Can you answer seeker624’s question about Data Recovery?:

A couple of weeks ago I deactiveated an account but I forgot to transfer all of the messages out of it: sent, inbox, etc. It is less than 90 days, so can I recover that data? How would I proceed?

Internet Data Backup

 

If you have ever gotten rid of a computer, you know it can be a hassle.

When people get rid of old computers, the process often goes as follows:

Phase 1: First you wanted money for your old computer. You think it is worth something and you want to get a few bucks out of this old equipment.

Phase 2: You find out it isn’t worth much, and you become willing to give it to the disposal place for free to take it off your hands.

Phase 3: You end up paying to dispose of your monitor and don’t get much for your computer.

Sound familiar?

Look, if you are getting rid of an old computer, don’t take the risk of selling it for $50 when you might have old credit card info, private pictures, and private emails there on the hard drive.

Even though you may have deleted them, data recovery is possible.

The solution? Crush your old hard drive with a hard drive destroyer!

14 Reasons You MUST Use A Hard Drive Destroyer



Businesses have lost billions of dollars to data theft last year.

Avoid fines and or prison. If you are a business you must take care of customers private info.

Avoid class action lawsuits. Customers have sued companies for compromise of data on old hard drives.

Avoid compromise of all your emails, credit card and social security numbers. This is obvious…Thousands and thousands of files accumulate on your drive over years of use.

Using the delete key doesn’t erase data.

Overwriting data with software is very time consuming.

Reformatting a disk drive requires you to have drive installed and powered up.

New technology may soon make recovery of overwritten hard drives easier.

Degaussing (magnetic destruction) doesn’t give visible proof of destruction.

Degaussers do not always work. The magnetic shielding on new disk drives is powerful.

Degaussing can be harmful to people near the magnetic fields.

Hard drive shredding machines are loud, bulky, and break down.

In house hard drive shredding machines are not portable.

If you ship off the hard drive to a facility, you can not witness the destruction first-hand!

 



So where can you take your hard drive when you are ready to dispose of it?

Well if you are a large company using many computers, you may want to have a hard drive destroyer on site. They run a few thousand bucks and can decrease your liability.

If you only have a few hard drives, many paper shredding companies offer this service and you can either take it to them locally and see your hard drive smashed, or call and have them do it on site (if they have a machine on their truck).

Don’t just casually get rid of your hard drive. Visit the document shredding directory to find hard drive destruction equipment, or a service provider in your city today.



Thanks to G. Johnson for contributing this article to our Data Recovery blog:

Internet Data Backup

Hard disk drives have now become imperative to everyday life, even to those who have never seen one before. Many people do not know what hard disk drives look like and how they should be treated. Many users transport their external drives in their bags not realizing how sensitive they are. Manufacturers build rugged drives, but they are still not immune, their casing is tough but the internal components are not. Therefore if you drop your external drive you may have to pay the consequence – a data recovery company.

There are many specialized data recovery companies in the market; this is ultimately due to the high number of drives that are failing. The correlation shows that the numbers of hard drives that are failing are in line with the numbers that are being manufactured. Statistics show that the numbers of hard drives produced every year are in their millions. And this number is going to carry on increasing and this is due to the variety of products that a hard drive will be used in. Plus the Government has recently unveiled Digital Britain which now means that everyone will have a computer, which in actual fact the percentage of the population that owns a computer is a lot less than you would think.

Digital Britain will boost the hard drive market and in turn will boost the data recovery market. Hard drive failure is a reality for a very high percent of those who own a computer. The data recovery companies see this day in day out. The number of customers who have complained that their hard drive is only a few weeks old keeps on increasing. Is this due to the higher capacity of hard drives or is there another problem?

Do we need a better design of hard drive or is it that we have to keep backing up our data time after time to ensure that the pictures of our loved ones won’t be lost forever. However we do know that even if the drive fails, there is still hope for the data, data recovery technicians are able to work wonders. They are able to resurrect data that many people thought they had lost forever.

Data recovery is pretty soon going to be a mainstream service, not only will it be a necessity to many but a get out of jail free card to husbands who forgot to backup their children’s baby pictures.



Thanks to Sk Data Recovery for contributing this article to our Data Recovery blog:

Cd Data Recovery

If your hard drive is having any of these seven symptoms then you must take immediate action to backup your files…

“I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.” ~ Isaac Asimov

Like the late, great Mr. Asimov said, we shouldn’t worry about computers taking over but be more concerned when they fail us and take all our important files with them. A computer’s hard drive is the central storage within the system and its failure will bring all practical functions to a complete halt.

If your PC is experiencing any of the following signs of impeding doom then you must run (not walk) and grab CDs to burn backups of all your essential data.

Sign 1 - You hear high-pitched whining, loud clicking or grinding noises coming from the drive

A normally operating drive will make a smooth “whirling” sound as is spins up or down. But if a drive has a grinding or clicking sounds (the Read/Write heads scraping too close to the magnetic platters), then your drive is sick and is on the way out.

Sign 2 - You see the infamous “Blue Screen of Death”, repeatedly

BSODs (Blue Screens of Death) are actually called “Stop” errors and they only appear when your Windows system is experiencing severe software or hardware issues. Often BSODs can cured with a careful “Repair Install” of the Windows operating system or by removal of a bad device driver. But if these software fast fixes don’t seem stick, then your hard drive is usually on its last legs

Sign 3 - Your computer keeps re-booting on its own

I admit, I have only seen this problem a few times in my 18+ year career and in all instances it was due to hardware issues. Once it was a dust covered motherboard, and another time an overheating processor. But all the other times it was due to bad drives.

Sign 4 - Your system keeps having frequent freezes or hang ups

You are working along just fine, and then suddenly everything comes to a halt. The program freezes up on you. Your mouse and keyboard seem to stop responding. The only solution is to reboot.

Sign 5 - Error message: hard drive is not formatted

This a fun message that you will get when you start up your machine. You maybe able to restart and get it to boot into Windows a few more times but this error is “fur-sure” sign that you drive is very close to death. And by the way don’t try to format the drive! You will lose all your data.

Sign 6 - Error message: boot drive or device not found or drive cannot be accessed

This is another favorite of mine. You can check the CD/DVD trays or the floppy drive to make sure no stray disks are stuck inside. You can also check the BIOS to make sure the system is booting from the hard drive first. If all these tests are no-good, then the drive is a goner.

Sign 7 - Errors: Operating system not found or Missing Operating System

This is a bad one. Even the Microsoft technical support knowledgebase has only got a few causes for this error message. Basically your PC can no longer detect the hard drive or the drive is too severely damaged to read (DOA).

What to do if your drive has any of these symptoms:

1) First, listen up, if possible, BACKUP YOUR FILES NOW!

2) Create a boot disk and run Windows Scandisk and set it to automatically fix errors. If it finds more than a few bad sectors then see the point above

3) If possible download and use a hard drive diagnostic program. All the major hard drive manufacturers have free utilities on their websites. Repair what you can and see point 1.



Thanks to Chancer Reese for contributing this article to our Data Recovery blog:

Advanced Data Recovery

Can you answer SP’s question about Data Recovery?:

I have a non-responding CF with some important academic docs and pictures. Local IT guys and one data recovery firm were helpless while another firm claims to be able to recover for $900. I am wondering if I should take the chances. Of course I know it depends if I value my data as much as to pay $900. While I can not price the data, the cost does seem to be pretty high….

How To Recover Lost Data