When your computer suffers a hard drive crash, you are usually able to recognize the problem based upon your computer’s inability to start up and load Windows. Most often you’ll be faced with what is known as the Windows blue screen of death, or basically a Windows error screen. Usually the message given states that one or several important operating system files used to access your computer’s hard drive and hence load Windows have been lost or corrupted. More specifically, the error message says the files are missing. That can mean just about anything. The only valid solution is to reload your Windows operating system, but before this general consensus holds that one must recover all of their files locked away on that inaccessible internal hard drive.
There are quality data recovery programs that will allow one to do this and if given the choice this is the best path to take. But should you not have access to those programs and wish to use a conventional data recovery program, you will need to reload your Windows operating system and then use a data recovery program to recover deleted files after formatting. Data recovery after formatting is not the best choice as the percentage of recoverable files tends to diminish after we reload Windows. Still, it is a workable option should you need to reload Windows and start your computer as soon as possible.