Conquer Sudden Data Loss from Hard Disk Drives Using Data Recovery Tools

Hard disk drives are the storage house of your computer, and it safely keeps all your data. But there can be various physical (mechanical) and logical (software) issues that might lead to hard drive failures.

In such circumstances, your hard drive might confront issues like crashes, sector not found errors, etc. that can further lead to unexpected data loss. 

The best way for troubleshooting computer problems like this is to keep the hard disk drives healthy by defragmenting them timely. But that also doesn't ensure that your PC drives can't have sudden data loss. This blog lists three data recovery tools that you can use for a quick and easy recovery of your lost files.

The best protection against data loss is real-time backup, but sometimes data loss just happens all of sudden without giving you much time. Whether your holiday pictures couldn't get safely transferred from your camera to your system or a mischievous roommate mistakenly deleted the document you have been working all week. But thankfully, for such emergency of data recovery, you have data recovery tools. This blog list outs a few such good data recovery tools. 

TestDisk

 

TestDisk is a sturdy open-source tool for retrieving your lost data. Not just TestDisk can perform core file recovery like recovery of the files that got accidently deleted, but it also comes with a bundle of supplementary functionalities. Using TestDisk, you can resume your boot sector from a backup.

•          Fix FAT tables
•         Rebuild your boot sector
•       Fix your MFT 

·         Copy deleted files from hard drive partitions to your recovery media

·         Find lost partitions in handfuls of formats so that you can locate your lost data

TestDisk is a command line tool. Thus, it got no GUI (Guide.) However, it is simple and easy to use, hence by using the documentation and menus, you will be able to use it easily.

Recuva (Windows)

Recuva is a highly user-friendly data recovery tool for Windows PCs. When you run Recuva, you can retrieve missing files utilizing either the application's manual mode or the file-recovery wizard. The wizard is helpful when you are certain that your data has got lost, but you don't know where it went.  The wizard helps by narrowing your search type to specific categories such as pictures, documents, music, video, or all files. The tool lets you set the search location to every nook of your PC such as My Documents, removable media, the Recycle Bin, or any other specified location. 

If you specifically know where your data has gone, then you don't require using the wizard. You can directly use the manual mode and straightaway get into the job of searching your data in the specified location. 

PhotoRec (Windows/Mac/Linux)

PhotoRec is mainly a complementary program to TestDisk. Like TestDisk, even PhotoRec app is also devoid of a GUI. However, it is a pretty compelling at file recovery. PhotoRec can be considered independently from TestDisk because many users plainly prefer PhotoRec because it is a safer alternative. That recovery tool doesn't mess with drive partitions and help you restore your master boot record. It also drives your disks in a read-only and safe mode where, it ignores file systems and partitions in order to find out your missing files. PhotoRec concentrates on file types and despite having a "Photo" prefix in its name, it's not just relegated to photos. Overall, PhotoRec is a strong tool for swiftly and safely transferring your deleted files to another safe disk.

Now, you know about three data recovery tools which are helpful at the time of emergency incidents like sudden data loss from hard drive. Such incidents are common PC problems, and thus you must keep one of the aforementioned apps installed in your PC for troubleshooting computer problems of accidental and sudden data loss from hard drives.