Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Backup Data Properly

Computer data can be very important to us, especially those of us who make a living on the computer. Over the last several years, the computer has grown on all of us, making our lives so much easier. For that very reason, it’s easy to tell that if we lost our computer data, it would completely destroy a majority of us.

Losing data can be an overwhelming thought to say the least. Computers store data, although machines have been known to fail. Even though the computer has become a lot more reliable over the years, it is virtually impossible to prevent computers from losing data.

You don’t need to take this lying down through, as you can indeed fight back. The ideal way to ensure that you never lose your precious data, is to back it up and keep backing it up. You should back up your computer data at least once a week, with once per day being the recommended way to do it.

In the past, and even some today, the floppy disc is the main method used to back up computer data. Even though they store a small amount of data, they are easy to access, easy to use, and nearly every computer has one. Those of you who are looking to take things to the next level should look into backing up your entire hard drive. Backing up your entire hard drive is something that everyone should do, as it is indeed one of the best and most reliable ways to backup your computer.

When you create a backup of your entire hard drive, it will copy all of your information, so if something happens you’ll always have your data. Doing a full backup of your hard drive is great, although it can be very time consuming. To make matters worse, it is recommended that you create a backup at least once a week. On the other hand, if what you have on your computer is very important, you’ll find it more than worth the effort and time needed to back things up.

Another way you can back up your data, programs, and files, is to burn them directly to a data CD or DVD. This way, you can select which files or folders you want to keep. If you use CD/RW or DVD/RW disks, you can continue to add information to them when you create a backup. If you don’t use the RW (re-writable) media, then you won’t be able to go back and add more information to the disc.

Burning data directly to discs are the method of backup that most people are using these days, although backing up the entire hard drive is the preferred way of backing up your data. If you plan to use discs, you’ll need either a CD or DVD burner, which you can get for a great price these days. The discs are cheap as well, which only makes this method of backing things up that much better.

Whether it’s for your business or for personal reasons, you can’t go wrong backing up your data. You should always strive to back things up properly, as this will ensure that the data will always be there when you need it. This way, if you computer happens to crash or you lose everything on your hard drive, you’ll always have your backup files to go back to. This in itself can save you a lot of time, effort, and quite possibly even money - just for the simple fact that the files are all but a copy away to restore.


Preventing And Reversing Data Loss

One of the most stressful times that a simple student or employee may encounter is a loss of an important file on the computer. It can be a day of doom if you are due to submit your paper or make a presentation and at the worst possible moment your file is deleted. Thus, data recovery may be the answer you are looking for. Data recovery is technology that will help you to salvage lost data. First things first, you may want to take out your rolodex and try calling your tech-savvy friends to help you out. In case you have no more choice, you just might have to spend a little bit to get yourself a data recovery software or a specialist to help you out.

1. Determine What's Wrong:

- your computer will not start at all
- blue screen of death
- your computer boots up, but files are missing or are corrupted
- your computer opens up but you cannot seem to find some of your other drives

2. Weird Sounds

Before doing anything, try to hear if there are any sounds coming from your hard drive like a weird scratching, scraping or ticking. If you do hear something like it, then it is enough to conclude that your hardware may be physically damaged. The only possibility for you is to take your computer to a data recovery service where experts might be able to get your data off for you. Of course, this would entail a lot of time and money, so you may want to weigh the value of the data you lost before going a step further.

3. Do-It-Yourself Data Recovery Tips:

- Acquire and download software to help you out
- Not all software is free
- Attach your hard drive to another computer if your computer has only a single drive. This is to provide enough space to store all your data
- If your computer has a rollback safety feature, try and roll back to a previous saved state to restore damage

4. Possible Causes Of Damage:

- Lightning strike
- Virus
- Hard drive failure
- Accidental deletion of data
- Water/fire damage
- Improper software installation overwriting important data

5. Be Prepared - Make Backups

Having back-ups is the only solution to your data loss problems. They come in various forms:

