Hard Drive Recovery

Hard drive recovery is something nobody really thinks about until that moment happens – the time when your computer drive fails, or when you can’t find or open a file you have been working so hard on.

Maybe its something even more personal that can’t be recreated like vacation photos. Is that happening to you right now?

DO NOT take your hard drive apart and try to fix it. Watch to see why…

The best action you can take is to sit on your hands and take a few minutes to understand which of the following options will serve you best:

• Recovery software
• Local technical services
• Expert hard disk recovery firms

Software

The first option available to you when drive recovery becomes a reality is software. This includes free and low-cost solutions that address simple problems, like deleted files; to the more powerful hard drive tools that recover the most difficult situations, such as RAID recovery. Most likely, your problem resides somewhere between these two extremes.

Free hard drive recovery may be useful in resolving a deleted file but most of the time there are too many limitations attached to such drive recovery software to be truly effective. Try one for yourself, and you will know what I mean.

Low-cost recovery programs work effectively with file deletion, and they can address other problems as long as the file system has not been compromised. However, any situation when the components have been altered means you need a more powerful hard drive data recovery utility.

If you do not know exactly what you are looking for, it is difficult to differentiate one level of recovery product from another. This is because the low-end products say they can recover the same problems as the most powerful utilities – deleted, lost, corrupt, and damaged files; but what they forget to mention in the fine print is, when the file system components have been changed, these low-end tools won’t produce any results – none!

This brings up the question

How do I tell which solution I need? You don’t, unless you can understand such challenging terminology as: a damaged file allocation table; partition repair, using a boot disk to access data on a dead hard drive; running a drive image tool to get your data to a safe new hard drive. That’s why I always say, “If you are serious about recovering your data, stop playing around, and give us a call at 800-444-3225.”

The real drive recovery applications recover every situation short of a crashed hard drive. The important point to stress here is: Whatever your problem is, this level software is your best opportunity to recover data. Sure, go try the other cheaper versions to see if they work, but when you want the best solution and you need your files now, this is where to start.

The stronger utilities offer multiple automated data recovery hard drive functions that allow you to approach the process from several angles. For example, if you want to recover or rebuild a partition table using the partition repair function, but the results are not what you want, switch modes, and recover your data using the file recovery function. If that does not work, and you understand how to manipulate the file system, the Hex Editor operation would be your next step.

Local computer repair services

If the hard drive software options do not resolve your situation, or if you simply are not comfortable dealing with the recovery on your own, your only other option is using a local technician or drive recovery experts, such ourselves (800-444-3225).

The advantages of using the local techs are: They are next door and the cost structure is usually cheaper than a professional service. The disadvantages of using the local tech store, or getting on-site computer help are: The safety of your data, and their lack of experience in recovering data. Specifically, unless they can use a sector drive imaging tool that can produce you a bit-backup of your primary hard drive data to a new hard disk; and then hand you the original drive, before doing anything else to your drive, do not let them touch your data. Why?

Remember this: You typically get one time to recover data. That’s why I have advised you to get the sector-copy of your drive – so that the recovery can be tried as many times as needed without worrying about damaging your original data drive.

Expert recovery firms

We perform drive recoveries day in and day out. We know what we are doing and have plenty of experience in recovering data so give us a call now at 800-444-3225. However, you need to know that professional services are most likely not located next door, or even in your city – and maybe not even in your state. There are few expert drive recovery companies that you will probably need to use a courier to overnight your drive. This is commonplace in the industry because the cost-structure of building multi-million dollar labs in every state is unrealistic.

Whichever option you choose

Make certain you use the safest precautions to prevent permanent data loss. Do not open the drive, or try to use some utility that does not specifically address your circumstances. I say this because we get calls daily from people using such tools that market promises, but deliver disaster. Finally, if hard drive data recovery services becomes inevitable, the first step is to know that a bit-sector backup must be performed. Make sure they do this before anything else, otherwise you are putting your data at risk. We are the experts, so give us a call at 800-444-3225.