If you have never faced the loss of data, you still need to take precautions that your server, hard disk or RAID stay in good health. Also, you need to have some sort of plan in mind to help you in case there is any problem. Data losses, if and when they happen, take time to amend and may be expensive The primary symptoms of data losses are:

Error messages telling you that the device is not recognized
Previously accessible data is suddenly nowhere to be seen.
Scraping or rattling sound in the drives especially hard disks.
Hard drive may not spin and may be still.
Computer or hard drive does not function at all, like no booting is possible.

Mostly data loss is due to drive failure. Most hard drives rotate at very high frequency and that causes physical wear and tear. Sometimes the corrupted Master Boot record may be the culprit also.

Data recovery is in fact the science of putting the file system back together so that data files can be accessed again. Every operating system has a file system, which nothing but a unique method of indexing and keeping track of the files.In case of lost data, file systems can be very complex, and thats why it can be so difficult to locate missing files.

The best data recovery companies have developed proprietary tools to work with all of the main file systems in use today. Recovery engineers are internally trained to work on data recovery, working with computer hardware for a number of years and learning the low-level specifics of every type of file system.

Data recovery can either be worked out with help of software and some simple steps. This is usually the case when the drives are not physically damaged. In case they are damaged, you need to send the drives to the specialists who will take care of the data and work it out for you.

To recover hard drive data, lost due to physical damage, you need to decide the optimality as the costs of data recovered need to be balanced with the cost of data involved. In case, the data lost is not critical, just take a lesson from this failure. Replace the faulty drives and start backing up. There should be adequate drives and a schedule so that regularly you create copies of your data.

Data recovery is possible using softwares also. In case you detect any data loss, try to first locate some data recovery softwares from your technically inclined friends. They may have some disk recovery softwares that may actually be used to get your data back. Log on to the site, http://www.recoverdatafiles.com and see what data recovery softwares are ranked best and suit you. These softwares usually will not be free but they may access the data and recover it for you. Some other data recovery techniques are listed below:

Loss of Database files: In case of MICROSFT EXCHANGE and SQL data failure, you should never used for direct operations. Keep a copy of the database files and then start the work on the copies not on main files.

The health of drive: If you have by any means determined that drive is healthy, you still might recover that data all by yourself. Try using the recovery softwares or using the drives as slaves etc.

Locate logical corruption: This can be easily found by booting from the floppy or using the F disk and then viewing the partitioning information.

Server Crash: In case you had been working on server and it has crashed, never try data recovery on the same server.

RAID Drive Crash: Replace the RAID data drive that failed, never ever reuse it.

RAID Drives: Label the multiple drives in RAID array.

Utilities: Do not try to run Volume Defragmenters and Volume Repair Utilities on the suspect drives.

Other utilities: Also avoid the use of Volume Repair utilities if there has been power outrage and or your file system looks corrupted. This must be done only by people who are extremely confidant and are technically wise.

Keep information: Always keep the following information at hand:

• Size of the drive

• Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP etc.)

• Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped working)

• Is the drive recognized by the computer or not

Boot Drive malfunction: In case the drive that has crashed also had the OS, things are tricky. In this case try to get the Recovery Software with boot functions that ways the computer will boot from the software and then you will be able to see your data files and copy it to safe drives.

Avoid physical cleaning of drives: Never attempt shaking, cleaning the data drive on your own. This may cause more physical harm.

Do not remove drive covers: Hard drive cover are best left to specialists. Never try taking them off yourself. This requires special equipment and is nest left to technicians in labs.