Data loss,  observations  and  solutions  Hit Counter

Here are four major permanent data loss issues with computers. Listed in order of occurrence. Severity is extreme for all.

1. When adding or removing even tiny programs without following strict Laws.

 2. Viruses

 3. Illegal Shutdowns

 4. Filling any hard disk drive's partition in excess of  90% data, resulting in less than 10% free space on that partition.

Solutions;

#1. Before adding or removing programs, follow these Laws   <<< here >>> .

#2.  As viruses usually arrive via  e-mail , I recommend installing Norton Antivirus 2002,  and checking the  option to scan incoming and outgoing e-mail,   enable auto-protect,   and skip registration. Next, click on Options and make sure there is a checkmark in scan ALL files, click OK.    Manually scan with the up-dated antivirus program  all partitions and drives weekly  and before making CD's.     Also, it's best to be careful and , (using the right mouse button) request a virus scan on  all new floppy disks, or home brewed CD's .  And REMEMBER when installing or removing ANY programs to, first DISABLE auto protect !!!  See this   <<<here>>>  about adding, removing programs.

#3.
       A. Illegal shutdowns in a handicapped operating systems cause permanent damage to hard disk drives. You will see the damage listed upon re-start when scan disk, or disk doctor, has finished running. A message on screen will indicate that some bad sectors are being marked to your boot sector to be permanently disabled. When your hard disk drive has to skip these sectors, it's read and write speed suffers greatly. Interestingly, this problem does not occur in the sturdier NT (or Win 2000) operating systems.

     B. Illegal shutdowns also cause crossed files in all operating systems. Crossed files result when files that are opened are scattered randomly on top of other files as the hard drive unexpectedly re-parks. If this happens often, the cumulative effect is that programs large and
small become buggy, and eventually won't even load. This may be cured by saving any work that wasn't cross filed, formatting the partition, re-installing the operating system, and re-installing and re-configuring all of your programs.


     C. Illegal shutdowns may also be caused by a poorly designed Motherboard and/ or  buggy BIOS. Look on your motherboard manufacturer's web site, or try  phone support, to check for a newer BIOS . There may also be a patch  that fixes your your Operating System. And sometimes there's a patch for a  buggy program that just ran, causing the problem. Monthly I check for newer motherboard BIOS and operating system patches.

     D. Loss of Commercial power also causes illegal shutdowns. This can be solved by placing a Uninterruptible Power Supply ( UPS ) between Commercial power and your computer. It costs about $100 for a APC 500 UPS from most computer stores for this protection.


#4. Permanent irreversible damage is done to a entire hard drive when more than 90% of one  partition is filled with data. If you see that less than 10% of a drive partition is free space, immediately move some files elsewhere. If you allow an overfilled condition to persist on a
drive partition, in short order you will lose everything on all partitions of the hard drive. Before downloading a large file, make sure there is room for it on the destination drive partition.