Regardless of which hard drive brand you
own, it is just a matter of time before you will need data
recovery. Whether it is due to mechanical failure or otherwise,
hard drive data recovery for laptops, single hard drive servers,
and RAID servers are required for a variety of reasons;
- Data corruption due to a virus
- Hard drive repair due to natural disasters
(fire, flooding, lightning)
- Data restoration for crushed or physically
damaged hard drives
- Hard
drive failure due to corrupted operating system
upgrades
- Data loss due to formatting a hard drive
- Multiple hard drive failures in a RAID
array
At least there’s a little bit of good
news: It is very likely that your data is not deleted and
lost forever, especially if you take a few steps to protect
your critical data ahead of time.
If you’d like to reduce your chances
of requiring data recovery, consider giving some of these
free or low-cost tips a try.
1. Back-up your critical
files. With the ability to store data on
CDs on a weekly or monthly basis, a small investment in a
stack of CDs will save you from loosing your critical documents,
files, priceless images and MP3s.
2. Run some sort of Anti-Virus
Program. Viruses get into your computer
a variety of ways; by reading an infected attachment in your
e-mail, by sharing files (which are already infected), and
by visiting websites that take advantage of security flaws
to compromise and destroy your data.
3. Use power surge protectors.
A power surge, either from the power company or a lightning
storm, is one of the most common occurrences that can damage
your data and potentially cause a hard drive failure.
4. Experience required.
Never attempt any operation, like hard drive installations
or hard drive repairs, with which you don't have experience.
If you don't know how to install a second hard drive or rebuild
a RAID, it would be best to get expert assistance before you
accidently cause yourself data loss.
5. Shut down your computer.
Always quit your programs before shutting down your computer.
When you quit a program, it saves vital data and then exits
the program. If you just turn off your computer without properly
exiting your applications and closing your files, you run
the risk of loosing your data.
6. Never shake or remove
the covers on hard drives or tapes. Please
don't disassemble your hard drive. In nearly all examples
of this, data is usually not recoverable once an inexperienced
person attempts to 'investigate' where that 'strange clicking
noise' is coming from. Leave the diagnostics to a data recovery
specialist who has experience with all types of hard drives
and knows how to perform successful data recovery.
7. Store your backup data
offsite. While it is always a good idea
to backup your critical data, if your data is stored at the
same location as your server and there is a natural disaster,
a fire or flood for example, odds are that you will still
require data recovery on the hard drives, or tape restoration
to get your data restored.
8. Beware of diagnostic
programs. While it is a good idea to check
the health of your computer running diagnostics software,
be careful with allowing such programs to repair data files
it may find. Check Disk can be your friend, but also may make
it more difficult to recover data from a hard drive which
has had such diagnostic programs run on it.
9. Be aware of your surroundings.
Keep your computers and servers in safe and secure locations
from accidentally getting knocked over, dropped, or spilled
on. Laptops, while convenient to use, are often dropped and
require hard drive data recovery. Just because it is a nice
day and you are casually working by the pool with your laptop,
don't assume that the guy jumping into the pool realizes his
tidal splash will not only soak you...but ruin your laptop
and require hard drive recovery for your critical data.
10. Backup your critical
files. Worth mentioning again. Using CDs
or even an external USB hard drive for data storage can potentially
save you from having to hire a data recovery service to perform
hard drive data recovery on your hard drive or RAID server.
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