There it sits, your brand new (or used) computer. With luck (good service or good friends) it's set up and ready to go. Where do you start? You won't like the answer, but here's my advice: start by getting organized. It might be more fun to plunge right in and play with all the new toys waiting on your screen, but a little time invested now can save you a lot of bother later.

Computers require a certain amount of housekeeping, and, like homes, more space may mean more maintenance. Living in a tiny apartment forces you to limit your belongings; when you move to larger quarters, your possessions seem to multiply to fill the available space. You can store all this stuff, but can you find it when you need it?

When you move into a new home, you can set things up any way you choose. There are some constraints: you will probably want to store your pots and pans in the kitchen, though you may prefer to put the dishes in the dining room. Otherwise, a room is just a room. Just because the label on the blueprints said "dining room" doesn't mean you can't use that space as a bedroom - or an office. Rooms can be subdivided, or enlarged by removing partitions.

When you "move into" a new computer, you have to make the same decisions. Some of the "rooms" (directories) are already set, but you can create whatever directories you want, and organize them to suit your needs. The first job, then, is to define your needs.

A major consideration is backing up your data. One of the first things taught in introductory computer courses is that hard drives are not infallible. Anything that is important to keep should be backed up elsewhere. How often you back up depends on how much you are willing to risk. Now, assume you have a massive new 2 gigabyte hard drive, full of wonderful software. Believe me, you do not want to back the whole thing onto floppies - life is much too short!

Luckily, the data that you want to back up comprises only a tiny portion of that disk. There should be no need to back up installed applications - you should have the original disks or CD's to reinstall from if necessary. (If you don't, find out why!) When you install new software from disks, you should always first make a backup, then install from the backup. If the software was downloaded, make a backup of the (condensed) download file.

This leaves just your data - the files you have created - to back up regularly. If you arrange your hard drive so that all these files are in one directory, backing them up is simple. This is where you have to do some planning early on. First, set up a "master" data directory, then subdivide it to suit your requirements. For example, a "master" directory named "Simpson", with subdirectories "Homer", "Madge" ..., these subdivided ("Simpson\Homer\Baseball"), and so forth. Once this is set up, you can back up the whole structure with one command (or mouse click).

Many applications assume that you will store your data in "their" directory or a subdirectory. Some are kind enough to set up a "data" subdirectory, others, like Microsoft Works, just dump your data in with the programme files - unless you tell it otherwise. Where you can, set up "options" to use your directories. Otherwise, be careful to specify the right directories on the "save" screens.