How important is backing up your data?
Before I answer this let preface by saying that I have been doing data recovery for almost 17 years and have worked on over twenty thousand hard drives. I would consider myself an expert on how hard drives work and how they can be saved. I have seen clients come in with their entire lives on their hard drive. Personal data or professional data. It does not matter to me. Data is data and I do what I can to save it. That being said, not all hard drives are recoverable. Sometimes not all the data can be saved from a drive.
So… Just stop for a second and think to yourself: “Do I have a backup?”
What would happen if you lost your data? Would you lose all your pictures of your life, your kid’s life? Would you lose your business data, accounting data, taxes… And on and on. I see it all. I love what I do, I like being able to help people and save what they consider potentially life changing. So not backing up, keeps me busy.
As said before, not all hard drives are recoverable, I wish they were, but sadly they are not. We store our lives on computers, phones, tablets, and flash drives. Buy another external drive and back it up! There are tons of options for cloud storage and you should use it, it is VERY cheap. All storage mediums out there WILL fail, you cannot stop it. Once you realize that the device you are using to store data will fail, you may decide to back it up. I am not going to get through to everyone, but I am going to try. Back it up. For data recovery professionals, it is never a good day when we cannot recover someone’s data due to fatal issues with the drive. I have had those conversations with people, telling them their hard drive is unrecoverable. Crying to anger, all the emotions you can imagine, I have seen it. People that know me here, know that I am blunt when I talk to people. Blunt does not mean I am not compassionate, I just do not beat around the bush at all. I know what it is like to lose data, and you know what, it sucks. I do not want anyone to go through that and knowing that it could have been prevented just kills me.
There are tons of options, all cheaper than data recovery. Back up your data and back it up often. Did you think about it as I said it earlier, if not… do it now. Think about what would happen if you lost your digital life. You can control that. Your hard drive will fail. Mechanical drives, SSD’s, phones and tablets. They will fail. They may last only a week, may last a year, or even a few years.
Anyways, I guess I kind of answered the first question I asked. Are you backing up?
– Your friendly neighborhood Data recovery engineer
