Lost Data? Your Next Steps are Crucial!

The first recovery attempt is always the best recovery attempt. If your hard drive is making clicking, grinding or whirling sounds, take action and shut down the drive or your computer immediately. These sounds could be the read/write heads hitting or scraping the hard disk platters. Severe or complete data loss could result. Avoid home remedies you may have read about on the web such as placing a non-spinning hard drive in a freezer or hitting a drive on its side. Much of this information is inaccurate and while some may claim success, these suggestions may actually harm the device and could lead to permanent data loss. We recommend that you do not gamble with your irreplaceable data. If possible, back up your important valuable data immediately. Do not apply any sudden movement to the hard drive if the hard drive makes any scraping, tapping, clicking or humming sounds. Do not power up a device that has obvious physical damage or is making unusual sounds. Shut down the computer or the device to avoid further damage to the drive and its data. Do not attempt recovery yourself on severely traumatized drives. Everyone should adopt strategies to ensure critical information is protected from corruption and loss. Some examples of best practices would be, never upgrade to a new version of an operating system without having a verified backup. Use up-to-date hardware and software utilities for data security, such as firewalls and virus protection. Scan all incoming data; such as emails, websites and downloads for viruses and malware. Connect computers to an uninterruptible power supply to protect against power surges. Avoid static discharge when touching or handling any storage media, especially in excessively dry environments. Some examples of backup strategies would be, invest in redundant backup systems. Use a direct attached backup device for your computer and an additional network or cloud-based backup. Establish a structured daily backup procedure to make copies of all critical data files. Periodically test the backups by restoring a few files and verifying the data.