The 3G iPhone repairs has gotten easier thanks to Apple engineers. The funny thing about it is I see people try to open these all the time and do more damage to their iPhone. Many people watch a 2G repair video and think the 3G opens up the same way are finding repair shops to fix what they messed up on. So they may be doing a simple iPhone repair service job, turns into really doing more harm to their phone. In order to open the iPhone 3G, all you need to do is unscrew two small screws on each side of the charging dock. Now by using a suction cup, place it by the home button area and you will be able to lift the glass away from the iPhone. Once this is accomplished, you can do your iPhone repair service project on your iphone 3G.

The model 3GS iPhone is now the latest to hit the world market. The new 3GS is twice as fast as the 3G, has video capabilities and can store 32GB of data depending on which iPhone you bought. When opening these phones the main thing you have to realize is it opens up exactly like a 3G phone. So if you are doing a iPhone repair service on it, opening the iPhone 3GS is easily done by knowing how to open a 3G iPhone. When attempting repairs on the 3GS iPhone, realizing that the 3G components are similar is a plus. Also realize that 3G electronic parts are not interchangeable with the 3GS. Although the 3G and 3GS main parts look similar, connectors on the parts are different. Just be careful when ordering replacement parts, that you are ordering the right parts for the right model.

The 2G, 3G and 3GS have several similar repairs like a iPhone repair service. When trying a iPhone repair service make sure you know to keep the screws in order. The smallest screws are used on the iPhone and it would be a intelligent to remember where each screw came out from. The screws come in different sizes but since they are so tiny, it is hard to see which screw is which. Your screw planning will make your iPhone repair service simpler when rebuilding your iPhone back again. Just remember that when working with the iPhone, try not to force things if it does not fit. Parts are small and easy to break.

For the owners that fix their own iPhone just realize that finding parts can be costly and the hard part is trying to find a really solid supplier. When your iPhone breaks, getting the parts for your iPhone takes time. Locating a good supplier of parts for 2G, 3G and 3GS in your country is key. So when doing a iPhone repair service project, be careful picking a good in country supplier. The ideal way is to locate a supplier that sells parts to the public, but can help you with technical support for repairs also. How come? The big thing is that if you cannot complete doing your iPhone repair service, you will need an option to send them your taken apart iPhone, so they can finish the job for you. There are times when attempts to fix your own iPhone comes at a price too difficult to complete. You can easily break good parts while inside your iPhone and realize that it would be better to have someone complete the job for you. This is why you should put an effort into buying parts from a supplier that also can help with repairs just in case. I want the assurance that I have a company to fall upon just in case I cannot finish the iPhone repair service job.

The top iPhone replacement parts site that can take on your damaged iPhone and breath life back into it again would be iPhoneReplacementParts.com because they do both things services for me when I look for iPhone parts. I love it that they can sell me iPhone parts and give me the reassurance of finishing the job if I cannot complete the task. I know that if I was to fail at repairing my iPhone 2G, 3G or 3GS, I feel secure that I can send it to them to get my iPhone back up and running. So the next time you need a iPhone repair service I would think about it for your iPhones physical sake.

More iPhone repair service articles:
iPhone repair service

Regardless of what you do, doing the deed is not complete without a computer. A computer nowadays is not a luxury you cannot afford. It is a need. It feels like a day cannot be complete without you browsing through your PC’s contents or reading a daily dose of mail or web content. It is now a requirement facing the fact that you are not able to do a task properly without the use of a computer.

Not anything is more exasperating than something not functioning when you call for it most. Doesn’t it appear like your PC at all times needs mending at the worst possible times? Most probable you term paper is due for submission in class or you simply cannot do what you are supposed to do. No matter what the case is, getting a computer repair is necessary. How will you be able to handle this?

Many computer repairmen or “technicians” charge a flat rate for tune-ups, updates, or check-up using common PC tools. This is not a very effective way in solving your computer problem because this does not prevent the issue from happening again. In reality, having your computer removed of virus, spyware, malware, or other suspicious files and programs are just temporary solutions to the problem and will not exactly secure your PC in the long run. The same issue will just repeat itself from time to time.

