Data Recovery How-To Guide by the Experts

We've moved from an age where our most important documents are no longer stored on the hand written or even the computer printed page. Now they are stored digitally on our computer's memory or hard drive. This ends a paper trail but brings a new problem to the fore. Losing our data files!

Things can happen. Computers can crash, hard drives fry, the power goes out for a moment, we accidentally hit the "close" button on our word processor, the delete button and the list goes on. Knowing how to handle these situations can save us a big headache.

The first solution is prevention. Do you make backups of your important files? This can be done with a zip drive, CD, DVD or networked computer station. Taking just a few moments to backup those key files can be the easiest protection for data recovery. Make sure you keep those backed up files in a safe place.

If you are concerned about power outages you can always invest in a small UPS battery backup. Just plug your computer into it. It will save you from those flickers in the power grid that cause you to lose your work.

Solutions for data recovery can also come in the form of software. Some of Microsoft's office applications have built-in data recovery tools. These are easy to use and automated. By simply restarting the application you were using it will sense that the computer has data files that were not saved properly. Those tools have saved me in quick pinches.