Harry recently enjoyed red carpet treatment during his escapades in the mysterious land of data recovery. He learned a valuable lesson – like, the real way to back up data.
The Geek Squad went one step further and outdid themselves by preparing a little something special for our readers. Go ahead. Open the door. Take a look inside…
Computers have become a central focus of our modern world. We communicate, share memories and store every iota of personal information. Rarely do we consider the consequences of losing our data.
Imagine storing your entire digital life in one place, and then one day… it’s all gone.
This unfortunate incident happens all too frequently. I hear the story on a daily basis while working in Data Recovery.
My name is Agent Matthew Gotth-Olsen, and I work for the Geek Squad.
I want to give some advice with the hope that you gain a healthy respect for backing up your computer. The first step in our little journey is to quantify your data.
Your data consists of photos, Microsoft Word documents, tax return information, business contacts or even internet browser bookmarks. Can you imagine if you no longer had access to the email you’ve been saving for the past 3 years? Catastrophic.
Here’s a little bit of insight into what I do on a daily basis:
The majority of data emergencies come from deleted or corrupted files. Recently deleted files can be relatively easily retrieved in very good shape. However the longer you use your computer after deleting a file, the less chance you have of getting it back.
This is due to the way your computer stores files. When a computer deletes a file, it only deletes the reference to the file. It’s sort of like not having a street address for your house. Your house is still there, but no one can deliver your mail.
As time goes on, your computer stores information in parts of the space that your deleted file occupies, slowly taking various-sized chunks out of it. The sooner you stop using your computer, the better chance you’ll have to recover your data.
Another frequent problem that I run into is a corrupt partition. A partition can be thought of as a filing cabinet. When a partition becomes corrupt, files can be out of order, filed in the wrong place, the contents of folders mixed in different areas of the cabinet or the entire cabinet can even be locked.
What I do is essentially reorder and reassemble this mixed-up filing cabinet.
The worst problem anyone can have is mechanical failure or physical damage. This includes (but is not limited to) the circuit board on the bottom of the drive failing, the motor in the drive burning out, or something breaking loose inside the drive that damages the platters.
Just like a scratched record, damaged platters can remove data from your drive entirely. This can be caused by minor defects on the surface of the drive or even something breaking free and skipping across the surface.
As most drives spin at 7200 revolutions per minute or faster, this can cause massive damage.
The only way to retrieve your data at this point is in a clean room. Drives with physical damage are disassembled in a Class 100 clean room, and the physical failure is temporarily repaired in order to retrieve your data.
These three different types of recovery also directly correspond to the three levels that we offer in Geek Squad Data Recovery. We use numerous proprietary techniques to extract your data in the various levels of file degradation. Sometimes they include a combination of the issues that I described.
I’ll outline several actions you can take to prevent these issues from happening:
One is the loneliest number…
In my experience, the first step is safeguarding your data is storing it on multiple devices. A good portion of customers that I speak to say they back up their information to their external drive.
While it is good that they are thinking of backing up their data and getting into that habit, they usually move their data to an external device for convenience instead of duplicating it to their backup drive. This gives a single point of failure that is easily disrupted.
External drives experience a myriad of issues, from the power supply failing to a power surge to accidentally being bumped off your desk.
Never put all your eggs in one basket.
Instead of a single external drive to store your information, use two – one for regular data backup and another that you use once a week or once a month to back up that drive. This gives you multiple levels of protection in case something occurs.
Danger, Danger!
For absolutely critical files, I recommend backing your information up to DVD in addition to two external hard drives. This sort of backup is best suited for tax documents, insurance information or any sort of legal information.
I personally have a backup DVD that contains a scan of my driver’s license, Social Security card, birth certificate and all my life insurance documentation.
Keep your information in a safe location. A relative’s home or safe deposit box both make excellent locations. This is your personal insurance against any sort of disaster occurring at your home and destroying both your backup drives.
A good backup program can assist greatly in setting a routine for backing up your data. There are several extremely good programs on the market, but there are a number of factors to keep in mind. You get what you pay for, and I would stick with a company that’s been in the game a while. Both computer-based backup programs and online backup are great ways to safeguard your information.
All in all, losing your data can be a painful and sometimes traumatizing experience. I hope that this post provides some useful information to help prevent a data disaster from happening to you.
If it (unfortunately) does happen, the Geek Squad is here to help.
What an informative piece! Agent Gothic-Olsen hit it on the head as I have had a very similar situation happen to me. BACK UP YOUR DATA ON A REGULAR BASIS!!! This is comparitive to maintenece on your car; would you let your car go without an oil change? Then why not back up your data? Hooray for Agent Gothic-Olsen and thank god for Geek Squad!
@ Steven – For a second I had a bad scare thinking that we’d grown so popular, a member of Parliament had come by to comment. The V in your name saved you.
Agent Gothic-Olsen Hey that is a cool looking badge. Do they give that to all Agent or just Special ones. Anyway, I have personally experienced data loss. It was a very Traumatizing time. Backing up your data is without question the way to go. I strongly agree with his multiple backup up system. To some it seems like a little over kill but when it comes to priceless information and pictures, what is another external hard drive compared to lost pictures of loved ones. Hooray for you Geeks and your silly costumes.
I now backup to online using Jungle Disk Monitor. It backs up for me and I don’t have to think about it. It costs about $1 a month in transfer and storage and after the initial backup of 4 days (lots of pictures), it takes only minutes (I don’t notice it) to back up incrementally.
Alex Fayle’s last blog post..The Blog is Dead! Long Live the Blog!
Agent Olsen,
I broke out in a tech-sweat when I began to read this, sure I’d have to skim and hope for something important to jump out at me. I have never heard tech stuff described by a tech guy so… naturally. Very well-written.
