What you don't want to hear coming from your computers hard drive.

After nearly 6 years my hard drive crashed on me. Anytime you hear a clicking sound coming from your hard drive it's not good. I knew mine was toast so I opened it up to have a look. (You can save the data on the disc but the hard drive would need to be opened up in a clean room and it can cost you anywhere from $250-$1,000, you ruin the hard drive if you don't open it in a clean room.)

http://s445.photobucket.com/user/Tap...7b5cb.mp4.html

Since the x-ray world has gone digital I do a lot of work on computers and have been forced to learn more about them. Fortunately, the company I work for uses software called Acronis (which I have on my computer) which allows you to back up your entire hard drive. I did have a back up (but it was 5 months old) and also had most of my important files backed up separately (such as my fishing log) though that back up was 3 weeks old, so I lost anything that was put on my computer during the last three weeks, nothing major so though I was not happy, it wasn't too bad.

Lesson learned, do regular back ups so you don't get stuck without one or one that is old. Easiest thing to do is put important word and excel files on a thumb drive. If you can swing it, purchase Acronis or a similar program. Had my Acronis back up been more recent I can take a brand new hard drive, image it and be back up and running just as I was in less than an hour.