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My PC won't boot up and I've lost my files

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You settle down to work, switch on the PC and stare disbelieving at the sceen as you realise your PC isn't going to start up.. For most computer users this is a scenario which I can guarantee you will encounter. The fact is that, although PC's are infinitely more reliable than they were ten years ago, failures can and will happen.

"You should have had a backup" is, you realise, good advice but not helpful at this point if you don't have a backup, so what do you do? There are two things you should do, switch off the pc and call us. Don't try and fix the problem yourself unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Any attempt to re-install the operating system or applications will just over write data on your disc and reduce the chances of recovery. We will get the data off the disc first and then you are free to attempt recovery of the operating system without risk of further damage. If the disc is still spinning (you'll hear it spin up to speed when the machine is switched on) there is every chance that all your data will be recoverable. If we find that your disc is physically damaged we will advise on the next best course of action.

If you haven't yet experienced this problem, and aren't comfortable you have a useable backup, contact us on 01746 708114 or e-mail now for independent advice.

Anecdote

We had a call recently from someone whose pc wouldn't boot and, guided by the recovery mechanism in Windows XP, he opted to "repair" the operating system. This resulted in the XP installer reformating the drive and doing a fresh install of the operating system. Undeterred the victim re-installed Microsoft Office thinking that would make his files visible again. It didn't. At this point we got the call. We found the drive was physically sound so installed it in our recovery rig. Despite the fact the drive had been reformatted and parts of it over written we were able to transfer about 80% of the customers files onto a USB drive to hand back to him. (Had we been called first it would have been 100%.)