Data Protection Guide

Avoid heat & vibration. All drive components, both electronic and mechanical, are sensitive to heat and vibration .Keep your computer in a dry, controlled environment that is clean and dust-free. Set up your computer in an area with very little traffic to ensure that it does not get bumped. Heat and/or vibration are two of the leading causes of hard drive failure.

Beware of static. Static electricity, an unseen and unfelt enemy, can wreak havoc on the wiring inside computer chips and transistors. Because it's so easy to discharge built-up static when you touch a hard disk drive, precautions like wrist straps can help prevent static discharge.

Back up your data. The surest way to avoid data loss, even if your hard drive fails is the back up your data. If you don't have a tape backup device or network drive at your fingertips back up your most important files to a floppy at least once a week (See Floppy Disks below).
Read more about Backupping.

To avoid premature drive failure:

Run Scandisk. Scandisk examines your hard disk for logical inconsistencies and damaged surfaces. Run it every two or three weeks just to be safe. It is very important to save any changes to a floppy until you are sure that the changes that you are about to make will not adversely affect your hard drive.

Run Defrag frequently. Files most likely, will not be stored in adjacent clusters. Defrag rearranges the data on your hard disk so that each file is stored in a set of contiguous clusters. This is very important for data recovery, since success is more likely when the damaged file's clusters are adjacent to each other.

Anti-virus Software. Use anti-virus software and update it at least once every month.
Read more about Viruses.

Use an uninterrupted power supply (UPS). In the event of a surge of electricity, black out, brown out or lightning strike, a UPS can protect your system from electrical damage. A UPS is also a back up power source that keeps your computer running for a short period of time, giving you the opportunity to properly save your work and shut down, avoiding a potential data loss.

Be cautious when using recovery utilities. Use diagnostic and repair utilities with caution. Verify that your utility software is compatible with your operating software. Never use file recovery software if you suspect an electrical or mechanical drive failure. Always, always make an undo disk when you allow a utility make changes to your hard drive.

Floppy Disks Never buy bargain-basement disks. Recommended are 3.5" pre-formatted high-density disks.Storeyour disks in a cool, dry, dust-free environment... not, for example, in a shirt-pocket, book bag, or briefcase, unless they are inside a diskette container of some kind. Backup your disks on a regular basis. This means copying files from one floppy disk to another... don't just rename a file on the same disk! Save information as you type, say every 10 minutes (if you are working on your own machine, set the "automatic save" feature of your word processor). Do not type for 3 hours straight and expect to be able to save information to your disk. It is possible you have typed too much information for the floppy disk to store. Diligent maintenance such as anti-virus scanning, sensible backup procedures, off-site storage of mission critical data, together with knowledge of your limitations, should prevent you from becoming one of the many casualties of data loss. If you suffer a data loss, please, contact a data recovery expert immediately. The most important thing is to not attempt any repairs yourself. Trust your data to Data Recovery Group engineers who have the experience, expertise and tools to recover you data without damaging your system.