A failing hard drive can break your heart - how else can you get back all those files that you have been using for work or for school? Or perhaps maybe all those photos that you have saved for the past few years? Fret no more.

There is a way for data recovery on a hard drive, especially if your HD can still be detected by the BIOS.

How to determine if your Hard Drive can still be detected by the BIOS

If your HD can be seen by your BIOS, you have a higher chance of recovering your files. Upon booting your computer or laptop, as long as it can boot up and go into the BIOS, go into the setup menu. Take a look at the HDD connected to your computer.

If you can still see that there is a hard drive that's being listed there, then don't panic too much. This is probably just a logical damage to your system that deters it from being read by the OS.

Put in another drive and copy all files from the 'failed' hard drive (HD) to the new one. You need to copy these because it will be wiped out. Then install a fresh copy of OS on the other Hard Drive.

What if it cannot be detected by the BIOS?

Do you hear some noise when you use your laptop or computer? Most probably, your hard drive is physically damaged. The spindle might have gone off, maybe because of heat or from being used for a long time.

Although other people say that data recovery for a hard drive with physical damages can be fixed by the 'freezer' trick, experts do not recommend this as moist can further damage the Hard Drive, making it harder to be recovered.

How can a physically damaged drive be recovered?

Some people can try recovering their HDs by finding a 'donor' drive which can be used to get some parts to be put on the broken HD. They can swap the printed circuit board, or the HD heads and platters.

This technique is done by experts since it is quite technical. Often times, data recovery on a hard drive with physical damages are not 100% successful most of the time.

So learn to back-up your files (DVDs or external HDs) so as not to compromise losing all your important things. Always make sure you have an up to date disc hard drive by understanding the different hard drive reviews and getting what you need for your computer.