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Q: I back up my computer files every week. How long should I save my computer’s “back up files”? And, how do I delete all the oldest copies? My back up files are stored by defaulted to a 3 TB Western Digital Book external hard drive. This drive is now full because of so many backed up files.

– Bob M.
Navarre, Florida

A: This is going to be a little tough for me to answer, Bob, because you gave me no information on just how you’re doing your backups. However, I can make a couple of assumptions based on the information you provided.

The easy answer to your main question is that you save them until they’re no longer needed. That sounds smart-alecky, but if you’re doing your back-ups correctly, the answer to when that happens becomes obvious. It sounds to me like what you are calling a “back-up” is simply copying your data files en masse from one drive to another. You’ve discovered the problem with this all on your own: eventually you use up all the space on your back-up drive with bunches of copies of the same stuff.

You should be using some sort of back-up software to do this job for you. Software specifically designed for backing up files will do at least two things for you that your current method is not. First, it will compress the files to take up far less space on the target drive. Second, it will back up incrementally, which means it doesn’t back up everything every single time. It only backs up the files that have changed since the last backup. You can choose a backup plan of your own devising, but a good comprehensive plan would include both daily incremental backups, and weekly or monthly full backups. With a plan like this, you don’t need to retain anything beyond your last full backup, unless you’re relying on the backups to be able to restore files that you’ve deleted long ago. If that’s the case, only you can say how long you need to keep them.

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 Q: Been reading your column for some time and find it very informative even if I am a Mac user. Your recent column in staying calm with malware (I.G.T.M. Issue #463, June 5, 2016) suggested even Mac users could benefit from visiting www.tinyurl.com/IGTM-0463. Since I don’t have a 12 YO to help with computer problems I did just that and my Mac was immediately taken over. Some kind of %$#% telling me to call a number. Even without a 12 YO I’m smarter than that and used a procedure from UNC.edu to get me out of it. How did the hackers take over the Tiny URL site? Or is this you trying to make a few extra bucks on the side? No, just kidding on that last one.

– Tom L.
Freeport, Florida

A: That site would not have taken over anything, Tom, but the “%$#% telling [you] to call a number” was exactly the scam that my article was warning about. I’m very happy that you were able to get your problem resolved using another site, but I assure you, the site you went to should have been nothing more than words and pictures that educate you about “Tech Support Scams” and how to remove them. During the course of writing this, I tested the very TinyURL from the aforementioned column, and it took me straight to the intended article on MalwareTips.com.

There have been several questions recently about TinyURL, and comments such as yours seem to indicate that I have utterly failed at educating my readers on just exactly what that site does. When you click on, or enter a TinyURL address into your browser, the only thing that happens at the TinyURL website is that the short, easy-to-type URL is translated back into its original, long, hard-to-accurately-type version, and your browser is automatically redirected there. The TinyURL site is still up and running correctly, and as far as I know, has not been breached by hackers.

As for me making a few bucks on the side, I know you were joking, but I’ll still repeat what I’ve said countless times at my occasional personal appearance lectures: I don’t make a single cent from writing It’s Geek To Me. I’m not an employee of any newspaper, and the column is not syndicated. I’ve done IGTM as an unpaid public service for over 9 years now, and on the occasions that people have approached me asking for direct help – even for pay – I’ve had to turn them down. I have neither the time nor the desire to be in the computer repair business, and am not set-up to take commercial payments. Besides, this column doesn’t just publish locally or even regionally. It reaches readers nationally and even internationally, thanks to the wonder of the Internet. If I started offering to fix my readers’ PCs, how could I possibly keep up with the demand?