Losing files on your computer can be traumatic, especially if a lot of work has gone into creating these documents. Thankfully, restoring lost data is quite simple to do, but there are some key things that can affect how much data you can retrieve. This article covers these important data recovery factors.

1: Act fast before the data is lost forever

When you delete or format a file on a computer it is really only an index reference that is altered (the file allocation table reference for your file) so that your file doesn’t appear in any directory views. The data clusters on the hard drive memory that store your file are not wiped clean.

However, these clusters are made available to the operating system if any new files are being saved to disk – so the deleted file’s data clusters will eventually be lost for good. If you are attempting to restore files after formatting a drive then note that re-installing the operating system on a formatted disk drive will overwrite a huge amount of data clusters.

2: Recovery software won’t help when there are mechanical faults

There are many commercial and free applications for restoring lost data but they all work by reading the good and bad sectors of the hard drive. If the hard drives read/write heads or bearings are seizing up (making clicking/scratchy sounds) then continued use of the computer may cause further disk damage and recovery software won’t be able to find your files.

In this scenario, data recovery experts can do what is called a mechanical recovery, by directly reading the hard disk sectors using a specialist reading tools.

3: Pick applications according to the file system of the storage device

As with most PC system software, recovery tools are built for certain purposes and computer specifications. The most common recovery programs are based around the FAT-32 file system (used by Windows, flash devices and many external hard drives). If you want to restore lost data from something more exotic (e.g. a ZIP disk) then you will need specialist software.

This article highlighted three factors that can adversely affect your chances of restoring lost data in an effort to ensure you get as much of your files back as possible.

For more articles about PC tips, PC system software, registry cleaners and software reviews, check out the PC Maintenance Reimage blog.
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