Your harddrive recovery efforts will hopefully land you the file you want. And show you the importance of backing up your data.

The shocking truth is that nearly every person who uses a computer eventually faces harddrive recovery - if that makes you feel any better. Feelings will not get you results, so let's turn your attention to what you need to know about harddrive recovery, and then take the appropriate action to conquer your challenge.

Do you know what you did, or the state of your data? Is it deleted or lost and you need to find it? Has it been corrupted and you need to reconstruct it? Or has it been damaged and it needs repair? Can the computer's hard drive even start up, so that you can see your files?

Depending on the nature of your problem and the restoration steps that are needed, there are different harddrive recovery options that can be pursued. For example, employing a file repair harddrive recovery utility when dealing with deleted data will not produce you any results. So, unless you know exactly what you are facing, a little education is in order. Just think of this one pager as your cliff notes.

Harddrive Recovery Software

Hard drive recovery tools are the short-cut to hardrive recovery. This is where you want to begin your efforts, if you understand what's going on with your data. If you have no idea, how computer literate are you? Can you plug in an external drive on your computer, and download a piece of hardrive recovery software on it - because you cannot download software to the computer you are trying recover or repair data. This action can destroy your data? If I just lost you, skip to the harddrive recovery expert section below.

If you are still with me as far as software is concerned, you have several ways to solve your delima. But I will simplify your options to two choices to make it easy for you. Here goes: Harddrive recovery challenges start with recovering and repairing files, and repairing the file system in which your files lie, so that you can then recover files. So, there is recover and repair harddrive recovery.

To recover files you have two avenues: One is when the file system where the files are, is in good condition. In this case, download and "reve up" what we call in the lab, "One of those glorified harddrive recovery undelete programs" - a stand alone file recovery program. This is not to be confused with the file recovery operation which is part of a multi-functional harddrive recovery software. Although the marketing maniacs seem to think they are the same, I can tell you that you will recover much more data with the later, because the technology far surpasses programs that only address situations when the file system is working properly.

To repair a file system to recover data the same principle apply: The components within the file system are in working order or they are not. When they are not, you must use the recovery operation within the most powerful harddrive recovery software. Otherwise your recovery efforts will be fruitless.

To repair an individual file, simply use a file repair utility. They are stright forward, asking you to choose a file and then let it do it's majic. Files can also be repaired manually if your results are not satisfactory.

Harddrive Recovery Experts

Let's keep this simple. If your data means something to you, or you have to recover the data, there are only two kinds of person to trust: The harddrive recovery expert and your IT specialist down the block. The specialist does not specialize in harddrive recovery. Otherwise, they would make it their full-time business. But what they can do for you is immediately make a bit or sector duplicate of your drive's data. After that, they can run a harddrive recovery tool that experts have made to see what they can recover. If their efforts are fruitless, try the experts service.

Hardrive recovery experts live and breathe data recovery and computer forensics. That's it. So, if you are looking to install or repair your computer system, call the IT specialist. But if you want your files back, you are in the right place. What will suprise you is that you will probably not find a harddrive recovery company in your town or state and will have to ship your drive to them. There are a lot of ITs in the world but very few harddrive recovery companies.

Recovery and Backup

The time has come for action. You have enough information to make a decision as to whether harddrive recovery software will do the trick, or if you need to send your drive to an expert. If you are still not sure, seek support for more insight. And once you are finished with the recovery process, don't forget to implement a backup plan so that you never have to go through this again.