Most Computer Users Walk A Digital Tightrope, According To National Maxtor Survey
New Poll Finds Many Computer Users Are at Risk of Losing Important Data Such as Financial Records, Business Documents, Photos, Music, Videos and More
MILPITAS, CA September 13, 2005 In one of the world's fastest growing "terabyte nations," a new U.S. consumer survey of computer users, sponsored by Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO), indicates that many Americans are flirting with digital disaster when it comes to a failure to back up their files. The poll of 2,299 adults, conducted by Harris Interactive in late July, finds that more than a third (35 percent) of U.S. adults who have personal/professional data and digital information stored on a PC or a laptop never back up their files, and a vast majority (76 percent) of those who do back up their files don't do it often enough. At the same time, 44 percent of U.S. adult computer users overall indicated that they have lost important data or digital files stored on their computer or laptop, as a result of a computer virus, a hardware or software malfunction, or for some other reason.
"Computer users who don't have a systematic backup process are, in essence, walking a digital tightrope without a net," said Stacey Lund, vice president of marketing, Maxtor Branded Products Group. "Regrettably many people come to us after they've already lost their data because of an unfortunate instance like theft, a fire, a system crash, virus or an aggressive case of spyware. While Maxtor can't alleviate the cost of recovering lost data, we can certainly help avoid the need for data recovery by offering products that facilitate digital backup."
Among those survey respondents who do back up their digital information, the vast majority (76 percent) do so only once a month or less. This finding runs counter to Maxtor's recommendation to back up data daily or at a minimum weekly with a simple and automatic solution which the company is promoting as part of its Backup Awareness consumer education campaign launched last June. While most U.S. adults who have personal/professional data and digital information stored on a PC or laptop (89 percent) know they should back up their computer data, not many do it with any regularity. Of those who do backup, 22 percent back up files only once a year or less often, 9 percent back up files just once every 7-11 months, and 15 percent back up their digital files just once every 4-6 months.
Of the five types of digital data and personal files listed in the survey, the ones that respondents said they'd be most upset to lose were financial data and business records (cited by 27 percent). Coming in a close second at 24 percent were personal photos or videos. Roughly equal numbers indicated they would be most upset to lose contact information such as phone numbers and addresses (17%), and personal written documents and emails (16%).
Despite unaddressed fears of losing valuable information and digital memories, the most frequently-cited reason by those who said they never back up their data is that they are not sure how to do it or that backup is too technical (cited by 44 percent). Another 21 percent said they don't think it's important enough to worry about, 20 percent think it takes too much time, and 14 percent don't back up because they believe that backup devices and services are too costly. Among the survey respondents, 11 percent said they never knew they had to do it.
"Why gamble on losing important business documents, or worse, priceless digital memories?" added Lund. "We're talking about the avoidable loss of irreplaceable family photos and videos, financial documents, personal letters, address books, and entire music collections. With today's affordable, simple-to-use external storage solutions such as our Maxtor OneTouch line or the Maxtor Shared Storage family of network storage solutions, many of the consumer behaviors and fears uncovered in our new national survey can be easily addressed. As an industry leader, we're trying to educate consumers before priceless data is lost."
A related and recently published industry-analyst report, "Home Data Protection, 2005," authored by Robert Gray and Dave Reinsel of International Data Corporation (IDC)�, found that consumers have substantial concerns about possible data loss of their personal information and entertainment. Based on a survey of 406 households in the U.S. regarding protection of digital data, images, music and video one of the top findings noted in the report is a "Consumer PC Protection Consistency Gap." Based on the IDC survey, consumers consistently stated higher levels of concern with possible loss of data than was supported by their actions.
"This is the chasm that must be closed," said Dave Reinsel, director of storage research for IDC. "In corporations there are strict policies and procedures that govern or mandate backups and archiving activities to ensure that data is protected. Unfortunately, in the home or small office, backup and archiving behavior is often driven by personally experiencing the loss of personal or precious data that can never be recovered."
To better educate consumers about the critical importance of backup, Maxtor recently launched its Backup Awareness campaign (www.backupawareness.com), which will be supported by ongoing activities in the U.S. and globally. As part of the campaign, Maxtor is promoting a five-step "best practices" program for data protection:
1) Develop a backup schedule. Back up data daily or at minimum weekly.
2) Back up everything. Today, users can easily backup all of their computer hard drive data. There's no need to spend time sorting through every file or folder. Invest in a storage solution that's twice the size of your internal hard drive to give your system room to grow.
3) Do it automatically - set it and forget it. Use a solution that's easy to set up and provides automatic backups.
4) Rotate backups, which provides added protection in case of an earthquake, fire, flood, or theft. Use two drives and rotate one offsite.
5) Don't procrastinate. Unfortunately, the need to back up data is often a lesson learned from an unfortunate experience. Don't let it happen to you. Have you done it today?
About Maxtor
Maxtor Corporation (www.maxtor.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of hard disk drives and consumer storage solutions. The company has an expansive line of storage products for desktop computers, storage systems, high-performance Intel-based servers, and consumer electronics. Maxtor has a reputation as a proven market leader, built by consistently providing high-quality products, services and support for its customers. Maxtor and its products can be found at www.maxtor.com or by calling toll-free (800) 2-MAXTOR. Maxtor is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MXO.
Note: Maxtor and the Maxtor stylized logo design are registered trademarks, and Maxtor Shared Storage and Maxtor OneTouch, are trademarks of Maxtor Corporation. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
�Survey Methodology - Harris Interactive fielded the study on behalf of Maxtor Corporation July 22-24, 2005, via its QuickQuerySM online omnibus, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,289 U.S. adult computer users aged 18 and older. Data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and amount of time spent weekly using a computer. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of U.S. adult computer users aged 18 and older had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sub-samples of computer users who have personal/professional data and digital information stored on a PC or laptop (2,032), those with digital information stored on a PC or laptop who back up that information (1,412) and those who have digital information stored on a PC or laptop who do not back up that information (620) is higher and varies. This online sample is not a probability sample.
�IDC Doc# 33817, August, 2005, "Home Data Protection, 2005"
For purposes of measuring disk drive storage capacity, one gigabyte (GB) represents one billion bytes. The Maxtor OneTouch and Maxtor Shared Storage solutions serve as an element of an overall backup strategy.
This announcement relating to Maxtor may contain forward-looking statements concerning the distribution and sale of Maxtor products and Maxtor's execution. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could materially affect the company's results, including, but not limited to, market demand for hard disk drives, the successful execution of volume manufacturing, distribution and sales development programs, the development and implementation of new technologies and achieving economical production yields, the company's ability to execute future production ramps and utilize manufacturing assets efficiently and secure its requirements of components from suppliers, pricing, competition, and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products. These and other risk factors are contained in documents that the company files with the SEC, including the Form 10-K for fiscal 2004 and its recent 10-Qs. Maxtor is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any responsibility to update or alter, its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]
