MomTalk.com August 30, 2008: The women's magazine for moms about children, family, health, home, fashion, careers, marriage & more

How to Get Your Data Back

By Elizabeth Wasserman

These days, there's no reason to cry over lost computer data.

In fact, experts say that if you react quickly and make the right moves, you may be able to minimize damage to your computer and recover missing data such as your family vital records, precious family digital photos or other valuable bits and bytes.

Whether you accidentally delete files or your computer gets damaged during a natural disaster like flood or fire, there are a variety of methods you can try at home -- or by hiring a pro -- to try and save your digital assets.

"My first advice is don't panic," says Todd Johnson, vice president of Ontrack Data Recovery, a data recovery company. "There is a great chance you'll be able to recover that data if you take the proper steps."

Step No. 1: Diagnose the problem

First you need to understand where data is stored on your computer and what could possibly go wrong. When you save a file -- whether it's a Word document or a digital picture or an MP3 music file -- the information is stored on your disk drive, which on most computers is known as your hard drive. The disk drive is embedded inside your desktop or laptop computer. It looks like a bunch of platters or plates stacked on top of each other. Their job is to read and record the data you create and store on your computer.
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