Backup Drives - How Reliable are They?

You have gone and purchased a Backup drive such as a Western Digital My Book Essential and backed up all your important data or you have had to transfer data from your computer’s hard drive because it has become too full. You now feel the warm glow of securing your data however unfortunately there is still quite some risk.

This risk falls in 2 categories;

1 How good is the warranty on the hard drive of your backup hard drive.

2 How secure is the power to the backup drive.

The larger 3.5 Hard Drives require there own AC to DC adapter and these often can be the weak link. These power adapters convert your outlet power from 240 Volts AC to 12V DC. These devices rarely have anti-surge or over voltage protection which nearly all modern motherboards and desktop power supplies do provide thus making inernal hard drives secure from these problems. The picture below is of a typical external hard drive

The 2 pictures below are of the electronics af a normal hard drive after power damage most likely from over voltage or a power surge. It always makes sense to protect your valuable data with a power suge protector.

Pcb failure

It;s very clear that your important should be protected from such outcomes and a good power surge device should be used in conjunction with your external hard drive.

The second risk is how good are the actual drives in the backup enclosure. As blogged previously both Western Digital and Seagate have decreased their warranties on hard drives as the PC market shrinks. This means in all likelihood the backup had drive you are using is not the best to secure your important personal and business data.

You can fix this by building your own backup hard drive and using enterprise standard hard drives that are built to higher specifications and come with a 5 year warranty. Seagate , Western Digital & Hitachi all build these drives but do no tend to use them in backup drives.

Wd Hard Drive Green

wd drive black

If we look at the 2 drives above the green Western Digital comes with a 2 year warranty and is the sort of drive found in most commonly found Western Digital MY Book & My essentials external hard drives.. The drive on the right is an enterprise drive with a 5 year warranty.

Some of our Reviews

     Excellent  
     Based on 17 reviews 
    
 
 
   
 
 
        
   Rob Pennefather 
 2023-12-22
 
 
  Lost coverage of my Samsung 3g phone when vodafone chopped the 3g network coverage . Data Recovery Perth with their amazing knowledge and tech skills reconnected my phone to the 4g network saving me from buying or upgrading a new phone ! Highly recommend Data Recovery Perth for all your computer phone and IT issues !!!
  
 
       
   Virginie Chetty 
 2023-11-16
 
 
  Digby completely saved my business by recovering important files from my failed laptop
  
 
       
   Ian Brodie 
 2023-11-16
 
 
  Lost data on a failed hard drive. It seemed to be gone for good but after a weeks work Digby recovered it all. Excellent work. Recommended.
  
 
       
   Rose Reilly 
 2023-07-29
 
 
  Great service from Digby . Very knowledgeable and helpful in fixing my IT issues
  
 
       
   Vaughan 
 2023-07-14
 
 
  I've used Data Recovery Perth to recover some files that I was told by another business were irrecoverable.  I not only had these files fully recovered but was very happy with the cost to perform this.  Speedy recovery and excellent service, definitely recommend.
  
 
       
   plumboss 
 2023-07-12
 
 
  Hi Digby,
I would like to thank you for retrieving files from my hardrive.
The files are very important to my work.
I\'m taking your advise and investing in a new hardrive.
Thank you
John Abrahams
  
 
       
   Bill E 
 2023-07-08
 
 
  Data Recovery Perth recovered some critical data from a failed laptop that I thought was totally lost, great job.
  
 
       
   Nathan Davis 
 2023-06-23
 
 
  I had a old Raid 10 computer that failed and which had photos and videos on it that I didn't want to loose. I searched for data recovery services and all the places I found charged exorbitant prices. Came across Digby and found his price was very reasonable and he got all my data back! So I would say to anyone needing data recovery use Digby's services and not the other places as he gets the job done for a fair price.
  
 
       
   Milan Adrijasevic 
 2023-06-15
 
 
  Recently I had a hard drive die on one of my work computers . Data Recovery Perth got all my data back and had me working in no time.
  
 
       
   Stuart 
 2022-12-10
 
 
  I recently used Digby's data recovery service and was impressed by his intelligence and helpfulness.

He was able to recover data from my network HDD that I thought was lost forever, and did so with a level of expertise and attention to detail that was truly impressive.

I am so grateful for his help, and would highly recommend him to anyone in need of data recovery. Thank you, Digby!

Backup Drives – How Reliable are They?

Some of our Reviews