Public service announcement
In the last two weeks two people I know have each suffered mechanical hard drive failures.
One lost three years of work, the other lost irreplaceable family pictures and a significant media investment.
So given that any hard drive could fail at any moment, ask yourself these questions.
1 - What is the value to you of the data on your hard drive, either at home or at work in monetary or emotional terms?
2 - Do you have a back-up? Is it recent? Do you understand how it works and the limitations inherent to it?
3 - If you do have a back-up have you checked to make sure it works in the way you think it does?
4 - Do the answers to any of the previous questions make you feel uncomfortable?
The poor chap who lost 3 years of work was convinced his worked was being backed up to a central server. It turned out that in theory it was, although sadly in practice this did not cover the actual folder where he actually saved his data to.
One lost three years of work, the other lost irreplaceable family pictures and a significant media investment.
So given that any hard drive could fail at any moment, ask yourself these questions.
1 - What is the value to you of the data on your hard drive, either at home or at work in monetary or emotional terms?
2 - Do you have a back-up? Is it recent? Do you understand how it works and the limitations inherent to it?
3 - If you do have a back-up have you checked to make sure it works in the way you think it does?
4 - Do the answers to any of the previous questions make you feel uncomfortable?
The poor chap who lost 3 years of work was convinced his worked was being backed up to a central server. It turned out that in theory it was, although sadly in practice this did not cover the actual folder where he actually saved his data to.