It must be something in the company culture, because the GS folks that I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with have been the same way: understandable, and understanding.
GS Admiration Society convenes now. *ding!*
James,
That was not a bad scare. For a second, you were dancing like a child. I saw you.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Observing a Dead Mouse
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Kelly’s last blog post..Observing a Dead Mouse
Ever since I had a cataclysmic crash a few years ago, I’m annoying about backup. External drive, a mirrored computer, online storage. Plus, I keep everything I’ve written dangling from a thumb drive on my keychain. Never again, I say.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..Bye Bye Butterfly
Excellent post! My mother’s computer died last month and I was able to boot it up in safe mode and copy most of her files (since she never backs up ANYTHING), but I try to keep my own computer as backed-up as possible, just because! External drive, thumb-drive, CDs kept at my office … Oh, and Mozy. Although Mozy and I aren’t getting along at the moment since, a month down the road, they STILL haven’t transferred my settings from my old computer to my new one and I refuse to waste another week of having my computer constantly uploading files… um, but that’s another story!
–Deb’s last blog post..What Makes a Writer?
@Kelly: I have to say we were floored too at how well written this article was. Agent Olsen did a fantastic job of presenting the information in layman’s terms.
@WriterDad: yeah, it’s a hard lesson to learn and it’s even harder not to become totally paranoid and obsessive about backing up.
@Deb: I think I’m going to get a backup drive for my folks. Thanks for the idea!
Duly noted. I am liking that shiny badge.
Thanks Agent Olsen…and of course you MwP’s.
Janice C Cartier’s last blog post..Gentle Ripples in the Sand
I too, thought this post wouldn’t interest me as I’m not a tech kind of guy.
But, after checking it out, this is such a helpful, informative, concise post–about such an important topic for regular computer users–that I’m bookmarking it as a reference guide for backing up my data.
Good post.
Jesse Hines’s last blog post..Why I Prefer Email to RSS for Reading Blogs
Well put Agent Olsen… Thank you for all of the efforts you place into the client experience. Clearly it does not go unnoticed by those lives we seek to improve nor does it go unnoticed by your peers. (Time Machine is running in the back ground as I write this because reading this prompted me to check my own “6″ to find I had not backed up in about 2 weeks, Ouch!) Thanks again Agent Olsen for the insight, you are among the 1337!
Thank you for the post, Agent Gotth-Olsen. This article has put me in a bit of a sweat. I now have no excuses left for not backing things up the right way. It really is a matter of having the right system in place and sticking to it.
This morning I saw a Geek Squad pulling out of a neighborhood near my house. I didn’t know you had vans. You guys are everywhere.
Bill K.’s last blog post..Time to post: Do you know where your editor is?
@ Bill – Wait until you start seeing the black Men with Pens sedans start sneaking around…
Great post. Very thorough job in giving us the information we need and want.
Bamboo Forest’s last blog post..7 Things That Seem Like a Good Idea at First (But Aren’t)
I enjoyed this well written and informative post. I also got a kick out of the following sentence -
“Just like a scratched record, damaged platters can remove data from your drive entirely.”
I still have and occasionally play my records. I’ve read recently they’re making a comeback at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080610/D916SJU8D.html . I thank God my hearing is still good enough to tell the difference between a CD or MP3 file and vinyl. Some of your younger readers may not be familiar with the ‘old’ technology!
I just noticed the Geek Squad badge doesn’t have a number on it. What’s a geek without a number?
Chief Geek.
Janice C Cartier’s last blog post..Gentle Ripples in the Sand
Totally with Kelly on this one. My first thought was, oh dear, technical mumbo-jumbo. Better get the Lion. But I actually understood this!! Thanks! And yes, the Lion and I do need to get into a routine about back-ups. Dag nab it…more routines!!!!
Urban Panther’s last blog post..The toughest crowd yet
That’s what the Geek Squad is all about, explaining things in terms that you can understand. It’s not so scary once it’s explained without all the technical jargon now is it?
@Alex Fayle. Online backup is a great way to back up your information. It’s very cheap, you get a ton of space, and you can access it anywhere! Who wouldn’t like that?!
@Kelly. That’s what we’re here for
@Bill K. I’m glad that you found this so informative. The van that you saw was probably one of our Home Theater installers. Those guys are to Home Theater as I am to Data Recovery. Very sharp fellows.
@Mark W. I LOVE vinyl, just because it’s older technology doesn’t mean it’s bad
although the majority of my music is on my computer, vinyl will always hold a special place in my heart.
@Agent Olsen: Hey! Greetings from Vegas!
I didn’t know you guys did home theater too. I should call about that. I have a system that’s been sitting here collecting dust for two years because neither me or the roommate want to tackle the nest of wires lurking behind the TV.
As far as online back up services go, do you have any that you recommend?
This is good advise. It is also satisfying that the Squad will always be available.
Nicole Price’s last blog post..Discount DVDs
What a well written piece. I didnt just loose my data once. I lost it twice before I learned how important it is to back up the information on your computer and prtable storage devices. “-)
Kind of related to backup, a good practice I learned in my day job as a software developer is to use a version control system to manage your files. This helps you in the “Oops, I just accidentally deleted next week’s blog posts” or “Darn, I really did like yesterday’s version of this article more than today’s revision” scenarios.
There are lots of choices for management systems, mostly aimed at software developers. But for writing, File Hamster is real easy to use and does a good enough job. You can get it free at http://www.mogware.com/FileHamster/.
Regards,
Gary
Gary’s last blog post..Is Your Guitar Attitude Taking You to Success or Frustration?