PC’s that are running on an operating system like Windows is very vulnerable to new viruses and any other software that will cause your computer to run poorly. This is especially when it is connected to an “always on” internet connection. It has to be constantly checked and updated. Fresh vulnerabilities are at all times found and patched. Maintenance of your computer with service packs and critical updates ought to be a main concern to any computer operator. Updates on your internet protection are very essential as well.

If you are still covered with your PC warranty, you may just call and confirm your PC manufacturer and inform them about the problem. You will then be required to send your PC back to them for PC repair service free of charge. Some have parts and labor warranty but some may only have labor and discount on parts.

However, if you do not to be hassled with shipping and handling or if you are worried that your computer might get more damaged because of the journey to the manufacturer, it is very easy to come across a capable technician. At least when you hire a technician to completely repair your computer for you, you will be able to know if it was really fixed or not. If this happens, you may watch the computer technician of what he is doing just so you could learn a few tips here and there. You will never know, in the future you might not need a technician to fix your computer anymore. You can already do it for yourself.

The short answer is yes.  Let me explain why…  First, you remain with your computer at all times.  When you drop your computer off at the store, you will be asked to return in a week or whenever they finish it.  During this time, who knows if anyone is reading or copying your files?  Can you be sure they haven’t taken or switched some piece of hardware?  Will they even do anything to it before recommending you purchase their new model on isle 9?  When having your computer repaired remotely, you’ll be able to watch the repair taking place as it is happening.  Your tech should be available for questions through a chat window or the phone if you need him, however no one will know if you are watching or not thus ensuring the techs integrity.  Ask your local super store geek if you can sit and watch them fix the computer and see what they say.

With on-site repair, not only do you have to pay very high fees, but you have to wait for the tech to fit you into the schedule when you need your computer working now!  Then you must allow a stranger into your home.  I’m reminded of a recent news story regarding a national on-site support chain and a camera phone left in a bathroom.  If you want to watch what the on-site tech is doing you’ll have to literally watch from over his shoulder because he or she will be sitting in your seat.

With remote computer repair, you must pay with a credit card.  Some people still have reservations on using credit cards online.  The fact is that credit card companies want you to use their card online for everything.  Ask your card company if you’ll be responsible for any fraud or stolen activity.  You’ll likely be happy with their response.  Plus if you think you are getting ripped off by the online computer repair service, you can use your credit card company to dispute the charge.  Note: that a bank debit cards with a Visa or MasterCard usually don’t offer dispute services.

Because this new option for residential computer repair is so popular, a lot of new companies are sprouting up constantly.  There are a few important things to look for in a remote computer repair service.  Are they in the same country as you?  This important because if laws are different, you’ll have a tough time disputing a problem with them should you come to have one.  Do they have a No Fix, No Fee guarantee?  Many per minute or hour services charge you for their time and do not guarantee to fix anything.  What does that say about their trust and training of their own techs?  Finally, be cautious of an insanely low price.  In my experience, low pricing always means inexperience or a scam.  You can expect to get a better deal than any in-shop or on-site service however.

So the next time you have a computer problem, give the remote approach a try.  If you find a no fix, no fee guarantee companies then you truly have nothing to lose and such a convenience to gain.

Updated data recovery services technology and HDD repair tools is the first step

http://www.disk-recover-data.in/hdd-tools.htm

In today’s data recovery services market, business no longer stop at the original “stay-in” service, has changed to the formal and professional direction. Facing to Lenovo’s intervention, those weak data recovery services companies are urgent for discarding old file recovery software, using HDD repair tools with leading data recovery services technology, making itself in an invincible position in the war of data recovery services industry. It is understood that prices of professional HDD repair tools available in the market are higher than 2000 US dollars; this is a financial problem and also some financial collection risks for small and medium data recovery services companies to update the HDD repair tools. 

