Only gamers understand the pain of losing dozens of hours of progress in a game, something which can easily happen if your saves are entirely stored on a single device. This is often the case with many single-player games, especially console titles, and having your hard drive die on you can put you in a situation where you have to start all over again – and that’s without even mentioning the other data you’ve lost.
Attempt to Recover Your Data
The first thing you should do is to try recovering the hard drive – or whatever device you used to store your data. In many cases, even if the drive can’t physically turn on anymore, it may still be possible to extract the data that was on it, but that requires specialized tools and knowledge which you most likely won’t have access to. Companies like Secure Data Recovery, on the other hand, will know exactly what needs to be done to maximize the chances of getting your data back safely. It won’t always work out, but when it does, it’s well worth any price they’re asking.
Use Cloud Saving Whenever Possible
Many games nowadays support cloud synchronization of your saves, especially if you’re playing on Steam or a similar service. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes not enabled by default, which can lead to huge pains when you learn that after you’ve suffered a crash already. Preventing this is as simple as making sure that cloud synchronization is enabled at all times, and that you regularly check on your cloud saves to verify that nothing has gone wrong with that storage. Many games that support this feature will automatically show your online saves in the in-game menu so that you don’t have to take any specific actions yourself.
Talk to Customer Support
Last but not least, try talking to the customer support for the affected game(s). Even if they don’t do any explicit cloud saving, they may still be able to recover some information about your player profile from their databases, allowing them to restore your saves, at least partially. This may even work for single-player games and is not limited to MMOs and other games that have online accounts. Keep in mind that this is a bit of a last resort though, as it won’t always work out, and when it does, it may not bring back all your relevant data. Still, it’s better than nothing, and you don’t lose anything by giving it a try either.
There are many benefits to gaming in 2018, and one of them is that you no longer have to worry obsessively over the state of your save files. As long as you know what options are available to you and use them wisely, you should have a pretty good chance of seeing your data recovered safely. It will also be a good lesson for the future, as you should not find yourself in this kind of compromising situation in the first place if you do things carefully and properly.
