Most people don't realize how important
their data is until it is lost. Hard drive data recovery is
needed for a variety of reasons, all of which are often ignored
until it is too late. And in most cases, some people have
had opportunities to protect their files from data loss and
corruption, but may have thought one of these 5 common beliefs
about their data and why they won't need to find a hard drive
data recovery company.
"My hard drive is brand new, so
my data is safe"
Have you ever bought a new toaster, coffee
maker, DVD player, or even the most popular toy for your child
only to have to return it or exchange it because there were
problems with it? Then as you drive back to the store where
it was purchased, you wonder how something you just purchased
brand new could break so fast. Things break, brand new or
old, that is why there are warranties! Regardless, a hard
drive is no different. Each comes with a manufacturer's warranty
for the hard drive, but not the data. A data loss is your
problem, not theirs.
So when your hard drive fails and you are
left looking at a blank screen, a variety of error messages,
or hear a loud clicking noise from the hard drive, you sit
and slowly realize that your world is about to change. Your
belief that the data on your new hard drive is safe from data
corruption or mechanical hard drive failure erodes, and the
panic begins to set in.
"We backup our data to a spare hard
drive (or other media)"
It is always a good habit to backup your
data. In fact, kudos to you if you do! Now, that you have
patted yourself on the back for your fantastic disaster planning,
do you recall when you last tested your backup? When was the
last backup restored to verify the data, test the backup media,
and confirm that the data stored is still relevant to your
business?
This is often where problems arise. While
it is great that a disaster recovery plan in place, is a backup
from 1 month ago really of value? 1 year ago? 3 days ago?
Loosing a few days or months of data from a home user's point
of view may not be such a big deal...as long as they have
their important docs, pictures and MP3s.
However, depending on your business, several
lost days of data can devastate a company. For the business
community, a day of data loss can cost the company thousands
of dollars and worst yet, customers.
"I run a RAID server, and because
of that, my data is safe"
RAIDs are configured with multiple hard
drives, at least 2, and the belief most people have is that
their data is safe from data loss and they won't ever need
data recovery since they use a RAID server. In most cases
that is true. However, when multiple hard drives fail, the
risk of data loss increases. When a single hard drive in a
RAID array fails, it can be replaced and the RAID can attempt
to be rebuilt. When multiple hard drives fail, the rebuild
process can possibly still be done, however there is a higher
risk of data loss if the rebuild process fails.
If hard drives are moved around to different
positions in the RAID, new hard drives added, and the swapping
of good and defective hard drives are done, the risk of overwriting
the RAID stripe and destroying that information reduces the
chances of recovering data from that RAID. The safest way
to ensure that your hard drive data is recoverable when your
RAID looses a hard drive and becomes unhealthy is to seek
out a data recovery company who are RAID recovery specialists.
The more you (or your IT staff) attempt to repair and rebuild,
the less of a chance that the data will ever be recovered.
"I don't surf 'questionable' websites,
so I won't catch any viruses"
Of course you don't. Nobody visits 'questionable'
websites. Those websites all just are out there, with nobody
visiting them at all. From the adult websites, free software
websites, music websites, and every other website created
by people that my have ulterior motives and want to get at
your data...any computer attached to the Internet is at risk
for data intrusion and corruption.
Most businesses and home users have varying
degrees of network security for their computers, which protect
their data from most hard drive corruption, such as viruses.
However, with with e-mail, instant messaging, file attachments
and other such things shared by employees and friends, the
risk to accidentally infect a hard drive with a virus increases.
Make sure you run some sort of anti-virus
software and if possible a fire wall to protect yourself and
your data from corruption. These two simple suggestions can
save you hundreds of dollars in hard drive recovery.
"I definitely learned to expect
the unexpected"
Life has a funny way of getting at you when
you least expect it. Weather is the least planned for with
regards to data loss, and for good reason. Mother nature likes
to keep us on our toes! She floods homes and businesses with
water causing major water damage, she hurls lightning from
the heavens which cause power surges and wreaks havoc on electronics,
she throws tornadoes and hurricanes toward companies and consumers
and sends them scattering for safety, and she also scorches
the earth with fire, or burning offices and homes and charring
computers, servers and laptops.
Mother nature can also be kind and provide
a beautiful day of warm sunshine. Allowing you to relax by
the pool with your laptop, drinking some iced tea and getting
some work done remotely...until somebody jumps into the pool
and drenches your laptop with a wave of pool water. You can
do everything to protect your data, but at some point,you
will experience a catastrophe that will require data recovery.
It could be something due to a mechanical hard drive failure,
file system corruption, or as simple as 'my kid poured water
on my laptop'.
A lot of things that can go wrong and you
can't plan for all of them. Right now you have the opportunity
to protect your data from loss. Take the time now before it
is too late to evaluate the value of the data on your hard
drive and weigh it against the time it would take to rebuild
it and how it would affect you if you were to loose it permanently.
If your hard drive is experiencing problems,
your safest option is to turn the computer off. Continued
use may damage the hard drive and make your data unrecoverable.
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