- Virus protection software
- Personal firewall
- CD backup
- DVD backup
- RAID hard drive

6. Back-Up Tips

- Try investing in backup software of good quality and performance. Products that leave you secured from data loss disaster or further computer file crashes are always a good investment.
- Double check the restore capability. The software should have features that guarantee that while the product is performing your back up it checks all the data down to the level of bits and bytes.
- Double check the capability of your back up medium. Invest on the best back up software you can get and at the same time, for the purposes of prevention, start manually and diligently backing up your data regularly.
- Do an inspection of your hard drives from time to time. Always be on guard of viruses and spywares that can possibly crash your hardware. Defrag your computer regularly to correct errors and check bad sectors as soon as they are detected.
- Be sure you conduct a proper documentation of what transpired during the data loss disaster, what you have observed, as it progresses and the things you attempted doing to give your files the first aid. This will help the data recovery expert to track the problem and recommend the best solution for your problem.


Data Recovery First Aid: 3 Tips To Increase Your Chances Of Success


Let's get to the important part first - if you've just lost your data, skip past this introduction and go directly to our first tip, so you can start your rescue operation. If not, a few minutes spent now might help you a lot in the future. Pay special attention to our third tip.

I always thought of myself as a reliable guy with reliable data. I never deleted my files accidentally, I made regular backups and had a power supply for my computer to protect me against surges and outages. However last year I experienced two cases of data loss where I needed to use recovery software. The first was a dead hard drive that'd hardly served a year. Subsequently, I accidentally deleted a large project file that was too big for the Recycle Bin. Happily I've got all my data back, thanks to good advice and a little preparation.

These handy tips will help you stay confident in the face of data loss, no matter how it occurs.

Tip #1: Use your system as little as possible until you recover all of your lost files. The more activity taking place on your hard disk, the greater the chance that some of your lost data might be written over.

- Don't copy any files to the disk containing your lost data;
- Avoid browsing the web, because your web browser saves cache files on the disk;
- Don't launch any unnecessary programs, because they can also use your disk;
- Don't restart your computer.
Tip #2: Before you go further, take steps to free up some space on the disk containing your lost files. The more free space your system has, the less chance of overwriting any lost files with new ones. You can do one or more of the following things.
- Delete old files that you don't need anymore (you can also move them to another source, like a USB flash drive, instead of deleting);
- Empty your Recycle Bin - making sure that you haven't put any important files in there by mistake;
- Empty your browser cache. For Internet Explorer, click on the "Tools" menu, then select "Internet Options". Then, on the "General" tab, click the "Delete Files..." button.
Tip #3: To install any software after data damage increases the risk of your data being overwritten, so if you haven't had any data problems yet, consider installing a data recovery program just in case. Prevention is always better than cure, and a recovery program is good insurance for your data. However, if you don't yet have a recovery program, find one and - if possible - avoid installing it to the disk where your lost files are located.
Most recovery programs work fairly similarly. You need to select the disk where the lost files are located, let the program analyze the content of the disk - this can take a while - and then select the file you want to recover. Then, provide a location where you want to save that file. You should try to avoid recovering files to the same disk. You could use another hard drive, a network or removable media like a floppy disk or USB flash drive.
After you recover your files, check that they are correct. If you've recovered applications, check that they still run, or if you've recovered documents, check that your words are still there. Even the best recovery software can't guarantee 100% results. If some parts of your files were overwritten - meaning that other data was saved to their location on your disk - after recovery they might contain invalid information. Depending on the type of file involved, partially recovered files like this can be mended by special utilities.


Good Software can fix your lost mail trouble

Emails are an essential medium of communication in the fast track world of today. Be it for our personal or for business purposes, emails are indispensable. Loss of emails can bring about anything from a minor loss to devastation, depending on the need of the user. Hence, data recovery vis a vis emails is an absolute must, especially if emails are essential communication tools for one’s business. Data recovery softwares are a viable and dependable option when it comes to effective email recovery.

