Is It Possible To Recover Files When I Have No Backup Files?

If you wish to recover your data files when you don’t have a backup of them, it truly is difficult but possible. Nevertheless before we go into the details, you need to backup your computer today while it’s still working well.

Recovering with no backup records means you’re going to spend hours-or many hundreds of dollars-attempting to scratch every last bit of every last file off of your old disk drive. It will not be simple and you may end up with nothing to show for your effort, but if you lost an important file or files, you probably have to make the effort.

Here are three techniques I use to generate a backup file even after I’ve lost my files:

Will take what we can get

Many disks that stop working only fail partially (at least at first-they all break down completely eventually). Using a special tool, you are able to recover all the information on the still-operating parts of this drive.

This handy little tool is called ddrescue and it is not a fancy graphical program as you can only use it from the Windows commandline. There is no button to press that says recover.

Even though this tool does not look attractive whatsoever, this can be very powerful. Ddrescue will check your disk drive and grab as much data as it possibly can and as fast as it can, skipping the problems on the drive. It’s going to make a backup files of anything that it finds and after that it’s going to go back and try harder to get the files from your broken parts. Sometimes you get lucky and get all your files back.

Freeze your hard disk drive

Most hard disc drives pack up because the ball bearings wear down so much that the hard disk can’t spin around like usual. You possibly can temporarily fix some of these metal ball bearings by shrinking them.

You can easily shrink most metals: just make them colder-a lot colder. Double-wrap your disk drive in Zip-lock bags (to keep out moisture) and then put it in your freezer overnight. The next morning, quickly plug the drive into your computer and run ddrescue again-it will start again by only looking at the areas of your drive that it could not access before. Hopefully your cooled disk drive will give you access to those backup files now. If not, there’s only one more thing you possibly can do.

Get a Pro, Its safer

Why not let the professionals recover the data for you as it is probably a lot safer than putting your hard drive in a freezer. The expert’s have the right environment and also specialised tools available to them to recover any files that you might have lost.

I have to warn you though, this service is not cheap and can cost you anywhere from $400 and upwards to $2000 and more.

The good news is that most of those services which provide backup files offer free evaluations-you just need to mail them your disk drive. (Just make sure that they are a reputable business, or they might not mail back your drive if you don’t buy from them.)

Conclusion

I do know this seems like a lot of hassle and stress to go through. There isn’t a doubt that this can be avoided by making proper backups of your files. We all know that computer geeks often talk about this but ordinary people ignore them.

Kel loves writing about computers and has been for a lot more than 25 years and can’t stop sharing tips about recovering files as well as backup storage space choices to save you from future file loss!