5 DIY DATA RECOVERY TIPS

This is the advice I usually give customers who enquire about data reovery DIY.  

There is never a good time for your hard drive to fail. It always happens when you have something urgent to work on. Before you start frantically trying to gain access to your data, take a deep breath and read our top 5 things to look out for. It could just save your files.

1. Don’t assume that recovery software will work on your failed hard drive. If your computer cannot see the drive then neither will the recovery software. Some drives need more than software to get the data off in good condition.
2. Don’t put the drive in the freezer. This myth has been floating around the internet for years, but no real data recovery has ever required a freezer.
3. Don’t run Checkdisk, Scandisk, Spinrite, Disk Warrior or anything that could WRITE data to your failing drive. If the drive is failing then you could be accidentally overwriting the data you want back.
4. Don’t try swapping the PCB from one drive to another. A once-simple fix (circa 1990) is now very unlikely to work. Most of thefirmware to control the drive is actually stored on the disks, so swapping the card won’t work. Also most drives now have unique PCB information which varies from drive to drive. We usually have to adapt a replacement PCB to make it work with another drive.
5. Don’t panic. The data is probably recoverable. If the drive has just failed and you haven’t tried any recovery software there is a good chance that we can get back all of your data.