Accidentally deleted all your data? Is your hard drive failing? Hit the delete button? Help is here, read through the steps to get your data back and future prevention.
Data recovery is an advanced repair process. There is the usual concern of whether the device is repairable, but the bigger issue lies within, whether your important data, work docs, and family pictures can be recovered. In addition any data recovery procedures incorrectly carried out could further damage the hard drive and completely wipe out the data. It is important that the provider of your data recovery services is not only reputable, well equipped, but also trained and experienced within the various types of data recovery scenarios. Would you risk losing your most important data in the hands of an amateur?
There are two main types of hard drive failures - mechanical, non-mechanical. Mechanical failures are generally issues with the actual hard drive heads, platters and the hard drive's circuit board. With both issues there are two steps in the data recovery process. One is to service the drive to obtain a read of the drive's data, and then a data transfer to a new hard drive. Non-Mechanical issues usually involve corrupted data, bad sectors on the drive, and other problems preventing the hard drive reading the data.
The general data recovery process can vary upon different hard drive scenarios. First and foremost ensure the drive is in a readable state, followed by running repair and data recovery tools to obtain the data from the hard drive, data recovery software can be found on the internet. Generally if a hard drive has corrupted data, for the future safety of your information, it is advised to not use the drive again even if the repair tools enable a full read of the drive.
Avoid spending hundreds on data recovery. For future prevention ensure your data is backed up weekly on another computer, USB drive or external hard drive. Alternatively there are many online backup tools to explore. Cloud computing is an efficient way to back up data, as data can be uploaded and accessed anywhere in the world. The cheapest and easiest data backup solution is to send yourself documents via email, not only does this backup your data, but also provides a dated archive to go back through previous saved versions.
However if your hard drive is unreadable when connected to the computer, it is highly advised to contact your local data recovery shop. Ensure you contact the right data recovery business suitable and obtain an estimated quote, as some data recovery companies specialize in company repairs and emergency recovery, charging thousands.
Estimated Data Recovery Prices
$100-$250 - low level data recovery, recovery of deleted files, hard drive is readable, hard drive may only have small issues and may not need replacing.
$250-$700 - medium level recovery, could be mechanical damage on the drive, it is advised that the hard drive should not be used again.
$700-$2000 - advanced recovery, mechanical damage to drive as well as further issues with data corruption, hard drive cannot be used again.
For more information on data recovery services or for hard drive recovery repairs go to Drive Data Recovery.