By COLIN LUCK
Well 5 days ago I got in a computer repair which at first seemed a simple job as the Hard Drive had died a natural death and needed replacing. The owner supplied all the original install disks for all of his programs and it appeared to be nothing more than replacing the failed Hard Drive and a complete reload, and that's how I quoted for the job. A few hours work and a Hard Drive, the owner's mother accepted the quote and I was instructed to repair the computer.
Well two days latter when I rang up telling them that their computer was repaired I got to speak to the owner who as it turns out is a Post Graduate Student at University and in his third year of his PhD studies. He casually asked did I have any trouble restoring all his data? To which I had to reply that as the hard drive was non-functional and didn't even spin up when power was applied I couldn't recover any data from the drive in question. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then in a very quite voice I was asked: "Are you trying to tell me that all my work is gone?" I had to reply in the affirmative and explain that he should have no trouble in restoring from his backup copies as now everything was working perfectly and with a much bigger Hard Drive he had all the space that he would require for a very long time. There was a short silence and then the question: "Whats a Backup?"
It then struck me that all of this person's work was now gone into cyber oblivion and without going to considerable expense it would prove impossible to recover any of his work that would prove so vital to his studies.
Now many may think that it was his fault for not backing up all of his data, but sadly this is now the norm rather than the exception, as computers are now considered as everyday tools that are reliable and don't give any problems. When they break you just go out and buy a new one. Sadly this is not true. Computers began life and remain as very complicated electronic devices that are prone to failure, and now that computers have reached the level of being considered as a necessity rather than a luxury it is almost impossible not to find at least one in every student's inventory. They have become a necessary tool for every student, most people and more so with the laptops that are currently available.
Now there are two major problems with owning these devices: the first is failure of the storage device, namely the Hard Drive, or in the case of laptops their theft. It is now more important than ever to perform regular backups just to keep your data which was and still is the most important item contained in any computer. All too often people think about the price that they have paid for the computer and forget about the "Value" of their personal records. The latter is always far more valuable than the cost of any number of computers as it is this that can not be replaced when something amiss occurs.
Anyone can buy 100 computers very quickly, but it is impossible to recover one character of the stored data at a reasonable price when something like this happens, and if the computer is stolen then all the data is lost forever. As it turned out the records where recoverable but at a price, as I still had the failed hard drive. All that I had to do was package it up and send it away for Data Recovery. It's going to cost another $US 400 - 500 and take several weeks to be returned, but it is a good outcome for this person.
As well as a very valuable lesson and a cheap one as well because it has been possible to save all of his work. But this added expense would have been unnecessary if he had followed a few simple rules from the beginning. It would have been far worse if the computer which was a laptop had been stolen because then all of his work would have been gone without the chance for recovery.
Just to put things into perspective here the Hard Drive replacement and reload cost $308.00 and the cost of recovering the data from the hard drive is going to cost somewhere near double this, plus the freight for the failed hard drive to the United States and return - not to mention the delay in getting his work back, so for the next few weeks hopefully this person can do very little in his studies.
This whole mess could have been prevented very easily just by performing routine backups of all work that is stored on the computer to a storage media that is kept away from the computer and, if done properly, kept off site as well so that if something like a fire happens you can be up and running again within a few hours.
Now a lot of people might think that this only applies to students and business people but this is not the case, as anyone who stores any form of work on a computer needs at the very least 3 backup copies at all times. Even something as simple as your expense records must be kept by law for 5 years for taxation purposes, and if you write any letters or send e-mails then these must be stored just in case some form of legal action is brought against you. It is a simple matter to forward on an e-mai, but change its contents to something totally different to what you originally sent or wrote and your computer records with their date stamp are your only defence against this form of action. If you can prove that what ended up where ever didn't originate from your computer you are off the hook in a legal sense, but if these records are gone you are behind the eight ball without any form of defence.
Now the more savvy people out there keep these records on their second computer, which nowadays is normally an old one that while still functional is slow and only useful as a backup storage device. Or they may have a work station to go along with their laptops and all these computers are networked together because this is a simple and inexpensive option. But even this way they lack any form of Data Security as it only takes one lighting strike, fire (and we’ve all seen enough of these this year) or thief to totally destroy all their records and they would then be in the same position as the abovementioned Uni Student, but without any possible proof of their innocence or guilt if some form of action is brought against them.
With the advent of cheap Accounting Packages many people are now doing their Tax Returns on their Home Computers. Now just think in the case of an audit how far you would get with the Taxation Department just by saying something like:"Well as you know I live in Canberra and my house and all its contents where destroyed in the recent fire that swept through the area so I have no records to produce for this Audit"
Now that you know what might happen what can you do to prevent it from affecting you?