Data recovery softwares function differently for different types of files, which are:

* Outlook PST Files
* Outlook Express DBX Files
* Web Mail

Outlook PST Files

PST Files are very complex. So, once data is lost from these files, it is important to recover the data as well as repair them. To recover data the files themselves, these softwares are very helpful. Good software is equipped to repair and restore data from damaged or corrupted Microsoft Outlook file.

Microsoft Outlook stores email messages, contacts, notes and folders on the local drive as a .pst file. The Outlook recovery software scans the damaged .pst file and extracts and saves information in a new usable .pst file, enabling PST Recovery.

The key features of good PST files recovery software are:

* Providing PST Recovery from folders, calendars, contacts, tasks, notes.
* Repairing even the password protected files
* Restoration of formatting from RTF and HTML messages
* Recovering data from encrypted files
* Providing support to repair .pst files.
* Recovering deleted email attachments.

Outlook Express DBX Files

Good recovery software can scan, extract and save emails form .dbx files in which Microsoft Outlook Express stores messages and folders in the local drive. It should also be allowed to retrieve accidentally deleted messages from the ‘Deleted Items’ folder in Outlook Express. The .dbx files also need to be repaired so as to enable smooth functioning subsequently.

The key features of good DBX files recovery software are:

* Providing Mail Recovery from Outlook Express dbx files.
* Providing deleted email recovery of dbx files from corrupt media, such as floppy disks, Zip disks, CD ROMs, etc.
* Provides Mailbox repair of dbx files.
* Support to repair dbx files within a size limitation.
* Recovering deleted email attachments.
* Enabling the recovered messages to be opened directly in MS Outlook Express.
* Enabling recovered messages to be saved in the *.eml file format on any (including network) disks visible by the host operating system.
* Enabling message source view.

Web Mail

In order to access a web based email program like Yahoo or Hotmail, one has to use the Internet Browser to log onto a remote computer which stores the emails. When mails from it are deleted, they cannot be recovered. Hence, data recovery software is required to retrieve that data. It is a very complicated procedure, and only messages that have been opened already can be retrieved using a good software.

As the old and clichéd adage goes, prevention I better than cure. So, it is advised that a lot of care be taken. After all, loss of important mails can spell disaster for your business.

Data Recovery Tips

When it comes to hard drive data recovery there are a lot of myths out there. People are recommending Scandisk or some 10 year old DOS utility as the most sophisticated data recovery tools. When turning to a discussion group for help after a system crash, you often get to hear: "Just recover from your back-up - you have one, don't you?" Now - that's helpful! Whatever happened to your data - whether files were accidentally deleted, the drive was formatted or fdisk'ed, a virus has wiped out the boot record or even if it is no longer recognized by the OS, as long as it wasn't physically overwritten, the data which was on the drive is still there and can be recovered. The files just aren't accessible anymore the way they should be. For example, if you delete a file, the file's data is not deleted from the drive, but instead a signature byte is set at the start of the file's file name. This signature byte tells the OS that this area can be overwritten by other data next.

And that's exactly what happens: the next time you write something to the drive, the new data will be written to the so marked area. But this also means, that as long as nothing new is written to the drive, the data is still there, intact and can therefore be easy recovered.
This behavior is also the reason why trying to undelete single deleted files often isn't successful. When you delete a file and you empty the recycle bin as well - as soon as you notice that you still need the file, chances are that you have done something in the meantime, that has overwritten the data area of the file. Even in cases which seem the most radical - when you for example have formatted your drive from FAT32 to NTFS- and five minutes later realize that you didn't mean to format THIS drive, all of your files are still there.

When you format a FAT32 drive, everything is destroyed (the boot record, the FAT, the root directory) except for the partition table and the data. And that's all you need! As long as the data's still there your files can be reconstructed - very often nearly perfectly.


"Installing this one program will not hurt..." Yes it will!

NEVER install or copy anything to the hard drive you want to recover data from.

