here's an interesting read on the process a data recovery service goes through to get back data off a hard drive even if it won't power on.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20050530/index.html

quite expensive for the whole process, but when worse comes to worst, and very valuable data needs to be recovered, at least there's an option we can turn to. they say it best: (but i'd rather not take second chances, and backup my files regularly. )

Its interesting to see how the whole process of data recovery actually works. I thought it was far simpler before reading that article. I'm also suprised that they can recover data from a RAID array. It is a very expensive process and sometimes doesn't work so I wouldn't rely on it!

very intresting. when recovoring they prob take and log down the programs/web pages veiwed the most?

I seriousely doubt they do something like that... Asside the fact that doing that, without persons consent is illegal, and invasion of privacy, I doubt they have time to do that... I like the way they clean their disks afterwards...

I saw this article on the Internet already. It's quite interesting. Although it's not always possible to have the data recovered, at least there's a chance for those who neglect to backup their important data. If only the world did it more often, it would save so much time, effort and money in the long run. Backing up data is so cheap these days. Some people never consider the fact that one day their HDD will fail; it's only a matter of time. Bad sectors are common as well for older computers, which leads to data loss and other problems. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you don't hit your computer while it's on, or expose it to any vibrations. Fans can also prolong the lifespan of any HDD with proper cooling, and an exhaust opening on the case. The faster the RPM, the hotter it gets. 5400 RPM HDDs run relatively cool, 7200 RPM typically need at least a small fan, while the high-end 10,000 and 15,000 RPG require really good cooling.

That's interesting. I didn't have time to read the entire article, though. I also didn't get to the cost, but it seems like it's VERY costly to get the data back. That's why I try to make backups at some sort of interval.

Note that there is also the new SpinRite 6.0 from Gibson Reasearch Corporation, if you wanna read more http://www.grc.com/default.htm.

Gibson corp. is a really good corporation, i dont know if it has any stocks or if it sprivately own, which i think it is, but they good really good sofware.

I dunno its just a thought.

There are programs that really recovered deleted files, or files in a damaged hard disk, but not really all files can be recovered. I read an article also from internet regarding data recovery, they recovered data from damaged hard disk, formatted hard disk, but that are really expensive, I don't know how they do that but I believe they used special device not only a program but also a device which can communicate to a damaged hard disk that the ordinary device like computer we commonly used can't do. If you just want to recovered ordinary files like documents, pictures, backup files in zip format or music you can used the program that can be downloaded from the internet. But if you want to recover hug files, thats the time you need to hire from those company who offered that kind of service. But that really interesting for me to see how they will recover files from dead hardisk, If the hard disk are broken is there any posibilities to recover the files? and that is the big question for me.