Data loss doesn’t “just happen”. Your computer will not just stop working or your drive will not become inaccessible “out of nowhere”. There are warning signs that something is going wrong that can cause permanent data loss. Knowing these signs and acting quickly can ensure that data loss is just temporary.
If there is something wrong with your hard drive or the software installed on your computer, you could end up suffering from data loss. Luckily, there are warning signs in the form of error messages. There are also several programs that you can install to ensure that you can help prevent permanent data loss.
1. If you are getting a message that your “drive is not formatted”
This usually means that the partition on your hard drive has either been damaged, corrupted, or deleted. These are usually caused by a virus, a power outage, or a hard reboot. However, it can also occur after updating or installing new software.
If your computer throws up this message, it will also probably throw up a message asking if you would like to “format now”, don’t do it. Formatting your drive now will delete all the files that are on the computer. Instead, try using a data recovery program on your computer.
2. If you get a message that says “missing operating system” or “operating system not found”
This usually means that your hard drive has failed, or the master boot record is damaged, or there is something wrong with the basic input/output system (BIOS), or that there is something wrong with the partition where the OS boot files are located.
This type of error can be frustrating as it means that you can no longer access your files and data on the computer. Hopefully you have regular backups so you can still access your files on another machine while your computer is being repaired.
3. If you are getting a message “drive or device not found”
This could mean that the hard drive is damaged or that its partition structure is damaged. It could also mean that there had been changes in the boot priority of the BIOS or that you have a virus.
While these errors can occur at any time and there’s no device that won’t eventually experience hard drive failure, installing and using these three programs in your computer can help prevent permanent data loss.
1. Virus scanning and protection
All three of these error messages can be triggered by damage done by viruses or malware. Better to prevent infections ahead of time.
2. Backup programs
Regularly backing up your device can ensure that you can still retrieve and access most of your important files – even if your computer is no longer functioning properly. Good programs to install would be DataNumen Backup, which creates backups of important files and allows you to quickly restore them or DataNumen Disk Image which clones disks and drives.
3. Disk repair
Disk repair programs can help your retrieve information from bad or damaged sectors of your drive so you don’t lose the information. You should have something like DataNumen Office Repair, which recovers files from all Office applications on hand in case of drive failure.
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