There are a number disk recovery software programs, data recovery professionals, and data recovery labs available. Prevention is the best medicine, but if a crash occurs, it is important to locate a trustworthy professional who can assess the damage and hopefully recover some or all of the missing data.

Data recovery specialists take a damaged hard drive into a clean room which is 100% free of dust and operate on the drive with the most precise tools. They are able to remove even the tiniest bits of data. But the price for this is not so tiny! However, in the case of very important or meaningful data, the price may be worth it.

The top data recovery companies have a software development staff to create their own recovery software for use in their labs. They constantly monitor technological advancements to keep up with the latest in research and development in hardware and file systems.