Despite technological advances in the reliability of magnetic storage media, data loss continues to rise, making data recovery more important than ever. On track engineers have identified three trends that are leading to this increase in lost data.

1. More data is being stored in smaller spaces. Today's hard drives store 500 times the data stored on the drives of a decade ago. Increasing storage capacities amplify the impact of data loss, making mechanical precision more critical.
   
2. Data has become more mission-critical. Hospital patient records. A graduate school thesis. Personal finance and tax information. Payroll records. Users today are storing more information electronically than ever. The loss of mission critical data can have staggering financial, legal and productivity ramifications on businesses and home users alike.
   
3. Backup tools and techniques are not 100% reliable. Most computer users rely on backups as their safety net in the event of data loss (a recommended practice). Ontrack research indicates that 80 percent of its data loss customers regularly back up their data, only to find them less than adequate at the critical moment they need to restore them. Backups assume that hardware and storage media are in working order; that the data is not corrupted, and that your backup is recent enough to provide full recovery. In reality, hardware and software do fail and backups don't always contain current enough data.