3.1 Don't Panic!

Scaring people is often a good way to get their attention. For example, you may have had to suffer through intentionally vivid films of auto accidents in drivers' education class; the rationale behind this kind of shock treatment is to blast the viewer out of his comfortable "it won't happen to me" mindset. This tactic is often effective, but, when exaggerated, it can backfire.

Instead, ask yourself a question. "Self, what would happen if my Windows 2000 machines were abducted by aliens?" Just think: all your hardware, and the data it contains, gone in a heartbeat. Sure, it's easy to disregard the risk of hardware failure, fire, theft, or Registry corruption--that won't happen to you--but aliens? Look what happened to Elvis.^[1]

^[1] He's still alive, you know, although thankfully no one's sent me any recent sighting reports.

Instead of panicking and running out into the streets like people do in alien-invasion movies, wouldn't it be nice if you could lean back in your chair and smile, knowing that your Registry data could easily be restored without breaking a sweat? There's nothing like that state of calmness that comes from having a known good backup of your critical data, and that's why I encourage you to read, and heed, the material in the rest of the chapter. Don't panic, but don't fall asleep, either.