Computer Data Recovery: What You Don't Know Will Hurt You

Computer data recovery may be somewhat of a foreign concept to you - maybe not. Or perhaps you have heard of it, but don't have a clue what the process involves. Well, either way it doesn't matter. In computer data recovery, it's all about knowing your options, and then which steps to take at the right time. That's what you're getting here...

For The Newbee

Before understanding what the two different avenues for computer data recovery are, knowing the difference between physical and logical damage to your disk will tell you what to do first. Don't let these wordy words scare you away, because it is simpler than you may think.

In laymans terminology, when I speak of having some type of damage, I am referring to your actual hard drive, or the data you have stored on your hard disk drive. If I talk about the hard drive itself, know that something is mechanically wrong with it. This means something is physically defunct.

When you hear me speaking about the the data itself, understand I am referring to logical problems. In this case, the file system needs to be reconfigured to recover the files. In both cases, getting your data back is called computer data recovery.

Where Most People Start

Computer data recovery almost always begins with the free data recovery process - simply because it's what everybody is hoping for. The process goes something like this: You lose data, you have the moment where you realize what you have lost, and then the intial panic phase sets in - unless of course this is your second time around. You try rebooting - it fails to produce your data. You try again - ditto. Then you start looking through all your files in hope of a miracle. That didn't work, either.

So, you begin looking through the Recycle Bin to see if a copy exist. Again, no luck. Now, it's time to use the ultimate file search tool within your computer. Still, no luck?

What now?

It's time to start paying up for computer data recovery if all of the previously mentioned steps don't work. The may seem crass or even too direct, but giving up a few dollars to get all your files recovered isn't a bad deal. Just start thinking about what it would take you to retake those lost digital pictures and remake all the documents, and suddenly software starts sounding great.

Computer data recovery software comes in various grades, but the intro-level ones are marketed by their prospective companies to look equally as powerful as high-end products. The real story could be further from the truth. The more powerful products address problems that can repair and rebuild the file system.

Again, don't let this tricky verbage keep you from giving computer data recovery utilities a try. All this means to you is if the cheaper ones don't work, move to the more expensive ones - like professional MAC and NTFS data recovery products. Each one starts at about sevety-five to a hundred U.S. and increases from there. If you get lucky with an intro-level undelete computer data recovery product, it won't cost you much at all. 

The final computer data recovery frontier

If and when computer data recovery do-it-by-yourslef tools don't produce the results you want or need, begin thinking how important your lost data is to you. The reason I say this is prices jump and quite a bit, because you must rely on a computer data recovery service at this point in the game.

Nobody likes to dish out their hard earned dough for a mistake made, but when reality sets in, computer data recovery probably is a necessary evil. Just think of how long it will take to recreate the data - if it is even possible. Start the computer data recovery process by looking at the software, and if you can't recover it on your own, call an expert.