Aunty Virus

Mary from Benijofar asks:
After this recent virus that was on the news (that crippled the NHS) I’m worried that I don’t have a backup of my computer, and should anything like that happen I would be lost. I followed your advice in one of your previous articles and I have copied my Pictures and Documents folders onto a USB stick (which I add to every few weeks) but do I also need to have some kind of recovery disk to include my Windows and apps? I have a Lenovo laptop with Windows 10. Thanks in advance for your help.
Aunty Says:
By keeping a separate copy of your personal stuff on a separate device Mary you are doing the most important thing, but you absolutely must remember to unplug the USB stick once you have copied your files, as that particular strain of virus (ransomware) is capable of also infecting your data on external hard drives & USB memory sticks. If you also want to backup your Windows system you can quite easily create a “recovery drive” onto another USB stick by using the built in Recovery app. Click on the Start icon and type RECOVERY and double click on the “Create a Recovery Drive” option. A new window will popup, click on “next” and it will tell you how big a USB stick you will need. Personally I would buy a good brand 32GB USB3, such as Kingston or Sandisk, and use it just for this task.

Lynda from Almoradi asks:
Everyone loves free WatsApp calls, and other free apps, which made me wonder, are they really free? Also I have a friend who forwards me, via WhatsApp, quotations, jokes and chain letters, urging me to forward on to my address book! I never do but I am curious as to what is the point of these? Does this make money for someone and does it use up data. Apologies if this is common knowledge as I am not very techno wise.
Aunty Says:
Hi Lynda. WhatsApp now have upwards of 900 million users which is an immense marketplace for advertisers, and this is where/how we pay. These quotations and jokes that do the rounds are mostly harmless but unfortunately they will use up a small amount of your internet. Anyone knowingly forwarding this kind of junk should be banned from using the Internet for 6 months and made to sit a rehabilitation exam.

Keith via email asks:
Hi Aunty. When I receive an email or message in Spanish is there any way to convert that message into English on my iPad or iPhone?
Aunty Says:
Hi Keith. I’m not an Apple user but I use the Google Translate app on my Android phone which works great with Google Gmail and Chrome. I believe there is a similar app called iTranslate in Apple’s App Store which will do a similar job with Apple’s email app and Safari.

Any questions you can email me at auntyvirus@costablancapeople.com and I’ll see you all next week.

 

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