It is a sad feeling, when you realize that an important document, or deleted image, has disappeared from your computer. But that is no reason to despair. Chances are, the data is still there, even if you know you deleted it. Your computer's operating system no longer knows how to retrieve it.
The four most common causes of data loss are:
* Removal. You accidentally deleted a file during disk cleaning, or because you thought it was no longer needed. Not in the Recycle Bin. However, the data will still be available until disk space is used by another file.
* Overwriting. You have saved a new file over the old one. However, old data may still exist, and it may be restored.
* File system corruption. The disk suddenly appears empty, or names and file folders contain gibberish. Files are probably still there, but the destination is lost or damaged, and the operating system cannot restore them.
* Physical injury or hardware failure. You receive error messages when you try to read a disk, or the computer is not detected at all. Data may still exist on the disk itself, but the drive cannot access it.
In each case, there is a definite possibility that the data still exists. The computer operating system cannot detect it, but the data acquisition software may not be able to detect it. If the problem is hardware failure, then the data recovery service may be able to recover data using specialized tools.
Prepare to receive data
There is one basic rule for data recovery: in order to have the best chance of recovering files, you do not have to write any new data to the disk it is stored on. Old data will remain on disk until space in it is used for another file. If the disk is the main drive of your computer, then the drive is always written. You should shut down your computer immediately, and use another computer to search for a solution to restore your data. You must insert your computer's hard disk into another computer to restore data, or use data recovery on a CD or floppy disk, because installing data recovery software on the drive may erase the exact data you want to restore.
It is a sad feeling, when you realize that an important document, or deleted image, has disappeared from your computer. But that is no reason to despair. Chances are, the data is still there, even if you know you deleted it. Your computer's operating system no longer knows how to retrieve it.
The four most common causes of data loss are:
* Removal. You accidentally deleted a file during disk cleaning, or because you thought it was no longer needed. Not in the Recycle Bin. However, the data will still be available until disk space is used by another file.
* Overwriting. You have saved a new file over the old one. However, old data may still exist, and it may be restored.
* File system corruption. The disk suddenly appears empty, or names and file folders contain gibberish. Files are probably still there, but the destination is lost or damaged, and the operating system cannot restore them.
* Physical injury or hardware failure. You receive error messages when you try to read a disk, or the computer is not detected at all. Data may still exist on the disk itself, but the drive cannot access it.
In each case, there is a definite possibility that the data still exists. The computer operating system cannot detect it, but the data acquisition software may not be able to detect it. If the problem is hardware failure, then the data recovery service may be able to recover data using specialized tools.
Choosing a data acquisition method
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