I came across this interesting article at gizmodo.com that outlines the 5 stages of data-loss grief. Whether you’ve experienced going through a couple or all of these stages, the truth is, no can ever really tell of the frustration and hassle that one has to experience unless it happens to you. And if you’ve failed to use any backup method whether external hard drives or online backup solutions like Carbonite, chances are, it will happen to you sooner or later.

To give you more reasons why you should backup your data now, allow me to reiterate the 5 phases of grief, from data loss that is, as detailed by the author of the article.

Denial. As from any other loss, the person directly involved starts off with denial. In the case of loss of data, the computer user/owner would always assume that it’s just a software issue and a reboot will get things restored just fine.

Anger. Of course, if he’s tried rebooting for the nth time already and nothing seems to be happening that would indicate possible recovery, denial flies out of the window and anger sets in. He could blame the manufacturer of the hard drive he’s been using, he could seethe with anger at the power company causing the outages that eventually led to the demise of his PC, or most of the frustration would be at his own failure to use a backup in the first place.

Bargaining. As soon as the anger abates, bargaining for the most feasible and least costly potential recovery solutions would begin. He may consider buying a new hard drive and transferring the contents himself. Or could it be possible that data loss recovery is no longer as expensive as they once were? You’d sure wish they were but unfortunately, that isn’t the case just yet.

Depression. If he’s gone through all the options and getting back lost files seems to be still way out of reach, what’s a data loss victim likely to do? Wallow in despair, that’s what. Just thinking about the photos, music, notes, important documents, and all other what-have-you’s gathered throughout the years would make anyone just want to have a good, long cry – at the very least.

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