Data Recovery Tips

My Hard Drive Just Crashed – What Should I do to Avoid Data Loss?

Minor problems can turn into major data loss causes. If any extreme situations as crashed Hard drives or laptops, system information deletion, Power Outage/ Surge, Water Damage, Fire, Virus infections, Impact Trauma have NOT hit you, follow our expert advice to safely and quickly get your drive up and running again.

Note: IF YOUR SYSTEM HARD DRIVE EMITS UNUSUAL NOISES (CLICKING, GRINDING OR METAL SCRAPING), TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY! This symptom typically indicates a head crash that can destroy your data. Hard drives spin with extreme speed; therefore, wide damage can occur in a short period of time. Contact Optimum Data Recovery Services immediately, as this situation demands professional recovery.

Disk Utility Programs Usage Tips:

Most disk utilities offer excellent preventive maintenance by fixing minor problems that can occur to your system. Follow these tips to help ensure your drive and data safety.

1. Always Save an "Undo" File

Save an "undo" file, a record of the changes the utility has made to your drive, in the event it does not correct your problem. By sending this file along with your drive to us, you help ensure recovery of your data.
DO NOT use a utility program if it does not allow you to save an "undo" file of the repairs it makes.

2. Strange Noises? AVOID UTILITIES!

If your drive sounds or acts erratically in any way, DO NOT USE ANY UTILITY SOFTWARE
Damaging sounds like clicking, buzzing or scraping can cause further damage
Back up your data immediately (if you are already booted up)
Shut down the computer to avoid further damage to the drive and the data
Send your drive to Optimum Data Recovery for professional data recovery in a clean room environment

Back up your Data Consistently

Backing up files regularly can be a great way to secure your data and ensure that everything is not lost when you experience a computer breakdown. (See Backups - The Key to Safe Computing)

Laptop & Notebook Data Safety Tips

Laptop and notebook drives are much smaller and more fragile than their desktop cousins, consequently they require a more delicate and exacting touch to repair and recover. However, the steps listed above for what you, the user, can do to minimize further data loss remains basically the same, with the exception of:

Unless the drive was designed to be removed by simply sliding out of the casing, do not attempt to remove it yourself.
If you can remove the drive easily, be sure not to put any undue stress on it by applying pressure to the housing on the drive.
Take extra care when packaging a laptop drive for shipping, so as not to incur any further damage before reaching one of our labs.
In the majority of cases, we will remove the hard drive ourselves in order to recover data.

Desktop PCs Data Safety Tips

If your system has "crashed" and you can no longer access the operating system or see the drive in the BIOS, then shut the system down immediately and do not run any further power through the drive by attempting reboots. This is considered a physical problem with the drive and is an extremely sensitive issue. If the head stack inside your drive has been damaged, you may cause further additional damage to the platter/s of the drive, upon which your data is stored.
If you have deleted a file or files or accidentally formatted your drive, then the most important thing to remember is to NOT write or install ANY new information onto that drive.Deleting files simply removes the locating tag of the file, but the file is still intact on the drive. If you add new data to the drive, you may over-write your lost data; losing it forever. Using advanced software, we at Data Recovery Labs can re-assemble the binary code and restore your files.
If your partition has become corrupted, the most important thing to remember is NOT to attempt a re-install of your operating system or add new data to the drive. Again, we use specialized software and techniques to repair the partition and/or extract your data.
If you have deleted a partition, do not attempt to restore it by formatting the drive as this will only result in the addition of an empty partition. It will not recover your data.
If you experience a single file corruption, be sure not to attempt creating a new file with the same name as this will partially over-write the file and will greatly decrease our ability to recover fully.

Though computers are widely used not many people know what to do in the event of a computer breakdown. How you handle your data recovery process will determine whether information is salvaged or permanently lost. This procedure should ONLY be attempted by a data recovery specialist.

Where there’s Optimum Data Recovery, There’s Hope!

Data Recovery Tips

My Hard Drive Just Crashed – What Should I do to Avoid Data Loss?

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