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Tech Travelers Start Over
The Travel Technologist · October 11, 2002

Reformatting a laptop computer's hard disk drive - erasing all the data on it - is usually the last resort when a portable PC doesn't work. Not for travelers.

At a time when sensitive computer hardware is being run through airport x-ray machines, dropped and mishandled more often, hitting the "delete" button is frequently the first choice for troubleshooting.

"Travelers aren't waiting around to find out what the diagnosis is from a tech person back at the office," says Tom Coppola, a vice president for Connect Globally, an online store for mobile computing in Longboat Key, Fla. "They're more and more empowered to make their own diagnosis now. And sometimes the cure is a little extreme."

Complete disk reformattings are up between 5 and 10 percent from a year ago, says Rebecca Patrascu, a technician for the Novato, Calif., data-recovery company DriveSavers. "It's unfortunate," she says, "because very frequently there are less radical alternatives, like data recovery. Or just updating the software drivers."

Michelle Steinberg has reformatted her laptop twice recently. Once, she zapped all the data on her portable when two programs didn't play nice together and had rendered her machine inoperable. Another time, the motherboard on her new Compaq laptop gave up the ghost and had to be replaced.

"I was able to copy everything off the hard drive before I erased it, thank God," says the Geneva-based management consultant. "I lost a lot of time having to reload everything. It was weeks before I was up and running again."

The trend seems to be accelerating. Last year, the number of damage claims from accidents made to computer insurance agency Safeware surged by 75 percent. Many of the incidents came from travelers whose portable PCs were harmed on the road, says Donald Strejeck, Safeware's president. "We're seeing even more losses this year," he adds.

Part of the reason for the spike in reformattings is that it's just easier than fixing the problem, according to Brooks Hilliard, a Phoenix computer expert who specializes in forensic data recovery. "Travelers are less likely to keep critical data on their laptop computers. If they have to erase everything on it and re-install every program, it wouldn't be a hardship," he says.

It's also easier to replace the lost data - assuming that it's been backed up - once a disk drive is wiped clean. Microsoft's latest operating system, for example, offers an application that lets you transfer all of your files and settings from one machine to another. But getting a cleaned-up portable configured exactly the way you want it can take time, especially when you don't want your laptop set up the same way as your primary desktop computer.

That hasn't stopped travelers like Barb Lock from pulling the trigger on a malfunctioning PC. In the last two weeks, the retired Jefferson City, Mo., government worker has reformatted her computer twice. "It's one of life's most frustrating experiences, considering computers are supposed to help us," she says. "I've lost programs, passwords, irreplaceable records - everything."

Even the professionals aren't immune to the reformatting frenzy. Chris Roy, a computer systems expert in Milwaukee, Wis., says he's had to erase everything on his hard drive several times in the recent past. The reason? He's downloaded viruses and so-called "Trojan Horses" that can affect his laptop's operation. "The only way that you can be 100 percent sure that you are rid of this virus is to wipe the hard drive and start all over," he says. "Not a fun process."

But not everyone is hopping on the reformatting bandwagon. Ted Tabour, a sales manager for a printing company in Schaumburg, Ill., has resisted the trend, preferring to resolve any disk or system problems to starting over. "I've found that the only reason to reformat is if you don't understand the problem," he says.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site.