Overview : How Data Recovery is Performed

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The data stored on your hard drive may be inaccessible due to hardware or software problems.

Some examples of software problems include file deletion, deleted partitions, hard drive formatting, and corrupted file systems. These type of hard drive data recovery problems are somewhat easier to fix and less costly than hardware data recovery problems (described next).

Any hard drive that is making abnormal noises such as clicking, scratching, or hissing sounds has a hardware data recovery issue. Also, hard disks that have been damaged because they fell to the ground, were immersed in water, were subject to extreme temperatures, etc. present internal and sometimes external hardware difficulties. These types of drives are harder to fix because they must be physically repaired before any data recovery attempt is performed.

General overview of the hard drive data recovery process

Step 1. Diagnostics

A trained hard drive data recovery expert will determine the cause of failure and identify any physical internal or external damage. Based on this information the proper method to be used during the data recovery process is selected.

Step 2. Find donor drive if necessary

For drives with hardware issues, an exact replica donor drive needs to be found for the data recovery procedure. The customers drive is repaired in a clean room using parts from the donor drive. It is necessary to use a special, class-100 clean room because hard drives are very sensitive to dust. Even a tiny dust speck can cause additional damage to the data stored in the hard drive platters.

Step 3. Clone hard drive

Using specialized software, an exact replica of the failed drive is made onto a new hard drive. The data recovery process is always performed on the copied drive; this insures that the source stays intact for additional data recovery attempts, if necessary.

Step 4. Recovery of Data

Data recovery experts begin the data recovery process on the cloned hard drive using specialized data recovery software.

Step 5. Data verification

The most important documents to be rescued, as instructed by customer, are verified to make sure that the recovered documents are intact and not corrupted. These documents could be: QuickBooks data files, emails, contacts, photos, etc.

Step 6. Data is returned to customer

The preferred method of data recovery delivery is a customer supplied external hard drive. For instances where data is less than 4 GB it can be burned onto a blank DVD. Critical and time sensitive data may be delivered to customer securely through the Internet.

Additional Information on the Data Recovery Process

• The time frame for hard drive data recovery is within one to several days; in some rare cases it may take a few weeks.
• Hard drives with hardware issues require a special, clean room as mentioned above and a donor drive for the data recovery process. The older the damaged drive, the more difficult it is to find an exact match for the data recovery procedure. It is not enough to locate the same drive’s model number; the date of manufacturing and firmware must also match.
• Donor drives are often destroyed during the data recovery process. The main concern of the data recovery specialist is to repair the failed drive.
• A class-100 clean room used for hard drive data recovery is supplied with special tools, equipment, software, and experienced engineers.
• Data recovery from drives with software issues as mentioned above have a very high success rate.
• Data recovery from drives with hardware or mechanical problems presents a lower chance of successful data recovery. This depends on the cause of hard drive failure. Drives with scratched platters (the area where data is stored), have a low chance of recovery, unless the area where your data is located presents no damage. Hard disks with issues such as a stuck read / write head are in the medium range of possible data recovery.

Our trained hard drive data recovery engineers follow standard procedures to maximize the chances of recovering your data. Your information is always stored in a secured facility.