Smoke can damage a hard drive, but only in extreme circumstances.  Hard drives have pouch filters that prevent most contaminants from reaching the platters (discs coated in a thin layer of magnetic material, which store the user’s data).  Nearly all...

The infamous “blue screen of death” (or BSOD) occurs when the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) must shut down or restart unexpectedly.  Contrary to its name, a BSOD doesn’t mean the “death” of your computer (or your data). It simply...

Apple has acknowledged that certain SATA hard drives may be unexpectedly disconnected from the 2023 Mac Pro. The issue occurs when the system wakes from sleep, and requires users to restart their machines to reconnect the drive. The issue is...

Microsoft Outlook remains one of the most popular applications for managing emails — and as a result, PST and OST files are frequent targets for data recovery efforts. The process for Outlook data recovery will depend on the data loss...

Atomic Wallet, a self-custodial, decentralized cryptocurrency wallet, has confirmed the loss of millions of dollars in users’ assets.  Hundreds of users have reported losses on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms, and the company says that they’re investigating the...

A new study indicates that paying for ransomware isn’t a reliable option for disaster recovery. Veeam’s 2023 Data Protections Trends Report found that a shocking 85% of organizations had faced at least one cyberattack in the last year. Among ransomware...

When we treat water-damaged hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices, we often receive the devices in plastic bags filled with white rice — which tends to complicate the data recovery process. Of course, “put it in a bag...

If your computer stores data on a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drive, you may run into an unusual issue: Windows may recognize the drive as a removable device — rather than as an internal drive. This is caused by...

Modern hard drives use S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) metrics to forecast hardware failures.  In most cases, home computer users don’t need to worry about S.M.A.R.T data — but if your hard drive seems to be operating at slow...

At Datarecovery.com, we discourage the use of data recovery software. Software can exacerbate issues like hard drive head crashes, potentially causing permanent damage (and preventing a successful recovery, even if the drive is treated in a professional data recovery laboratory). ...