Acer Laptop

[lankeela]

I have an Acer Laptop and keep getting messages saying "We will stop providing all technical support for Acer BYOC Apps (abApps) on September 30, 2018. We heavily encourage you to back up all photos and documents in abPhotos and abDocs to your local storage. Files from other abApps will still be able to be found in their original devices without being affected." Then a load more gobbledegook that means nothing to me.

I have no idea what this means - do I even have abPhotos? Do I have to do anything? Will everything stored on my computer just disappear from that date?

Please don't use any technical terms as I really do not understand - rather like a car I just switch them on and they either work or they don't.

[Guilbert53]

If you have never used abPhotos or abDocs then you need not worry.

But as a precaution you should BACK UP all your personal files.

If you don't know what a BACK UP is then it is simply making a spare copy of your personal files and storing them on another device. This can be a little memory stick or maybe or an external hard drive.

To be honest you should be doing this anyway.

If your computer crashed, or perhaps got stolen, or broke down, you would not be able to access all your personal files (Photos, Documents etc) so you should ALWAYS have a recent backup of your personal files stored AWAY from your laptop.

Note it VERY UNLIKELY everything stored on your computer will disappear. In fact I would even be stronger than that and say files stored WONT DISAPPEAR.

However it is best to do a backup anyway as a backup is always a good thing.

[lankeela]

Where can I get a memory stick and what do I do with it? Yes I really am that technically challenged!

[lankeela]

If I go into a computer shop and say please can I have a memory stick will they then ask me all sorts of questions like the smug git in ATS who wanted to know what tyre size and speed rating my tyres were when I phoned up to see if my new tyre was in)?

[Guilbert53]

Memory sticks have lots of other names - USB drives, USB Flash Drive and so on. But they are all basically the same thing.

They come in different size memory, the larger the memory the more they cost.

They come in GigaByte memory size - known as "GB"

So you can get 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and so on.

Now if you are not very technical then I will be rather blunt here, but copying all your personal files from your computer to a memory stick is not easy if you are not technical and have never done it before.

It is easy to accidentally delete your files rather than copy them if you don't know what you are doing.

Do you have a friend or relative or neighbour who could do it for you?

A person with some computer knowledge could probably do it in 10 minutes, but to try to explain how to do it will be quite complex.

[lankeela]

Ok thanks might take it into the computer shop and ask them - but thinking about it they may have done that when I replaced the computer a couple of years ago - so I might have got a memory stick with stuff on - could I use that one again and add to it or does it have to be a new one? Would it add to what is on it or would it save everything again? I have added a lot of stuff since then.

[chelle7272]

You can add to what is on it providing there is space on the memory stick to do so.
You can either add just the stuff you have put on since the last time or copy all of it over again if it is easier.

[hc4361]

Plenty of flashdrives online such as Amazon, even your nearest large Tesco, Asda or Sainsbury will sell them.

I prefer an external hard drive - I have this one:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

I believe they are less likely to fail than a USB flash drive, but that is just my opinion and experience.