Business & Work

Cas de Heus of Freecom has wise advice: we all have so much important data stored on our computers, but if your hard drive breaks it can all be lost in the blink of an eye.

The loss of treasured family photos and videos can be devastating, which is why more and more people recognise that it’s vital to back up all this information in multiple locations to be extra sure this won’t happen.

The amount of data saved on home computers is growing at a rapid pace. Given the popularity of Internet download applications for music and other digital media, it’s more important than ever that everyone takes measures to safeguard their data. Unfortunately, hard drives can crash for a number of reasons, many of which are unavoidable. Luckily, there are simple steps that everyone can take to extend the life of their storage devices and protect the information stored on them.

First and foremost, it is important to look after existing hard drives by keeping them away from sources of heat and leaving the ventilation fan free from obstruction. Overheating or even temperature differences caused by air-conditioning can shorten the life of a drive or even cause it to break, putting precious files at risk. Knocks and bumps don’t help either – in fact, a physical blow can put your drive at the greatest risk of permanent data loss.
Regularly defragmenting system drives is simple and optimises space on the drive, reducing the movement of the mechanical components inside which helps to avoid excessive wear. It is also vital to keep up to date with anti-virus software, as there are a number of malware programs that are specifically designed to attack hard drives.

If the unthinkable happens and your hard drive crashes, it’s important to resist the urge to tamper with the device. Different recovery techniques will be needed depending on the kind of damage – using the wrong one can actually do more harm than good. It’s best to leave it to the experts, and with a bit of forward planning, computer users can avoid footing a hefty bill for data recovery, as hard drives can be insured very cheaply with full data recovery services in the event of a crash.

Of course, the best way to protect data is to store it in more than one place – ideally on a separate external hard drive. In order to reduce the danger of losing the data stored on hard drives – whether it’s photos, music, videos or word documents – it’s important that computer users learn to spot the risks and take steps to safeguard and recover their data should anything go wrong.

...................................................................................

FREECOM Hard Drive XS 3.0

• Stores up to 2TB of data
• Unprecedented data transfer
• Transfers files in seconds - approx 130 MB/s

www.freecom.com