How To Recover Data Loss

The catastrophe of data loss is in some ways unavoidable.People who have worked with computers and never experienced data loss have no reason to back up their files other than as insurance.Because the process tends to take longer than anyone really would like to wait for, many people just assume that the computer companies have done the right thing and issued a hard drive and a computer without any internal defects, and with many companies practicing Sigma Six techniques to eliminate defects, the concern and fear of data loss can be kept in its proper perspective.

The problem is that when data loss does occur, the files that are lost may be lost permanently, and the computer can't save the important data like baby photos and tax returns any more than it can save the unimportant data like your cousin's latest high score on Angry Birds.The data loss will not differentiate which can be great news or terrible news.

The most important thing that anyone can do to recover data that has been lost is to back that data up before it gets lost.In fact, if you do not have your data backed up, go ahead and do it right now, before you read another word.I'll wait.Hopefully, you have backed up your data if not; here are some suggestions as to how to back up data.

First, you will need to prioritize what information is important to you.Some people want all of their settings and everything else saved, so that when the computer goes down, it can be recovered to the state it was in before the data was lost.That takes more time and space to store, but it is worth doing if you know that you want everything saved.If there are only certain things that you want saved, you can select just those programs or sets of data and save them to another storage device.Depending on the amount of data, the storage devices could be an external hard drive - recommended for large amounts of data - and the smaller thumb drives and writeable DVDs or CDs.Data should be backed up on at least a monthly basis though you may want to back it up more often if you create and store a lot of data over the course of the week.Once you have the data stored, you will need to find a safe place for the storage device.This is best stored off site incase off fire or other disaster.If you are savvy enough to be using the cloud as a backup plan, you probably do not need to continue reading this article.

If for some reason, the data did not get backed up and was lost, it is time to seek professional help.Some of your high tech friends may know of some good software that can help with data recovery, but most of the time data that needs to be recovered must be recovered by someone in the data recovery field.That may mean not having a computer for days, lots of money spent and no guarantee that the data can be recovered.Note that if a hard crashes and appears to be shutting down, it is best to unplug it without trying to recover the data.The longer it runs, the more likely the data will be lost.

Anyone who has lost their family vacation photos will tell you that is the lost that is hardest to recover from.Often times they include photos and memories that will never be the same, especially when they are of family members who have passed away.Backing up your data is the easiest and least expensive way to recover it.