Recovery Software
When disaster strikes and a hard drive fails, it can be a terrible moment, filled with the realization of months of work gone, music, movies, and games disappeared. This can be a devastating loss, especially when no backups have been made, or the backups that do exist are out of date. Professional hard drive recovery services, although effective, are very expensive. Recovering a single hard drive can cost as much as $500 or more.
Luckily, there are software solutions out there that can help to recover your files. Although a hard drive may fail to boot, recovery software loaded onto another hard drive can help restore information presumed lost. The Hard Drive Mechanic is one such tool, sold for $49.95. The Hard Drive Mechanic restores damaged FAT file systems, corrupted partitions, and media errors. Some recovery software, such as Active File Recovery, can be launched from the CD drive to assist in repairing a failed hard drive. This may come in handy if another hard drive is not available to boot from.
When recovery software fails to work, hardware based solutions are available. If the information is important enough, it may warrant professional recovery services. Although these services are expensive, it may be the only option when hard drive failures occur. This is especially true when the failure has occured because of a mechanical issue. In this case, it may be impossible to remove information via recovery software. Solutions such as SalvageData can take badly damaged drives and restore at least some of the data. This is not a cheap service, however, and should be reserved for emergencies or only when the data is very important.
Data Recovery Wizard is a well known tool, priced at $69.95, that is marketed as having the ability to recover accidentally deleted files, despite damaged or missing partitions. Many of the free utilities cannot function with a damaged partition. Without a partition, it is difficult to find and restore files. Data Recovery Wizard, however, can effectively locate these files and restore them. Data Recovery Wizard also supports multiple file systems, including RAID, SD, and MS.
Whenever a hard drive fails, find another computer that it can be connected to. Using the still functioning hard drive as a master disk, you can boot up the operating system and employ various recovery software programs with the old drive as a slave disk. Should all these measures fail, it may be necessary to turn to the services of a professional. DriveSavers is a well regarded service that is known for taking on difficult restoration jobs. DriveSavers can take mechanically broken drives and copy over data, something that is next to impossible at home without the proper tools.
Filed under: Data Recovery