So you have just found out that you have lost data or that your data is in jepordy of being lost.  You get that cold chill coming over you as you realize that it could be gone forever.  Before you completely go off the deep end and declare that all is lost consider a few options.

How valuable is the data really?  As an example, if it's music that may be more of an inconvenience than an actual issue.  Whereas financial information can be much more serious and the need to recover it more important.  Consider doing a mental inventory of which data you really need to recover, otherwise you may drive yourself crazy trying to do a complete restoration.

Take a little time and think of who else might have the data you need or if you have saved it on a USB drive, CD or other media that can be easily accessed.  If that isn't an option then spend time online searching for data recovery software or reputable companies local to you that specialize in data recovery.  Be careful with this as many companies will claim the ability to recover high percentages of data and that often just isn't possible. 

Think long and hard about mailing your hard drive out of the area and specifically out of country to have this done, often the results are not what you hope for and at times you may not get your drive back.  Less expensive isn't always better when it comes to recovering lost data.

The simple solution is prevention, backup whenever possible and learn to do this on a regular basis.  Many people use USB drives to store data, because these are fragile store the data on your hard drive and use the thumb drive as a back up device.

Accidents happen, you drop your laptop, step on your USB thumb drive or sit on a CD with vital information.  This, or anything close to it can happen.  Prevention is your best option, making regular backups either on additional CDs or through an online backup service needs to be done.  However, it you are reading this there maybe a great chance that advice is too little, too late.

First, check a few basic things such as your recycle bin to make sure that you just didn't mistakenly delete data.  Next, check to see if the data is stored elsewhere, such as with others or other media.  If your hard drive or external device is busted the first won't do you much good, but the latter may provide some quick data recovery.

If a CD is scratch, the male piece broken off from a USB drive or a hard drive DOA there is still a chance you can recover the data.  For the CD try doing a simple cleansing, even a game or video store can clean it and make it so its usable and readable again.  For about $40 you can send your US thumb drive out and have the device fixed or the data extracted.  The hard drive may be a little more difficult, but you can first do some research for online software recovery tools that will help you extract lost data.  If that doesn't work you can find technical specialist that focus on recovering lost data, if the data is highly critical you may even consider a computer forensics specialist.

Before you panic, consider all your options.  Many times much, if not all the data can be recovered.