TCEG strongly recommends clients make regular backups of their data, save frequently, use a firewall, and use virus and spyware protection.
Unfortunately, computers are vulnerable, and problems can develop even for those wise computer users who
- make backups,
- save their files frequently,
- use several firewalls (both software and hardware),
- use virus checkers,
- scan their registries for nefarious privacy-invaders, and
- otherwise do everything right.
These good people may be
- laptop users
- desktop users
- PC users
- Mac users
- Windows users
- casual users
- serious users
Disaster may strike the most frequent computer users, or those who only rarely use the computer. Hard drive crashes happen to everyone. Partition tables can get wiped out, damaged, or infected regardless of whether a person has an advanced degree in physics or has just passed a few word processing courses.
Hard drives do not request that users pass skill-testing questions, or that they input a password before they work - they are supposed to 'just work'.
Likewise, hard drives do not request of users any skill-testing or 'lack-of-skill'-testing questions before they crash - they just crash. They may contain vitally important data, time sensitive data, critically unique data....and just stop working. With no warning, whatsoever.
And, unfortunately, good people get stuck with the bill - which is an expensive and unexpected bill, for very expensive and unexpected data recovery.
Which is why we strongly encourage all clients and potential clients to invest in external hard drives for their computers and laptops, whether these are of the PC or Mac variety. For only about $230 (at Costco, in British Columbia, Canada, or probably only a slightly different price at a computer shop near you), it is possible to purchase a decent 200 GB drive which is more than sufficient to handle several backups of entire hard drives.
Because, otherwise, the next best option is to take the drive to specialists, and it is not always the case that the data can be recovered.
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