Your hard drive is the hardware that stores all of your data and digital content. It is an essential part of every computer.
Unfortunately, a hard drive can crash. If not handled properly, you can lose everything.
Thankfully, data recovery specialists can help. But you need to make sure that you don’t make things worse.
Keep reading to find out about the 5 things you should never do after your hard drive crashes.
1. Keep Using the Hard Drive
If your hard drive crashes and stops working, stop using it immediately.
If you continue to use the hard drive after a crash, your existing data and content may get overwritten and replaced by the new data that you are creating. This can damage the data recovery process, and can even make data recovery impossible.
You can find out more on data recovery here.
2. Recreate Hard Drive Partitions
Have you partitioned your hard drive? In other words, have you separated your hard drive into different separate entities?
If you have, and your hard drive crashes, do not try to recreate your hard drive partitions.
Some people think that recreating the hard drive partitions will bring files back. But that doesn’t work.
That’s because, even if the partitions have been lost or corrupted, the files have not been completely and permanently removed. The data is still where it was; the computer just doesn’t recognize it.
So, by recreating your hard drive partitions, you can be completely overwriting your lost data. This can make data recovery almost impossible.
3. Format the Hard Drive
If your hard drive crashes, a message might pop up asking you to format the drive. Do not do this.
If you format the drive, it can make data recovery almost impossible. Instead, stop using the hard drive and contact a data recovery professional.
4. Try to Physically Repair the Hard Drive
If your hard drive crashes, you may be tempted to open it and attempt to physically repair it yourself. This is more likely to cause further damage to your computer.
Hard drives are extremely delicate pieces of hardware. Permanent damage can be caused by small dust particles, humidity, temperature change, and even a small screwdriver scratch.
That’s why you have to open your hard drive in a cleanroom environment. That way, there are no contaminants that could cause internal damage and destruction to your equipment.
Data recovery specialists will be able to open your hard drive and make repairs in a clean and safe environment.
5. Save Recovered Files on the Hard Drive
When your files, data, and content are recovered, it can be tempting to save them back onto your hard drive. This is not safe.
Even when your files are recovered, your hard drive might have unresolved issues. If you save your data back on your hard drive, it could cause them further damage. You could even lose the data permanently.
Instead, save all recovered files onto a secondary drive that has not been corrupted. This is the best way to keep your content safe.
What Not to Do After Your Hard Drive Crashes
If your hard drive crashes, it can be easy to panic and try to solve the problem yourself. But this usually causes more damage and can mean that your data and content are lost permanently.
Instead, follow our tips and don’t make these mistakes. Contact a data recovery specialist immediately, who can help you to save your files.
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