If you can avoid it, don't even run the drive anymore. Run it only one more time, after you have attached it to a healthy Windows computer as a second drive, installed the data recovery software on the other, "good" drive, and are running the software to scan the "bad" drive.
Writing anything to the drive you have the data loss on, can doom the whole recovery. Installing a seemingly tiny 1MB program on the drive can mean that you are not only overwriting 1MB of space on the drive, but are corrupting 500MB or more worth of files (especially when the hdd is fragmented) beyond recovery. Even surfing the Internet (looking for data recovery tools) without downloading anything can overwrite data on the drive. While on the Internet temporary file are constantly created on your hard drive, often without you knowing it and even if you have disabled the use of cookies etc...

"In the end only a professional data recovery service can help..." If you lost data due to a physical problem with the drive, for example the drive is making strange noises, doesn't spin at all, or is no longer recognized by the BIOS, this might be the case. When a hdd is physically damaged most times no software solution is going to bring your data back. It is recommended not even to try to recover your hdd yourself in these cases, because each time you run a damaged drive could be last time it is running at all. When you still feel tempted to try to recover a physically challenged drive yourself, at least - before you do anything else- make an image of the drive and run all data recovery attempts on the image. But for all data loss scenarios due to logical failures like accidental file deletion, format, fdisk, software or power failure, user error, virus attack etc. the following is true:

* You don't have to be a computer pro to conduct your own data recovery safely and inexpensively!
* Don't try to use any repair tools, like "boot record repair" or "bad sector repair" tools, whatever is out there. Don't run ScanDisk. These tools are writing to your drive, and in the process are likely to overwrite the very files you intend to recover.

* Instead use data recovery tools, which don't write to the drive. Make sure to use the data recovery software as recommended. Never install or copy anything to the drive you are about to recover. Instead attach the drive to a working Windows computer as a second or slave drive and run the software from the "good" computer.

Data Recovery Over Hard Disk Failure

Hard Disk: An Introduction

Hard Disks are used to store information. All information on computers are stored in files. Hard disks store the majority of information on today's modern computer. Hard disk drives (HDDs) can be critically damaged by static electricity, shock, and other factors, often resulting in failure or the loss of valuable data. In many cases it may become necessary to recover information from your hard drive. Such retrieval is quite possible.

Hard Disk Failure

*Physical Failures

Physical failure occurs from sudden switch off, power failure, sliding them off desks and cheap components. As for data loss, data is only magnetic impulses on the surface of a hard disk. And ridiculously small bits of magnetism at that! When the magnetic impulse fades, or changes position, trouble starts.

Drive Alignment Drift is another cause of problems. Mechanical devices are subject to wear and tear, heat and cold, loosening tolerances etc.

The small changes in the read/write heads wouldn't matter usually, as data still gets written in the same place as it will be read later. However, there is some data that hardly ever gets re-written, and that is the Sector ID Headers.

*Logical Failures

Master Boot Record Failure

Technically, when the Master Boot Record is working correctly, the master boot code scans the partition table for the active partition, finds the starting sector, loads a copy of the boot sector from the active partition into memory and then transfers control to the executable code in the boot sector. If the master boot code cannot complete these functions, the system displays a message similar to the MBR error.

*Boot Sector Failure

The boot sector is a region of a hard disk, floppy disk, and other similar data storage device. It is loaded to memory and executed as a part of the bootstrap sequence. The boot sector contains a small computer program that is loaded on the operating system into memory and transfers the control.

Most boot sector failure occurs by the defection of boot sector virus. Boot sector viruses are usually spread by infected floppy disks. In the past, these were usually bootable disks, but this is no longer the case. A floppy disk does not need to be bootable to transmit a boot virus. Any disk can cause infection if it is in the drive when the computer boots up or shuts down.

*Accidentally Deleted Data

Some time some how you may delete a file thinking we don?t need it any more, but in a week or or two you may realize that it is a needed one. It happens to the best of us, but fortunately there are ways to get these lost files back.

When it comes to data on your computer, it is almost impossible to accidentally remove it beyond recoverability. Even if you are intentionally trying to completely wipe a file from your hard drive it is exceedingly difficult.

