Are You Insured? Many people regard IT hardware as part of their domestic equipment. You cannot be more wrong. If you add up the collection of hardware, it could come to a couple of thousand pounds. Then add up the software and already you could be up to four thousand pounds already. If you have a laptop, then these are generally more expensive than a desktop, so you could be looking at maybe six thousand pounds worth of computer equipment. You should check your house insurance as most insurance's carry a maximum allowable amount that will prevent you from being fully covered if you also have many items of expensive jewellery or electronic equipment. Item Value Check out whether you have a maximum allowable amount per item. This will be very important if you have a laptop. On the whole, laptops start at around £2000, which is far in excess of the single item value usually offered by insurers. In the mean time, check the individual replacement costs of each item as the PC will be split into the system unit, monitor, printers, etc. The total cost of each individual item will be greater than the price you paid for it as a bundle. But again, ensure that the maximum single item value is greater than any of the individual parts. FLOOD, FIRE, DESTRUCTION! Most people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. This is a common statement from the world of disaster recovery. Many people don't believe it will happen to them, but it does on a frighteningly frequent basis. Ask yourself this question: What would happen if I lost the PC? I don't mean through theft, but what if someone pours water into the back of the PC, or accidentally knock a cup of hot coffee over into the system unit while in the middle of an important document? Now you are in a right pickle. The document is unfinished, and the power supply on the PC has just reduced itself to a heap of molten plastic and you have blacked out half of the estate to boot. What do you do? Before you purchase a PC, make sure you have accidental cover on electronic equipment and software media (no one will insure the software once it has been installed). Usually the insurers will offer you this when you take the cover out. But it makes the policy slightly more expensive and you may have opted to not have it to save money. Have accidental damage added to your policy BEFORE you purchase the PC. If you try and do it after the accident, you will run into the wrath of the legal profession and lose a lot more than just one document. Replacement If the unit appears to be too badly damaged to repair, then you will need to have the unit certified as 'uneconomical to repair' by a reputable source. They will supply a letter headed report detailing the cost involved to repair the unit. If the unit can be repaired, then have a look at the excess before you make a claim. It may be that you have a no claims discount at the moment and as the repair is only £10 over the excess, it might not be worth making a claim as you would lose your no claims discount. It is entirely your decision. It Gets My Backup Make sure you have adequate backups of your personal data. You cannot backup software once it has been installed because software usually moulds itself round the operating system making it difficult to copy just the software. Use floppy disks, or if you have the money, get a tape drive. Always make sure you take regular backups to keep your data up to date. This way, should a failure or damage occur to your unit, you have not lost anything important. Don't forget that the software can be reinstalled, but your hard work cannot. Theft It always amazes me that there are still people around who take great pleasure in making other peoples lives a misery by breaking into their home and either removing articles, or smashing them up for the sake of it. The aftermath might be that your system unit has gone, and your monitor and printer have been smashed. If there is extensive damage to your home, then an insurance rep will come to you to have a look around. Make sure you have proof of purchase of your PC (see Part 2 - Warranties), or at least a convincing place where the PC was, such as a desk or other unit. Once the claim has been settled, and you have your new system, then you can go about recovering you PC from your backups. Laptop Dancing I have seen people on trains, and around various offices carrying their laptops around with the lid open, balancing it on one arm, with a hot cup of coffee in the other hand. This is courting disaster. When you drop a laptop, it is not a pretty sight. The LCD panel is made of glass, and the keyboards are usually quite thin in their construction. The result is that is can take up to 15 minutes to clear up the mess. To prevent an embarrassing long period of time before you can afford a new laptop, make sure that it is covered for away from home. Most insurance's offer this, but the limit is usually £1500, and sometimes you might have to take out a separate insurance to make sure you are adequately covered if it gets damaged or lost while away from home. Don't forget to include any software disks you might take with you as well. Get It Out If you feel you can leave your laptop at home while you go on holiday, then either leave it with a friend who can look after it, or remove the hard drive from the machine and hide it away in an inaccessible place such as the attic, or garage. This makes the laptop unusable and worthless to a would-be burglar. You can (if you feel up to it) remove the hard drive from your desktop PC, but I would not advise this unless you are a trained professional. Bad Memory? One major part of any system is the memory. If you have a modern, high specification PC, then the memory plays a big part in the performance of that machine. When you upgrade the machine, it might be worth while checking out with your insurance how the PC is covered. If the cost of a replacement unit does not include accessories (which the memory might be classed as), then you should check how to cover the memory. Occasionally, the PC requires very expensive memory, so it might push the value of the PC above the cover limit of the policy. Extras Most additional cards in modern PC's are quite cheap, so they do not add much to the value of the machine. But you still have to remember the upper per item limit on your policy. If you are like some of my friends who are big gaming fanatics, then you might have the latest video and sound cards that could cost up to £500. Couple this with the quarter gigabyte of memory, and the special gaming card you have to drive the interactive seat, then you could be looking at a massive machine, with a large replacement cost. Again it is wise to have it all checked out. Getting Advice At the end of the day, I am not here to sell insurance. I specialise in supplying top quality support to home and business users. Yes, I can supply hardware and software to the unlucky victim of a disaster or robbery, but I would rather people enjoy their technology rather than worry about if their insurance cover is up to scratch. The only people that can advise you are your insurance. But do it now before it is too late. All too often have I heard people who complain that their insurance said that the hardware was covered, only to find that they had forgotten to tell the insurers that the video and sound card have been upgraded, thus pushing it over the upper limit. Anyway, if you upgraded the engine in your diesel Fiesta to a AcerTech F1 engine, you would have to tell your insurance, wouldn't you? And Finally.... If theft is of a great concern, make sure your insurance covers it. If you have a laptop, make sure you are covered for away from home use. Accidental damage is the biggest cause of loss of use of computer hardware. Have fun with your technology, and to close, please don't have nightmares. Sleep well.

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