It happens with a clicking sound, or maybe a grinding from deep within a computer case. The screen may freeze or files stop loading, or the machine may simply refuse to start. For a lot of people, it is quickly followed by a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach.

It’s not a question of if, but when the drive on your laptop or desktop computer will fail. The risk of data loss due to hardware failure is even greater with mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. They are easily dropped, left behind, or doused with water, adding to the risk that your device will die and take your valuable data with it. The risk of data loss for mobile devices, in particular, is expanding people depend on them in place of laptops and desktop machines. The chances of losing important work through accidental deletion also rises as we increasingly access and edit documents with mobile devices.

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