*Cross Linked Files

A file system error that corrupts the contents of an existing file by writing data from another file into the same cluster. Running Scandisk or a similar program cleans up the problem, but one of the files is no longer usable.

*Bad Sectors

It is a portion of the Hard disk that cannot be used any more. If a part of the disk get bad sector which contains data then those data is to be recovered before use. When you format a disk, the OS will mark all the unusable sector as bad sector, however, this does not affect the overall performance of the disk as the damaged space is considered unusable.

Hard Disk Data Recovery

*Replace the (Circuit Board) PCB

Upon a Hard Drive circuit board failure, it is possible to get back the data by carefully replacing the PCB of the hard drive.

*Replace the Firmware

Hard disk firmware is the information that is used by the computer that allows it to correctly interact with the hard disk. It may be replaced or updated by the matching firmware.

*Replace the Head Stack

There are common situation that may be due to head failures. There is a small chip located in the head stack that is called PREAMPLIFIER. Working with preamplifiers always includes some difficulties, because, practically, they can not withstand static discharges. If re-soldering is needed, one should follow a number of rules to protect a preamplifier from static damage caused by careless finger touching. Although this task is very risky and it should be done in a high secured lab specially created for this task.

*Move the disk to another Drive

In some cases complete functionality of the Hard drive may be disabled while only the internal disk plate is without any damages or errors. In those situations, it is possible to move the disk to another drive.

*Spin-Stand Testers

Hard drive manufactures and their head media; preamplifier and read channel suppliers do have very accurate, very expensive "magic machines" called Spin-Stands. These are used for testing and experimenting with heads and disks. They are used mostly by researcher and development departments.

*Magnetic Force Microscopes (MFM)

Magnetic force microscopy is a powerful tool for high-resolution magnetic imaging of most data storage media. As the density of magnetic media is higher, the bit becomes smaller than the wavelength of light, so optical techniques can not resolve it. General MFM is capable of imaging the magnetic domain of several tens of nanometers. Also, MFM is almost simultaneous with measuring the surface characteristics of topography and roughness of the same area with sub-angstrom vertical resolution.

Recovery Softwares

*SpinRite 6.0

SpinRite is a stand-alone DOS program designed to refurbish hard drives, floppy disks and recover data from marginally or completely unreadable hard drives and floppy disks and from partitions and folders which have become unreadable.

*Ontrack data recovery software

Ontrack Data Recovery offers the industry's highest quality and cost-effective do-it-yourself data recovery software solutions for almost any data loss situation covering servers, desktops or laptops for all media, operating systems and file types. Ontrack's EasyRecoveryTM family of products is unmatched in its ability to recover/repair from all causes of lost data.

*Recover My Files

Recover My Files data recovery software will easily recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or Trojan infection, and unexpected system shutdown or software failure.

The best FREE data recovery solution: EASEUS Deleted File Recovery 2.1.1


Ever emptied the Recycle Bin only to suddenly realize that you just deleted something you meant to keep? Have you ever wished you had a recovery tool that could help you recover what was lost, deleted? With EASEUS Deleted File Recovery, that’s exactly what you’ll be able to! It’s totally FREE! Now, forget all the expensive data recovery service and try the Freeware! 2 April, 2008: CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd. (www.easeus.com) today announces EASEUS Deleted File Recovery 2.1.1 (www.easeus-deletedrecovery.com). It’s a one-stop solution to the problem of mistaken deletion designed for the Windows OS machines. EASEUS Deleted File Recovery 2.1.1 supports Windows Vista. EASEUS Deleted File Recovery will recover deleted files or folders even when they have been emptied from the Recycle Bin. The type of the file system doesn’t really matter as the program recovers from all of them: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS/NTFS5, and it’s just for starters! The program supports IDE/ATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, Fire wire (IEEE1394) hard disk and other media, such as Floppy disk, USB flash drive, or digital camera.

