Consumer Warning: Don’t Format and Reinstall Windows Just Yet! June 21, 2012

A common mistake that people make is to assume their files are lost if their computer won’t start.

Even technicians who should know better will sometimes advise a customer to format their hard drive and then reinstall Windows – telling the customer that their hard drive is “corrupted” and their files are lost.

Many hard drive crashes are actually just a result of corrupted system files. It’s still possible to retrieve the file by removing the hard drive from the computer and placing it in an external hard drive dock like the one pictured below. [buy now] This allows the drive to be connected by USB to a working computer for the files to be extracted.