The holiday season is a time for casual gatherings, fun getaways and gaieties. In a study conducted by Adroit Recovery Data Centre (ADRC), the post festive season is a time when vendors would see a 30 to 40% spike in data recovery requests. Almost half of these requests were related to damaged media cards, while requests for thumb drive, notebook and server recovery made up the remaining half.

This predicament may sound familiar to you. During the festive season, you would make plans to meet long-time friends or go on vacations. Snapping up photographs is a norm but what you did not know is that excessive use or mishandling of the media card can inadvertently cause damage to it. Despite several attempts, you could not seem to transfer the photos to your computer. It is then you realised the data, along with the memories, is lost.

The thumb drive is a handy tool although it is a data storage device that spoils easily. Before setting off for a trip, you may forget to remove the device from the computer. This causes overheating and the chip inside the thumb drive is burnt.

When bringing your notebook on a trip, be mindful of a few things. Dropping a notebook on a hard surface can cause cracks and the internal devices to malfunction. Spillage is also another common cause of damage and since liquid and electronics do not mix, be sure to keep any fluids away from the notebooks.

Most companies also tend to shut down their servers when the entire office goes on an extended break. When they resume operations, they find that they cannot boot up their servers. This is a costly problem as this failure greatly hinders productivity.

All of these problems can be resolved with the help of a data recovery service provider. Of course, there is one step you can take to mitigate the risk of data loss: backing up your data. If there is anything that is a surety, it is that computer parts are bound to fail at one point or another. So make the effort to store a copy of all your work and precious data.

Incidentally, March 31st is World Backup Day and this day exists to remind all users to diligently and frequently back up their data. So make a note in your planner and join others in backing up important data on 31 March 2012!