Don't Panic!

When it happens you want to scream, cry, laugh, hit something, lie on the floor and beat it with your heels and fists, you want to curse god and the devil and sell your soul to turn back time and prevent it. Yep, the awful sound of thundering silence and the squinting black nothingness as your computer crashes can really mess up your day. No amount of pleading, no matter how low down on your knees you go, or how many octaves you raise your voice, will ever get your information back. You thought you had it bad when the power went out and you hadn’t saved anything for an hour and a half, you were wrong, now you know the meaning of true suffering. You know exactly what it feels like to have your innards ripped out of you, stuffed with shredded paper and bits of glass and shoved back inside you again. You will never mock anyone who says that they suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome ever again.

So what do you do? Once you have found that no one on either side is interested in purchasing your soul for the price of a hard drive and the blood has returned to your face and your stomach is no longer in danger of exiting your body in one solid lump from either your mouth or the orifice at the other end of your gastric chain, what do you do?

Don’t do anything dumb, like try to fix it yourself. It might seem like a good idea at the time, its not. You do more harm than good. This writer speaks from personal experience (however embarrassing that may be). Be smart, the very first thing you do is find out where the professionals are and take your blessed pc, which by now you could cheerfully drop off a 12 storey building, to them and let them deal with it.

So what would the professionals be able to do about it? How would they go about recovering your lost data? Very good question and the answer is technical but it shall not be dodged.

You want to find a very good, reputable company. The average data recovery company has a recovery rate of around 80%. The company resourced here has a recovery rate of over 98%. An 18% difference is quite remarkable.

The actual recovery process itself can be approached from several angles. Logical recovery is the simplest and least complicated recovery process. Two methods can be used: consistency checking inspects the logical structure medium for irregularities and repairs damages. This method has a 99% recovery rate. The second method is raw recovery and involves scanning the damaged medium that cannot be repaired. The scan takes note of files system structures and possible file boundaries because it may be necessary to rebuild the file system from scratch. Physical data recovery is more complex as it does not use any software in the process. It makes use of some tools and hardware but mostly it relies on the efficiency and aptitude of the specialists performing the recovery. Common procedures include read/write head swabs, reprogramming firmware and recalibrating the hard drive; various chips also need to be replaced after they have burnt out. RAID (redundant array inexpensive (independent) disks) recovery: A RAID system is a collection of drives that collectively act as a single storage system. Because they act independently they are better equipped to retrieve lost data. RAID recovery is a highly specialised field therefore it is vital to make sure that the company that you contact has experience in this area and that you are confident and comfortable leaving your drives with them.

So not that technical after all, which is fortunate for all concerned. There are a few very important lessons that can be learned from this article. First, when your computer crashes and feel the need to fling yourself to the floor in a fit of pique, make sure that there is enough room to do so and that there are no sharp corners anywhere for you to bang your head on. Second, and this cannot be emphasised enough, honestly, don’t try to fix it yourself. Learn vicariously through me. Third, keep the name and number of a very good and very reputable data recovery company near at hand because you never know when you’re going to need them. Trust the professionals. Boy, are they worth it.