Be Careful When Doing a Recovery - or Else!

I happen to be doing 2 data recoveries right now that were either created or complicated by users inadvertently running the vendor recovery program either to the wrong drive, or in the wrong way. In both cases the recovery process is greatly complicated by that mistake.

I am surprised how many users make arbitrary judgments on how things work without having a clue. It's no sin to be inexperienced or ignorant. Not everyone can be an expert at everything. It is a problem to pretend you are an expert just because you think you know how things "ought" to work.

Like a lot of things in life, most bad things that could happen don't; and the bad stuff that does happen is often of our own making. Technology is no different.

One of the real secrets of success with technology is to learn what not to do. Things that ruin disks and permanently overwrite data falls in that category. Downloading software that you are not completely sure who it's from and what it does, is another one. I have a great personal example of that.

When I was new to computers there was a utility available for downloads at the BBS's of the time, called diskwipe. It cleaned hard drives. Having just paid a couple of grand for a new 10MB external harddrive, I wanted it to be clean, so I downloaded and ran it. Yep, all data was permanently erased and it took me a week to get stuff back. That was in the early '80's. I've learned a little since then:

If in doubt, don't! If you think you know, but you're not sure, don't!