Right now you probably in a lot of mental pain, and all you’re
concerned about is recovering your data as quickly as possible -
so we’ll refrain from comments on the wisdom of regular back
ups. The time for preventative measures has gone – the issue at
hand is data recovery.
First – a simple tip could save you a lot of money. Take out
your rolodex and get hold of your tech-savvy friends. If you’re
in luck, they’ll offer to help, and if you’re really lucky, they
might even have some disk recovery software.
If you’re out of luck, then get out your wallet or purse out now
… because this is going to cost you. Also, be prepared for a lot
of time being wasted – data recovery can take a long time.
The first thing to establish is what exactly is wrong with your
hard disk:
- Either your computer won’t boot
up, or - Your computer boots up OK but you can’t
see one of your other drives.
Let’s see if we can eliminate the worst scenario. Listen closely
to your hard drive – is it making any sort of weird noise, such
as scratching, scraping, ticking etc?
If so, then your drive is physically damaged and the only hope
that you have is to take it to a data recovery service where
experts might be able to get your data off for you. These
services are expensive and time consuming – so you need to make
a judgement call as to the value of data on the
disk.
- If it’s only your saved game data or downloaded
music files you would like back, you’re probably better off
kicking yourself for not backing up, and accepting the data
loss. - If, on the other hand, it’s a book or other type
of information product that you’ve been working on for years,
then send it to a data recovery service for an evaluation and
quote – it usually costs nothing.
If your hard disk sounds OK, then you stand a decent
chance of recovering data yourself.
First you’ll need to download some software to help you out.
Unfortunately, the better software utilities are not free, but
the good news is that many allow you to try them out to see they
can access the data. There are some freeware versions available
but generally speaking these are not easy to use – no user
interface / little documentation, or they are not very
effective.
There’s a list of recommended software on our site ‘Data
Recovery Emergency Room’ – compare the different options
then download a few of the trial versions.
Your next steps will be based on how your hard drive/s were
setup:
- If you only have a single hard drive that has
not been partitioned or split into different “logical” drives,
you’ll probably need to attach the hard drive to another
computer that has enough space to store all your data. This can
be quite technical so if you don’t have the skills please get a
computer savvy friend to help out.Another option is to purchase an external USB hard drive case.
You can then simply slot the hard drive into the case and plug
it into another PC using a USB port. - If you have a multiple drive setup and your computer
boots up fine, then it will merely be a case of getting the
downloaded software to read the files and then copy them to
another drive – provided you have a drive with enough space on
it. If not, you’ll need to attach the hard drive to another
machine with enough spare capacity. - The scenario
where you have a multiple drive setup, where the problem drive
is the one that contains your operating system files is more
tricky.Look for a data recovery software package that has a boot disk
option available. What this means is that when you start your
computer with the boot disk in it, it will automatically run the
data recovery program without trying to start windows. You
should be able to see your files and then copy them across to
another drive.
Hopefully these tips will enable you to get all your
important files back.
Once you’ve had some time to recover, please take a look at the
various articles on our website – our goal is to make it one of
the best resources on data recovery.
About the author:
For the past 20 years, Jeff Walters\’ interest has been in making
the most effective use of a business\’s information assets. He
has lead several data-to-information projects : ABC Costing,
analytical CRM, data warehouse development.
For more
info, visit: