Saturday, February 7, 2009

What can you do when your hard drive packs up?

Disaster! Your hard drive has developed a fault so you have taken your computer or laptop to a computer shop and they inform you that the Hard Drive on your system has developed a fault and that your data is possibly lost forever!

Sound familiar?

First piece of advice is BACK UP YOUR DATA NOW!

There will always be one smug git that you know who will say "I back up my data at the end of every day" yeh great that really helps!

What are your options?
Option 1

The first and often not exactly fantastic option is to order a new hard drive and forget about all of that data that was stored on your old hard drive. This can be paticularily painful proceedure should you have family photo's and video's stored on your hard drive. I have now purchased an external hard drive that I store all of my data on and back up program software along with a word document that has all of those key codes that are printed on packaging or disc covers. I then back up my external hard drive once a week minimum, If I have spent all day building a website for someone in Spain and have published new content I always back up the files after I have published.
Until your hard drive fails on you will you understand fully just how important backing up important data can be, and the heart ache that can be avoided!
Option 2
Find a Data recovery agent that can take a closer look at your hard drive under laboratory conditions, please be aware that most of the Hard drive recovery Agents that you will find on the internet will be "Agents" representing a laboratory that will be able to assist, it is very important for you to get a "No result, No pay" offer that will just cost you the postage and usually a small P&P fee. PLEASE BE AWARE that getting your data recovered from a dodgy hard drive will set you back at least £400. If you see anyone offering data recovery or hard drive data recovery for less than £400 RUN A MILE.