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How to Prepare For A Hard Drive Crash
Its just a matter of time before
you experience a hard drive problem. Are you prepared
to loose your data? If your hard drive crashed right
now do you have an action plan to follow?
Most people only think of backing up their data after
they experience a problem. Don't set yourself up for
a data loss disaster.
Your data integrity action plan should
consist of the following:
1) How often you will back up your data
2) What data you will back up
3) What back up procedure you will use
How often you back up your data can
only be determined by how important you feel it is.
Answer this question "If my hard drive crashed
right now, I would be alright if I had the data from
at least (time) ago".
Of course you would want everything
but if you could have the data from 1 month, or 6 months
ago would that be sufficient? Whatever time is sufficient
mark it on your calendar both a hard copy and set up
a meeting on your PC to remind you.
You change your smoke detector batteries
when you turn your clock back and when you turn it ahead
right? Well back up your data then too.
If you don't change your clocks then
pick some holidays or special dates that happen close
to the timeframe you want to back up your data so you
won't forget.
What data you back up depends on how
you use your PC. Some of the key directories, if you
are using Windows, are the My Documents, Favorites and
Desktop directories.
Remember if you are using multiple profiles
on your PC then the three directories above can be different
for each profile and each one would need to be backed
up.
You will also want to include your email
data. Don't forget to write down the email accounts
you have. You should also write down any username and
passwords so they are not lost. You should look at every
directory to see if it has information that you would
need.
Make a list of all the software programs
you are using. If you have the physical CDs put them
all together in a safe location.
Don't forget the CDs for your peripherals
like your scanner, digital camera, PDA etc… Collecting
these CDs may remind you of additional data that you
need to back up.
If you are running software that you
installed from downloaded files, burn them to a CD-R
and add it to your collection. If you use a CD-R or
DVD-R you can update it as you download and install
new applications.
What procedure you use to back up your
data can be determined by the amount of data you want
to back up. Your data might fit onto a CD or DVD in
which case you just need to burn it and you're done.
If it spans multiple DVDs then you might
want to consider getting a second hard drive to copy
your data onto. If you are not comfortable with adding
a second internal hard drive or you are using a laptop
then you can purchase an external hard drive to back
up your data.
The information you have on your hard
drive could disappear in a flash. If you don't want
to spend up to $3,000 to have a data recovery company
retrieve what information they can from your hard drive,
then take a few minutes right now and create your back
up action plan.
If you ever have a data emergency your
action plan will be your insurance policy. If you adhere
to it, your valuable data will adhere to you!
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