Seek error rate is a hard drive performance metric reported through Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) tools.  Hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices use SMART to monitor for issues that may indicate an impending failure. For hard...

Recently, MaxDigitalData began selling a 14 terabyte (TB) hard drive on Amazon and other online platforms for about $120 USD. That’s an incredible deal — but as is often the case with budget storage media, there’s a catch.  As TechRadar...

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is data recovery software for the macOS and Windows operating systems. It features an intuitive user interface and a “free” edition that claims to restore up to 2 gigabytes (GB) of data.  Like most popular data...

Disk Drill is a (mostly) free data recovery utility for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The software claims to be able to recover files from “virtually any storage device,” including internal hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs),...

Conventional wisdom holds that a hard drive lasts for about 3-5 years — and most manufacturer warranties tend to support that assumption.  But it’s important to remember that despite precise engineering, hard drives are profoundly sensitive devices. Recently, we’ve seen...

The Windows Management Instrumentation Command-Line Utility (WMIC) is a simple tool that allows users to manage their Windows operating system.It runs through the Command Prompt and can access information from Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART), a monitoring system...

Hard drive crashes remain a leading cause of data loss, and while solid-state drives (SSDs) offer better performance and (arguably) better reliability, they’re still a single point of failure.  If an HDD or SSD fails, you lose data — unless...

In March 2022, we posted a detailed breakdown of a 2-terabyte (TB) flash drive available on Amazon for about $40. The drive was a scam, as its actual storage capacity was much lower. While large-capacity flash drives exist, they’re...

At Datarecovery.com, we’ve restored files for thousands of businesses, non-profits, and personal computer users — and at the end of every case, we usually get the same question: “How can I make sure that this never happens again?” The simple...

If you’re buying a new data storage device, you’ll need to do some research. This is particularly true if you’re buying a solid-state drive (SSD). While SSDs provide better performance than hard risk drives (HDDs), different models have different features...