Help! My computer won’t come up and I need my data. What do I do???
Here’s what we don’t know: What is the condition of the hard drive in the computer?
If it is undamaged I can remove the hard drive from the computer, convert it into a USB drive and attach it to another computer. Then your data, but not programs, can be recovered from the hard drive.
If the hard drive is sort of broken, there are programs, including the one that I use, that will test every sector on the hard drive and recover files, whether the hard disk’s directory is damaged or not. This can be a lengthy process. I had one hard drive connected to my test computer and chugging through its recovery program for four and a half days before it finished.
If the hard drive is broken, meaning it cannot be attached to a computer by normal means, then the only recourse is a data recovery firm such as Data Tech Labs. But be aware that you are then looking at considerable expense.
The tricky part here is in determining how damaged the hard drive is. Many times attaching the drive to a second computer will result in the message: “The drive is unformatted. Do you wish to format it?” Don’t do that!! If you don’t have the software tools to recover the files from the hard drive yourself, bring it to someone who does, like me for instance.