 

SalvationDATA new HDD repair tools – File Extractor

 

How could those data recovery services companies efficiently update HDD repair tools, quickly recover the invest cost in the condition of insufficient funds, Facing with this market embarrassing, SalvationDATA, which is the leading enterprises committed to the R&D of HDD repair tools, released the powerful HDD repair tools File Extractor for those data recovery services companies in March 2010. As the Essential edition of DATA COMPASS, HDD repair tools File Extractor succeed to file recovery technology system of DC, enable the small and middle data recovery services companies improve technology of HDD repair tools quickly, a few thousand dollars of the cost price of this HDD repair tools can help those data recovery services companies.

http://www.disk-recover-data.in/index.htm

 

Many data recovery engineers in practice may found a number of difficult hard disk failure, due to lack of data recovery experience and HDD repair tools, and they early conclude that data recovery is impassable. In fact, data recovery technology needs continue researching and accumulating, but also the need professional HDD repair tools’ support. HDD repair tools File Extractor is not only a easy learning HDD repair tools, for small and medium data recovery services companies of poor data recovery experience, SalvationDATA provides a series after sales services for HDD repair tools file extractor, including file recovery telephone technical support, file recovery QQ technical support, file recovery forums and other various optional technical support services to enhance file recovery technology for those data recovery services companies.

 
The appearance of portable HDD repair tools File Extractor

In addition, this new HDD repair tool – File Extractor also has many leading file recovery techniques built-in, such as intelligent bad sector read/leap function, ShadowDisk technology, HEPSS, disk imaging, specific data extraction, source drive write protection, automatic data copy, etc. All these functions in this HDD repair tools file extractor are the crucial weapons for professional data recovery services providers to increase the file recovery success rate and work efficiency by 300%.

Information Security Industry was born in Network Era

Privacy and confidentiality of data is particularly important for customer in the network era, select a HDD repair tools provider of the technology leader in professional data recovery services is the most important prerequisite to ensure customer data security. With ten years HDD repair tools R&D experience in logical data recovery and physical data recovery, SalvationDATA has becomes a synonym of data recovery industry, it released dozens of HDD repair tools and equipment with independent Intellectual property, in the world nearly 6,000 professional organizations choose it as the trusted HDD repair tools. This year the company’s new HDD repair tools – File Extractor make small and medium data recovery services companies cost little, but get the world’s leading file recovery technology and brand support. With strong R & D team, SalvationDATA HDD repair tools File Extractor will set off a wave of revolution on HDD repair tools.

Why data loss is so common in the modern life? And how does data lose? First it should mention the growth of data storage is that the cost per megabyte has plummeted over the past twenty years, hard drive capacity was increased 200-fold in ten year (see picture).Companies are relying more and more on data in a distributed environment and “paper files” is less used than a computer. Most important files are store on a small disk, if the hard driver is corrupt; you have to resort to file recovery. 

Data loss can due to any reasons, but file Recovery engineers classify hard drive data loss in two main categories:

Logical failure – the hard drive is in working order but some files or data cannot be accessed for logical reasons such as a lost partition or accidental reformatting, the logical file recovery software can solve those problems.

Physical failure – the hard drive is not functioning. The most common causes are head crashes and motor failures so both file recovery and data recovery are needed.

 To start a file recovery business, firstly should understand the reasons cause data loss. There are two types of Data Loss in data recovery.

Logical Data Loss: Hard drive that is physically functioning, recognized by the system BIOS, and where critical data is not accessible, this is likely to be experiencing a logical failure. Logical Data Loss is the most common damage in file recovery. Logical data Loss is caused due to:

Human error, including accidental deletion of files;

Virus attack;

Software malfunction;

Power surge.

Physical data Loss is a hard drive cannot accessible by software such as the system BIOS, Windows’ Disk Management, or other disk utilities it can be considered as truly dead and in need of data recovery, Physical data Loss happens due to various reasons such as:

Hardware failure (electrical, mechanical component), including damage by power surge and drive failure.

Natural disasters like floods, fire, lightning.

Accidental dropping of disk to the floor also may cause hard disk getting damaged physically.

Statistical investigate from file recovery companies can give us a clear understand of data loss reasons.

