My computer won't start up, can I get my data back? Finding yourself sitting in front of a dark screen brings to mind that old saying "my entire life flashed before my eyes" except in the case of emails, contact lists, address books, family photos, music collections, and homework projects, it's more like "my entire hard drive flashed before my eyes."

What are the symptoms? There are quite a few different kinds of computer failures that could require data recovery. Here are some of the typical problems our customers report:

• The power doesn't come on at all. There is no activity, no sounds, no lights. It's dead.
• I get an error message that says "drive cannot be found" or "no boot device" or "insert disk".
• The power seems like it's coming on, but the monitor screen stays dark.
• I hear beeping sounds but nothing else happens.
• My computer "hangs up" or "freezes" during startup.
• My computer seems like it's starting up but then restarts itself over and over.
• During startup I get the "blue screen of death".

The good news for customers is that more often than not, your data can be recovered. The bad news is, data recovery is usually more expensive (and far less convenient) than proper planning and prevention.

What can be done about it? There are two "best practices" that home computer users should employ to avoid losing important data:

• First, and most importantly is what we all already know... back up your data! With the availability of new backup technologies designed especially for the home PC user, there really is no good reason not to be backed up. In particular, home PC data backup has become much simpler and more reliable with the introduction of inexpensive and easy-to-use online backup services.
• Second, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to protect your computer from the ravages of "bad power" by using an Uninterruptable Power Supply or "UPS". A UPS is a device that plugs into your wall outlet and provides power filtering and backup power in the event of a surge, brownout, or blackout. Please note that a UPS is not the same thing as a surge protector or power strip. A UPS provides a much higher level of protection as well as battery backup in the event of power failure.

How can Geek Housecalls help? There are two ways your geek can help. First, and at the risk of repeating ourselves, is planning and prevention. We can come to your home and install a UPS to protect your system hardware and install a backup device or backup service to keep a copy of your data safe in the event of a system failure.

Second is recovery. Your geek has tools and extensive experience in recovering data from the hard drives of non-working computers. If you have a second computer at your home, and your hard drive is not physically damaged, your geek may be able to recover your data directly to your second computer. If your drive is damaged however, recovery can be a time-consuming process that takes days or even weeks to run. In this case, your geek will offer to take the hard drive to our lab where it can be set up to recover unattended for as much time as is needed without incurring huge labor costs.

In cases of severe damage, we may suggest a third-party data recovery service. In this case, data recovery is achieved via physical disassembly and rebuilding of the drive and is performed in a "clean room" environment. It is a highly specialized and labor intensive process that ranges in price from $600 to $2600 for a successful recovery. Of course your geek will always advise you of all options so you can make an informed decision about how to proceed.

And finally, there is the real possibility that your data will not be recoverable or that the cost of recovery will be prohibitive. This brings us back around to the subjects of planning and prevention. Our job is to relieve frustration by making your technology work effortlessly for you and of course, we prefer that every service call have a happy ending. However, we cannot ignore the possibility of failure in even the most robust and well-maintained system, and so we strongly advise you to protect your data. If you are not using a UPS to protect your hardware, and do not have a working backup of your data, you are at risk of losing everything. Act now before it's too late!