Hard Drive Data Recovery - What Drives Up The Costs?

If we still haven't done so, all of us will have to deal with a hard drive failure sooner or later. Most of us have had experience on hard drive recovery as well. A failing hard drive is one of the worst nightmares a computer user can ever experience. Added to that are the costs to recover your data. The cost can sum up to somewhere between hundreds and thousands of dollars, depending on the level of damage done. That much, just to repair a single hard drive. There is however, a good reason why the process is so expensive. It is not simply because we pay a huge hourly rate to computer technicians. The reason is because the process of restoring of data on a failed hard drive can be pretty tough.The first factor is the kind of damage done to the drive. If the data has simply been corrupted due to a virus or other software problem, the hard drive data recovery process is much simpler. Since the hard drive is mechanically sound, it is very easy to get it up and running again. The major problem with this type of failure is that operating systems lack the ability to read corrupt data. But a professional can break the data down into its binary form and then reconstruct it back into a useable format that the OS can read. This process is a lot simpler and cheaper to fix than a mechanical failure.A hard drive is the only moving part in a computer with the exception of fans. When one of those moving parts fails, and they are prone to do so because they are very delicate, replacing them is a difficult prospect. First, not just any part will do. The data recovery team does not simply have a box of replacement heads lying around for every hard drive ever made. The pieces must come from a hard drive so similar that it may have been made at the same time and in the same factory as the damaged one. Finding and buying that specific hard drive can be costly. Then repairing the old drive and getting it running also costs a lot.The most expensive part about recovering data from a damaged hard drive is getting it running again. Rebuilding all corrupted data can be cheaper and simpler. However, if your drive has been severely damaged, expect to pay a larger bill. Cases like this call for a rebuilding of the drive size, the number of files to be recovered as well as the date to be rebuilt.Obviously, the cheapest thing you can do is to prevent all these problems from occurring in the first place. While even the hardiest drive will eventually fail after prolonged use, you can backup often enough that you will only have to worry about replacing the drive, not the data.If your personal files and documents  are vital to you, don't take chances when it comes to hard drive failures! It may cost a little for an online storage service, but in contrast to the expense of  hard drive data recovery, you will be saving quite a bit.