Over my 20 years of computer repair, it is safe to say that I have had to replace 1 defective hard drive a week. That's 52 a year, so that's 1000 hard drives give or take. It is also safe to say that 20% of those crashed hard drives did not even phase the customer. Maybe 60% just considered it a hassle. But that leaves another 20% that were almost in tears because they filled it with family photos or work documents with out any form of data backup.
The purpose of this article is to cover a few backup options along with the cost associated with it. You will be surprised at the worst case scenario.
I'm willing to bet that every one smart enough to find this article has a CD burner on there computer. Right there you have no excuse for not backing up your files, but it is time consuming. The CDs need to organized to some extent and they are susceptible to scratches, nicks and heat. So while it is an option, it is not to practical.
Personally I pay about $9 a month for web hosting. With this I can simply set up a folder that is password protected on the server. Then every few days I connect to it and upload my whole drive by dragging and dropping. Take a FTP program of your choice and tell it to copy only the newer files and it's just that easy. What's that? $108 a year? Even then my hosting company backs up my backup while I can tend to the various blogs and sites I maintain.
Quick question... who much does it cost to add a second hard drive to your system? For as little as $200 - $250 you could get an external hard drive in it's own little case that plugs into your USB port. Again, just set it up to copy over the new data.
While there are many more mays to back up your hard drive, here is the part that floors people. Many times over I have had a customer tell me that they need the data off of a dead drive no matter what the cost... then they eat there words or change there mind after they get the details. I'm going to use Ontrack just as an example just because I have used them dozens of times and they have been around longer then me. ( Highly recommended but not affiliated )
They sell data recovery software, as do several other companies. $449 for an Outlook file recovery program. A general data recovery program for just under $200. A professional commercial and consulting, yearly license runs $1499. All this is assuming that the hard drive is spinning correctly and can can be seen by the system. But what if the heads crash or it does not spin at all or the BIOS does not see it? Then it needs to go to a clean room for physical repairs and that's where it starts to add up.
Recently I've seen places advertise that they can fix a drive for $500 on the average with a 88% success rate. That may be the case but most places I've worked with require that much as a non refundable diagnostic fee. Then expect another $1000 for them to put the data on another hard drive. Even then, you usually need to reinstall Windows and all your applications. This is just data recovery.
So in the long run, I hope you can see how practical the time and money it takes to keep your own data backed up is. There is no guarantee that when you wake up in the morning your hard drive will wake up with you. So do yourself a favor and take action sooner then later.
With 20 years of computer repairs behind me, I'm here to share some of the most popular problems and ways to avoid them in my new blog Computer Nightmares. Over the years, the main issues have shifted from hardware to software and I address both. All in an effort to save you from the troubles I've had to seen over and over again.
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