Statistical investigate from file recovery and data recovery services companies show that data Loss could be concluded as following reasons: Hard drive failure is the most common cause of data loss, accounting for 38 percent of data loss. Drive read instability includes occasions where media corruption or degradation is about 30%. Software corruption, which might include damages, caused by system software or other program (e.g., virus attack), accounts for 13 percent of data loss incidents. Human error accounts for 12 percent of data loss episodes. This includes the accidental deletion of data as well as incorrectly partitioning the hard drive.

In file recovery filed, there are some distinguishes on broad sense file recovery and general file recovery, as well as file recovery, data loss is also have the broad sense data loss and general data loss, broad sense data lose including stolen laptop, stolen document, web and hack(see picture )

 What we usually mentioned is general data loss which can find back the lost data by file recovery and data recovery.

Thus data loss is so common in daily life, which industry is the worst industry that the recoverable data loss? Data from file recovery and data recovery services companies show that customs form the Government, Healthcare and Education are the most valuable client. The Statistical picture from file recovery companies can give us a clear understand of the structure proportion (see picture )

Here need a clear mind on recoverable date loss and unrecoverable data loss. File recovery engineer point out that data loss will result in one of two outcomes: either the data loss are recoverable with the assistance of file recovery technician, or the data are permanently lost cannot find back. Each data loss incident must take into account both possibilities. The ability to recover data depends on the cause of the data loss. The permanent loss or theft of a laptop whose data have no backup will result in permanently lost data. In addition, fire or flood damage can also make the possibility of data recovery very remote. For other causes of data loss, file recovery technicians are becoming more adept at restoring inaccessible data. Taking into account all causes of data loss, evidence suggests that in 83 percent of the cases, data may be recovered.

To start a file recovery process, firstly should understand how data is stored on a hard drive. When information is written to a drive, the location of the information is stored in a file that resembles a table of contents for a book, on computers running DOS and Windows operating systems, the File Allocation Table (FAT) or the Master File Table (MFT) holds this information. When a file is deleted, the FAT or MFT table is updated to tell the computer the space on the hard drive is available, however the actual data is not deleted until it is overwritten with new data. This is why you read about computer forensic teams, the FBI, and other law enforcement being able to recover data to solve crimes or incriminate individuals. Using file recovery tools and HDD repair tools, you can restore files that were accidentally or otherwise deleted. In more severe case, services such as Drive Savers are used to recover data that has been physically or electronically destroyed.

 

Hard drive failure is the largest single explanation for data loss. Hard drive failure may be related to mechanical, electronic, or firmware failures. Hard disk failure occurs when a hard disk drive malfunctions and the stored information cannot be accessed with a properly configured computer. A disk failure may occur in the course of normal operation or due to an external factor such as exposure to fire or water or high magnetic waves, or suffering a sharp impact, which can lead to a head crash. Mechanical failures occur when physical components of the device itself begin to wear or malfunction. Electronic failures occur when the printed circuit board begins to produce errors. Finally, many hard drive failures are related to out-of-date, corrupt or buggy firmware. Firmware is the controlling software that is built into the hardware device itself stored on disk platters of the drive. Like most software in use today, firmware may become damaged or corrupt over time. This is a very common failure for modern drives because of the complexity of firmware design.

 As same as data loss type, there are 2 types of hard drive failure: logical and physical.

Logical Hard Drive Failure

In case of logical failure, data cannot be accessed because data structure on the disk is damaged. It happen as a result of an accidental deletion of important system files, partitions/volumes, accidental hard drive formatting or deletion of hard drive, application conflicts, operating system corruption or virus attack) But the mechanically the hard drive is intact and working properly. Often, the drive still gets recognized by the BIOS, but would not boot. In this case, some problems can be solved by file recovery software, but other problems only resort to quality HDD repair tools or data recovery hardware.

Physical Hard Drive Failure

If the hard driver had a mechanical or electrical hard drive failure, file recovery software won’t help. Only data / file recovery experts with HDD repair tools can retrieve back the information and even repair the hard drive. However, for all cases of data loss there are certain actions you should avoid to maximize chances of data file recovery. Physical hard drive failure is unavoidable, sooner or later. As a rule, hard drives either crash at the beginning of their life or may last for years.

