How To Do a Recovery on a Hard Drive

Introduction

The telltale signs are there. Your computer won’t start, shuts down by itself, and freezes while you are working. Eventually, it crashes and you have no access to your files. In addition, you have been procrastinating enough and didn’t make a back up of your files. Now, you’re wondering what to do when attempting to perform a recovery hard drive.

Step 1

Identify if it is a logical or mechanical failure.

Recovery hard drive is a tricky operation. However, you have to identify first if the source of failure is a logical or a mechanical failure. Logical failure means that the there is a failure in the hard drives of your unit. The good news is the physical parts of the drive are not damaged. Mechanical failure refers to the mechanic issues that the computer is going through and, obviously, there is a physical damage preventing the computer from working. You'll hear strange noises that won't go away indicating that there is something wrong with the mechanics. Unless you are a computer expert or knowledgeable enough in fixing these sorts of problems, recovery hard drive due to mechanical failure is best done by qualified experts or technicians.

Step 2

Transfer your data on another computer.

If you have access to another computer in the house, you can do a recovery hard drive by using a cable to move the files to another computer. Check which cables you need but in the case of a Mac, you should use a firewire to perform the move.

Step 3

Re-establish the operating system.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can perform a recovery hard drive when the source is a logical failure. Getting your operating system to work is a logical step since without the operating system, it is difficult to have access to your files. Instructions vary by brand of computers, but the principles are the same – you have to get the operating system going.

Step 4

Create a restore point.

Start your computer, but before it gets to the start-up menu, hit the f8 button and choose from the available options on the screen. You should get options of recovery hard drive or recovering the operating system to get your data back. Choose normal restore. This implies that your files are restored pre-crash state.

Step 5

Perform recovery hard drive.

Once the restore point is created, you now have access to your computer and do not get a black screen. At this point, you can start recovery hard drive. There are two ways you can do this: customized or normal recovery.

In a normal recovery, your data will be moved to an external drive. Be sure to have a flash drive ready that has enough memory to hold all your files.

If you opt for customized recovery hard disk, you will need to specify where to move the data. It can be transferred to specific media devices, optical disks or external drives.

Note that recovery hard drive is a lengthy and frustrating process. Your files will never be in the same condition before they were messed up. The file names might even be jumbled up and you might get audio in a text document and vice-versa. It will be a painstaking process of sifting through everything but is worth it if you can get your data back.

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