Understanding Data Loss

Make sure you take the time to explain the basics of data loss and data loss prevention to the users when they have problems. This is the best opportunity to educate them.

Data on a disk can become corrupted for three reasons:

1. MEDIA FAILURE.
   Data gets corrupt when the media is damaged.

   SOLUTION: This can rarely be corrected. Recovering the data is highly dependent on the particular media and the circumstances. The WITS Help Desk cannot help. Take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of making your own backups (being responsible) and media care (more on this later).

2. SOFTWARE FAILURE. Some common causes include bad operating systems, bad operating systems, memory problems, viruses, bad operating systems, faulty software, and having MS Windows installed.

   SOLUTION: SpinRite, Norton Utilities, and other utility packages.

3. OPERATOR ERROR. These are also hard to fix. Some common causes include removing the disk while data is being written and mixing up files (even though that's not data corruption).

   SOLUTION: These are tough to figure out, but can usually be fixed, if caught in time. Don't give up and don't restart the computer or log out, if you can avoid it. Search everywhere for files by modification time; if you do not know where auto-backups are kept or what the name of a file is you're looking for, a modification time search can be very helpful.