With the human dependency on smartphones and computers along with the growing internal storage of devices, storing data has become a convenient routine. Most of us who use smartphones take pictures, save data and important files without a thought to what would happen to that data if it gets stolen or breaks.
Of course, most smartphones have a data backup feature, one which people usually forget about or don’t use. For personal computers however, there isn’t usually an inbuilt backup device but a wide variety of applications and trustworthy programs are available to help with this issue.
Unexpected Data loss
Data loss is an unfortunate event, one which can mean losing years of family pictures, old documents, files and data can be lost in mere seconds. The major causes for data loss are:
- Virus/malware infection
- Corrupted files
- Defected/failing hardware
- Accidental deletion
- Theft
Prevention from Data Loss
When it comes to computer hardware or a failing hard drive in general, there are many signs before the hardware fails which the user may not realize or is unaware of such as clicking noises or other weird sounds, slowed down drive transfer speeds, and corrupted data.
A verified, free or subscribed antivirus software is essential for Windows PCs. A virus attack without any safety net (anti-virus) can do as much harm as a failed hard drive.
Smartphones are different, usually a modern day smartphone doesn’t just fail (Note 7 is an exception) and theft is a major cause of data loss is usually theft. With the convenience of built-in data backup services into the phone, data loss can be prevented fairly easily, although data needs to be backed up beforehand.
Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are two such programs which make it extremely simple for storing your important data on a cloud server, with convenience of use and very fast and usually available for both mobile phones and computers and cost a nominal fee.
Even though most back-up services offer a free trial with space limited to a few gigabytes, offer yearly subscriptions of 1Tb of storage for $100 in case of Dropbox.
Data recovery and File Recovery Software
File recovery software are a life saver for anyone who has had a recent file loss, accidental deletion and even corrupted hard drives can be reverted by these recovery programs. And are available for both mobile phones and computers.
In case of accidental deletion of data from a hard drive, file recovery software such as Recuva, Test Disk, and Undelete 360 can be used to recover crucial files and data from the hard drive. Where a corrupted hard drive is concerned, data recovery software such as EaseUS can be used (2GB of free data recovery for the trial version), which offers a premium version for around $80.
EaseUS is a very effective file recovery software which can be a life saver in case of data-related incidents.
Mobile file recovery software includes 7-data recovery, even though there is a lack of well-made recovery software which work with mobile phones, in certain cases, if a mobile phone is dead, data can be sent to professional companies which will recover the data for a fee.