Advancing technology has empowered us and at the same time, made us vulnerable. Hard drives have become faster and quieter with the capacity of 350 GB. On the other hand, a drawback has been their inconsistency. Hard drives usually fall prey to mechanical defects and failures. When this happens, the user is prone to data loss. But sometimes data loss is accidental. Data files get deleted by mistake and then even the recycle bin is emptied. What happens then? How is the data recovered?
The Data Recovery Company of CBL Technologies states that even if the data files are gone from the recycle bin, they can be recovered. Data can never be lost or completely erased after being originally saved. The company technicians contend that the data is entangled in the interior disk platters. It can be recovered though not in full form and size. The data file will lose its formatting and sequencing but more than 96-98% of lost data can be recovered.
Here, it falls upon the user which data recovery path to take. The user can call the experts and entrust them with the job, or the user can purchase DIY software and attempt to recover data by self.
DIY Data Recovery
Data recovery by self through DIY depends on a few factors:
- How computer savvy and well informed is the user?
- Is the DIY purchased from a vendor of good repute?
- Is the DIY specific in nature -- is it only for hard drive data recovery?
Usually, the computer operating system is equipped with recovery utilities of SCNDSK and CHKDSK. These utilities have the capacity to communicate to the user if a sizable amount of lost data is available on the disk. These utilities combined with advanced DIY software of Disk Doctor, Scavenger 3 and Easy Doctor can successfully recover lost data. It must be remembered that users prefer to use DIY as it is cheap and convenient. However, a user ought to refrain from using DIY software, which has been downloaded for free from the Internet.
Chances are that such DIY are general in nature and not equipped to electronically clean the hard drive. The primary reason why data gets entangled in the disk interior mesh accounts to dirt and overexposure to heat and light. Hence, hard disk maintenance is a must. Correct specific DIY has the capacity to clean the disk electronically. In addition, specific DIY is compatible with the computer operating system. This is essential as incompatibility with the operating system can further the damage.
However, there is no foolproof method that you will have 100% of your data recovered or your hard disk will never crash again. Usually, the best possible way to minimise data loss is to shut down your computer. A user is advised to do so after the data stored is not accessible and cannot be located. Another reason could be that error messages start flashing on the screen. The hard disk stops spinning and makes rattling dull noises. The disk is not recognised by the computer.
Guidelines for Using DIY Data Recovery
In order to run the DIY software, a user needs to follow a few guidelines. These include:
- Shutting down the computer: This requires the user to be alert to the situation. The user needs to be aware if the used computer is reading the hard drive. If not shut down the entire computer immediately by just pulling off the plug. Do not try to save any further new data as this could merely overload your hard drive and corrupt the original saved data more.
- Try to document all the symptoms of the computer before you shut it down -- was the hard drive spinning? Was the screen flashing error messages?
- Try to determine the cause of failure of the hard drive. This will help the user in choosing the correct specific DIY software
- Be aware of your hard drive information such:
- Size and history of the hard drive
- Date of purchase
- Duration of usability
- Technology used in the hart drive
- Structure of the hard drive
- Slave disks: Try to connect the drive as a slave to another computer. In this way, you might be able to recover all the data.
- In case of Microsoft Exchange or SQL failure, never try the direct recovery operations on the corrupted database file instead make a copy of the database files and then start recovery on these files.
Also avoid using Volume Repair utilities if there has been power outage or if the files system is corrupted.