EASEUS Deleted File Recovery delivers all the above mentioned features, while adding some advanced data recovery capabilities, such as basic and dynamic disk support. Added to this is support for alternate data streams, sparse files, and Unicode filenames.

When the data loss disaster strikes, that’s when EASEUS Deleted File Recovery does its amazing job. Let’s say you accidentally deleted an important document in a USB flash drive. No problem! You run EASEUS Deleted File Recovery, select the USB flash drive from the list of all available storage devices, set its file system type (FAT 16, FAT 32, or NTFS) and click Next. The program will scan the media, detect all lost or deleted files and let you select the one you want to recover. The last step is to recover the file and save it to the required folder. That’s pretty much you need to do. Compared to other software, EASEUS Deleted File Recovery does its recovery job much faster and in a more elegant manner, making recovery fun to do.

So why not take advantage of some of the newest technology to recover lost or deleted computer data? If you’re ready to use some FREE, simplest and technically elegant recovery solution, then you’re ready for EASEUS Deleted File Recovery!

Availability

EASEUS Deleted File Recovery 2.1.1 runs under Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista. Download the FREE EASEUS Deleted File Recovery 2.1.1 please go to http://www.easeus-deletedrecovery.com/


About CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co., Ltd.

The company specializes in data recovery software for Windows OS. Its major products are Data Recovery Wizard Professional, Data Recovery Wizard, and Partition Table Doctor. For more information, please visit www.easeus.com.

Data Loss in iPod due to Factory Setting Restoration and Recovery

A new copy of iPod software is called “factory settings”. When you first purchase a fresh iPod, it comes with default factory settings. The factory settings make your iPod easy to customize and operating. Sometimes, when you use your iPod with iTunes or any other data transferring software, you needs to make some changes in the factory settings of your iPod. Sometimes, it also required when you use the iPod with Windows or other operating systems. If you have any problem with your iPod like freezing and shuffling, you can overcome to these problems by restoring the factory settings of your iPod.

You may be in need of restoring factory settings in following circumstances:Want to change from Mac to PCWant to change from PC to MacWant to use it both on PC and MacCorruption and freezing problems in your iPodYou can restore your iPod simply by connecting it to iTunes and choosing restore option from the tools menu of iTunes. But you should always keep in mind that when you restore the iPod, it may delete your stored music, image, and text files. If you have some problems with your iPod and like a general user, you have restored you iPod and it has deleted your stored files. It is very shocking for you’re as you have lost your entire music collection and precious images. At that time, you are definitely searching for any software that can restore you lost iPod data. You are right; you can find the software solution of this problem. You can recover the lost data with the help of iPod data recovery software.


IPod recovery software are the application programs that are specially designed to get back you lost precious music and image files. With these software, you can recover you lost data by connection your iPod to your computer and can scan for the lost data. These are easy to use software programs that can recover data from your corrupted or restored iPod. There is a wide range of iPod Recovery software available for recovering the lost iPod data. Among these software, you can find a powerful iPod recovery software that is Stellar Phoenix iPod Recovery software. This software can recover data from you iPod in all cases of data loss. With the help of this iPod recovery software, you can recover lost data from all models of iPod including iPod classic, iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch.

Hard Drive Data Recovery


Most hard drives, subject to normal conditions and use, will fail. In a lot of cases, it may take up to 10 years. But in some cases, it can be less than a year. Whatever the case may be, when your hard drive fails, whether it is on your PC, server or laptop, it is important to understand that professional hard drive data recovery is available.

Hard disk drives are very complex devices. They consist of a number of moving parts and a circuit board to hold them together. If we speak about hard disk data recovery, the first thing that you must evaluate is whether it is a hardware problem that is preventing you from accessing your data files on the hard drive. Many hardware problems include a faulty circuit board or problems with the moving parts like the actuator arm.

