Step one in any data-
recovery scenario is to
determine whether your
lost data is the result
of physical damage or hardware
failure. To do this, check the drive’s
SMART status using its drive
utility, such as Samsung Magician.
Although it will have been optimized
for Samsung drives, it can provide
you with access to SMART data
across all connected drives.
If it shows signs of having failed,
or the drive is making strange
clicking or other physical noises,
stop using the drive immediately
and consult the box on calling in
expert help. It’s expensive, but if
your data is more valuable, it may
be the only option you’ve got.
While data loss can be an
expensive business, in the vast
majority of cases, it has nothing
to do with hardware, so before
proceeding further, stop using your
computer. If you’ve accidentally
deleted a file in the last few
minutes, then the chances of
recovery may still be high. It may
still be in the Recycle Bin, but even
if you emptied the bin or bypassed it
by holding down Shift and pressing
Delete, the file itself hasn’t yet been
physically deleted.To save time, Windows doesn’t
physically delete files when you
think it does; instead, it overwrites
the beginning of the file, its header,
to indicate the space where the
file resides is now available to be
overwritten with other data.
However, until another file
is written to that space, the file
remains intact. It’s why you’ll find
tools for securely wiping your SSD
drive before disposing of it within
most drive utilities—click ‘Secure
Erase’ under ‘Data Management’in Samsung Magician, for example.
You can also selectively delete files
and wipe the space occupied by
previously deleted files using tools,
such as Eraser (https://eraser.
heidi.ie/).THE POWER OF BACKUPS
Before investigating data recovery,
ask yourself whether the file is
backed up somewhere. Armed with
the right backup regimen, data loss
becomes a minor irritant rather
than a complete disaster. At worst,Unless you
securely wipe a
file, it can often
be reconstructed.Search your
cloud storage
recycle bin for
deleted files.data recovery
40 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022
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