and photos on their hard drives.

If the computer won't run, you'll have to trust the honesty of the technicians. But if you can access the hard drive, take precautions to ensure security and privacy. You never know whether your files may be wiped out during repairs. Worse, your personal files may be copied.

You should back up important files any time you take your computer in for repairs. For most people, the backup will be too big for a thumb drive or writable CD. External hard drives offer lots of space. And they stay with you while the computer's in the shop.

Hard drives are massive

You can get a roomy 80 GB external drive for around $100. That should be enough for important documents and multimedia. You may need a larger one for your entire drive. Prices vary widely, so shop around.

Backups don't have to be complex. For many, copying the My Documents folder and e-mail to an external drive will do. My Documents contains the My Pictures and My Music folders, among others.