If you've been using computers for any length of time, you
should know that one of the most important parts of a PC is the
hard drive.
Now, it is critical that you understand this - the hard
drive is one of the most delicate components in a PC and it can fail. When
troubleshooting a PC, hard drive
failures are one of the first things I look out for.
The worst thing is, when that happens, you could lose your
favorite data as well. So it is important to do regular backups of your data to
ensure no problems occur.
This article will look into some reasons why hard drives fail
and what you can do to protect your stuff.
1. Why Hard Drives Fail
What are the primary causes of hard drive failures? Here's a
list to ponder over:
Age - hard drives will grow old and get bad sectors. It
is a fact of computer life.
Viruses are dangerous programs which can infect your hard drive
and make them unreadable. You'd be wise to invest in a good anti-virus program like McAfee
VirusScan.
Physical damage. If you happen to drop a hard drive, the
disk can be severely damaged.
2. How to Protect Your Data
Since hard drives can fail, what do you do? Well, the wisest thing to do is to
regularly back up your data. I think that backup needs to be stored outside of
the hard drive. Here are some backup ideas:
Using a second hard drive.
You can buy a second hard drive, install it and use it as a quick backup tool.
Of course, it will cost you money.
CD-R/CD-RW or DVD-R/DVD-RW. This is the method I'd use. I currently use a lot of DVDs
for backing up my own data. A CD can hold up to 650 MB and a DVD up to 4.7 GB.
That's plenty, plenty of room.
Online Storage.
Another thing to consider is online storage. It is also very convenient but you
probably only want to choose this route if you have a fast, broadband connection.
Here's a
cheap online backup service you can consider.
3.
What Data Do I Back Up?
It's important to create a standard list of items that you need to backup. Here
is my list:
Pictures
Music
Video files
Important Documents (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Internet Explorer or Firefox bookmarks
Email addresses
Old email
Conclusion
I do hope this article has given you some
insight into why hard drives fail and what you can do to protect your data. It
is critical to remember these points - I've personally lost data to hard drive
failures and I can tell you, it is not a joke.
It's also always a great idea to back up your
hard drive regularly before it fails. One of the best tools for this is Acronis
True Image.
Click here to find out more.
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