Data recovery is a mystical and varied art that shares much with archaeology. Depending on where you dig for data you may or may not find what you are looking for, and the longer you leave going after your lost data the greater the chance it will be worn away by age and reduced to fragments of its former self.

Our feature story covers best formats, backup options, and why you should reburn those photo CDs every two years.

Does dropping a hard disk from a third floor window or dunking it in a cup of tea mean curtains for your data? We visit Ontrack's data recovery labs to find out.

Every expert has a toolkit. Tim Dean takes you through the 10 tools any Windows expert cannot live without. So, to give you a head start, here are PC Authority's top 10 tools for the ultimate Windows user.

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Is your PC the stable, error-free platform you need? We didn't think so. Leigh Dyer, David Kidd and Ty Pendlebury present the essential guide to fixing your PC.

The easyStore is basic, but it’s good value and its iSCSI capabilities give it an edge over the competition

Without support for differential backups and with a light feature set, Norton Ghost feels cheap, nasty and dated.

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

It doesn't happen often, but in case it does, we'll step you through Linux disaster recovery.

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package

Automation is the next stage for the virtual data centre.

It could save your business money and your data in case of disaster.

It could save your business money and your data in case of disaster. Ian Murphy explains how to get started with virtualisation.

David Moss resolves an iTunes problem, looks into secret folders and Windows file sharing without a central server.