The Devastation Of Data Loss - And What You Can Do About It

By: Nick Carter

Almost everyone who uses a PC stores valuable data on the hard
drive or other data storage device. Whether you use your PC for
keeping personal accounts, contact details or important
information or whether you are a business user and keep vital
business information, contact details and company data on your
PC the risk of data loss is a big risk and could prove very
costly in the long run.

With true data loss, your only hope of recovery is a data
backup, and without one there is no way back. If you have
company data on your home PC, data that is vital to the
operation of a company or the effective servicing of a customer
data loss will inevitably lose you or your company money. It
looks unprofessional, if you don't have a backup and inevitably
leads to the loss of not only money but clients as well. It can
even land you in court facing a lawsuit.

What is data loss?

Data loss is the loss of data stored on your hard drive or other
data storage device. It can occur because one or more of many
different reasons and can be recoverable or, in the worst-case
scenario, completely unrecoverable. It is a very real problem
that we must try to combat in order to successfully run our
business or maintain our home computers.

The most usual reasons for data loss are down to poor use and
manufacturing defaults. While the latter may not be your own
fault, there is little solace to be found in that when you lose
the last 12 months of work from your hard drive.

Poor use or misuse of the hard drive.

Many modern hard drives are not only versatile but durable as
well, however, this doesn't completely alleviate the danger of
data loss. Spilt liquids, vibration or collision can result in
damage of the hard drive itself or even in one of the components
of the hard drive. This will inevitably lead to some loss of data

Manufacturing defects of your hard drive.

Even the most careful of user may find they have problems with
their hard drive, or any part of their PC for that matter.
Sometimes we simply can't avoid it. Statistically, 1 or 2 bad
hard drives are found in hundreds of rigorously tested devices
shipped by manufacturers. Defects in any part of your PC can
manifest themselves immediately or they may only come to the
fore after months and months of heavy usage. Either way, it is
quite often possible to recover part or even all of the lost
data.

What can be done?

In the first place, the above examples should emphasise the
obvious fact that loss of data is a problem that can happen to
anyone, no matter how knowledgeable or how careful you are. It
is important that you do what you can to prevent fatal loss.
Keeping backups of any important, irreplaceable data is
something we should all do, but are quite often found not doing.
Not having a backup copy of your data could be the biggest
mistake you make.

However, even if you don't have a backup and something happens
to your storage device it may not be a complete loss. There are
specialists who deal solely with the recovery of lost data and
they can sometimes truly work miracles.

Use anti-virus software regularly and keep it updated as often
as possible. Many viruses attack the hard drive and can be
spread very quickly. Without a decent firewall and anti virus
system in place this will invariably lead to a loss of data
integrity.

Keep your storage devices as clean as possible. Also, be sure to
avoid contact with the electric components with your bare hands.
Keeping your storage devices cool will reduce the risk of
magnetic burnout and may save you from a total loss of data.

Virtually all of us store important data on our hard drives,
with the possible exception of people who use their PC only for
playing games; even gamers would consider losing weeks of saved
games as being something of a disaster. Even the most
knowledgeable and careful of us will probably face data loss of
some sort in our lives, and while it may not be our fault that a
device becomes corrupt of was faulty when leaving the
manufacturers, it is our fault if we haven't stored the data
elsewhere as a backup copy. Remember, accidents do happen, so we
should always prepare for the worst.

© 2005 Nick Carter

About the author:
Nick Carter is webmaster for http://www.data-recov
ery-resources.biz , an online portal for data recovery
resources.