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Verdict and a sensible, affordable way to preserve your data

In our meeting with Xyber Data recovery, the strategy that was we both agreed on is that since the cost to the user of brand new drives is so low compared to previous years, that for solid data integrity and security two drives should be purchased, with the second drive containing a backup mirror of the contents of the second and this drive should be stored securely away from a computer except for periodically running the drive and refreshing the contents of the drive.

This process helps eliminate the possibly of the read/write heads inside the Hard Disk Drive from sticking to the disk platter, an issue that is prevalent especially with drives in smaller form factors as the heads are physically smaller and more likely to stick but this issue is not as common as it once was. Running a spare drive occasionally reduces the possibility of this scenario.

We noticed the firm’s interesting slogan on some promotional material that was being distributed :

“You did backup today, didn’t you?”

This statement more than true and even the most hardened and battle scared IT administrator, system builder or user would be guilty of ignoring this statement.

As our role as an advocate for users, Hard Disk Drive technology/quality/reliability is an interest area of ours because it is an important one. The world is storing their lives and history digitally on storage media especially Hard Disk Drives.

We remind our readers that there never will be a ‘worst drive ever’ as the technology used in magnetic hard drives is inherently flawed and can not be relied upon for long term archival storage.

The national archives of the world have recognised this and begun research into the best strategy to manage their long term archival Hard Disk Drives that are in secure storage, even Google commissioned a study into their own internal hard disk failure rates.

In our research and interaction with the user community we have noticed a way too common trend of users not copying their data, but moving it between drives, and loosing it quickly after due to hardware failure.

As mentioned previously in our article approximate prices of large capacity Hard Disk Drives are now $100 AUD and not the $500 they once were; Blank CD/DVDs are 50 cents and Flash media like USB sticks and SD cards are $15 AUD.

While time may be still a valid excuse to ignore the integrity of your data, cost is no longer an excuse.

What are your memories, work and entertainment worth to you?

Make Multiple Copies Of Your Important Files

We cannot emphasise this enough.

CeBIT Australia 2008 | You did backup today, didn't you? Common Hard Disk Failures on display and explained

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Verdict and a sensible, affordable way to preserve your data

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