There are many reason why a data drive can fail, from the physical to the virtual, and recovering lost data can be a real pain in the behind. Some times it’s gone forever and sometimes even when it’s partially restored it’s like in a half gone zombie state and not really useful anymore.

The main point here is one of practicality and to realize that eventually, sooner or later, your drive will be toast and the lesson of the day will be that you should always backup files on a regular basis. That being said, if yours is already fried then here are a few ways to restore lost data from a corrupt drive given by the knowledeable readers at Cnet. Read and learn!