Frequently Asked Data Recovery Questions
Q:
My hard drive is making a ticking, clicking, or banging
noise. What should I do?
A: Power-down the device.
You need help!! Attempts to power on the device WILL CAUSE
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE!!!.
Q: My
hard drive doesn't spin up. What should I do?
A: Over the years there
has been a lot of bad advice circulating regarding fixes for
this type of problem. Including "smacking" or "hitting" the
computer or device until it runs. These actions are pure and
simple computer abuse. In reality these actions can result in
misalignment of the head assembly and/or ripping the head off
of the arm assembly and/or damage to the recording surface.
These devices are delicate instruments and damage WILL occur
if abused.
Q:
What can I do to overcome an "HDD Controller Failure",
"General Failure Reading Device..." or Macintosh "Blinking Question
Mark" error?
A: Attempt to boot the
computer from a bootable floppy disk or CD-Rom. If the computer
boots, attempt to access the hard drive in question. If the
unit is accessible, attempt to backup the data to another
device. If the computer won't boot or the drive is not accessible,
seek professional assistance. Do NOT run utility programs,
save data or add programs. Do NOT use backup programs to attempt
to save your data. They all write to or add files to your
hard drive during the back-up process.
Q:
I'm ready to upgrade my computer. Should I do something
with my data before I do?
A: Yes. Backup the data
and then be sure to verify that it can be restored before
you upgrade any hardware or software.
Q: My
computer is reporting "Sector Not Found Error Reading Drive".
Should I run a chkdsk.exe or scandisk.exe?
A: Attempt to boot the computer
from a bootable floppy disk or CD-Rom. If the computer boots,
attempt to access the hard drive in question. If the unit is
accessible, attempt to backup the data to another device. If
the computer won't boot or the drive is not accessible, seek
professional assistance. Do NOT run utility programs, save data
or add programs. Do NOT use backup programs to attempt to save
your data. They all write to or add files to your hard drive
during the back-up process.
Q: The
partition has been deleted from my hard drive. What should
I do?
A: Standard algorithms
employed by utility programs do not always provide satisfactory
results in this area. In AS-FAILED condition this is usually
recoverable with all the original directory structure in tact.
Do NOT run utility programs, save data or add programs. Do
NOT use backup programs to attempt to save your data. They
all write to or add files to your hard drive during the back-up
process.
Q:
I accidentally formatted my external USB hard drive. Can you
still recover my files?
A: Yes! As long
as there has been no data 'written' to, or saved to the hard
drive, generally we do have great success with recovering
data from this type of situation.
Q:
My laptop will not boot up and there are clicking sounds coming
from the hard drive. Can you recover my data?
A: This is a
very common symptom of a failed hard drive. It's also a scenario
that we see on a daily basis. We will exchange parts in a
clean room and rebuild your hard drive, thus allowing us to
move forward with recovery.
Q:
All that I need recovered is my Outlook PST file. It was the
only file that was not backed up. Can you recover my email?
A: Absolutely!
We will email a list of all recovered files to you. This way
you can ensure that we have recovered the data that you need.
Q:
My MacBook Pro is displaying a 'Flashing Question Mark' on the
screen. The Apple store has told me that the hard drive has
suffered from a crash. Do you perform Mac Data Recovery?
A: We love Macs!
Our technicians are well versed in 'All Things Mac' and we have
been providing data recovery services for Mac hard drives since
1995.
For more information on data recovery, click
our data
recovery information page.
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