We have the experience and resources to help save everything from music, videos, photos, school papers and more. In today’s world, your digital life is connected to your daily life. Whether it’s a hardware failure, viruses, fire, flood or physical damage, rest easy-we can help!

Computer, laptop, thumb drive, memory stick- you name it, we do it. And if your data is beyond the help of one of our technicians, Maumee Geeks has partnered with DriveSavers.  We work with this company on major projects because they have an ISO 5 (Class 100) Certification for their clean room, where they can safely perform ‘hard drive surgery’, replacing faulty components to recover your data.  Through Maumee Geeks, we can offer you a significant discount on DriveSavers’ services.

Data Integrity Tips: 

Always Back Up and Test Your Backup

Don’t run your backup program and forget about it!  Test your backups to make sure that you’re really getting what you want, and that you really can get back to it in when disaster strikes.  We recommend that data also be backed up offsite. For this we recommend Carbonite’s services as a cost-effective way to ensure your data is safe.

Exit Programs and Shutdown the computer properly

One of the simplest ways to avoid data loss is by exiting programs and shutting your computer down properly.  By allowing programs to close and finish their tasks gracefully, the hardware will not be powered down until it is safe to do so. This safely prepares your computer for shutdown.

Allow enough space around the computer for proper cooling

Heat kills computers.  Remove books, papers, and other objects which may block airflow around the machine.  Computer desks which have an enclosed compartment for the computer need to be able to let enough cool air in the front and hot air out the back.  Be careful when using laptops on bedding or carpets, as the material can easily block the cooling vents allowing the notebook to get too hot.

Myths:

My hard drive is making noise / I can’t get data off of it.
I’ve heard I can put the drive in the freezer?

NEVER PUT YOUR HARD DRIVE IN THE FREEZER!  This myth has been around for over twenty years….why?  Because, sometimes it worked; many times problems get worse as the device gets warm from use.  A Do-It-Yourselfer would try to put the drive in the freezer hoping the extreme cold would shrink the parts slightly for better contact and keep the temperature down by taking the unit from the freezer and plugging it into the computer. 

In reality, this is the worst thing you can do on a modern computer.  Your freezer is full of water vapor; water is not something a computer needs to live; in fact, it is deadly.  Hard Drives are not airtight, but very clean inside.  When you put the drive into the freezer, ice crystals form on the inside of the drive.  The width between the spinning components and the electronics which read your precious data is less than the width of a human hair.  Ice crystals are bigger than this, and will scratch the components making your recovery process worse.

What about smacking the drive on a surface or hitting it with a hammer? 

Computer components are sensitive electronic devices.  While hitting them on objects or with objects may help your stress level, it does nothing to fix the problem.  In fact, it could make the problem and your recovery worse.  Call Maumee Geeks before you are tempted to hit your hard drive and computer with a hammer!

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Data Recovery