Data recovery Freeware could save your sick computer. There are few things that can make you feel the way it feels to loose information due to a crashed hard drive. In an instant, the fate of your documents and photos - months or even years of work - hangs in the balance as your PC refuses to boot up. It doesn't matter the make, model or age because the reality is that bad things sometimes happen to good machines.
If you never back up your data, recovery is not possible - which is a painful lesson. The first thing to do when your computer crashes is to rule out the obvious, starting with the power. Confirm the PC is plugged into an outlet that works. If you use a surge protector or battery backup, make sure the circuit hasn't been tripped. Make sure the power supply isn't switched off on the back of your case. Finally, check the power supply itself - if there's no sign of life, you probably need a replacement. Enter freeware.
Assuming your computer has power, pay attention to any beeps when you first turn it on. A happy computer emits a single short beep, signaling all is well. Anything else means something's not right. It could be something as minor as a dead CMOS battery, or it could be much worse. Unless you're familiar with troubleshooting motherboards and BIOS settings, it's time to seek your friendly data recovery professional, such as someone from Freeware.
"Also pay attention to messages on your screen during the boot-up process: The solution might be before your eyes. If you see the message that your boot disk is invalid, double-check to make sure you don't have something in your floppy disk or CD/DVD drive that could be interfering. Write down any messages you see so you can pass them on if you seek phone or e-mail support. This is the only way Freeware may have the opportunity to enforce data recovery.
A key to do-it-yourself data recovery is to act as quickly as possible. Physically damaged hard drives tend to rapidly degrade, so it's important to work fast.
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Again, if you're not sure what to do, take it to a professional. But if you'd rather tackle it yourself, the first rule is to be prepared. There is a virtual tool chest of Freeware rescue utilities, assembled in something called the Ultimate Boot CD. Designed to run diagnostics and repairs on seriously damaged computers, UBCD runs on any Intel-compatible computer, regardless of operating system.
As long as your computer is healthy enough to boot from CD, you'll be treated to a menu with these choices: Mainboard Tools, Hard Disk Tools, File System Tools, Other Tools, User-Defined Tools, and DOS/Linux Boot Disks. Each category gives way to dozens of specialized data recovery freeware software utilities, with the ability to add your own if you find it lacking in a particular area.
Utilities for repairing, reading, cloning and recovering data from at-risk hard drives make up the majority of the remaining tools. These programs are all very small, and you can fit so many on a CD, there's room for redundancy. In a crisis, there's no such thing as being over-equipped. There's also a Windows version at www.ubcd4win.com, although you can do a lot more with the DOS version. They're both free, so why not have a copy of each? When your computer's down, it's nice to know you're not out of options, as long as you're prepared with data recovery freeware.
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