First thing is that your machine is physical in good ambient. Top notch servers are in climate controlled rooms without dust and other tiny particles that might damage sensitive computer parts. Of course your desktop is nowhere near that conditions but you at least might get your space tidy. Also electrical current is important. Buy UPS to stabilize your electricity variations. Static electricity might affect your data. New carpets or other electrified fiber might damage you data so buy fabric softener and spray on it.

Back up your data on external storage if you have resources. Recover your data from tape, optical storage or hard drive if something happens. It is important that you copied it somewhere. If your disk starts to make strange noises it is time to back up everything. Just in case. It is only matter of time when you will be stuck with your computer. Keep important documents at more than one place. Be sure that you have my documents copied to other location on hard disc bad sectors show up right on that place of disk where your important files are. You would have copy of them written on other sectors.

Of course use anti-virus software to check new files you downloaded because viruses can be deathly weapon to files, they can delete modify them and so on. Critical files are always encrypted and stored on many places such are removable storage, DVD, CD, USB Flash memory, Tape, external magnet discs and so on…

All software supports some operating systems and some not. Choose one which supports email recovery and your operating system and which is not very expensive. If you only need to recover deleted email don’t buy expensive ones that have many other features because cheaper will to the same thing. One of small compact programs that support only email recovery is Data recovery wizard and only works with Microsoft Outlook. Before you buy software carefully read description and choose best thing that fit your needs.

If you want to access your data you must take hard disc out of your laptop. Most laptop models have screws on back side where memory disc and other parts can be found. Unscrew part where hard disc is located and pull it out.


Most hard discs are 2.5” so you will have to buy 2.5” hard disc enclosure. It depends of interface which enclosure you will buy. If your hard disc is PATA, SATA, or SATA2 you will have to buy proper enclosure. PATA disc goes to PATA enclosure and so on. Transfer over enclosure will be a little slower because USB 2.0 supports 480 mbits/s while regular SATA2 discs go up to 60-70 Mbytes/s. I’m not going into that if your PC has only USB 1.1 support. That would be very very slow. If your enclosure and PC have eSATA support that would be ideal. External SATA is just like your hard drive is plugged in computer’s mainboard.

If your backups and machine are gone then try with software but it is better to have more copies to prevent additional job. Buy instant file recovery program that will do the job you need. You can get some bootable disc version or installation where you must connect hard drive to other working computer and rescue data from other working operating system.

First thing is that people believe if they own brand new disc they are one hundred percent secure and that data backup is not necessary. All of us have bought sometime electronic device which is brand new but it does not operate somehow. Product is under warranty and we get our money back or new product instead. Just like in case with brand new device our disc may broke down in first week of use. You are left with blank screen or some error messages and you don’t know what to do.

Next thing is that people who do backups think that they are perfectly safe. This is questionable topic because some people do data backups once in a month, some to once in a week and some do backups on daily basis. You really need to check how important your information system is and how many backups you need in what time. Working with documents, mp3 files and other data is one thing and for example streaming video for surveillance systems is other thing and you have to decide when are you going to do backup. Different kind of data, different time schedule.

Next thing is RAID issue. You think that if you have RAID configuration you are safe. Well that is true in some cases and in some is just not true. The worst thing is that if you have RAID-0 configuration you think you are safe. This is the worst scenario because RAID-0 mode uses two hard disc controllers and all data is written parallel on two hard discs at the same time. This naturally affects on probability of hard disc failure, not just doubling the time but probability is squared. Best thing is RAID-1 because it creates identical copy of hard disc to other hard disc. Probability of failure here is only if both of discs die at the same time. RAID-5 and other modes require data regeneration which takes some time and you are not able to use your data right away.

When you work with memory of any kind you have to do everything with caution. Panic reactions and quick solutions will probably be bad like any computer solution.

Backup your data frequently like I always say. If anything is suspicious don’t try to force power up because you can do more damage. Especially if you hear some sounds coming from your hard drive. Pack your disc and send it to PC service. Remember that you should pack it properly in box like when you bought it. It should be in original box with anti static bag. Best choice is foam rubber because of static electricity. Paper, plastic bags and other things are bad for magnet drive.

Don’t expose your hard drive to extreme hot or cold temperatures, keep it on risky places like movable objects like chairs or books. If you get your disc wet or burned take it to data specialist immediately.

Take job in your hands with retrieving your data or pay professional company to do it? If you have good technical knowledge you better do it yourself because you will save lots of money. But if you are not familiar with all kinds of operating system, memory and data structure things don’t try it because it is very possible that you will fail.

Your operating system has got some tools for data recovery. Almost all newer operating systems have sophisticated tools that manage logical or human errors and keep your system clean. It is easier if you use professional software for data recovery because it works above operating system, not forwarding system calls for data management but controlling the data flows itself. If you don’t manage to rescue your files with operating system tools browse and install some of professional programs which will help you if you use them wisely.