There are three golden rules that you need to keep to with computer systems:

1. The hard drives have to be working correctly or problems may arise due to corrupt or missing data on the drive. This can affect the operating system software, the application software or the session and data files. You cannot see what is happening on your hard drives, so the first you may know about these problems is when you lose a recording. Use a good utility software package such as Norton Utilities to help prevent drive problems. And, if in doubt, initialize or reformat your hard drives or replace them.

2. The operating system software has to be working correctly or the application software can be affected and, again, your recordings are at risk. Don t forget, data on any hard drive can become corrupted and you cannot see this or know about it until problems start happening. If in doubt, re-install clean system software.

3. The application software obviously has to be installed and working correctly, and, as with the system software, if you suspect that it may be corrupted in any way, you have no choice other than to reinstall clean software.

Think of it this way, if you are standing on shaky ground in any way, you are likely to start sinking at some point or other. Just as you have to keep analogue mixers and recorders maintained and in good working condition, you have to do this with your hard drives and software as...