"Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. " ~C.P. Snow

It's an accepted fact that hard drives are the weakest link in computer technology. The hard disk is where the operating system and all software applications are stored. Because of this, a properly working drive is essential in the operation of any computer.

But since these drives are basically just an electro-mechanical devices, and like any other machine they will eventually breakdown and fail.

And then oops, without backups, all your family photos, legal documents and important emails are gone!

There are three levels of data or file recovery for a dying or broken hard drive:

1) Basic Level: The drive is working (your can hear it spin up but it will not boot to Windows)

This usually means that some essential Windows files have been comprised or damaged in some way. With the right software you can view your files and even copy them. You have to choices...

Use a Rescue CD: You can grab a bootable CD with hard drive utility software already installed on it. You can then make repairs or copy your files from your bad drive to a replacement. A good name brand rescue CD for Windows is the "Ultimate Boot CD"

Move the Drive: If you don't have a way of burning a rescue CD and don't want to wait for a copy to shipped to you; you can always move your bad drive and place it in another working desktop PC. Once installed you should be able to view all your files on the drive from a secondary slot (normally where the CD or DVD drive live.)

2) Intermediate Level: The drive works but you can't see the files you want using the methods above.

Okay, things are not going good. You at this point have to get out the big guns. You will have to download and run a data recovery program such as "Active UNDELTE", "Recover My Files", etc. Both of these programs are powerful, reliable, and easy to use and won't cost you an arm or a leg to buy.

With Active UNDELETE you can also make a bootable CD to run on a PC if you can't move the drive to another computer. Both have technical support options if you need further help.

3) Advanced Level: You have tried everything above but you still can't find that Last Will from Aunt Sue...

At this point you have probably spent several hours (if not days) without your PC and invested just over a $100 in software if you used all of the above products. Now, is the time for you to decide to either use a professional level recovery application or throw in the towel and take your drive to a recovery specialist.

If you have the time but not a lot of cash (understand that hard drive recovery services can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars) then you can ratchet it up a notch and buy a copy of the home version of EasyRecovery from Ontrack. Ontrack is one of the leading data recovery companies in the world.

But if time is more critical and money is no obstacle then bite the bullet and take your drive to a local computer shop that does recovery work. Or if that is not possible then contact a big service like Ontrack and ship your hard drive to them.

Data recovery can be expensive no matter who does it, so to be on the safe side and make file backups frequently and fully.

Sick of computer headaches? Tired of wasting money on that "computer repair guy"? To learn more fast and free fixes for your problem PC, visit http://www.fixcomputerproblemsguide.com

Hard Drive Crashed? - Repair or Rescue Any Hard Drive. From Chancer Reese, your Small Office Tech Diva.

The latest gadget on everyone's most wanted list is the iPad. They are cool and less bulky than a laptop but more simple to use than a netbook, plus they have the ability to use all the applications in the iTunes store. They can be used for work or play and could be used as a phone too.

Apple computers are notorious for being the most secure as they do not suffer from virus attacks as machines using a Window's operating system can do. Apple machines are often chosen by security conscious computer users who believe they will be safe from many internet viruses.

However a group of iPad owners have been the victim of an internet security scam which resulted in 114,000 email addresses on the AT&T mobile network being revealed without their permission. Two American citizens have been charged with "conspiracy to access a computer without authorisation and general fraud" by exploiting a security loophole which resulted in the leak.

The email addresses and SIM card numbers for a range of celebrities and government workers were leaked in June last year to the press by a group of hackers who go by the name of Goatse Security. They run a website which reveals internet security threats.

Goatse Security insists the leak was not meant to cause harm to email owners but to highlight the security flaws in AT&T's security system. Apparently they were hoping to prevent future security breaches which could have led to something more serious.

It has been claimed the two men, Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler, who were responsible for the leak did so in order to damage the reputation of AT&T.

This leak of email addresses is not an isolated incident and on the Goatse Security website it mentions the leak of a 2.8GB file containing personal data of 100 million Facebook users. The data was collected by hacker Ron Bowes from Skull Security who built a web crawler which collected the data found on Facebook's open access directory.

The Facebook open access directory contains data from anyone who has not updated their privacy settings to make their page invisible to search engines. The file created by Bowes contains account names and profile URLs. The profile URLs can then be accessed to harvest such information as addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers. The other dangerous thing the list does is if you visit a Facebook users profile by clicking the URL from the file you can click through to their friends profiles even if they have made their profile non-searchable.

The difference in the two leaks between that of iPad owners and Facebook users is that Bowes has not broken the law as the Facebook information is publicly available. If you are a Facebook user you should be very careful as to what information you post online. For example if you have your address on your profile and then you tell all your friends you are going on holiday someone might just pay your home a visit whilst you are away and clear you out!

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