By Paul Jones Staff Writer Wednesday, November 7, 2007 1:29 PM PST The wildfires that swept across California through October didn’t just destroy houses. They also destroyed memories, burning photo albums, incinerating heir-looms and books. But with so many of the writings and records that recall a person’s life now…

by Jonathan Sessions Posted Monday, October 8, 2007 Please back up your computer. I beg of you. It has come to begging. I am at the point of begging because I have had two incidents this week that have been extremely stressful for the users and their wallets. In both…

Just found out that you deleted the wrong spreadsheet? Forgot your Windows password? Don’t despair. You can take care of these and many other goofs with the following tips. Kirk Steers, PC World Tuesday, September 04, 2007 10:00 PM PDT It’s amazing how fast a single keystroke or mouse click…

Scott Gaidano knows that by the time people call DriveSavers, the Novato firm he co-founded to recover lost files, they’re so frantic and furious that he keeps a data-crisis counselor on staff to help calm them down. “People tend to trust their computers for some reason, and when the disk drives…

If you’ve accidentally deleted photos from your memory card, chances are all is not lost. We put three leading image rescue programs to the test. By Zach Honig July 2007 Have you ever been at a party and had someone pick up your camera and unintentionally delete your priceless party…

June 29, 2007 By Michael Goldstein No, I’m not pumping a scare book about the collapse of Western Civilization. Rather, I’m warning about a much more likely event—the crash of your computer’s hard drive. A hard drive (also called a hard disk, hard disk drive, or HDD) is the rotating disk-based…

Can’t get your PC to boot? Or just sent your boss a really embarrassing e-mail? Here’s how to recover from these and ten other potential catastrophes. Christopher Null Thursday, May 24, 2007 1:00 AM PDT Problem: Your trusty hard drive has crashed. Likely Cause: Whether it was dropped, became overheated,…

Technicians Make House Calls to Fix Stubborn Equipment By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 1, 2005; NOVATO, Calif. — The young woman at the other end of the phone wept to Kelly Chessen that the world was against her. She had been in a minor car…

Losing a hard drive is like losing a part of yourself. When it happens, reasonable people can become blubbering fools. That’s why DriveSavers, a 19-year old data recovery company, hired Kelly Chessen. She used to work at a Northern California suicide-prevention hotline. Now she’s DriveSavers’ official data crisis counselor, comforting…

Originally published by The New York Times. July 14, 2005 NOVATO, Calif. – He knew it was important, but backing up his hard drive was the last thing on Ryan Risdal’s mind. Mr. Risdal, 35, was too busy rearing four children and caring for his ill wife. One day after…