This was a question that was recently put by forward on a TV consumer show. One guy had his hard disk crashed and lost all data. He was able to get his hard disk replaced because of a warranty.
To retrieve the data he had it sent to a data recovery company to get it recovered. The price tag was about $ 1500. But, he also wanted to have that extra cost covered by the same warranty.
I'm not a lawyer, but I believe it is quite clear that any warranty from any hard disk manufacturer doesn't include restoration of data. That said, with the long life time and high durability of today's hard disks they could very well afford this when it is caused by a hard disk failure.
As long as the hard disk only have a mechanical or electronic fault and it have not been exposed to water or fire the track record for restoring the data by a professional data recovery company is quite good. However, you have to expect to pay a chunk of money to have it restored. And you can never be 100 % sure they will succeed.
It's always worthwhile to backup all your data or at least backup the data that is most important for you. This is the best warranty against data loss.
If you use the computer for leisure, playing games or surfing the Internet you may not need to take any backup at all. But today, more and more people store important document and information on their computers. Some store data vital to their professional life. This can be years of work such as academic thesis or it can be the content for a new book they are writing. Most people store at least some important information such as address books, emails, text documents, family pictures, music or company records.
Should you take backup? If so, what type of backup is best for you?
This all depends on: The value of the data if it becomes lost. The time it will take to recreate lost data. The cost to make the backup.
In most cases the data you need to backup are limited to specific files or folders. If that is the case you don't need to backup the complete hard drive and the cost to make backup is reduced. If you only need to backup documents, emails and address books then there are many cheaper alternatives including USB flash memory keys, online backup or backup to CD's/DVD's.
If you install important software from Internet then you need to take a full backup of the hard disk at least once. This is because nearly all software programs store system related information in what is called the reg keys deep in the operating system which must be backed up on a full backup.
As an alternative, make sure that you save the installation files and any accompanied software registration keys in one specific folder after you have downloaded the software. If you do this and include the folder in one of your regular smaller backup, then you are capable to recreate it.
If you get a hard disk crash and you want to minimize the downtime and you don't want the hassle to install the operating system and all the software's you have on installation CD's. If that is the case then you should consider making a disk image backup.
This is a backup of the complete disk drive. Included in the disk image software is a boot utility. From it you can create boot diskettes or boot CD's.
Thus, if you hard disk crashes you first install a new hard disk. Next you boot up from your diskette or CD. From the boot program you are then able to create your disk image directly on the new hard disk. So by doing this type of restoration you don't have to install the operating system and all you other programs from any installation CD's. This saves you time.
Copyright 2006 Per Strandberg
Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Data Backup Recovery" article category.
People interested in the above article "If Your Hard Disk Crashes, Is Your Data Covered By Any Warranty?" are also interested in the related articles listed below:
Computers have become the lifeblood in every walk of life. The user should take of the data and ensure that the hard disk does not collapse. Loss of data occurs mostly due to virus invasion and sabotage. The records are lost mainly due to hacking and virus infestation. The person utilizing the computer should keep a support of the important data at the back end. The experts advise to accumulate the records in the D drive.
The tips mentioned in this article will help you a lot in safeguarding your crucial data during the monsoon season. If you follow these tips during monsoon, then you will prevent data loss incidences to a large extent. Still if any such occurrence of water-damage happens, then you can always take help of data recovery software, provided by Recover Data.
A server failure can be a huge issue but it is not the end of your business. There are a number of ways to prevent and solve such problems with little disruption should they unfortunately come about - welcome to the world of disaster recovery services. Computers are paramount to every successful business and the need to have a contingency plan in place should anything happen to your precious data is a necessity.
One of the main advantages of online backup is that once uploaded it can't be burned, flooded, lost, stolen or corrupted. Your online backup provider will store your data in a secure data centre. Data Centres' are extremely secure and offer high levels of redundancy for your data. Your data will most likely be balanced across a number of sites meaning that even if one site was to be destroyed by a freak hurricane your data would remain safe.
Once again we are here to tell something about best data recovery software. Because at present, there are numerous Windows data recovery software is an available on the internet market. Every user wants the best data recovery software by paying minimum. So, let's take a look at How to choose best data recovery software to recover deleted folders and emails.
Data recovery includes recovering data from media that may not run correctly. Data recovery is a highly specialized field that can meet most of the problems of data loss. Data loss can occur in strange and mysterious, and each incident of data loss may differ from each other. Because of these changes, the price of data recovery is heavy or light on the pocket. Data recovery in general can be a costly process. It can cost several hundred pounds to get exactly the kind of data loss incidents evaluated.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, 93 per cent of companies that lose their data center for ten or more days due to disaster end up filing for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. This demonstrates the necessity for adequate data management and business disaster recovery systems to ensure continuity of any business. Secure offsite data protection, reliable data backup services and support play an important role in ensuring that your business runs smoothly and results in profitability.
