My Hard Drive’s Fallen and It Can’t get up! By inRsite

Are you a backup slacker?  I just recently started backing up my important files.  I was once like you, until “IT” happened.  Most of you know what I’m talking about.  You go to turn on your computer, and you get this error message, “Hard disk drive failure” or “SMART imminent hard drive failure”, and that’s it.  The panicking begins as you frantically turn off the computer and turn it back on, thinking it is just a fluke, and the error comes up again.  You notice your heart rate increasing.  All your files (Pictures, Movies, Documents, School Work) are stored on that hard drive.  You pull out all the wires and lug your desktop or laptop to your local computer shop and tell the repairman, “My computer does not boot and I have all my kids’ baby pictures on the hard drive.”  They take it to the back and a couple of hours later you get that call.  You know it’s the news you did not want to hear.  Your hard drive is bad, and there is no way to recover the data.  You’re trying to hold back the tears, thinking why you never got into the habit of backing up your data.  (You hear that losing sound from the ‘Price is Right’ in your head) Backing up data use to be a daunting task, like organizing your closet.  Searching through all your files to determine what you want to protect and spending the weekend burning them to CDs or DVD’s.  Then you have to find a safe place to store all those discs.  But lately, things have changed.  Hard drives have become cheap.  External hard drives that could store thousands of music and pictures are well under $100.  Alternatively, you can rent space remotely.  There are many companies out there now that will let you store unlimited data for less than $100 a year.  If the inevitable happens to your computer, you can just download all your files over the internet. Both methods have its pros and cons.  Backing up your data using an external hard drive is fast and flexible.  The downside is that your data won’t survive a fire, flood, or other disasters.  Even if you are lucky enough not to experience Mother Nature’s wrath, all hard drives will fail eventually.  Also, many people who back up to external hard drives don’t use redundancy.  The proper way is to keep a copy of your data on 2 or more hard drives, such as your computer and external hard drive.  If your external hard drive fails, you have all your data still on your computer, and vice versa. The main advantage of backing up online:  Hard drives at online server farms are constantly backed up.  The companies have hard drives backing up hard drives which are getting backed up at another location usually in a different state.  How more redundant can you get!  You can tell Mother Nature to do its best, because you know that your data is safe and secure.  The downside is that uploading your data to the server farms can take a long time depending on your internet connection and how much data you want to back up.  Many companies have software that you install on your computer where you can set a schedule to back up your data at a certain time.  No need to copy and paste files back and forth to your external hard drive.  It will automatically synchronize your files.  Talk about easy.  It’s like those late night food infomercials, “Set it and forget it”.  Say goodbye to that title “Backup Slacker”.  Of course, if you’re really paranoid about your data, you can always just do both.  Cheap storage now makes this sort of redundant backup feasible.   I have done research on a lot of online backup companies such as Mozy and Carbonite.  There are many out there, but which one is good.  It is tough to tell.  There are so many factors that are involved such as price, customer service, and how easy the software is.  I personally use a company called ibackup.  Their price is reasonable for the amount of storage they give you.  Their customer service was up to par and always helped with my issues.  They even have mobile solutions for the iphones.  Whatever you choose, choose something and do it before it’s too late. For more information on ibackup, check out our website at www.inrsite.com and click on the ibackup link at the top of the page.