Most instances of hard drive failure do not destroy all of the data on the disk and much of the data on failed drives is often recoverable. Both consumer applications and professional file recovery tool and data recovery tools are available to recover lost data. Which alternative to choose depends upon the value of the lost data? The more valuable the data on the failed drive the fewer non-professional recovery attempts should be made. Non-professional file recovery tools and system software often fix errors by overwriting the file system on the drive. Though this may repair the file system, it permanently destroys the data. Disks with highly valuable data should be sent to a professional file recovery service. File recovery firms found that 15% of all non-recoverable data loss situations were created by prior non-professional file recovery attempt.

The most thorough professional file recovery services are able to retrieve data from drives with mechanical, electronic, and firmware failures. Broad sense data recovery includes drive restoration, disk imaging, and data retrieval. First, during the drive restoration phase any existing damage on the hard drive is repaired. This includes mechanical problems such as failed heads, electronic problems such as failed PCBs, and firmware issues. These repairs are made by replacing individual drive components with donor parts and fixing firmware. A second phase is disk imaging where the contents of the drive are retrieved, e.g. retrieving bad sectors or handling other read instability issues, and copied to a healthy drive to reduce the probability of further data loss on the original drive. Finally, the data is retrieved from the new healthy drive. During this phase the drive file system is restored, all files are verified for integrity and repaired. It should be noted that many professional file recovery services focus almost exclusively on data retrieval. However, without adequate attention to drive restoration and disk imaging any data retrieval effort will likely encounter serious challenges and may lead to further drive degradation and data loss.

What are the common Reasons of Hard Disk Drive failures?

1. Electronic Component Failure

2. Motor Failure

3. Read / Write Head Failure

4. Media Damage

5. Firmware Corruption

6. Logical Failure

7. Age and Usage

8. Faulty air filter:

 

Electronic components may fail due to voltage transients, heat or poor handling. Substitution, repair and re-programming is generally required in order to recover data stored on the hard disk. PCB assemblies are however hyper tuned at the manufacture stage and specialist re-programming and calibration is subsequently required to restore the hard disk to a working condition.

Hard disk motor spindles have fluid bearings; sometimes this fluid leaks or becomes overheated and in-effective. The motor will then seize and the hard disk platters fail to rotate. Platter and component re-location to another hard disk assembly is required to affect a repair and restore data.

Read / write heads are aerodynamically designed to “fly” at nanometer distances above the surface of the platters. Ceramic thin film sensors at their tip detect magnetic information (data) stored on the surface of the platter. Occasionally the atmosphere in the hard disk enclosure will become contaminated or vibration will cause the dynamic of the head to be disturbed. This disturbance will cause the read /write process to malfunction resulting in bad data read write cycles and eventual failure.

This type of failure usually manifests itself as a distinct clicking noise as the head actuator makes failed repeat attempts to locate data at the same platter track location.

Media Damage

Amazingly all computer hard disk magnetic storage media is manufactured imperfect but to acceptable and controllable levels. During normal operations imperfections will sometimes increase above the predefined acceptable level. This can be due to heat, vibration, head crash, shock or other factors. The operating system will flag errors or fail to boot and data files will then become in-accessible. Read/.Write head replacement and file repair will allow data file structures to be examined and assessed as to their validity.

Hard disk firmware holds precise parameters relevant to the configuration of the assembly at the time of manufacture. Occasionally the firmware becomes corrupt or will “roll back” to an incorrect set of parameters. Under these conditions the location of the stored data as reported to the operating system will be lost. Simple restoration of the correct parameters will allow the hard disk to function correctly. What causes this corruption? Operating system to drive software bugs, control bus protocol failure, it is difficult to determine but failures do occur.

 

Data files are stored at logical locations that relate to a number of physical locations on the surface of the hard disk platters. These logical locations are held in tables by the operating system and indexed when running specific software applications. Operating system errors, reloads or incorrect upgrade applications will sometimes corrupt these tables and data will become in-accessible. This is generally referred to as a logical failure. Logical errors can be repaired with file recovery software available from the internet. Be cautious however – if you are intending to run a fix utility on your disk you can inadvertently damage these tables irreparably and your data will be unrecoverable. This is especially true when running Scan Disk and Chick disk on a damaged hard drive.

