Hard Drive Data Recovery

Okay, so we can cut out all the I told you so nonsense, that isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Chances are that if you find yourself needing to perform hard drive data recovery, then it is almost certainly because you forgot computing cardinal rule: Always backup your data. Learn “How to Recover Data from a Hard Drive” here…

Hard drives are not indestructible, and they will all fail eventually. So really, the choice is yours – Do you want to learn the hard way or the easy way?

But then of course, you already have your data backed up don’t you? Right???

But what to do if, lo and behold, you never did back up your files and now your files are gone and lost? The first thing you mustn’t do is panic! There’s really no need, there are many options that you can resort to as you attempt hard drive data recovery.

First of all, you need to find out if the hard drive really has failed, or if the error is just one of the many computer or equipment glitches that can lead to a boot failure. If you can get access to a second computer, then it’s possible for you to take out the broken hard drive and connect it to the alternate PC as a secondary drive. You can do this quite easily by using a USB adapter, they only cost around $30 and they are very useful to have around for all kinds of diagnostics involving hard drives.

If you are using an Apple Mac, then the process is even easier. You can hook up your broken Mac to a Mac that is working by using a FireWire cable. Then, all you have to do is the target boot tool on the broken machine, simply by pressing and holding the T-key when you power on the machine.

Whatever method you use, there is a good chance that your hard drive will actually appear on the healthy computer, and you will be able to access all of the files on it. If so, then your hard drive probably hasn’t failed, and the problem is with your operating system (it will need to be reinstalled). However, before fixing the operating system, now might be a very good time to back up all of those files!

If the files do not appear after hooking up your hard drive to a healthy computer, then you are at a pivotal moment in your life! You’re going to need to decide how much value all of that lost work, photos and other treasure memories you have saved really have.

While it will depend very much on the scale of damage that the drive has suffered, the chances are that recovering your data could cost anything from $100 to $1000 or even more! And not only is it expensive, the whole hard drive data recovery process can take many days to complete, and even then there is absolutely no guarantee that you are going to get your files back. I can guarantee it will cost you money though!

Okay, so now the depressing task of setting your expectations has been done, now’s the time to share some good news. In most cases, the data that you think you have lost can be recovered.

In fact, you will probably be surprised at just how resilient information stored on hard drives can be, and if you don’t believe me you can ask any jailed corporate embezzler that tried deleting the evidence from their computer if this is true or not! This is actually a very apt comparison, because the tools that are used by police to uncover digital misdeeds are also used by hard drive data recovery specialists to find your lost data too.

The only safe way to recover your data if you’re not a computer geek is to seek professional help, and this is going to cost you money. How much money does hard drive data recovery cost?

Well, to get an idea of that, we’ll need to understand the two ways in which a hard drive can crash. They can suffer either logical failure or, much worse, mechanical failure.

Logical failure is what happens when something happens, usually a file corruption or some kind of accidental formatting that stops the drive being able to navigate and find the data stored on itself. The components of the drive itself are not actually damaged in any way, and so your data is almost certainly still on the drive and easily retrievable (for the experts!) so long as you haven’t overwritten it. You may be lucky and only be charge a couple of hundred dollars for this service.Mechanical failure is much worse. This is when you hard drive has damaged some of its components and this is what prevents it from working normally. Often, a busted hard drive will make a tell-tale clicking noise in its futile efforts to access the files inside it. If you can hear this sound, then chances are good that your data is still there somewhere, but unless you call in some specialist hard drive data recovery help, you are not going to get it back very easily.

Unfortunately for you, if you have indeed suffered mechanical damage to your drive, these data recovery experts charge an awful lot of money for their services. For example, top hard drive data recovery firms like Seagate i365, Iomega and Kroll Ontrack all charge a fee ranging from $500 to as much as $2500 for their efforts in attempting to recover your lost data. The exact cost will depend on how severe the situation is.

So quite rightly, having found out about the huge costs involved when you get the experts involved, you are going to ask about data recovery software that you can buy. Does it work? Well, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t!

What you have to realize about data recovery software is that no program will recover your files in their original condition. So things might be very messy. What these programs do is perform a data jump, transferring the files from the old drive to the new one. All of your files will be organized according to file type, with word docs in one folder, JPEG’s in another and so on.

Meanwhile the program will also change the name of each of your files, replacing them with random numbers and letters, making it even more confusing for you! And of course, there is always the chance that the program simply won’t work, and the crucial files you wanted most of all simply didn’t turn up. Perhaps now is a good time to back up your files, if you haven’t already done so..

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