How to recover files if your hard drive is damaged

No one wants to deal with a physically damaged hard drive. The stress over trying to recover files can be daunting.
To recover files on the drive, remove the hard drive from the computer and connect it to an external hard drive docking station. These are small boxes that connect bare drives to USB ports on Windows PC or Mac machines. Some of them look like small toasters and start at around $20 on Amazon.
Most older hard drives look like spinning disks with platters inside to store the data. Newer computers might have solid state drives that have no moving parts. They can fail as well, but troubleshooting their recovery is the same.
If the external dock fails to yield results, it may be time to send the drive off to a recovery company to let the professionals work their magic. DriveSavers and OnTrack Data Recovery are two reliable companies that perform this service and will give you a cost estimate before they attempt any recovery. Don't be surprised if your estimate is more than $1,000.

Of course, now is the perfect time to remind you to take a few minutes and make a backup copy of your computer's important files. A backup of the entire drive is not too difficult to do, and it's relatively inexpensive. Backing up just the important stuff (photos, videos, any other documents) is even faster. Go buy a $40 flash drive, copy those files to it and then toss it in a drawer. Set a reminder in a month to do it again.