The five stages of data-loss grief

My hard drive has so far never failed. But because i always fiddle with my computers settings i have wiped my hard drive and crashed my computer many times and lost all my data in the process. I'm never going to learn.

6º step is forget to backup and start the loop

A good case for either having a backup HDD (one that is only used to backup your important information then placed on a shelve), or use DVDs for backing up your files (have about fifty DVDs with music and pictures).

Also a good sign of 20/20 hind sight. . .I'll back it up tomorrow. . .oh wait. . .

Hi there
I think you forgot the 6th stage

Ah well --I didn't really need it anyway -- now I've cleaned up my Drive(s).

In any case nobody should EVER be allowed within 100 KM from a computer until the word BACKUP becomes throughly burned on to their brains.

Data Loss IS INEVITABLE - but RECOVER can be 100% if you just take regular backups.

It doesn't matter HOW experienced a user you are -- data loss will occur at sometime due to accident, user error or hardware (or even software) failure.

Cheers
jimbo

This is why I bought 2 external hard drives and mirrored them, this way If one dies I always have something to fall back on. Thay are very cheap these days a 500gig model can be found for under £60

Toshiba 500GB External Hard Drive USB 8MB Cache - Retail - Ebuyer

I've got a mirrored network drive setup thatis backed up and all BUT, for those that just never seem to be able to get it done, here is a really decent backup strategy that prevents total loss while being 100% effortless...

Every couple of years, LONG before any HD would fail from age, when you want to upgrade an OS or you buy a new machine or just want to reinstall the OS to clean it out... buy a new HD! Copy the contents from the old one and let the old one sit on the shelf. Tada! Instant backup of everything you have to that point.

I know WAY too many people that try to hang on to their HD for 5 years or longer, even moving it from machine to machine to save money and that's just courting disaster. Always get a new HD, save the old one, do not reformat or repurpose it till you have at least one more newer "backup".