Find and Fix Errors

Don’t Panic! You’ve been busy working on that deadline project for weeks and you suddenly find that you have accidently deleted a major document that’s essential and full of days or weeks of research results, what do you do? Some people will try data recovery software to start with but this can harm your data surprisingly enough.

There are some important rules to ensure you follow or are aware of when using data recovery utilities for recovering lost files:

Firstly and a big mistake many people make isn’t to install the software on the same computer you have been using, why? If you’ve deleted the file when you install any further software or save anything back to the disk, as the operating system will use what it thinks about free space to load the program you could end up overwriting the document or part of the document you are trying to recover.

Secondly, have you mysteriously lost any file before? If yes your drive may be degraded so a proper data recovery would be a more suitable option.

Next, try to use trial software, all good data recovery applications offer a free trial version that grants you to determine if your files are recoverable before you make a purchase. You might not be able to see the content of the files but the presence of the file name should indicate whether it is recoverable or not.

Assuming your drive is exhibiting no signs of failure and having used the software you have managed to find the file (intact) and it is recoverable you’ll now need to save the data somewhere. Under no circumstances save it back to the same drive as you may end up saving the data on back to the same area that the data is being recovered from resulting in a corrupted file.

Often data recovery software will allocate the space on the hard drive before recovering the file, once the space has been allocated the data may already be partially over-written.

Of course before embarking on a DIY data recovery project ascertain the value of your data because if the data loss would be job threatening, high-priced to your business or simply un-replaceable then don’t take the risk.

The cost for the recovery of files from a hard disk by a professional data recovery organisation is now in most cases comparable to the cost of the full version of the software that you’ve tried, plus you are normally backed up by a no recovery – no fee guarantee.

And finally don’t forget to vet your data recovery provider if you go this route, do they have a certified clean room themselves if they need to open the drive for any reason, or would they need to outsource this aspect of the job elsewhere?

If they do not have the facilities for hard drive recovery and repair in a clean room environment or there is any sign of mechanical failure then a main data recovery company will be your best option.

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