Your data is the most important thing on your computer. Whether it’s a project for work or some family photos you keep on it, these items can sometimes be irreplaceable. The question is how protected are you to not lose these important files? According to recent research, there is an estimated 140,000 hard drive failures in the United States every week! If you don’t want to be one of those numbers, there are some simple things you need to know about hard drive failures and how you can protect yourself from becoming a statistic.

You may be asking yourself, what is a hard drive and what does it do? I’ve heard many people confuse hard drive for their actual computer. A hard drive is a mechanical device inside your computer. It’s the device that holds all the files on your computer, from the operating system files to your family photos. It is made up of magnetic platters that rotate on a spindle. Each time you create a file on your computer that information is written to those platters. There are many different types of hard drives out today. They differ by the storage capacities, to different interfaces, even different storage methods! With the recent release of Solid State Hard Drives, which take away the mechanical portion of the hard drive, hard drive failures still exist. There are companies out there that can professionally recover your data, but it can be a very expensive process.

To avoid that route, what can you do to make sure your data is safe? There are several methods you can take. Your computer probably has some type of recordable drive in it. They are pretty common among computers in today’s age. With a little research, you can find a program that will be easy for you to use that will help assist in backing up your files to a portable CD/DVD disc. This has been the most common method for backing up files for years. However with recent technology, you don’t have to keep spending money on CD/DVD discs and adding to an overabundance library of backup discs.

Portable USB drives, commonly referred to as flash drives or thumb drives, are another method of backing up your files. It’s a little device you plug into your computers USB ports and gets recognized as a storage device, kind of similar to having a miniature hard drive. Once inserted into the computer, you can move or copy the files you wish to save onto the device quickly and without the cost of having to go someplace to buy more CD/DVD discs. Keep in mind though with its smaller size, it can be easily lost or misplaced. Keep it someplace you will be able to easily find it, like next to your computer monitor.

There are also portable hard drives, or more commonly known as external hard drives. These are also USB devices, similar to the USB flash drives, but are larger in size and are able to hold more storage capacity that the smaller USB flash drives.

Another method is doing an online backup. There are several companies out there that offer an online backup program which can be automated, meaning you don’t have to worry about backing the information up yourself. It’s usually a program that they will have you install onto your computer that will guide you through the process of selecting the files you want to backup. Once selected, it will copy the files you want to their servers for safe keeping. This is usually a priced method in the form of a monthly fee, but it still a good method in case of an accident such as a burglary or house fire that could render your backups useless.

A lot of businesses rely on one of those methods of backup as well as having a different hard drive setup. Most servers (which is a more powerful version of a personal computer) for companies contain what’s known as a hard drive array, which usually consists of several hard drives in the computer. This helps the company protect against a single hard drive failure and is something that can be replaced quickly as to not affect their business for an extended period of time (I will discuss raid in a later article).

Another thing to note about making sure you reduce the chance of hard drive failure is computer maintenance. Making sure you keep your computer on a surge protector can help protect your computer in case of a power spike or brown out (sudden increase or decrease in power throughout your home). You should also make sure you keep the computer in a well ventilated area to protect your computer components from overheating as this can be another common method of failure. Depending on your environment, remove the dust build up from inside your computer may be something you want to plan on doing as dust and smoke from cigarettes can act as an insulator on your components, which could cause them to overheat as well.

Overall, hard drive failures can come when you least expect them to. It pays to understand how to avoid losing your data in case it does. Making sure you backup the data from your computer is something that shouldn’t be overlooked as once it happens, it could be a costly and time consuming process, which in the end may not even guarantee you get the data back safely without any type of file corruption. By educating yourself on hard drives and backing up your files on a set schedule, you can rest easy at night knowing that your important data is safe as long as you are backing it up!