Hard Drives - A Timely Reminder

by Tim3

Posted: 11 years ago 25 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

My Hard Drive has just died, fortunately I have 2x Zip drive back-ups, and a second computer so I only lost a small amount of data.

This prompted me to make a post and remind everyone who needs it, of the importance of complete file system back-ups on a daily basis to another storage device completely separate from your main works computer.

It makes you realize when it happens that everything you have done up to that point is entirely dependent on that piece of hardware, and not backing it up is flirting with total disaster.

There is a good chance you can recover data from a broken drive by using a specialist company, but have you seen what they charge? anything up to $2k, and you pay whether they recover your data or not! If your business rests on it you will have no choice.

Another point for Windows users is that the Windows Backup does NOT back up third-party .exe.files, by default, you must do these manually. These can be all of those handy little desktop apps you download like Pixie, and keyword tools and stuff like that, and of course paid programs with executable files.

At some point in the future your HD is very likely to go kaput too, so back it up now!

I hope my small post will save someone some grief

#drives #hard #reminder #timely

CyberAlien 11 years ago

There are so many companies offering cheap services for PC backups, I can't believe there are so many people who still just don't worry about it until they've lost everything lol
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ldiaz117 11 years ago

My entire business is in the cloud so no worries here.
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stone2010 11 years ago

I have an external HD plugged in at all times to my macbook and backs everything up automatically... good thing because one time my HDD died on me.. then i switched to a 512gb SSD and loving it since
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laurencewins 11 years ago

I save all my work stuff to an external hard drive and also a USB drive I carry whenever I go out. It's easy to load programs again but if I lost work, I would be stuffed. That also applies to simple things as email addresses.
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WillR 11 years ago

Make sure you use something like DropBox as well. Don't just rely on physical hard drives. Have your files in various locations.
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stoltingmediagroup 11 years ago

For those people backing up their files onto an external hard drive for safe keeping.
Be aware that an external hard drive eventually "WILL" also fry! (That's not a "Maybe")
Especially Seagate drives are known for that, but other brands as well.
Anywhere between year 3 and 5, (or before) you can expect to try and access your 500 GB or 1 TB of data, only to be met with a very sad message letting you know that your data can not be accessed. As the OP mentioned, it can cost you about $2000 to get it back.
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laurencewins 11 years ago

Then please tell me more about other non-physical options.
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stoltingmediagroup 11 years ago

So far: Chase Watts mentioned PC backup services, ldiaz117 mentioned the cloud, WillR mentioned dropbox, all these are great ideas. Basically you want to make make sure that if your external drive crashed today, and/or you had a small house fire, a break-in, or for some reason your drive fell on the floor and damaged the data, you want to be able to have your data backed up elsewhere in order to be able to retrieve your data. Some folks even upload and save data to their own servers via ftp.

http://online-data-backup-review.toptenreviews.com/
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laurencewins 11 years ago

I admit I don't fully understand the Cloud and how to back up stuff to it. That sounds like a smart idea... if it's easy to do.
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- stoltingmediagroup 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by laurencewins
  
  I admit I don't fully understand the Cloud and how to back up stuff to it. That sounds like a smart idea... if it's easy to do.
  
  This link here will give you an idea of some of the brand name backup services out there. There are tons more, but these are pretty popular for the purpose
  
  Online Data Backup Review 2013 | Backup Data Online | Online File Backup - TopTenREVIEWS
  
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MartinPlatt 11 years ago

I prefer cloud storage, and for the important stuff, copied to multiple accounts. Not only is it available on your desktop computer, and in the cloud, it is also available to other machines, such as your laptop should you wish to do so.

I know this isn't a very serious backup mechanism, the proper ones involve external drives that can be taken to a different location, and locked in a fire-proof safe. And I don't really mean the shed either
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TravisO 11 years ago

I'm not a kind of person who is very careless on my computer hardwares like the hardrive. Getting additional back-up hardware seems to be expensive. Though what you said is very useful. Please add that all of us must not be careless with our storage devices.
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Tim3 11 years ago

@Everyone,

Thankyou all for your replies, there are some good suggestions here.

