WAKE UP!
It's 3 o'clock in the morning, and you are awakened by the high pitched shrieks of the fire alarm. The house is filling with smoke. This is the real thing - the house is on fire.
Once you ascertain that every living creature has made it to safety, you realize that you have one chance to grab something and bring it with you. The question is, "What would you grab?" For most people, the answer is something related to a box of keepsakes or family pictures.
A logical followup question is, "Why?" to which most people answer "Because everything else in the house can be replaced."
The scenario above isn't some stretched allegory to make a point. Most of us have asked ourselves those two questions at some point. My next question builds upon the principle of everything else being replaceable: "How much is your data worth?"
I'm afraid many of us fail to fully appreciate the value of those little 1's and 0's. My business clients generally understand this better - data lost = money lost. But for the personal clients I'm blessed to have the opportunity to help, it can take a little work reminding them of their data's value.
Personal Data Represents Time...
...and time cannot be replaced.
When a client has lost their personal data, there is generally a temporal element to the lost information. Either the data represents years of time spent working on work or on a project, or it represents years of memories. Neither one is replaceable. The time spent to create the data will never be re-invested, and the events, situations, and people will never be the same as they were when captured in a photograph. The value of the information is so high that it cannot be quantified - that's why we call it "invaluable."
Digital Pictures are Cheap...
...so they're actually worth more!
With the proliferation of digital media has come an explosion of digital content. The fact that we don't have to run down to the developer every 24 or 36 shots means we take a lot more pictures. Even if we don't own a camera, most phones have that functionality built in. In many ways, the ease of taking the pictures, and the sheer quantity of pictures taken, has lessened their value to us. However, I'd like to point you in a different direction.
Digging through your box of old photographs is a great way to look into the past. But what are you really seeing? If you're looking at photographs taken a few generations ago, you are likely seeing a posed, staged picture. I have a picture of my grandmother as a young girl. It's a black-and-white photo of her standing next to a fence. She is stiff-looking and composed, like many posed pictures. And it's the only one I've ever seen. For ordinary folks, photography was expensive and rare, so that is likely the only picture taken at that time.
Compare that image with the pictures we take these days where photography is cheap. I bet the pictures of your family and kids show them in action. There is a dynamic, active life to the photos. They show people not as they posed, but as they really lived! To me, this makes the pictures even more valuable.
More Information in One Place = More Memories to be Lost
Imagine someone having thousands of those dynamic, full-of-life pictures from your family's past, all contained in a magic box the size of a deck of cards. Now imagine that person throwing that box in the garbage. Sad, isn't it? Yet when people fear their data is lost, they simply toss it away, or refuse to pay someone to recover it.
Unlike your computer geek buddy, or the neighborhood computer shop, Austin Data Rescue is in the business of getting people's data back. We say this all the time: "That's what we do - that's all we do." For me personally, when someone brings their failing drives or devices into our shop, I have a vested interest in recovering the data. I consider it a privilege to be able to serve others in this way. That's why, for our Standard service, if we cannot recover your data, you will not be charged.
Joshua Harper GCFE GCFA
Lead Technician
Austin Data Rescue
9600 Great Hills Trail Suite 150W
(512) 693-7668
josh@AustinDataRescue.com
Visit http://www.AustinDataRescue.com for service.
