Most of us know the old saying beginning, "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost." This unfortunate tale leads from the loss of the horseshoe to the loss of the battle and finally the kingdom.

In mid-December, it was the loss of a piece of plastic the size of a pea that led to the destruction of our database and bookkeeping computer. It was a cold Thursday in Colorado Springs when our bookkeeper came to me and told me her computer wouldn't start. Computers that don't start usually need new power supplies. I ran out, bought one, and installed it. Unfortunately, the computer still didn't start.

I dug deeper into the computer and discovered my little piece of plastic had broken and the power switch wasn't connecting correctly. I put the computer back together with the switch hanging outside the computer case so our bookkeeper could continue her projects.

A half hour later, the computer was sounding like a diesel truck idling at a stoplight. I opened it up and found that one of the unused power cables from the new power supply had fallen into the fan for the main CPU chip and had broken several of the vanes on the fan. The fan was vibrating unmercifully and needed to be replaced.

Here comes my fatal mistake. I removed the fan to take it to the computer store. Since it was only a small fan cooling the chip, I turned the computer back on to see if it would work. The smell of burning plastic filled the air, and the computer worked no more.

A new chip was $100 and had to be ordered. The computer store guys couldn't promise something else in the computer wasn't burned up as well. I spent Friday getting a spare computer up and running. After a tense few hours, I got the data off the hard drive. I spent the weekend loading software onto the new computer.

By Monday morning, the new bookkeeping computer was working, but some information was missing and many processes were changed. The burned-up computer still sits in pieces awaiting a decision.

Most longtime computer users can share similar tales of data lost. Hard-drive crashes, viruses, theft, fire, and flood can all wipe out your data and possibly damage your business.

There are many solutions to backing up data. Disks, tapes, and online backups are all good potential solutions for protecting information on your computer.

Our database/accounting information and the "My Documents" folders on individual computers are backed up onto a server computer daily. Our problem was that the more elusive information like the e-mail files and those tucked on the desktop were not backed up regularly. Now they are.

For individual computers, we use Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator onto a CD or DVD. I try to back up weekly and then find out it's been a month.

It is important for you to locate all the files you want to back up. E-mail files like Outlook and Eudora in Windows are not stored in the "My Documents" folder. Sometimes these e-mails are the most critical of all your information.

Another important point is to store your backup disks off site on a regular basis. If theft, fire, or flood should occur, most of your data will be recovered.

Backing up takes time, but not as much time as recovering all your data from your paper files. Almost every computer user wishes, at some time, they had backed up ten minutes earlier. Back up often and save your kingdom.