Let’s make a new year’s resolution together, you and I. Let’s promise to back up our computers. It’s important, I promise. Just yesterday automatic backup feature in MS Word saved me about an hour’s work when my computer froze up. Given that I haven’t backed up my computer in almost a year, I can’t even imagine how much data I’d lose if I suffered a power surge or hard drive failure. It can happen to best of us, and often does. Even high end hard drive manufacturers report an average failure rate of between five and eight per thousand every year. That may not sound like much, but let’s face it, somebody has to be those five to eight people. Feeling lucky? There are about 185 million household PCs in U.S., according to Computer Industry Almanac, so that means about 150,000 hard drives fail each year. But even if your drive stays intact, about a tenth of all computers suffer minor data loss in any given year. A power surge, magnets in your home stereo speakers, or even an accidental nudge can affect data storage. According to a report from ONTRACK data recovery service, data loss can be caused by natural disasters (3% of cases), computer viruses (7%), software problems (14%), and plain old user error (a whopping 32%). Now, I’m sure you never hit a wrong keyboard button, but do you have a button on your computer that prevents a bolt of lightning? I didn’t think so.

WHEREAS our data is important, and disaster can befall even most noble and undeserving of us, BE IT RESOLVED that you and I shall back up our computer files forthwith.

Amen, brothers and sisters. Now, where and how do we start?

STEP ONE: Choosing Favorites

Not all files are important enough to preserve for posterity. The most critical files on a computer are its operating system files. If you’re a good little consumer, you bought operating system and kept those CDs handy and secure from data loss. If you’re not, then remind yourself to go stand in corner later. The drones at Microsoft did not work for years just to watch you steal their work. It’s people like you that keep Bill Gates from buying his second planet. Now that you’ve been suitably chastised, either go buy a legal copy of operating system, or include necessary files in your “must back up” list.

The same principle goes for software applications. Maybe you bought an ad and spyware blocker you really like, but company that coded it has since gone out of business (perhaps because other consumers weren’t as scrupulous as you). If so, include files you need to run app in your must list.

Now it’s time to look at remaining files on your computer and prioritize. If you’re not a digital packrat like me, it may be possible to save everything. If so, congratulations. I don’t have ten gigabytes of portable media at my disposal, so when I back up my computer, I’ll be leaving a few gigs of MP3s and questionable Windows Media files at risk. One of first things I will save is folder I use to save my writing assignments, because that data represents money in my pocket. I’ll back up my email address book, plus my digital photography and fiction writing efforts. I can live without “Milkshake” (what was I thinking?), but guitar piece my friend recorded and sent to me is going on list. Your results may vary.

STEP TWO: In Which I Tell You Where You Can Put It

That’s right, this is section in which I’ll tell you where to store your data. It’s not a good idea to put backup files on another drive on same computer. That defeats whole purpose. Duplicating your files on another computer in same LAN is almost as risky, because computer viruses can spread as fast as an imaginary Anna Kournikova JPEG. You need to find a portable storage medium that can hold all files on your must list. Your options include floppy diskettes, portable hard drives, optical drives, tape drives, and remote servers. We’ll look at each in turn.

Today data recovery is a multi-million dollar industry. The number of data recovery firms out there seems to exceed number of fast food restaurants for entire planet. These companies specialize in helping their clients retrieve data on anything from hard drives to flash-roms. In following report, we will discuss what data recovery really is; different types, costs, and what you can realistically expect when it comes to getting your data recovered.

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss?

Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It’s important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don’t even try to go through shutdown procedure, just pull plug from wall. Do not try to run off shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assume drive is functioning properly and will increase risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred, drive is still recognized by system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact on drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible.

If system BIOS does not detect presence of hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure of spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting from bearing failure will expand drive shaft and therefore seize spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY.

Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board on bottom. This board is basically brains of drive, and it is where computer interfaces to hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it’s just a faulty component, sometimes it’s improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding out board, damaging circuitry during installation). It’s important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damage electrical components on drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to cool internal components of system, especially hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much as hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

One of most often asked questions that customers ask is, “how do you get my data back?” Well, it’s really not black magic or rocket science. It’s just a matter of having right tools and knowledge necessary to know what to do, much like a surgeon performing heart by-pass surgery. Many prominent data recovery facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for recovering data.

Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm, first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary. If drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of drive will be performed to try and repair file system corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired and drive restored to status that it was before failure. If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector of hard drive for files. Once files are located, they can then be copied to media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if drive is on verge of physical failure. It’s not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recovering found files.