The Importance of Data Backups

In this computerized age, making backups of your critical data has become a crucial

In this computerized age, making backups of your critical data has become a crucial, but often overlooked necessity.You've probably heard the old cliché: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." There couldn't be a more accurate statement when it comes to backing up and saving your valuable data.

Can you imagine leaving home or your business and simply not locking your doors? Anyone could enter at anytime, and do whatever they want. Using this analogy, if you were in a bad neighborhood, you might expect the uninvited guest to damage and possibly steal your belongings. In this case, a 'hacker', or even someone with a small amount of computer savvy, easily connecting to an unsecured wireless network could do similar damage to the contents of your hard drive. (Your files!!)

Here's another good example;
Let's say that you have just purchased a new turnkey business that is successfully thriving. Unfortunately after only one year, a fire destroys the whole building. Of course you can rebuild. But what about all of your customers? What will happen to all of the tools and utilities that you have been using to grow that business and to turn profit?

Well similarly, a high capacity, durable and well made hard disk drive may have a 5 year warranty. The drive's manufacturer will gladly exchange your failed hard drive for a new one. However…there will be no consideration whatsoever for the files that are stored on your hard drive. Unfortunately, you're on your own. (Unless the hard drive manufacturer also performs data recovery. In that case, they will happily refer you to a sales consultant to sell you data recovery.)

For the record, data recovery is never a substitute for data back up. When your hard drive fails, will you be prepared? It's not a matter of "If the drive fails", but more so "When the drive fails." All hard drives will fail eventually regardless of manufacturer, capacity or amount of usage. Taking the amount of time, effort, and resources to make a backup can save you or perhaps your business costs for data recovery services, downtime and a potentially insurmountable loss of revenue. Having backups of critical information is an absolute must.

Data is simply the digital information that is stored in file format on your hard drive. Once this information is "lost" or inaccessible due to a hard drive failure, operating system failure, virus, or any other circumstance, you quickly realize the value of that information and the possible impact on your business.

Make backups. Then verify the contents of your backups, and make backups of your backups.
If however you do find yourself in a quandary with a failed hard drive. Do not panic.
Here are some valuable tips:

  1. Any unusual sounds emitting from your drive is not a good sign. (Clicking, Ticking, Grinding, etc.) Power down immediately.(This can prevent further possible irreparable damage to the drive, and can make an already bad situation even worse.)
  2. Do NOT run scandisk, CHKDSK or any other disk checking utilities, as this could make matters seriously worse. If the hard drive has suffered from a physical crash, even data recovery software can do damage.
  3. Avoid powering the computer on and off. The clicking sound from your hard drive that you may be hearing, could lead to further damage. This can make an already bad situation far less optimistic for successful recovery.
  4. NEVER, EVER listen to a computer "Guru" friend who says: "I can fix it!" Hard drives are delicate mechanical storage devices, and the inner workings and mechanics should always be left to a trained, experienced data recovery engineer.  The hard drive is one of the few components of a computer that actually still has moving, mechanical parts.

If you do happen to find yourself with this type of unfortunate situation, and need a data recovery, ECO Data Recovery has been recovering critical data since 1987. Their highly skilled engineers have the ability, the "know how" and the proper techniques to get you and/or your business back on the speedy road to recovery.

Data Recover

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