So I was working on an important software application the other day and became distracted by a phone call. I knew that it was raining and I should probably save my work and turn off my computer, but I figured I had a few minutes before my lights started to flicker. Well within a matter of minutes of leaving my desk the power in my house blinked off for a split second. Fearing the worst I quickly hung up and ran to my computer, what am I presented with? My worst fear of course “Blue Screen: Unmountable Boot Volume”

Luckily for me I had taken a few preemptive steps before to make critical Hard Drive Failure less detrimental. Listed here are some of the steps I did take and some further steps I could have taken.

SVN:
Subversion (SVN) is a version control system initiated in 2000 by  CollabNet Inc. It is used to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly-compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). [1]

How SVN Works is quite simple, Using software (In this case Tortoise SVN) to monitor specific folders on my computer, I specifically was monitoring my source code folder. After every save that is performed I am able to “Commit” the most current revision to an offsite storage location (See notes below for a few free SVN Hosts). A user of svn has a few advantages over someone who burns cd/dvd’s as their backup, and even more advantages over someone who uses no backup whatsoever.

One of the most useful features of SVN is the ability to revert to a previous version of the documents or source code. In the event of a mistake (absent mindedly saving an empty the same file name as my main document) you have the ability to revert to your previous state, you can even go as far back as your first revision.

SVN does not have to be used with just source code, I have my image folder under SVN control as well as many of my Document folders. This has saved my skin countless times.

RAID
RAID — which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (as named by the inventor) or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (a name which later developed within the computing industry) — is a technology that employs the simultaneous use of two or more hard disk drives to achieve greater levels of performance, reliability, and/or larger data volume sizes. [2]

A little known fact is that Windows XP supports software raid right out of the box, no special hardware is needed only the presence of two Hard Drives. The advantage of Raid over standard hard drive configuration is loss of one drive is not the end of your data, You have the ability to rebuild your Damaged Hard Drive using parity information stored throughout the Raided drives.

Tortise SVN Client Software

Assembla (SVN) Offsite Hosted Server

Please remember before embarking on a Do It Yourself Hard Drive Recovery project you have to ask yourself an important question: Is your data is worth completely losing. If the answer is no contact us for a Free Evaluation. Self Recovery methods found on the Internet are often very invasive or poorly documented and can result in a totally unrecoverable drive.

-Shannon Prue
Software Designer.