An example:
A stuck armature is a common problem.
Here is the trick I use in that situation.
-cough-
Remove the HDD and seal it securely in a freezer bag. I have a small vacuum pump. But most folks can employ less mechanical measures.
Freeze the HDD overnight. In the morning, remove the HDD and lay it on its side on a flat bench or table. Lift the back or bottom corner up to where the HDD is on its edge and on one corner.
Release, letting it smack down flat on the table.
Now, I think most readers would squirm at that- It works. Freezing causes the components to shrink, pulling away from each other. The smack is the jarring force that gets moveable components to come unstuck and get moving again. On its edge prevents the armature tip from hitting the disk. This one technique is an example that has helped me to get at lost data many times.
This is only an example, though in typing it, it may just save someones day in the future. But the example demonstrates that Recovery can be a bit Scary, seem risky and along with no guarantee of success - Something you want Someone Else To Do. It also is something you want to do last on the list.
You are spot on- Saving Back ups to another drive, be it solid, spinning or cloud, really is the first solution to data recovery. Preventative maintenance may make a machine last longer and preventative maintenance may make data last longer. Once a person has reached that point of Recovery from a broken machine, it is often too late and that is how (for me too) the lesson gets learned.
In spite of “free” Disk Digger is really quite good, though. It will recover partially corrupted images, as well and I have used it For the purpose of extracting data from corrupted images that I needed, even if the rest of the image is a loss. Without posting an example, it is hard to explain what I mean by that… But imagine a scenario where your long lost grandmother is in a photo of a field of trees. That digital copy is all you have and it is now corrupted. But If an extraction yields a portion of the photo that shows her face, you may be content to keep that new copy, forgoing the scenery.
