Just a reminder – your data isn't permanent

Iseem to get a call about once a month now involving data recovery, so just a note to everyone who uses computers to do things: back up your data. If your data is important to you, don't assume it is safe unless it's backedup, because:

• If you get a ransomware virus, your data is gone (or at the least, expensive to retrieve).

• If the hard drive inside your computer fails (median lifetime of most hard drives is about 6 years while 25% fail within the first 4 years), your data is gone.

• If the motherboard or power supply in your computer fails, your data may be gone.

• If your operating system or computer memory does something unexpected, your data may be gone.

• If you get a power spike/lightning strike and it makes it past your power supply, your data is gone.

• If you have a blackout/brownout, your data may be gone.

• If you accidentally delete your data, your data is gone.

• If someone else deletes your data, your data is gone.

• If your computer is stolen, your data is gone.

• If someone steps on the screen of your laptop and it doesn't have an external display port, you're gonna have to pay someone to retrieve the data or your data is gone.

If your data is gone, your data is Gone. When data is gone it doesn't tend to come back much, if at all.

The easiest way to make data 'not gone' is to back it up to an external hard drive ($70 a terabyte nowadays) using a free backup program like the ones built into Mac OSX and Windows.

Another method is to have your documents in 'the cloud' (online on a server, somewhere) using Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive.

The best solution is probably to do both, but it depends on how important your data is to you.

Be smart, be safe.