Well the simple answer is if you, like most of us, have nothing to hide BACKUP EVERYTHING from what you would expect as necessary like any letters, spread sheets, data bases that you may have written, to all your financial records that you store on your computer as well as all your e-mails both sent and received. In short backup everything no matter how unimportant if may appear to you. And perform these backups regularly and rigorously.
With the current backup software that is built into Windows or even the third party offerings they not only perform this backup but also retain the time stamps of when these entries where made. So armed with your Backup Copy even if your computer has been stolen or destroyed, and in extreme cases impounded by the Authorities, you will always have a record of what was on your computers. So that way you will always have the upper hand if anything happens. Remember, records can be changed by an expert to make you look guilty, but with a complete and current backup any improper changes made to your computer can be immediately discredited.
The proper way to proceed here depends on exactly how often you use your computers. Some people may require a daily backup and others may only find it necessary to do a backup once a month or anything in between, as there are no hard and fast rules. But it is always the best idea to follow normal business practice and retain at least a 3 copy backup set which you rotate every time you perform a backup. That is, you use the oldest backup to store the latest backup on and you keep changing these around as you make successive backups. Then following best practices you keep the latest backup copy off site (that is away from your home) at, for a personal level a family member's or friend's house to even a Bank Safety Deposit Box if you feel the need. If you already have one this would be a perfect place to store your copies -- it all depends an exactly what your computer usage actually is as to what you need to do, but always try to have one copy away from home as it is pointless performing these backups only to see them all destroyed/stolen in one incident.
Currently the most popular method of backing up is to a re-writable CD as it is relatively fast, very inexpensive and reasonably long lasting provided you take a few basic steps to protect these backup copies. Short of physical damage to these CDs the only way to corrupt the data stored on them is to leave them exposed to direct sunlight. This can do one of two things: the first is just wipe the data by UV exposure or the CD can warp through heat damage as anyone who has left a cassette in your car on the dashboard on a sunny day can tell you.
A less popular option but becoming more popular is to backup to DVD as these disks are the same size as a CD but hold about 10 times the capacity of the average CD, and now that the price of DVD recorders is coming down to what most people can afford and the media is nearly as cheap, this will be the option of the near future. But that doesn’t mean that you have to throw out your current CD recorders and buy a new DVD recorder. However next time that you buy a new computer it will most likely come with a DVD recorder instead of the current CD recorders that are all so common nowadays.
You could also resort to backing up to floppies or even tape, but these are far more expensive for the normal person and unless there is only a very small amount of data concerned the floppies prove far more expensive than CDs and a lot less reliable because, if one of the set becomes damaged then the whole set is ruined. The Tape option is heavily used in business but the drives are expensive and the media that you store the data on is expensive as well and both of these options are subject to dust and magnetic problems. As a general rule these are not the most user friendly ways to perform this type of thing and with floppies if anymore than 8 - 10 are required it is a very time consuming process that rapidly looses the interest of the user.
There is one other method of performing backups and this is the incremental method, where you keep adding to your existing backup media and only backup any new data that has been stored on your computer since the last time you performed a backup. While this is a highly effective method of backing up it generally relies on third party software as well as the fact that you need access to all your backup sets every time that you perform a backup. While this is mainly a business solution owing to its cost, it is a highly effective method as these backups can be configured to run automatically in the background and the only thing that the user is required to do is supply the backup media as required. But as a general rule this is outside the home user's range of options because of the costs involved.
Finally there is one last method of performing backups and this involves using a hard drive in a removable caddy and all types of backup can be performed in this manner, and then the caddy with its hard drive is just removed and replaced with another one for the next backup procedure. While at first this may appear an expensive alternative it is highly cost effective, particularly since the advent of cheap large hard drives and for under $200 you can have one of these hard drives installed along with its caddy. But the one major problem with this method is that most people treat this removable hard drive as extra space and don't remove the drive when they aren't using the computer. So while being highly cost effective it proves mostly a useless option as if anything happens to the computer the backup drive is affected as well. So the whole point of the exercise is lost.. And even if they do remove the Hard drive Caddy from its mounting it is normally kept in the house, so if anything happens to the house the drive is still affected however if the destruction of the drive occurs it may still be possible to recover the data provided that the drive hasn't been subject to heat, water or strong magnetic fields, but at a cost that is prohibitive in all but extreme cases. This option is mainly used in small business where the drive caddy is removed when work is finished for the day and taken home with the owner or their delegate.
As an absolute last option it is possible to recover all the data off a hard drive provided that the magnetic material remains on the platters and this method can even recover different layers of data so if you were to write data to a drive and then overwrite it 100 times or more it is possible to recover every data layer. But this is a very expensive business and at present only used by Government Agencies who have the necessary funds to pay for this data recovery. Also it is used mostly for Legal reasons where it is thought that some criminal has deliberately wiped the Hard Drive in an effort to hide what they have done.