Age and Usage:

As with all mechanical devices, after a certain amount of normal use, they wear out. The motor and bearings don’t last forever. The time for a hard drive to wear out could be much longer than your computer’s lifespan or you can accelerate the process by running your computer constantly without spinning down the disk. This happens often in desktops that are left to run overnight as well as in servers which run constantly by design.

Faulty air filter:

The air filters on today’s hard drives equalize the atmospheric pressure and moisture between the hard drive enclosure and its outside environment. If the filter fails to capture a dust particle, the particle can land on the platter, causing a head crash if the head happens to sweep over it. After a hard drive crash, each particle from the damaged platter and head media can cause a bad sector.

 What to Do When you Experience Hard Drive Failure

http://www.disk-recover-data.in/index.htm

 Evidenced, hard drive failure is the most common source of data loss which can lead to negative consequences for any business. Unfortunately, hard drive failure is inevitable. It is not a question of if a firm’s hard drives will fail, but when. However, with proper planning and a strategic response hard drive failure does not have to lead to data loss. Below we offer seven recommended strategies for dealing with hard drive failure.

If the failed drive is the system boot disk, immediately unplug the computer and remove the drive. Do not attempt to reboot from this drive. Depending on the nature of the data stored on this drive, one may wish to make an initial attempt at data recovery before sending the drive to a professional data recovery service. However, if the data on the drive is mission critical, we recommend immediately contacting a professional data recovery service.

If the disk does not contain mission-critical information, one may attempt to retrieve the data without the assistance of a professional data recovery service. However, do not execute any system software, such as ‘chkdsk’ to repair the file system unless you can afford to lose the data completely. System software is intended to repair a disk’s file system, not to recover data. These tools will most likely overwrite lost data.

If the failure is definitely related to the file system (e.g., deleted files, OS failure, or virus attack…), and not physical, electronic, or firmware failure, data retrieval software may be able to recover the disk’s data. We recommend first installing the drive into an external USB enclosure for this process to reduce the disk utilization during boot up. Once the drive is recognized by the Operating System, immediately begin the data retrieval. Do not save any files to the target disk or install programs as this would likely overwrite lost data. Though this strategy is often successful, there is a chance the OS will overwrite some lost data while updating or writing system files to the drive thus resulting in data loss. Therefore we do not recommend applying this recovery method on drives containing mission-critical information. If this strategy does not recover your data you should contact a professional data recovery service for assistance.

Never open a drive case. It may only be opened in a clean-room environment. Any other exposure will eventually result in the physical destruction of the disk’s magnetic layer and the complete loss of data.

Never attempt to swap PCBs from a healthy drive to a failed drive. Modern hard drives are manufactured with unique configuration parameters based on the tolerances of the individual components at the disk’s manufacture. Applying PCB/ROM to a disk for which it was not manufactured may destroy the drive and make it non-repairable. This is true even if the two drives share a common manufacturer, model, and manufacturing date.

Do not attempt to “repair” bad sectors or to read data from bad sectors by using data retrieval software on a failing disk. Doing so will either overwrite the underlying data or result in data loss. Note: as described above professional imaging tools retrieve bad sectors to a healthy disk rather than repairing or skipping bad sectors from a failing disk.

In cases of water, fire, or vandalism damage, do not attempt to power up a system that contains critical data. Doing so may destroy the disk’s magnetic layer and cause the data to be non-recoverable.

 

While data loss affects everyone who uses a computer, it is especially problematic for those who use word processing software. There is nothing more frustrating than losing the important documents that you’ve spent so much time creating — especially if you’re like most users who create documents directly on the computer and don’t have the benefit of a handwritten copy. If you’d like to reduce your chances of requiring data recovery, consider giving some of these free or low-cost tips a try.

The way to prevent data loss

 

1. Never store your documents on the same drive as your operating system

While most word processors will save your files in the My Documents folder, this is the worst place for them. Whether it is a virus or software failure, the majority of computer problems affect the operating system, and oftentimes the only solution is to reformat the drive and reinstall the operating system. In such an instance, everything on the drive will be lost.

