Data Recovery: Everything You Need to Know
It’s happened to us all (if it hasn’t happened to you yet, we guarantee that it will at some point)… you’ve lost a ton of sensitive data, pictures, music, and programs to a malfunctioning drive or bad software.
The worst part, some people never get any of it back. It remains lost forever. But it doesn’t have to be that way
Modern data recovery tools can search out and find data on old, broken hard drives and, amazingly, recover them entirely intact. Even on old drives that haven been sitting in storage for years.
Prevention
There are few ways to prevent this from happening. One is regularly backing up data. A step that requires diligence on the user’s part, but is well worth the extra effort in the long run.
Second, taking your computer to an expert as soon as you hear noises coming from the hard drive. Whirring, clicking, or grinding noises could be a sign of drive failure. Act fast, and prevent losing data.
What Not to Do
Avoid trying to recover data yourself unless you are very familiar with hard discs and recovery tools. A novice who gets in over their head stands the chance of losing critical data permanently.
Stay away from “home remedies.” Sticking your hard drive in a freezer or tapping it on the side with a blunt tool are tricks that do not work. What’s worse, they can irreparably damage your hard drive, rendering it incapable of recovery altogether.
What to Do if You Experience Drive Failure
– Try to back up data if you can. There is a no harm in trying.
– If your drive is making any of the noises described above, avoid using software to try to recover data.
– Leave the unit off if you are certain it is no longer working.
– For external storage devices that have been dropped, have gotten wet, and so on, do not attempt to recover them yourself. Do not dissemble them, and leave it to a professional.
Recovering important data from storage devices isn’t impossible. In fact, as long as the device or hard drive isn’t completely ruined or destroyed, it’s possible for a professional to recover everything that it once held.
Interested in learning more about data recovery? Contact PC Geeks today!