If you remember, a while back I posted regarding using Mozy as an internet backup service.  The impetus behind that post was a hard disk failure my laptop underwent last year around Thanksgiving.  Now, based on what I’ve heard from sources both biased and non-biased, a singular hard disc failure is supposed to be a statistical improbability.  Last week, my hard disc failed for the second time in a year – something which is considered to border on statistical impossibility.

Now I want you to understand right now that the use of the word “statistical” in that last sentence is intentionally misleading, though everything I have said is true.  It merely means that in a certain amount of time (I believe the time frame of reference in one year) the chance of failure is extremely low.  But the interesting facet of statistical theory is that given a large enough time frame, the chance for an event to happen (in this case hard disc failure) approaches certainty.

In layman’s terms, eventually your hard disc will fail, and all of your data will be lost.  This is especially true for portable laptops – in many cases protection is sacrificed for portability, and therefore the chance of damage is much higher.  Also note how often you pick up and put down your portable laptop as opposed to your desktop laptop or desktop computer (if you have them).  Moving them around means there are much more opportunities for them to be damaged through accident or environment.

So what is the best way to protect your data?  Back it all up.  With the increasing technology, you can get larger and larger hard discs for less and less money.  Terabyte external hard discs are becoming increasingly commonplace when just a few years back a hundred gigabytes used to cost a small fortune.  And any store that sells computer parts should have a few external hard drives for your purchasing pleasure.  And these external drives are much less susceptible to damage compared to portable laptops – they stay in one place and are generally on for less time, and therefore suffer much less wear and tear, meaning their lifespan is much greater (though they will also eventually fail – the only surefire way to protect your data indefinitely is a RAID array).

So I highly recommend to you that you go out and get an external hard disc, preferably one at least as large as the hard disk in your portable laptop.  If you’ve ever had a hard disc failure, you know how convenient and sometimes vital this is.  If you haven’t, I sincerely hope that you will back up your data.  I would never wish upon anyone the experience of losing all their data – it is a monumentally frustrating and disappointing event which will leave you pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth for weeks and sometimes months to come.

Related posts:

1. Tips For Finding The Best Portable External Hard Drive There are new demands that come up daily in...
2. Easily Switch Between External Displays in Windows 7 Easily Switch Between External Displays in Windows 7 A certain...
3. What is a portable laptop? Portable laptops have been pretty much the flavor of the...
4. Advantages of Portable laptops Portable Laptops are some of the modern workplace’s most important...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Recently

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.