How to Recover Lost Data

Everyone has at some point of time or the other deleted an important file and have been through bouts of panic!!

 

Here are some tips on how to recover lost data.

 

Tip # 1 – If you believe there is something wrong with your computer – like getting a clunk, clunk sound when you boot your system – start the process of testing your disk. Use your system as little as possible as the more activity that takes place, the greater chance that some of your lost data might be written over.

 

Tip # 2 – An important step is NOT to write any new data to the hard drive. Your file is probably recoverable if the hard drive space it occupied has not been overwritten upon. Avoid browsing the web, because your web browser saves cache files on the disk.

 

Tip # 3 – Free up some space on your hard disk. The more free space your system has, the less chance of overwriting lost files with new ones. You can empty the recycle bin (after confirming that you do not need the files there) and also empty the browser cache.

 

Tip # 4 – Use a Data Recovery Tool. Installing a Data Recovery tool AFTER you have lost data can mean that the installation of the prorgam itself could overwrite the lost data. So it makes sense to install a Data Recovery Tool now itself – before you lose data.

 

There are many affordable commercial tools which have a good reputation for recovering deleted data.

 

One of the best commercial tool available in the market is DiskInternals NTFS Recovery.

 

There is also a free tools called Recuva which can run even from a USB. However, it does not have all the features that a commercial tool offers. Nevertheless it might be a good idea to download and install this tool on your system to give you a fair chance of success in the event of data loss. Incidentally, Recuva is from the same software developer who has given us CCleaner – which is one of the must-have tools on any PC.

 

Another software that has been rated high by CNET is VirtualLab Data Recovery which has a trial version allowing 10MB of recovered data.