Hey everyone! I notice that I haven’t posted anything here since November…and it’s for a good reason I assure you! I’ve been working extra hard on Soulsoup, a video game project. I had it scheduled for release in July and it was going very well with the “no distractions aloud” policy. But on one of my daily trip to the coffee shop to get some fuel, my laptop unexpectedly stopped and crash! My hard drive failed! Anybody who lived this experience knows about the instantaneous panic that ensues when you realize you just lost months of work in a flash. Losing data is a gutting experience and to be sure I never live it again, here are the things I learned:
1.Your PC WILL fail. As sure as you’ll die someday. It’s reality, machine breaks, even top of the line ones. Don’t trust your machines.
2.Data recovery is not for the normal user. Some companies and labs specialize in data recovery from failed hard drive and can even guaranty they will recover your precious photos and document. It might be true but you’ll have to spend a lot of money to get them back. I got quotes from 10 different companies from all over the world and their prices where all located between 800$ and 2000$. The price vary on the amount of data to recover, the type of drive and the type of failure.
3.Try Home remedies. Sometime, you can recover the data yourself. There are so many help forum on the web you can use. The key is to diagnostic your failing hard drive and to be sure you know what the problem is. If your drive turns and doesn’t make any clicking or grinding noises, there are good chances your data is still in good shape. If you have nothing more to lose and are about to throw your hard drive in the bin, you might as well try these first.
4.Let go. At some point, you need to stop thinking about what you’ve lost. The negative emotions will eat all your precious energy you need to build a new project. When you’ve tried everything, let go, and never think about it again.
5.Do your backups! And do them as often as you can based on their importance. In my case, I will backup my projects every day, my photos and other documents once a week and my music once a month.
6. Do your damn backups. Seriously! How many times did my friends, family, windows reminder and my cats told me to do mine and there was always something more important fun to do, right? The best way to make it happen is to use a software that will automate the process. It takes only an hour to set up and you’ll have security and peace of mind. Try Syncback, it’s free and does a very good job.
7.Sync. Syncing is another way to say backup. Syncing your important data every day is the key to never get frustrated by data lost. By syncing all your devices, you ensure that the most up to date data is stored everywhere and accessible anywhere.
8.Store your data in many places. In cases of extreme events like fire, tornadoes and thievery, your data might get destroyed physically. A fire will not spare your back up drive. So either use a safe-box resistant to fire and water, use a free cloud service such as Amazon Cloud Drive or ask a friend/family to store one of your back up drive in his home.
9.Share, don’t be secretive. Which I’ll do in the future! I was waiting you see…The last month on my project (which I lost) was all about polishing the visuals of the game so I could start showing it off. Of course it was never good enough so I waited. Now I lost it and I wish I’ve shared it. Sharing is another sort of back up as you’ll be able to track back at least a part of your assets. Once something is on the web it’s practically indestructible.
I am still recovering from this painful loss which has made me depressed and unproductive for 2 weeks. A friend of mine suggested I should start working on something new instead of going back right away to Soulsoup to rebuild what I’ve lost. I think it’s a good advice and it will give me time to attempt every home remedies I still have to try. (I am currently waiting for hard drive pieces to show up by mail.) I will post news on this new project as soon as I have something to show!
The Bosstopus 