Data Recovery & Hard Drive Repair Made Easy
Data Recovery is the process of restoring lost data from various sources. Today, Data recovery has become an integral part of life. It is essential for both personal and business use. With the growing need for data backup solutions, it’s no surprise that there are many ways to lose your files. A few of these reasons include accidental deletion, formatting of the hard drive or partitioning without backups, virus attack, or hardware failure among others.
Data Recovery has become a very competitive industry, and there are many companies offering these services. Some of the companies have also started to offer free data recovery software tools for non-commercial use. But be careful while choosing a company or software tool to recover your files from the corrupted hard drive. This article aims at making you familiar with some ways to recover the data which you have lost.
What is Data Recovery
Data recovery is the process of salvaging old data on a storage medium that can no longer be accessed directly because of hardware or software failure. A person who performs data recovery is called a data recovery expert, data retrieval professional, digital forensics expert, cyber sleuth, or simply an “expert.” The information might be recovered from the device where it was stored (such as a hard drive) or from another source (e.g., backups).
Data recovery is possible when working on a failed hard drive, RAID, USB flash drive, memory card, or any mechanical device that stores digital information. Data retrieval is possible after natural disasters which include fires and floods or events of intentional physical destruction of hardware or electronic file deletion by ransomware attacks. Files on local disks can be caught due to various reasons, such as software errors, viruses, electrical failure, or physical damage.
How Do You Know If Your Data Needs To Be Recovered?
To know if your data needs to be recovered, there are three ways that it can be lost or corrupted. These are:
1) Hardware Failure
2) Software Error
3) Physical Damage
If you suspect that your data has been lost or corrupted, then you will need to run a diagnostic on the drive(s). The safest way is to automatically schedule a recurring backup.
This means that an external hard drive will automatically back up your data for you. This way, if anything happens to your computer, you still have access to your old files stored on the external hard drive.
The next step is getting recovery software installed on your computer. Some recovery software will allow you to scan the hard drive, or your computer, to find the files.
Some recovery software will allow you to recover the files directly to a flash drive, an external hard drive, or another device on your network. Make sure that if you are recovering files on a Windows computer that you use Windows Recovery Software and not Mac Recovery Software because they can cause more damage than good when trying to recover data.
If you have a physical problem with your hard drive, such as it not being able to spin up or be recognized by the computer, then fixing this is very simple and should only take an expert about 30 minutes.
If you suspect that there may be water damage, overheating, or other problems with the actual hardware, you can send your hard drive to a professional for an inspection.
Steps on How to Recover the Data
1) Make sure that you have the right recovery software installed and running on your computer.
2) Scan your computer or device for files that may be recoverable. Some recovery software will only recover the files to a certain location and will not actually scan the files for recovery.
3) If you’re scanning your computer, make sure that you include all of your external hard drives or other devices on the network. If anything is found, make sure to recover it to a separate drive.
4) Never recover data back to where it was originally found. Try to keep everything separate on separate drives or devices.
5) Keep track of where you found your files and the original location that you tried to recover them back to, this is important if you need help with recovering the files later.
Tips for Prevention of Losing Your Data in the Future
1) Schedule recurring backups for all of your devices.
2) Keep a backup for a set amount of time, then delete the files from the device that you are backing up and keep it as a backup for another set amount of time.
3) Always have important missing data saved on an external hard drive or cloud storage service.
4) Have an expert look at your hard drive every few years to check for problems.
5) Do not let water near your devices, or you will have to get it repaired. If the device falls into water, shut it down immediately and take it to a professional. Do not turn on the device until it has been inspected by an electrician or a professional.
Conclusion
This article may seem like a lot of technical jargon, but it is important to know the difference between hardware failure and software error. All too often we hear about people losing their data because they were not backing up properly or had an electrical problem with their computer that fried the hard drive.
The tips provided in this article should help you avoid these problems by giving you some preventative measures as well as steps on how to recover your lost data if something does happen. If all else fails, contact our team of experts who can help get your files back before any more damage occurs!