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How to Recover Client Data After a Hard Drive Crash in a Web Development Project
When developing a website for a client, the last thing you want to do is lose all the progress due to hard drive crashes and start all over again. Especially when you consider all the time, money, and effort it takes to complete a web development project. Fortunately, a hard drive crash does not always have to be a big loss.
If you act in time and follow the right steps, you may be able to restore your files, databases, and assets from a crashed hard drive or computer. Ensuring your client does not lose valuable data, and you do not make any financial losses, but first, what leads to hard drive crashes?
What Leads to Hard Drive Crashes
There are a lot of reasons why a hard drive may crash. Take a look:
- Human Error: You may accidentally delete files or drop the hard drive. Human errors are the major causes of hard drive crashes.
- Power Surges: A power surge occurs when electricity is suddenly disconnected and reconnected. The hard drive consists of mechanical parts, like the read and write heads. If a write operation is in progress, the read and write heads may fail after a power surge.
- Overheating: Excessive heat is dangerous to electronic components, especially hard drive components. Poor ventilation, dust buildup, and malfunctioning fans may cause severe heating on your computer and damage the hard drive components.
- Corrupted Files: Shutting down your computer improperly or disconnecting the hard drive without ejecting it first may corrupt the files and make the hard disk unusable.
- Water Damage: Spilling any type of liquid into your computer will destroy, or make it inoperable. Liquids cause current surges which can seriously damage your hard drive.
- Virus Attack: Viruses may erase or corrupt hard drive data, even altering the hard drive functions.
- Mechanical Failure: Hard drives are made of moving parts that degrade over time. Several things including the spindle motor may fail and render the drive unreadable.
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What Actions You Should Take When Your Hard Drive Crashes
Stop using your computer and determine what caused the crash, it could be any of the reasons we have discussed. Once you have discovered what led to the crash, proceed to recover the data. If you have technical knowledge or a bit of experience then you can attempt hard drive data recovery on your own, but with another computer. Do remember, when you try to recover the data and fail, data recovery professionals will have a harder time or even be unable to recover the files.
If Your Hard Drive Has Not Completely Crashed Yet
If the hard drive has not completely failed, take it out of your computer, insert it into an external case, and connect it to another computer. You may be able to copy some important files if the hard drive is still usable to an extent. Take note that powering on the hard drive while it is failing may lead to further damage. Now let’s go through what you need to do if it is completely corrupted.
Data Recovery Software
If your hard drive is completely corrupted and you cannot access any files. Remove the hard drive from the computer and put it into an external case, so that you can be able to access it as an external drive from other computers. From here you should look for hard drive data recovery software. You can use them on multiple operating systems, whether it is Linux, Windows, or Mac. There are a lot of data recovery software available on the market with varying features and prices.
While most of them will suffice, you should find one that has the data recovery features you need and is within your price range. Some will even offer free trials of up to 14 days with all features active. Some will give you a free version with limited features, but still be able to handle simple data recovery. For the best outcome, a free trial or paid version may be the only option. Once you have identified the data recovery software you want to use. Follow these steps:
- Install the data recovery software on the computer you want to use to recover data from the damaged hard drive.
- Connect the hard drive to the computer using the external case you placed it in.
- Run the data recovery software.
- Once in the software you will see a variety of options, choose the option for data recovery.
- From the recovery options, choose the hard drive.
- The hard drive will be scanned and the recoverable files will be displayed. Select the ones you want to recover and save them on your current computer.
- Once you have recovered all the data you need, get a new hard drive and install it on the old computer. That is if you were using it to run the operating system.
- Reinstall the operating system and restore the files.
Depending on the data recovery software you choose, the steps may be slightly different. But as long as you choose the recovery option, you will be able to complete the recovery process.
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Refer to a Professional
Should your attempt yield no favorable results or the hard drive crash was due to hardware complications, you should get a professional to handle the recovery. Considering the value of data lost, DIY data recovery solutions may not always be the best option, especially when dealing with project deadlines. A professional with years of experience and advanced tools will be a better option when recovering valuable data.
Once you get in touch, you will be required to pack and send the hard drive to their office. They will examine the drive and give you an estimate of the price and time needed for the recovery. If you accept the price quote, they will attempt to retrieve the hard disk contents using various techniques.
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