Partition recovery programs can make your day - especially if you do not have to reinstall your entire system again.

If you know what a partition is, and you understand that partition recovery software exists, you're not Joe Blow, whose idea of data recovery is clicking on the desktop trash-can to see if his partition resides there. You probably also know that using one of those magic tools to resurrect a partition just causes more problems than not. Perhaps you are here because you have taken a short-cut that has caused your partition to vanish, and need help resurrecting it?

Don't lose your data twice

Are you trying to use a partition recovery tool because you think it is a short-cut in comparison to using file recovery software, where you have to reinstall all your programs, and recover the data to a secondary destination drive? If yes, maybe - anything but absolutely not - is your answer, read on because this lecture is for you (For the few who have answered no - start reviewing and downloading, and then go get your data).

The delima

If you use partition recovery software, you must - and I stress the word must - recover your data to a different drive, as in a second drive that you install into your desktop or plug-n-play on your laptop. Here's why...

At the end of using a hard drive partition recovery program, I know most people are thinking that, 'I can reboot and get on with my day' (I know because I have had thousands of drives sent to us after making this mistake). When you do this, there is a possibility that some kind of corruption exists within the file system, which cannot be easily determined beforehand. Corruption and rebooting don't mix, so your data will likely be toast upon booting. At this point, unless you can manipulate the file system within a Hex Editor manually, you must send your drive to a data recovery service company.

The safest method

A hard disk partition recovery utility is made as a short-cut in place of having to take the longer data recovery software process. However, for the safety of your data, do yourself a favor: Don't reboot in any data recovery program when asked to. Instead, copy your data over to another hard drivve to ensure data integrity.

The final choice

Partition recovery may be the ideal solution, but in fact, it doesn't work every time. What options do you have at this point? Two: You can try recovering data by using a file recovery software program; or you can choose to hire a data recovery service company to do it for you. I think the do it yourself route is more affordable, just like partition recovery utilities; but, the service decision is always the safest.

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