The best way to prevent data loss both on PC and Mac is to back up data. On Windows you have to do it manually unless you purchase software made particularly for this, while OSX 10.5 and 10.6 comes with a built in solution to the problem.

The time machine. Apart from the fancy sounding name it has a few great features that can and probably will prevent data loss on your main hard drive, thus making the need for macintosh data recovery non-existent.

It doesn’t need any maintenance. If you have a mac and an external hard drive and you’ve set up the software at the first time you’ve added the drive, you’ll be fine, it works automatically and backs up your data.

Time machine basically shows how the system file structure looked like at any particular given time. Using the browser function you can pick any moment and the tool will take you back to your file structure at that hour. Macintosh data backup is made easy with this piece of software.

It takes a snapshot of the system first time you add an external hard drive, like a time capsule or any other USB drive, and adds and incremental backup every hour. This way even if your main storage media crashes in your Mac, you still will be able to get everything back with a really fine one hour resolution.

It not only backs your drive up, it helps you migrate information. Backing up your old Mac with time machine you’ll be able to migrate everything on to a new mac without a hitch. You just have to connect the device and make a few clicks on the time machine user interface.

This program is one of the best ways to make sure your data stays where you put it, but what happens if you’re unfortunate enough to lose both the main hard drive in your system and the time machine storage media at the same time? You won’t be able to get data back, and you will have to call for experts.

It is advised to look for an expert right after having a hardware media failure, because trying to do a data recovery on your mac at home not only risks your currently unavailable and otherwise safe data, but is going to raise the price or make it hard to find a specialist who takes the case.

Data recovery is entirely possible through special software, but these solutions are usually just as expensive as taking a recovery service and gives you no warranty to see your files ever again.