What To Do Before You Contact a Data Recovery Company

With computers – from desktops to laptops to tablets and even cell phones – becoming more and more important in our lives, data loss – and data recovery – takes on a whole new significance. For many people, when your computer crashes and won’t come back up, it’s more than a mere inconvenience. The files on your hard drive, laptop hard drive, flash drive or data card could include vital telephone numbers, your landlord’s address, your tax files, your business records or any combination of personal and business files whose loss can make your entire life miserable. If you power up your computer device and it doesn’t deliver the files you need, a data recovery company can often recover your files and information, but it’s important for you to know what to do to preserve the data that’s on your hard drive.

First, immediately turn off your laptop, cell phone or other computer device and don’t turn it back on. Using your computer once it’s showing signs of data loss can make the situation worse.

If you’ve spilled water or another liquid on your laptop, netbook, cell phone or tablet, immediately unplug it from its power source and remove the battery. This will hopefully prevent further damage due to electrical shorts.

If you are unable to access files located on removable media such as a CD, DVD or flash drive, remove it from your computer. You can attempt to access it on another system if there’s a possibility that the problem is with the media reader rather than with the disk itself. If you can’t access it on more than one system, though, chances are that you’ll need a data recovery company to access the files stored on it.

Do not attempt to do DIY data recovery on your laptop, netbook or other computer hard drive yourself. Even the best data recovery software poses the risk of further data loss. Do not attempt to disassemble the hard drive yourself to try to access the data or repair the disk. Data recovery companies maintain specially outfitted rooms called “clean rooms” in which they open and work on hard drives. A single speck of dust inside your hard drive can wipe out hundreds of files and make data recovery impossible.

If you find that you can’t access data on your computer, you should contact a professional data recovery firm as soon as possible after you realize the data loss to increase the chances of a successful data recovery. When all conditions are optimal, data recovery services, such as Fields Data Recovery, are successful in recovering up to 99% of the data on your compromised drive.