Working with big amounts of information? You know the desperate moment when you realize that you need some information that you deleted a long time ago. This is the topic of this post : How to do a deleted file recovery. 1st lets start with some general data recovery tips, valid for all type of data devices, PC’s, Mac’s, phones.
Have a data recovery program ready for use. When your hard drive goes bad and you lose valuable files and documents, it’s time to turn on your favorite data recovery software solution and recover everything back from the bad hard drive. We highly recommended Disk Drill for Windows and Mac OS X. The main advantages of Disk Drill are its ease of use, support for more than 200 file formats and all common storage devices, including iOS and Android smartphone and tablets.
If the computer with these files is working, but you’ve deleted something you need again, start by making sure that document or photo isn’t lurking somewhere. Seriously. We’ve done this before. Check the Recycle Bin/Trash, and do a system-wide search. For both Macs and PCs, you can open any folder and go into the Search field on the upper right. (This also applies to Cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, which make it difficult to truly delete a file.)
So, if your hard drive fails, you’ll need to take care to stop working on it immediately. Even if you’re not directly accessing the data on it, your computer is probably writing something to it thereby risking your shot at data recovery. Once the data is overwritten, there’s no any chance of getting it back. So shutdown the computer that is connected to the hard drive and unplug it.
There are two main causes of failure here, either a TVS diode (fuse) has shorted due to overvoltage, or a vital component on the PCB has failed. Hard drive PCBs often have two TVS diodes which act as fuses to protect your drive in the event of a power spike. There will most likely be two of these: one for the 5v and one for the 12v rail. If you accidentally plugged in the wrong power adapter to your external drive, or you experienced a power surge, a TVS diode might have sacrificed itself. If the shorted TVS diode is the only casualty and the rest of the PCB components are OK, then simply removing the shorted diode is enough to bring the drive back to life.
Before you bring out the heavy guns, make sure that it’s not a connectivity problem. First, swap USB cables and ports to rule them out. Still no dice? Now, check if it’s a problem with the external drive’s enclosure itself. Eject the external USB drive from your computer, and if it’s powered by an adapter, unplug it from the wall outlet. It’s highly recommended that you ground yourself with an anti-static wristband before attempting this to avoid injuring yourself or damaging your drive further. Next, crack its case open then check the physical cables that connect the hard drive to your USB output. Note: The connections can either be IDE (wider connectors) or SATA (small connectors). Check for any loose cables and make sure that they’re firmly connected.
If you have a storage device that you have not used for a while and you realize that you deleted information a long time ago, it is possible to recover it. There are different tools when recovering files, and one of them are data recovery software, programs specialized in the recovery of any type of file and that work under any operating system. See more info at Recycle bin data recovery.