With the value on information rising day by day, one of the\rgreatest threats to businesses of any size is data loss. If the\rdata centers in your business have ever experienced a hard drive\rdisaster, you quicky realized just how valuable the information\rlost is.

And then, the situation becomes even worse, when you realize\rhow much it is going to cost for a disaster recovery specialist\rto try and retrieve or restore your data for you.

Here are some basic tips for avoiding such a situation.

1. If you company is using older computers, be sure your tech\rsupport is regulary checking for any problems on your hard\rdrives. By discovering problems before they have a chance to\rwreak havock on your data, they will have an opportuntiy to back\rthe data up before it is no longer retrievable.

2. Make sure your techies are giving you the old hard disks\rwhen they do hard drive upgrades on your systems. Even when the\rinformation has been copied onto new disks, the old drives still\rcontain all your valuable data. You don't want this getting into\rthe wrong hands. Plus, it is always good to have a backup while\rthe new hardware is settling in.

3. Especially in a fast paced office environment, the thousands\rof computer files can become disorganized over time. Make sure\ryour computer support is running defragmentation programs on a\rregular basis.

4. Keep the operating systems the same across all machines in\ryour office. This will help prevent hard drive corruption from\rvarious users incorrectly installing programs on a system they\rare not familiar with. Better yet, leave program installation,\rremoval and system partitioning to your tech support.

5. Make sure employess report any problems that crop up on\rtheir machines. If even one computer starts acting strangely,\rrunning slower, or giving error messages, have support run a\rscan disk or CHKDSK immediately. Remember, it will be much\rcheaper to repair one computer's hard drive than to pick up the\rtab after a total system disaster!

Keeping the following tips in mind when creating your data loss\rdisaster prevention plan will help limit not only headaches, but\rlosses to your bottom line.

James B. Allen blogs regularly about disaster recovery\rplanning. To learn more about data recovery and\rother aspects of disaster recovery, visit James at:\rDisasterRecoveryData.com.