How To Recover Data From a Crashed Hard Drive

In addition to 'daily backup', I prefer to do a 'weekly backup' every weekend. You should use one directory on your portable computer for "long-term backup". Particularly if you often download a software and don't have any physical representative of it.

Re-arrange the directory structure on your desktop computer , creating one primary root directory, with a sub- directory for every application you use to work with. The subdirectories under the root "Own" are only to take the data files associated with Winword, Eudora or any other programs that create output.

Whenever you create or modify a file (whatever the file type), be sure to write/update the current date in a comment line near the top.

Finally, let's not forget that, especially in computing there is hardly anything bad that wouldn't have any positive side effect. Over time a lot of the "scrap" will assemble on your hard drive. Nowadays that's not much of a problem, just some wasted storage space. But remember the performance is diminished when the operating system has to struggle with a lot of complicated entanglements.

Follow These Steps To Recover Your Hard Drive

1. First, turn off the computer. If the computer continues to restart after the Windows logo appears without giving a chance to access the desktop and a blue screen flashes for a split second, it is most likely a registry problem, virus or hard drive fail.

2. The impending loss of important documents and files is a sickening feeling, but there is a way to recover them before reformatting the computer. For an affordable price, external hard drive cases can be bought at any retail outlet specializing in computers. After the case is purchased, carefully remove the hard drive from the computer by detaching the connected wires, plug the hard drive into the case and it will act as an external USB drive.

3. Once this is completed, attach it to another computer and hopefully it will show up as another drive. If this works, simply drag and drop the important files onto the computer and back them up onto a USB stick or DVD disc. If this doesn't work, the hard drive has either failed or it's not connected properly.

4. Now that the files are safe, it is time to reboot the computer. Ideally, when a computer is purchased, the user will make a back up disc of the operating system in case of a meltdown. If you don’t have the disc, contact the company that makes the computer and perhaps they will supply one.

Bonus Tip: It is better to keep a cloud backup of your important files. Cloud space providers like Google is giving 15GB of free space on the drive which can be expanded on extra credit. Even if the hard drive crashes completely irrecoverable, the cloud backup helps you restore the file back on to the new hard drive or computer.