Hard drives fail, it happens. We explain how you can avoid data loss, but also how to restore lost data from a hard drive should the worst happen.

To change default hard drive from C: to D: in Windows 11/10, change the default save location for apps and files, move user ...

If you do manage to boot from Recovery, you’ll need another drive to recover files to. You should plan to get an external drive plugged in as soon as you can, so that you can secure your data there.

A recovery USB drive is a separate, portable flash drive that your computer can use instead of your main hard drive to start up from.

If your PC is operating perfectly right now, great! But getting ahead of any future PC fiascos with a recovery drive may save you from a major tech-induced headache later.

Here's what really happens when you delete a file and why it isn't always possible to recover deleted files from an SSD or HDD.