Just to drive home the point...

It is not a question of 'IF' your hard drive fails, but 'WHEN'

Back ALL your data up, and do it NOW, you'll be glad you did
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GodMode52 11 years ago

https://drive.google.com/#my-drive

https://www.dropbox.com/

https://www.copy.com/home/

You have enough FREE space on those ones but even if you need more they are super cheap. I run a be-weekly backup on most important client/company data and ''fear no more''
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- ChrisH 11 years ago
  
  I have two internal drives and two external usb drives. Just checked my internal business drive. It has 555 GB on it. I back that up to an external usb drive so I can use it with my laptop. But .... as previosly said, hard drives, even backup ones, fail.
  
  If you have hosting with unlimited space then use this as backup as well. It is similar to using cloud and you can access from your other devices. If you find it hard to remember usernames and passwords then I suggest LastPass.com. It's free except, if you want to use it on a mobile/cell phone, then it is $12 a year. Well worth it!
  
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laurencewins 11 years ago

Can somebody PLEASE point me in the direction of the best free unlimited cloud backup site? and explain more about how it works?????
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- Tim3 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by laurencewins
  
  Can somebody PLEASE point me in the direction of the best free unlimited cloud backup site? and explain more about how it works?????
  
  Not sure you can get unlimited free storage Laurence, but here's a few places to get up to 7GB
  SkyDrive: 7GB free
  Google Drive: 5GB free
  Apple iCloud: 5GB free
  Dropbox: 2GB free
  Amazon Cloud Drive:5GB free
  
  I understand you download an app onto your PC and then upload all files by pasting them in somewhere. Pay particular attention to secure passwords etc
  
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laurencewins 11 years ago

So we have to pay to back up to the cloud? I would suspect it would be expensive then, if we have to back up our entire system or is it only specific stuff that you recommend to back up?
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- Tim3 11 years ago
  
  Amazon Cloud is £32 (GBP) for 100 GB per year (in the UK anyway)
  Google is £32 100 GB
  Apple is the most costly, £70 for 55 GB followed by Dropbox
  
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GarrieWilson 11 years ago

I have a backup of "mission critical" items on a thumb drive that's kept on in my glove box. It's encrypted with TrueCrypt incase it's stolen. I also have a backup server. I don't backup anything to the cloud though.

Sadly, I have still lost data because I don't backup as often as I should.

Garrie
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Sarevok 11 years ago

Hard drives are mechanical and will typically be the first failure point of any system.

Keep redundant backups.
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- Nightengale 11 years ago
  
  Excellent point!
  
  I've never had a problem (knock on wood), but one day when reviewing everything I had on my hard drive, I freaked out thinking about everything I'd lose if my PC crashed. I've paid A LOT of money to my business coach and have a lot of stuff from her on my hard drive. Not to mention everything else I've purchased (including PLF), all of my own work, other audios, programs, etc.
  
  I've backed up everything to an external Seagate hard drive, which makes me feel a lot better. I also need to back it all up to the cloud, just as a "double guarantee", but haven't done that yet. I'm still deciding which solution is best for me. (I'm looking at Google Drive or MyPCBackup.com).
  
  Thanks so much for the resources!
  
  Michelle
  
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writeaway 11 years ago

Anyone know of any good CLOUD-BASED backups?
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- ChrisH 11 years ago
  
  I was just browsing and my PC died. Wouldn't re-boot, kept on saying put a bootable drive in!!! Tried this a few times .... I thought .... O M G ..... my boot hard drive has gone down! .... So I took the PC's cover off and checked the cables. The sata cable had come slightly loose (one without a clip on it). Pushed it back on and ...... re-booted.
  
  The moral of the story - ALWAYS check your cables first! (including the main power cord).
  
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webcosmo 11 years ago

Yes, it`s important to backup all sensitive data, i always do that. But in the event of a HDD failure, you can always put the plates in a working HDD and recover the data with a bit of luck
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