Ask someone to name something scary, and chances are you’ll hear about fears of spiders, snakes, or creepy clowns. But in today’s society, with cybercrime on the rise, you’ll probably also find “loss of computer data” on that list of fears. We’ve become so reliant on our computers, cell phones, and data that even temporary loss of access can create instant anxiety and even panic.
A complete loss of business critical files and services is actually downright terrifying. Here are a few of cringe-worthy backup/recovery stories and some strategies to avoid a nightmare recovery story of your own.
Being proactive wasn’t such a good thing
First up is a TV studio graphic designer named Pascal. He decided to be proactive and back up all of his station’s graphics and designs one morning only to realize, to his horror, that he was deleting the files and not actually transferring them. Small studios aren’t the only ones who have issues with this. Disney’s Pixar Studio almost lost the entire “Toy Story 2” movie due to a problem with lost files and corrupt backups. The mishap was only narrowly avoided when an overachieving technical director had one extra backup of the film on her laptop hard drive.
Electrical surges set you back
Electrical surges are a more common problem for computers than you might think (and more destructive too!) In one instance, a guy named Ed was backing up over a terabyte of data when a power surge destroyed his PC and the backup drive he was using. Ed will never really be able to replace everything he lost in that crash and will always wonder if there was something he could have done to prevent it.
In another story, one poor graduate student asked tech expert Joshua for help with a flash drive that was literally in pieces. \Her computer equipment experienced a similar electrical surge. Unfortunately for her, Joshua couldn’t help her at all with the problem and, even worse, the flash drive had been the only backup of her graduate thesis. She had to completely recreate her report from scratch, losing hours and hours of research and writing time. She also must have dealt with the gnawing feeling that her original thesis was better than the re-write.
Or you could have one of the more common experiences of computer loss—the dreaded glass of water. You would be amazed how many times something as simple as a spilled water glass or soda bottle has led to a major loss of data.
Backups can get corrupted too
Some who thought they had a proper backup routine in place find that they don’t always work. Jared’s story is one of using Time Machine on his MacBook Pro only to find out that the Time Machine backup file had been corrupted just as his MacBook began to crash regularly.
Losing treasured and sentimental data hurts
Sometimes, it’s not just the way the backup fails that is scary, but what was lost. Imagine losing 100 gigabytes worth of pictures or finding out (as David did) that you’d lost all of your sister’s wedding pictures with no possibility for recovery. If you use your computer to manage irreplaceable personal files, then the loss of those files can be heartbreaking. The loss of irreplaceable business files can be catastrophic for your business and directly impact your bottom line.
Being robbed of your data presents many fears
More disturbing and disastrous stories such as Dave and Paul’s will have you cringe. Dave was robbed at gunpoint in Nicaragua and had a laptop with all of his data stolen while Paul had a robber break into his house in the middle of the night and steal his family’s home PC. Both men lost all of their data immediately, but they had a backup plan. Although this backup didn’t help with the fear and terror of being robbed, it did provide them with comfort when they were able to recover their files.
So what was the backup plan that helped save many of these horror stories from complete disaster? Many used a backup service that takes regular, automatic backups. These services do not just happen once a day, but several times, so that if a loss does occur, it can minimize the amount of data that has to be recreated. Businesses who are looking to be competitive in the 21st century cannot ignore this need.
New Edge Technology Services has your back supporting businesses like yours every day with backup strategies, business continuity recommendations, and computer security services to take your business to the next level. Helping you and your business stay safe is our number one priority.
References:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/10-spooky-data-loss-stories/
https://www.recordnations.com/articles/backup-horror-stories/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/01/gitlab_data_loss/
https://solutionsreview.com/backup-disaster-recovery/data-backup-disasters-history/