Data recovery is the process of retrieving information that has been lost due to system malfunction, accidental deletion, or virus manipulation. This article will explain how data recovery works and how to prevent data loss to begin with, along with introducing you to a few types of data recovery software.

What is Data Recovery

Data recovery is the process of obtaining lossed information due to a variety of incidents. Often enough, files get accidentally deleted, corrupted, or lossed due to computers restarting, virus manipulation, or other system malfunctions. When the file isn't saved properly, it is either dumped by your computer or saved to temporary memory. Some files can easily recalled and saved properly but more times than not, the information is difficult to find and you must use a data recovery program to get it back. Data recovery programs generally don't give you all of your information back but the goal is to give you enough of your information that you can reconstruct the rest and save it properly. Especially in the case of total system failure, many people lose precious files such as pictures and videos that they want to keep. It is always better to get some or most of these files back rather than not have any of them at all.

How Data Recovery Works

When information is deleted from your hard drive, it is not technically "deleted", but rather rewritten. The hard drive can only hold so much information and is written by adding a series of 1s and 0s in a line known as bits. Eight bits makes up a byte, 1 thousand bytes make up a kilobyte, 1 thousand kilobytes make up a megabyte, 1 thousand megabytes make up a gigabyte, 1 thousand gigabytes make up a terabyte, and so on. When a file gets "deleted", the computer is allowed to go into the strand of information and write over the bits that made up that file with new information. So as long as you haven't added too many new files, and even if you have, most of your information should still be there. All a data recovery program does is go into your computer and figure out which information has recently been assigned for rewriting and tell the system not to write over the data that you want to keep.

Data Recovery Programs

There are many different data recovery programs out there and they each have slightly different functions and tools to make your data recovery easier. Some of these programs are free and some of them can get rather expensive but they're all much cheaper than taking your computer to a computer repair store. Computer repair stores can retrieve nearly everything on your hard drive in exactly the same way you had it before the error, but these stores often charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars to do so and they often have many other computers to get to before they start working on yours so the whole process can take weeks for you to get your computer back. For a much quicker (and much cheaper) method, you can take a look at the following data recovery programs and decide which is better for you.

System Restore

The easiest and most popular method of data recovery is the System Restore function that comes with your computer. The System Restore function provides you with an opportunity to set your computer back to an earlier time before you made any big changes to your system. While System Restore doesn't technically recover pictures, documents, and other files that you might want back, it does allow you to restore the system files that may have been corrupted or lost from a virus or other incident. System Restore also allows you to manually set a date on the calender (such as right before you make a big change to your system) in order to return to that point in time after you've detected an error. System Restore does not bring back viruses or other such files. You can reach the System Restore control panel by going to Start (on Windows XP), All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and selecting System Restore on the menu.

O&O Disk Recovery

O&O Disk Recovery offers many advanced features that a lot of data recovery programs don't usually have. For instance, O&O Disk Recovery can be launched from any portable device such as a CD, DVD, floppy disk, or USB drive. You can not only use this program to retrieve lost information on your computer, but also on digital cameras and other devices. O&O costs around $99.95/year but is capable of going further in data recovery than other programs. It can retrieve up to 1,000 files every recovery sesson and can even restore information after the system has been formatted or destroyed.

Undelete Plus

Undelete Plus is another data recovery program that offers many of the same features that O&O Disk Recovery does at a fraction of the cost. Undelete Plus can be used on any type of device including hard drives, digital cameras, memory sticks/flash drives, and external drives. Undelete Plus costs just $25.95/year and offers a free trial version, which O&O Disk Recovery does not.

How To Prevent Data Loss

Prevent data loss by backing up your files once a month. One way to backup your files is to buy a 1 TB external drive for around $100 and simply copy all of your files onto it. External drives are very easy to use, have quick transfer rates, and are rather durable. Because the hard drives in external drives have no moving parts, putting files on them is basically the same as putting files onto a USB drive. In fact, USB drives and USB external drives operate on the same technology. Another way to secure your information is to sign up for an online program like Carbonite that automatically scans your computer for new information and uploads it to your own private server. Carbonite works in the background so you don't even notice it. Carbonite in particular costs around $55/year, but there are several programs like it that are much cheaper or even free.