CATASTROPHE! What To Do When The Hard Drive Crashes

You didn’t think much of it at first. A few glitches here and there, a few times when it didn’t really seem 100%. You assumed it was just having a bad day, after all, we all do at some point. Then came the fateful morning when you tried to turn it on and nothing happened. Just a sad little death rattle and then unbearable silence. Of course, you rush it to your nearest computer support technician, and wait anxiously while he looks it over. When he emerges, a sad look in his eyes, resignedly shaking his head, you know the truth, but you have to hear him say it. “Is…Is there any hope?” you ask, eyes bright with manic desperation. “I’m sorry. It’s gone.”

We’re speaking of course about that painful and tragic occurrence that strikes fear into the heart of every computer-loving human. That fateful day when your hard drive crashes. Because we know that it can be such a trying time, we’ve put together a guide for dealing with the situation.

Plan Ahead

OK, OK, we know. If your hard drive has just crashed and you’re looking for ways to cope, us telling you to plan ahead is not exactly going to help, but if you’re reading this and your hard drive is still healthy, consider yourself warned. They say to live every day like it’s your last, and you should treat your computer in exactly the same way. We can;t stress how important it is to continually back up your files. Most people say that if their house was burning down, the one thing they’d grab would be the family photos, and yet they leave them unprotected on their home computer, vulnerable to a hard drive crash at any time. If you’re not too good at remembering to back your work up, you may want to invest in some automatic back-up software that periodically uploads your data to a remote source. Either way, if you prepare for the worst, you’ll be able to bounce back from a hard drive crash in no time.

The Aftermath

So, you’ve just realised your hard drive has gone to that great big network in the sky, and you have no idea what to do next. The first step is to get in contact with an IT support company that offers a data recovery service. For a cost they will be able to perform a complex extraction of data that can often recover most, if not all of your data. You need to detail what you are dealing with, and either deliver the drive yourself or post it in to the company. Once the company has retrieved your data they can save it onto a disk or another external hard drive and make you one very relieved camper!

You’ll probably want to kiss them, but don’t. Payment in full will be fine.

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