Nearly half of U.S. computer users have lost important data or digital files stored on their computer, a Harris-Interactive survey sponsored by Maxtor has revealed. Thirty-five percent of these users said that they don’t back up their data because it seems too technical.
The poll of 2604 U.S. adult computer users was conducted in early May. It found that 33 percent of users who have digital content stored on their computer felt their content to be “priceless,” but nearly half of those never made back-up copies of their data to external devices or media.
The most frequently cited reason for this was that back up seems too technical, 29 percent said they don’t think it’s important enough to worry about, 14 percent think it takes too much time, and 11 percent believe that backup devices are too costly. Among the survey respondents who said they never back up their data, 11 percent said they never knew they had to do it.
Hard disk drive and storage company, Maxtor, said it is attempting to change this perception with a number of consumer education campaigns including sponsoring “Back Up Awareness Month” in June in the U.S.
Maxtor’s Stacey Lund said “Educating consumers and small business owners about the importance of backing up their valuable digital content has become a top priority for Maxtor. With today’s affordable, intuitive consumer and small business storage, and backup solutions such as our Maxtor OneTouch line or the Maxtor Shared Storage family of products, many of the behaviors and fears uncovered in our latest national survey can be easily remedied.”
Based on the six types of digital data and personal files listed in the survey, personal photos were found to be the most valued type of digital content (32 percent), followed by written documents (22 percent), and financial or business records (14 percent).
Seventy-five percent of those polled store digital photos on their computers and nearly one third have 200 or more digital photos stored. The top method for sharing photos was found to be via email.
