Data recovery is a process whereby you can save data and files you accidentally deleted, had eaten by malicious software or viruses, hardware failures, corporate espionage and many more scenarios. Most people believe that when the hard drive crashes their world ends also, but that's not usually the case. In fact 85% of the time the data is recoverable, and at far less trouble and expense than you might fear at first.

It's a wonder something that spins at thousands of times a minute doesn't crash more often than they do, what with all the abuse we heap upon them. When's the last time you did a dust patrol near your drive ports? Hard drives aren't the only data that can be saved too. Zip drives, floppies, DVD's, CD-ROM's and more can be rescued. And sometimes the worst of disasters will yield up results. Technicians regularly extract data from computers that are burned to a crisp. Admittedly this is trickier and more expensive, but it can be done. On woman had her Apple Powerbook sink to the bottom of the Amazon, whereupon tiring of waiting for the salvage operation, she promptly donned her scuba gear, swam down to the sunken boat and retrieved her precious files. She then mailed the whole mess to DriveSavers and they managed to save most of her data, despite being submerged for three days!

Most recoveries aren't nearly as sexy, and can usually be resolved with a software solution, usually by the client his or herself. Off the rack data recovery software is quite good and relatively inexpensive, especially when you compared to the cost of dealing with replacing the lost files. Most data recovery issues stem from human error, roughly 25%. A software solution can run you anywhere from $75-$400, whereas if the problem is too difficult and you have to box it up and send it out, expect to pay between $500-$2000, with the average price of $1000.

The key to remember is that deleted data is usually not gone forever, just maddeningly misplaced. The good news is that recovery can be a mouse click away!