This snippet made me laugh:
Unfortunately, unless you have a recent Time Machine or other backup, your data may be gone for good—unless you’re willing to pay for an expensive data recovery process. But then again, Ars readers are they sort that have regular backups, right?
I’ve recovered so much data for people over the past two years using a simple free Linux live CD and a simple free data recovery program (Photorec). I guess the “expensive” part is just buying an external hard drive to put all the previously deleted data on after it’s recovered. But an external hard drive is always a good thing to have.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature…
P*rn mode
I had to laugh twice at your snippet; Ars also just reported that Apple’s Time Capsule backup devices are failing at an alarming rate:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/10/time-capsule-failures-lead-to-opening-of-virtual-cemetery.ars
So even if they were making their backups, they may find that their backup AND their main user are both gone!
I keep my backup data on another drive… in another computer… in another building. Managed by Ubuntu, of course.
“I’ve recovered so much data for people over the past two years using a simple free Linux live CD and a simple free data recovery program (Photorec)”
Oooh, tutorial please!