Most data recovery tools work similarly: Through their interfaces, you select the storage device (flash drive, hard drive, SSD, memory card) from which your files went missing.

While the primary focus is recovering data from a hard disk drive (HDD), we also look increasingly popular Flash-based, solid-state drive (SSD) storage.

If you think you're dealing with a dead computer, don't panic. Follow these steps to try to save it—or at least recover your files.