Don’t: Try to recover data yourself or bring it to a computer repair shop that uses software to recover your data! A qualified data recovery company uses very sophisticated and expensive hardware to recover your data. Be sure to ask if this is a hardware based recovery.

Do: Manually Shut-Down the Computer Immediately

If you have lost important data, due to a system crash, physical damage to the computer, or other hardware failure, the first step to a successful data recovery is to shut down the system. If it is severely damaged, or you think it has crashed (or is crashing), turn off the computer at the main switch without going through normal shut-down procedures. Then, unplug the system and bring it to us as soon as possible. Do not try to recover data yourself. This can cause further loss of data.

If you hear unusual noise coming from your computer, don’t try to analyze it, call us.

If you have accidentally deleted an important file or think a virus is to blame, call us. The same is true if you see error messages such as “Volume Corrupt” or “Operating System Not Found”. If you do receive a strange error message — try to write down what the messages says.

If you are not a professional computer data recovery specialist, trying to recover your data by yourself is the most likely way that you will damage or lose it completely. We’ll take a look at your machine and if we do not think the data can be recovered, there is no charge. We have the knowledge and the professional equipment to recover data when hardware, software, or operator error has caused the loss of important information, data, or documents. If it can be recovered, and most of the time it can, you can trust that PC1 Data Recovery will get it back for you.