Generally, using data recovery software is safer than undertaking a physical data recovery that involves opening your hard drive and removing internal parts. Using software is normally the first step panicking users take when confronted with data loss, and while there are many great free data recovery programs out there, you should still exercise caution when using them.
If you install and run the software on the disk that you’re attempting to retrieve data from, there’s a chance you could permanently lose your files due to the data being overwritten. This is an incredibly common problem and can make the difference between getting your data back or not. You should always install data recovery software to an external storage device, like a USB drive or portable hard drive.
Some cautions you should consider to make your deleted data safe:
- When you delete a file from a hard drive or other devices, they’re not gone forever. Your operating system keeps pointers that tell it where data is stored and how much space it has taken. When you delete a file, the pointers are removed, making the file seemingly disappear and the portion of the drive marked as free.
- But as long as new data is written to this portion of the drive, data recovery can still be undertaken. The tongue-in-cheek ‘turn it off and on again’ solution to all computer problems can actually make the situation worse.
- Ideally, to ensure the maximum chance of successful data recovery by a professional, you need to power down the drive completely, and not power it up again. When your machine is on, your operating system will constantly write data to the hard drive – driver updates, virus and malware scans, OS updates, etc.
- The longer your drive is powered up and connected to your machine, the greater the chance of your machine overwriting the portion of the drive containing your lost data.
In short, you really need to be careful when using data recovery software downloaded from the internet. While there are many powerful tools to recover your data like Recoverit Wandershare data recovery, you can sometimes make the problem worse and lose your data permanently. It really depends on the nature of the data; if the files you need are precious, you’re safer leaving the data recovery to the professionals. Thank you.
Regards,
Theodomentis Lucia,
Technical Engineer and Chief Editor,
Wondershare Software LLC.