Always back up all our precious data.
That’s one of the very first rules we learn, and one we keep delaying for one reason or another.
In my case, I did back up my data (more than 5 years worth of family photos). It was in my aging home PC and in my laptop, and I thought I burnt it into a CDROM too.
However, if you cannot find your backup, it is as good as not having done a backup. Similarly if you cannot access your backup which can happen.
In my case, I cannot locate the CDROM (now I am not even sure if I did burn it). And my laptop was returned to my previous employer when I changed jobs earlier this year so the photos were on my PC hard disk.
When my brother offered me his old PC (still newer than mine), I shut down my PC to do a re-installation and move my stuff over later when I find the time.
When I finally tried to start my PC 2 months later, it refused. My hard disks crashed and along with it went all my precious photos.
Refusing to panic, I moved the hard disks to my newer PC and tried to see if I can boot it up. It failed.
Next up, search the internet for hard disk data recovery services. I found quite a few and chose one. After a few days, the evaluation report came back – read/write head electrical damage and severe damage to the platter. All of which means it requires major surgery and major costs with no guarantee that all the data will be recovered. I am still agonizing over whether to proceed due to the costs involved.
And hoping that some contacts can provide a less costly alternative.
So, don’t wait to do your backups. In a way, backups are very similar to insurance policies, you don’t want to use it but you should at least have sufficient coverage.
BACK UP YOUR DATA TODAY!
If you can help me, please contact me NOW- you can do it while your data is being backed up.
Also share how you do your backup. I am setting up my backup solution soon.
Filed under: Family, Happenings, Hardware, Notes
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