Q: How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None, that’s a hardware problem.
What data recovery is and what computer shops are for.
I am constantly answering the question, “Why shouldn’t I let a computer shop recover data from my hard drive?” There are endless explanations for this quandary. Since computer repair shops are around almost every corner, we are constantly bombarded with advertisements! How is the average computer user supposed to know which situation—computer repair or data recovery—will work best for them?
A quick analogy is that data recovery specialists are the “heart surgeons” of the digital world. They have ability and training specific for getting into the hard drive and even replacing bad parts in order to get the drive running long enough to extract data from it. Data recovery, much like heart surgeons specialize in one field only. Whereas, computer repair shops would be like a walk-in clinic. Anyone can walk in at any time for any number of ailments, be treated, and sent on their merry way, regardless of the seriousness of their condition.
Computer repair shops are best utilized when issues related to software, upgrades, or replacing parts such as sound cards, cooling fans, and controllers are concerned. Data recovery should be employed when there is any type of data loss going on. There are several reasons for data loss and some recoveries can be quite simple, where others are very complex and any “experimenting” with the drive could ultimately lead to infinite data loss.
I have seen many clients who took their hard drive to a computer shop when experiencing data loss. The computer shop did not have the correct tools or experience to know exactly what was wrong with the drive, but they talked the client into letting them “try” a few things. The results were not good. Not only did the computer repair shop fail in retrieving any files off of the drive, but they destroyed parts of the drive so badly that even we were not able gain access to the drive. As you can see, computer repair shops are a great answer to your questions about hardware, software, and upgrade issues, but please leave it to the experts in the data recovery field for anything related to data loss.
As a case in point, we highly recommend not allowing a friend’s advice or a computer shop’s inexperience in the field of recovering a crashed hard drive get in the way of saving a little money.
