The importance of backing up your hard drive has been highlighted by one of the latest recruits to Fireminds, which is among Bermuda's fastest growing IT and technology start-ups.

Stanley Ward, who was appointed IT consultant at the company in October, is set to launch a new hard drive recovery service and has also been tasked with running the firm's internal operating systems and setting up its new data centre, as well as servicing clients.

Mr. Ward has also completed his Microsoft Certified Professional exam and is working towards his Microsoft Certified IT Professional with another four exams to sit, which he expects to finish in mid to late 2010.

But his latest venture is the hard drive recovery business, which will prove invaluable to anyone who loses their data due to viruses or computers not shutting down properly, or even hard drives which have been reformatted and the information has been wiped.

"I can recover between 80 to 90 percent of the information on someone's hard drive for logical failures," he said.

"That includes computers shutting down incorrectly and viruses corrupting files.

"But I have the equipment and software that enables you to see it and get it off the computer."

Loss of hard drive data can mean the disappearance of thousands of valuable or sentimental photos or important bank information or documents, some of which is irreplaceable, but Mr. Ward said the only way to truly ensure you protect everything was to keep saving it on a back-up hard drive, and even then such devices can lose data.

"Lots of people don't back-up and that means if there is a surge or virus they can't access that information," he said.

"If it happens the best thing you can do is to shut the computer down and give us a call and bring your hard drive in - the longer you have it running the more the information is going to get overwritten.

"The simple message is - back-up everything you do."

Having started off building hardware systems for family and friends, Mr. Ward joined Bermuda Microsystems, where he worked his way up the ranks, carrying out everything from diagnostics to repairs, qualifying as a Dell Certified System expert and learning on the job.

During his time in business, he has branched out from working on residential desktops and laptops to establishing networks for small offices and the like.

A chance meeting with Fireminds owner Michael Branco, who came in to get the motherboard on his laptop repaired one day, led to an offer of employment and he has never looked back since making the smooth transition from hardware to software.

"The job was actually scheduled for someone else, but I came in and saw it and decided to do it and Michael must have liked my customer service so much he called me and offered me a job," he said.

For more information about hard drive recovery contact Stanley Ward on 295-000 or email sward@fireminds.com