An External Hard Drive is Not Good For Windows Or Mac Backups - By: Alan Chase

If you would like to learn how to protect your valuable documents, pictures, and other digital files keep reading. Many Windows and Mac users purchase external hard drives for backups but they never consider the fact that Hard drives fail - it is not a matter of if but rather when. Symptoms of the problems users experience include:

1. Drive won't spin

2. Drive spins but device cannot be recognized

3. Drive cannot be read due to excessive errors

4. Drive runs super slow

Any of these problems may be the result of:

1. Fans are not working properly and the drive is overheating

2. Low level vibration from poor engineering or manufacturing (this is often true for people who make their own)

3. Power fluctuations. Other devices may be immune to these problem but hard disk drives are very sensitive to it.

4. An environment with smoke, dust, high humidity, and other environmental challenges can create these problems as well.

If the hard drive has a problem disk drive recovery is expensive and uncertain. Unless you have the resources to buy multiple drives and mirror your data (which still won't save you from some of the problems above) you will lose data. The worst part is you won't know it until you try to restore.

The other problem with hard drives is the software. You may start on one computer and operating system when you begin backups but have a completely different computer and operating systems years later when you need to restore. If you are using the vendor provided free backup tool there may be some compatibility problems between the different operating systems.

You may have Windows XP when you bought the hard drive but need to restore to Windows 7. There is no guarantee that over the years the hard drive will have device drivers for every operating system or that the backup software you use will work on all these operating systems.

Last but not least your data is not offsite which means you are still susceptible to any problem in the house or office that destroys you computer or backup such as fire, flood, or electrical surge.

The smart way to backup and restore your data is with an online backup and restore provider. These companies keep support for popular operating systems up to date, manage the physical problems of disk drives by employing data center technologies, and keep your data offsite. These services have free offers for small amounts of data (2-3GB) and modest monthly fees for more.

Only with an online backup and restore provider can you have the peace of mind that you can restore your data when you need it and that's why backup is important - the restore!

About the Author

Now that you know that online backup is a necessity choose one by visiting http://www.backuponlineblog.com I also maintain a blog that has exclusive offers and tips all about windows and mac online backup and restore at http://www.backuponlineblog.com

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Alan-Chase/89100

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