Q: Is there anything special I should do to maintain my PC because of our local environment?
A: That's a very good question. Although PC hardware actually requires little maintenance, there are certainly some considerations due to the local climate. First of all, no matter what the ads show, I would not take my new laptop to the beach - with or without the margarita!
Humidity is probably your computer's worst long-term enemy. Even if it your house is air conditioned, you may not have the a/c on all the time, or may not use it in the spring or fall. If you notice any condensation on the metal parts of the PC, you should take some action such as turning on the a/c or perhaps a dehumidifier. In general, I would recommend keeping the PC and monitor powered on for as long a period as possible; the heat generated will tend to keep any moisture out. In fact, I keep my PC on all day, although I do shut off the monitor if I know I am going to be away for more than an hour or so.
Make sure anything you put into the computer, such as a CD-ROM or diskette is clean and has no moisture on it. Keep the rear fan intake clean; vacuum it every month or so.
Power losses and surges can also occur. Your best protection here is a good UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). Having a UPS will protect you from power surges and also give you the time to save your work when a power outage occurs. Make sure you get a UPS with enough capacity to keep your system powered on for 5-10 minutes. You will also need surge or lightning protection for your phone line if it connects to the PC. If you have two phone lines, make sure that the phone surge protector protects both lines - many inexpensive ones only protect one line. Even if there are no power surges, it is a good idea to save your work frequently.
Hurricanes and other violent storms can of course damage your PC if water gets into your house or office. You could attempt to cover the PC or wrap it in plastic, but I would not spend a lot of time doing this when an evacuation is announced! You would have to remove all external cables and then wrap it pretty thoroughly and even then the chance of success if there is major water intrusion is not good. Your best bet here is a good backup.
Which leads us to the most important topic - good data backups. I can't stress how important this is. I am often called to restore data to a damaged system, and with no backup this is often impossible or very expensive. Once you have put a good backup strategy in place (and stick to it!) you also need to move some of the backup data off site. For example, if you back up on CD-ROM, you might send a CD to your daughter in Raleigh once a month. In that way, you will have a copy of you data that will not be damaged during the storm.
Leaving all your backups in the same house with the PC during a hurricane is like having no backup at all!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).