A faulty circuit board is characterized by a drive that does not 'spin up', meaning that platters are not turning underneath the copper wire. A faulty actuator arm or some more serious mechanical errors are characterized by a strange clicking noise or a grinding noise. The best advice in determining whether you have a hardware problem is to listen to the sound of your hard drive. If you cannot hear the platters spinning (i.e. it is quiet when it is turned on) or you hear more serious noises then you should try to make a backup of your data and stop using the drive immediately.

The faster computers and servers get, the smaller they get (such as laptop or notebook computers) and the more advanced hard disk drives get, the more susceptible they are to physical damage and hard drive failure. This is because of the heat these devices generate, which often may result in the need for hard drive data recovery, hard disk repair or professional level services such as exchange data recovery.

If you think you may need hard drive data recovery, consult this checklist:

1. Have you lost a few files, or is your computer not booting properly?
2. Has your hard drive made any buzzing or clicking noises?
3. When booting, does your computer see your hard drive, or instead provide you with a message like: I/O error?
4. What were you doing when you first encountered the data or hard drive loss?
5. Did you experience what many in the PC industry call "the blue screen of death"? If you had, what was the error message?

Once you have the answers to these five simple questions, you are ready to determine whether or not you need hard disk recovery software-based, or hardware data recovery. The last can be very expensive because technicians often need to first disassemble your hard drive to fix the problem. But you should always try first to run some diagnostic tools which can help you to determinate how serious the problem might be. Physical hard drive data recovery is usually done in a special 'clean room' without dust (picture below) because hard drives are specially sealed to avoid errors caused by dust or other particles. Also hard drives are very finely tuned devices and it takes special equipment to read the platters from a physically damaged hard drive.

If you are sending your hard drive to a data recovery specialist then you should attempt to obtain an upfront estimate of fees (although you will rarely get one), ask that if you send your hard drive for quotation purposes will they send it back to you in the same condition if you choose not to use the service, and make sure you send it to a reputable company as you may only get one chance at hard drive data recovery.

External Hard Drive Recovery


You can store your computer data in several different ways. Data can be stored on removable disks, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and other types of media. Even though there are several ways that you can store your data, at some point in time the electronic or mechanical device is bound to break down, resulting in a loss of data. Even though the device may work good for years, it can always break down when you least expect it, with no way to avoid it.
Hard drives are the most common way to store data, although they are mechanical devices and can break down or crash at any time. When they crash, you’ll normally lose all of your data, which can put you in quite a bind. To be on the safe side and keep yourself protected, you should always have a backup plan, such as an external hard drive.

An external hard drive is very handy to have around. You can store any type of file on it, including music and pictures. Most people use them for videos, as they can store a lot of videos. You can get them in many different sizes, going as high as 500 GB. If you have a lot of video on your computer that is taking up a lot of much needed space, you can easily transfer it to an external hard drive and free up some of your space.

On the data recovery side of things, external hard drives are a great solution. You can back up your entire hard drive on them, even a mirror image. Most external drives are FireWire or USB compatible and will work with most computers. To use an external drive all you need to do is connect it to your computer. Then, using the software that came with the device, you can begin to transfer your data and files.

If you have a big hard drive, you’ll want to get a bigger external hard drive. If you are transferring your entire internal hard drive to the external drive, it may take you a few minutes. You can also add files and such along the way as well, if you get newer files to add. Backing up your entire hard drive to an external drive is a very smart idea, especially if your area gets a lot of electrical storms.

Once you have backed up all of your data to an external hard drive, you can rest assured that your information will be there when you need it. External drives don’t crash, for the simple fact that they aren’t in use until you need them. They will last you many years as well, which makes them great for pictures and other precious files. If you own a business, you may find them to the best way to store your business documents and other files that relate to your company.

All in all, external hard drives are the perfect way to create a back up of your data. Once you have your data backed up, you’ll be ready for anything that happens to your internal hard drive. In the event of a crash, you can use your external hard drive and transfer the data back to your hard drive, and be back up and running in no time at all. External hard drives take all of the guess work out of the data recovery process - and may also save you the trouble of having to send your hard drive off to be repaired.