Data recovery in the Coachella Valley

Three kinds of data loss

Nearly every recovery job falls into one of three groups, and knowing which one you're in tells you what to do in the next ten minutes.

Deleted or missing files

A folder got dragged to the wrong place, the Recycle Bin was emptied, a memory card was formatted, or a cloud folder synced a deletion to every device you own. The drive itself is healthy. The question is whether the space those files used has been written over yet.

A failing drive

The drive still works, sort of. Folders take a minute to open, files won't copy, the computer freezes and then recovers, or Windows keeps offering to scan and repair the disk. An external drive may connect and drop off again. A clicking, grinding or repeating tick from a hard drive is the serious version of this.

A computer that won't boot

This one causes the most panic and is often the best news. A computer that won't start isn't the same thing as a dead drive. A failed power supply, a bad update, a cracked laptop screen or a dead main board can stop the computer cold while the drive inside sits there with everything intact. If that computer is a Mac, our Mac support page covers the startup side.

What not to do

More data is lost in the hour after a failure than in the failure itself. If the files matter, avoid all of the following.

• Don't keep powering a clicking drive. That sound means moving parts inside are damaged. Every restart risks more damage to the surface your files are stored on. Unplug it and leave it unplugged.
• Don't install recovery software onto the same drive. Installing anything writes new data, and it can land right on top of the files you're trying to get back. The same goes for downloading, browsing and saving new work on that drive.
• Don't let Windows "scan and fix" a failing drive. Disk repair tools are built to make the file system consistent, and they'll discard damaged pieces to do it. On a healthy drive that's fine. On a dying one it can destroy what was still readable.
• Don't click Format or Initialize. If the computer says a drive needs formatting before you can use it, the answer is no.
• Don't reset or reinstall. A factory reset or a fresh install of Windows or macOS writes over the place your files lived.
• Don't open the drive, freeze it or tap it. The freezer trick is an old story that adds moisture to a drive that already has problems.
• Don't keep trying. Ten attempts to copy the same folder from a struggling drive is ten more passes over a weak spot.

What you can safely try first

If the drive is healthy and the files are simply gone, these checks cost nothing and write nothing to the drive.

1. Look in the Recycle Bin on Windows or the Trash on a Mac.
2. Sign in to your cloud storage on its website, using a different device if you can. OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox each keep deleted files for a while in their own recycle bin or Recently Deleted folder.
3. Check your other devices. A photo deleted from the computer may still be on the phone, and a document may still be sitting in an email you sent.
4. Look for a backup you forgot about. On a Mac with a Time Machine drive, open the folder the file was in and enter Time Machine. On Windows, right-click the folder and look for Restore previous versions.
5. For an external drive that isn't showing up, try a different cable and a different USB port, and plug it straight into the computer with no hub in between. Do this once. If it clicks, or the computer offers to format it, stop.

If none of that finds the files, shut the computer down properly and stop using it. If the drive is making noise or the computer freezes, hold the power button instead of waiting. Then call us.

What we do

Bring the device into the shop and we'll try to recover your files for free. If we can't do it, we'll say so and refer you to a specialist if the case calls for one. Here's how a recovery goes.

1. We ask what happened. What was the last thing you saw, has anything been tried since, and which files matter most. A short list of the folders you can't lose changes how we approach the job.
2. We check the drive without writing to it. We read the drive's own health report and listen to it. This tells us whether the fault is logical (the data is there but the map to it is damaged) or physical (the drive itself is failing).
3. We tell you where it stands. You'll hear whether this is a job for our bench or for a specialist lab before anything else happens.
4. We copy first. For a drive that's readable but unreliable, we make a full copy onto a healthy drive, working around the weak areas, and do the recovery from the copy. The original gets touched as little as possible.
5. We recover onto a different drive. Recovered files never go back onto the drive they came from.
6. You check the results. A file that has the right name but won't open isn't recovered. We go through the list with you, starting with the folders you named in step one.
7. We fix the reason it happened. That means a replacement drive if one failed, and a backup that runs without anyone remembering to start it.

Passwords matter here. Many Windows laptops encrypt the drive automatically, and the recovery key is usually stored in the owner's Microsoft account. Macs with FileVault need the login password. Have those ready, because without them nobody can read an encrypted drive.

When it needs a specialist lab

Some cases can't be done properly on a repair bench, ours or anyone else's. Opening a hard drive safely takes a dust-free environment and donor parts, and that's lab work. We'd rather say so on day one than take a swing at it and make the lab's job harder.

These usually go to a lab:

• A hard drive that clicks, grinds, beeps or doesn't spin.
• A drive that was dropped, or was in a fire or a flood.
• A solid-state drive or flash drive that died without warning and isn't detected at all.
• A newer Mac that won't power on, since its storage is built onto the main board.

Lab recovery costs real money, and it's not always worth it. We'll tell you what we found, what we think the odds look like in plain terms, and help you decide. If you go ahead, we'll refer you to a specialist, and we can get the recovered files settled onto a new machine afterward. If the files turn out to be replaceable, we'll say that too.

Repair or replace

Recovery is about the files. What happens to the hardware is a separate decision.

The drive: replace it. A drive that failed once, or needed help to give its data back, doesn't go back into service. That includes the external drive that "works again" after a rest.

The computer: often worth keeping. If the drive was the only fault, a new drive and a fresh system with your files put back make a perfectly good machine. If the main board failed, or the computer is too old for current security updates, the smarter move is usually to pull the files and set up a new one. Our home office setup page covers the move.

The backup: this is the part that keeps it from happening twice. For a household, that's an automatic backup to an external drive plus a copy somewhere else. For an office, see our cybersecurity and backup page. If the files went missing after a scam call or an infection, deal with that before you restore anything, starting with our virus and scam removal page.

Heat belongs in this conversation too. Drives left in a garage, a parked car or a house closed up for the summer have a harder life here than they would somewhere mild. The desert computer guide on pdgeeks.com goes into that, and our seasonal home tech page covers what to do before you leave for the season.