Installing a second hard-drive in your computer is a relatively low cost way to take care of this problem. A second internal hard-drive will not be affected if the operating system is corrupted, and it can even be installed in another computer if you need to buy a new one; further, you’ll be surprised at how easy they are to set up.

If you’re skeptical about installing a second internal drive, an excellent alternative is to buy an external hard-drive. An external drive can be attached to any computer at any time simply by plugging it into a USB or firmware port.

Many external drives also have the added benefit of one-touch and/or scheduled back ups — you simply specify the folders and the software will take care of the rest. I use Maxtor’s external 200GB hard drive, which not only has ample room, but is easy to use (compare prices).

If another hard-drive is not an option for you, then save your files to clearly labeled floppy disks, but beware: computer manufacturers are moving away from including floppy drives with new computers, so you might have problems in the future retrieving data from floppies.

 

2. Back-up your critical files.

Back-up your critical files. With the ability to store data on CDs on a weekly or monthly basis, a small investment in a stack of CDs will save you from loosing your critical documents, files, priceless images and MP3s. Back-up your do it regularly and always verify your back-up by restoring the data to your computer.

Just storing your files in a different location than your operating system isn’t enough; you need to create regular backups of your files, and let’s face it, even your back up is subject to failure: cds get scratched, hard drives break, and floppies get erased.

It makes sense to increase your odds of being able to retrieve a file by having a second back up of it; if the data is truly important, you might even want to think about storing a backup in a fireproof vault.

 

3. Install Anti-Virus program.

Run some sort of Anti-Virus Program. Viruses get into your computer a variety of ways; by reading an infected attachment in your e-mail, by sharing files (which are already infected), and by visiting websites that take advantage of security flaws to compromise and destroy your data.

 

4. Beware of email attachments

Even if you’re certain they don’t contain viruses, email attachments can cause you to lose data. Think about it: if you receive a document with the same name as one on your drive, and your email software is set to save attachments in the same location, you run the risk of overwriting the file that’s already there. This often happens when you’re collaborating on a document and send it via email.

So make sure you set your email program to save attachments in a unique location, or, barring that, make sure you think twice before saving an email attachment on your hard drive.

 

5. Beware of user error

We don’t like to admit it, but we often engineer our own problems. Take advantage of safeguards included in your word processor, such as versioning features and tracked changes. Common ways users lose data are when they’re editing a document and accidentally delete portions — after the document is saved; the portions that are changed or deleted are lost unless you’ve enabled features that will store changes for you.

If you don’t want to mess with the advanced features, use the F12 key before you start working to save the file under a different name. It isn’t as organized as some of the other methods, but it is a useful trick nonetheless.

 

6. Quit all programs before shut down.

Shut down your computer. Always quit your programs before shutting down your computer. When you quit a program, it saves vital data and then exits the program. If you just turn off your computer without properly exiting your applications and closing your files, you run the risk of loosing your data.

 

7. Never shake or remove the covers on hard drives or tapes.

Please don’t disassemble your hard drive. In nearly all examples of this, data is usually not recoverable once an inexperienced person attempts to ‘investigate’ where that ’strange clicking noise’ is coming from. Leave the diagnostics to a data recovery specialist who has experience with all types of hard drives and knows how to perform a successful data recovery.

 

8. Beware of diagnostic programs.

While it is a good idea to check the health of your computer running diagnostics software, be careful with allowing such programs to repair data files it may find. Check Disk can be your friend, but also may make it more difficult to recover data from a hard drive which has had such diagnostic programs run on it.

 

9. Be aware of your surroundings.

Keep your computers and servers in safe and secure locations from accidentally getting knocked over, dropped, or spilled on. Laptops, while convenient to use, are often dropped and require hard drive data recovery. Just because it is a nice day and you are casually working by the pool with your laptop, don’t assume that the guy jumping into the pool realizes his tidal splash will not only soak you…but ruin your laptop and require data recovery for your critical data.