Data, as we call it, is a very precious commodity today. For some, it may be vital occupational information and knowledge, for others, it symbolizes an entire lifetime formatted into pictures, videos, music, art and creations. This data which could be on your hard drive or other storage devices or even i-pods is very susceptible and can get damaged due to human errors, viruses, power surges and failures, and as anything that can go wrong, will, any data that can be lost will be. So what can you do to safeguard and prevent yourself against a catastrophe like that? 2 things: backup and retrieval. If there has been a physical damage to your hard drive or storage device, it could be difficult for a common user to repair the media and retrieve the data, which is stored in the files and traditionally, it would need to be sent to the experts with requisite facilities like clean dust free labs…
So far as logical or software failure is concerned, it’s a different story altogether. Many Do-It-Yourself software products are available in the cyber markets which claim to rescue and retrieve your virus-corrupted, files deleted due to sudden power interruption or manual errors, format failures and inaccessible files.. Although its true that these software applications can retrieve the lost data most of the times but none of them can guarantee that there won’t be any data loss. However, if you are not careful regarding the software you chose, it’s almost guaranteed that it will be lost forever. You don’t need to be a techno-wizard in order to utilize these products but a little technical know-how could come in very handy. So what are the risks involved and what can go wrong while using a data recovery software application?
First of all, the data recovery software must come from a reputable and authentic source and backed up by a customer service support system by the supplier. The software itself could be corrupted by a virus if it’s from an unreliable source and then, one lands out of the fire into a frying pan. You also need to be dead sure that the software does not change the contents of the drive being searched. For example, certain repair programs while doing consistency checks may delete the files which are severely damaged or corrupted in order to make the system function without a hitch and if you were looking for that application to retrieve those same files which it has deleted then you are beyond help. These repair programs only repair damaged files which could simply involve removing the confounding factor. They don’t restore the data.
Also, some of these software applications can overwrite on your lost data making it potentially very much irretrievable. To avoid that, always install these rescue software on a drive that is separate from the affected files. Infact, the basic repair tools and scans that are usually provided by the operating systems for functional consistency checks and simply scanning the disk can prove to be damaging as it could lead to overwriting on the already inaccessible data. Risk of overwriting is also present even when you are purchasing such software products online and downloading them on the afflicted media. So the risk of losing the data keeps on compounding if the software isn’t foolproof against over writing over the affected files. Even if the software fails to retrieve the data, there should be the flexibility to pursue other options. Thus, if you don’t want to lose your valuable information forever, don’t use such applications on the same drive because to install themselves, they may take the space of your irreplaceable data.
In case, you still wish to rely on your skills and these data recovery software, you can shield yourself against a painful regrettable forfeiture of your data. Some of these products offer a preview window where you can verify that the restoring software has been successful in retrieving the data. Before you purchase them, they allow you a free demonstration, in which you can see all the files including deleted or corrupted ones on your hard drive and recover some of them which come within the purview of the demo and the rest can be restored after buying them. There is additional security in the way that some of these software can copy the whole database, thus creating a mirror image of your hard drive with all its problems and then the recovery solutions can be applied to this copy leaving the original files intact so that even if there is a chance that the software fails and causes data loss, the damage can be controlled by having a backup, however corrupted or malfunctioning it may be.
The extent to which you succeed in life will sometimes depend on your ability to take risks. But for an indispensable data, the question is, can you afford to do so?