Retrieving information out of a “dead” hard disk can be a pretty hard feat. Unfortunately, we cannot predict whether an incident will happen like this and we cannot really do anything to prevent it. The reality is that these mechanical drives have a certain life span and when they reach that limit, something will break. It has to break because it consists of a lot of moving mechanical parts which are combined with other electric parts that can break too.
Waking up to find out that you cannot get into the operating system of your computer is easily one of the scariest things that can happen to your data. With a broken hard disk you won’t be able to ever boot into your PC, and even if you do you probably will not be able to copy or open any file. So, you might be thinking that you have a problem with some other parts of your computer and you try to save the data by plugging in the drive into another computer. You find out that the culprit is actually the HDD. In these moments you start thinking about all the valuable data you have lost and you start panicking.
Such a reaction is normal for anyone who relies on their PC on a daily basis and keeps all of the information from work on it.
Fortunately, thanks to the advancement in recovery data technologies, there are a couple of ways you could save everything you have lost. Keep in mind that experienced data professionals, or even with the most expensive recovery service, probably won’t save every single file you have in your drive. Still, you could at least retrieve one of the most important ones if you will outsource work to DataEntryOutsourced.com.
But before we get into the different ways of recovery, it is crucial that you understand why does it happen and why it is important to save your files and folders.
Why does data loss happen?
There are a few reasons why data loss happens in the first place and we are going to cover every single one.
The number one cause for data loss is hard drive failure. These days you might have heard about Solid-state drives or SSDs which are much faster and much more reliable than an HDD, but sadly these can be quite expensive, especially if you want high capacity for your servers or your computers. An HDD might be a much older technology than SSDs, but getting a 4TB is just $50 while a 4TB SSD doesn’t even exist today.
However, hard disks have a few cons themselves too. Because they are an older technology they rely on a lot of mechanical parts such as a rotating disk and the actuator arm. To access the data inside of the drive, the disk has to constantly rotate and the tiny arm is what retrieves the digital information with the use of magnetic material. After years and years of constantly accessing, adding and retrieving information both the disk and the tiny arm will wear out and may finally break. The HDD stops working and you do not have a way to access the information on it anymore.
An HDD might also stop working after it has been under some external damage such as dropping it, pouring water on it, etc.
The second cause of a loss of information is power outages. It is believed that a power outage is one of the top causes of loss of information. When there is a power outage, sometimes there is a chance of a huge power spike that may go through your computer or server and damage the drives in it. Sadly, if the electronics inside get fried, there really isn’t any way of retrieving anything from it.
The last cause for loss of information is the users. Yes, believe it or not, sometimes it is our fault why we have lost important data. A lot of people who are not very computer savvy manage to accidentally delete crucial files. There really isn’t any way you can prevent this as it is an individual mistake. You could consider giving your employees a few computer lessons so they avoid such incidents.
How does data recovery work?
The process of saving or retrieving files from a storage device that you have thought is lost forever is called data recovery. There are several ways you can use to save the information you have stored on your device.
With the right recovery service and experience, there is a way to save files from any kind of situation, no matter if it was an accidental deletion, a failed HDD or if everything was wiped from a power outage.
It is very important that you have preemptively planned for such a problem since the faster you react, the bigger the chances of recovery. By bigger the chances, we mean the more crucial files you can save. We recommend that you plan ahead of the services you are going to use, and ensure that the company that you will hire will respond to your emergency as fast as they can.
You could also consider supplying your business computers with data recovery software and work with your IT team to try and save the data stored on your drives as fast as possible. You can read more here about how recovery technology works and how you can utilize it. Keep in mind, hiring professional services have a much bigger success rate when it comes to savings files from a dead hard-drive.
How to recover the data?
Now that you have finally set a future-proof plan about recovering your information from your computer’s drives, you only have to make sure that everyone will follow the steps of your strategy. First, ensure that everyone stops working on their computers and that everyone unplugs the main power cable. The faster you react, the less chance that the HDD overwrites the information you have stored.
After everyone has followed your first step, you can start sending in your IT team or the professional recovery team to work on every computer individually.
