May 11, 2002

It seems we are going through another spell of hard drive failures. These things seem to be cyclic. Again, I'm having customers who either don't have things backed up or are not keeping track of their backup programs. Click here for the first discussion on backups and click here for some additional information if you are using a CD re-writer for you data backup storage. I'll try not to repeat too many things but I need to get people to understand the importance of knowing just a few things to keep from having major problems.

It would be a perfect world if we could just go to the store, buy a computer, take it home, plug it in, and have it do everything for us. Since we don't live in the perfect world, there are a few things, not many, which you should know to make sure you won't have a bad experience if your computer fails. A computer is by nature a very stupid machine. Maybe I should say a very fast stupid machine. It can only do what you tell it via software or hardware. When you install a program, usually data files are created in order to preserve your letters, invoices, spreadsheets, or whatever it is you are doing. Hard drives are vulnerable to failure so it is important to back up your data in case the computer fails, the house burns down, or someone steals the computer.

The hard drive is like a filing cabinet. It contains all the files used to make a program work and it also contains the data files the program files create. The first hard drive in a computer is designated as the C drive. If you have more than one hard drive, they follow as D, etc. The one good thing Microsoft has done with their office programs is have them default to storing files in the c:\my documents directory. This makes all the data files you create with office programs, whether it be Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, etc., the files go there by default. It would be nice if all programs defaulted to the same directory, then you could create sub-directories for each program and everything would be organized just like in a filing cabinet. Unfortunately, most programs will make a directory for data files or store them in the program directory. This means that each time you install a program, you must modify your backup program to include the new data files in your backup. This is the key point people don't keep track of. You must keep the backup configuration up to date for what is installed on your computer.

Microsoft also gets a thumbs down for the rest of their programs since they store files everywhere so you need to locate the files on your computer and include them in your backup. The first link in this page, which refers to the first backup discussion, gives a list of some of the files and locations, but keep in mind, everyone's computer is different and you need to make certain to keep your backup current and include any new program data files.

What happens if you have a hard drive crash and you don't have a backup? Well, all may not be lost, but if you want to get things back it may be very expensive. There are companies who can get data off of a bad drive but it will cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000 to accomplish this. I'm no authority on who is best to use. I have a client who used this company and had a good experience, other than having to spend the money for the restoration. I'm sure there are a lot of companies doing this same thing but the prices seem to all fall into the same range.

It always feels better to have someone else to blame if you have a problem and lose your stuff, but ultimately, it is your responsibility to maintain your backups. You need to approach the issue with the idea in mind that it is very possible that some day you will have a problem, so you need to be prepared.

If you have any questions or comments, click