There is a great variation in the problems with which we are confronted at Dataclinic. They generally involve some kind of data recovery, often after the failure of a hard disk or a Raid system, but there is a painful consistency in the conversations we have with customers.
No matter what the problem might be the customer will invariably stress the critical, sometimes emotional, importance of retrieving the “lost data” and, while we respectfully sympathise, our stock response is to ask if the customer had backed up the data. And this is the point at which the sad, culpable admission is often – all too often – made: “I MEANT TO!” Meant to….intended to. Sadly, and we hear this so often in the wake of data loss or hard disk failure, all too often people suffer a calamity when a hard disk or a RAID System, or even something smaller like a laptop or a memory stick, dies and the inconvenience is made a thousand times worse because the person has failed to do the one, simple, vital thing. BACK UP THE DATA. It really is that simple.
A regular pattern of ensuring that important files are backed-up onto a separate device or storage system. It can be midly annoying, and even irritating, but that simple manouevre, performed regularly, can help ensure that the inconvenience of hard disk failure is prevented from turning into a disaster. It costs nothing, except for a little time, and yet can prove to be absolutely priceless as a means of getting your system and, crucially, your most important files up and running very quickly. One of the old pieces of wisdom about personal health is that Prevention is Better than Cure, and this applies even more in the technological areas of Hard Disks and Raid Systems.
We can invariably cure a system which has crashed or died but we would always urge our customers to try to prevent disasters rather than simply rely on our expertise to repair damaged units or retrieve lost data. So the wise word must be, and always will be, BACK UP THE DATA!