If your hard drive crashes and your files disappear, your first instinct may be to try every data recovery procedure you can think of. Since the first recovery attempt provides the best chance of successfully extracting your files from a damaged hard drive, it’s important to be familiar with the best practices for weighing your options before attempting any data recovery procedures on your own.
If the lost data is not that important to you and you want to test your hard drive recovery skills, this may be a good time to try. However, if you care about the data contained on that crashed drive, enlisting a data recovery expert is the first and only choice that guarantees a high recovery rate.
Tips to maximize recovering your data on the first attempt
If you do experience a hard drive crash and you need to rescue your files, here are some tips on maximizing your chance of success:
1) Hard drive makes clicking or grinding noise
If you hear any clicking or grinding noise, your hard drive could very well have some physical damage. Do not attempt to retrieve data by using utility software, since continued operation of your hard disk is likely to result in more harm. Sometimes the data is scraped from the hard drive’s platters and turned into magnetic dust; your data won’t be recoverable if it’s not there anymore.
2) Hard drive not recognized by computer
If your hard drive is not recognized in setup when you connect it to a computer, do not attempt recovery. Trying to swap the circuit board with an identical model increases your chances of inadvertently removing the bad sector table (adaptive) in the process.
3) Hard drive bad sector
Running utility software can change the drive’s firmware or bad sector table, which may cause permanent data corruption. Forget about “home remedies” that sometimes worked in the past before there were recovery experts available to help should be.
If you’re serious about data recovery
If you want to rescue your data, your best bet is to shut down and unplug your computer entirely and find an expert in data recovery services, equipped with a clean room environment and the most advanced data recovery tools available. An expert will conduct an advanced diagnostic on your hard drive, discover what problem the drive has, and tell you if a recovery is possible. Ask in advance to make sure your fees are waived if attempts by the recovery expert are unsuccessful.
Our data recovery cost guide will help you understand what expenses you can expect when reaching out to an expert.
Proven Data Recovery specialists have successfully recovered data for individuals, small and large businesses, municipalities and government agencies. No job is too small or too difficult for us.
Want to learn more about the data recovery process?
Our data recovery guide showcases the steps an engineer will take to recover your files!
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