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Data Recovery is the process of retrieval of inaccessible or corrupt data from
digital media that has become damaged in some way. Data Recovery can be used
to recover data from devices as varied as Hard Disk Drives, Memory Cards, Tapes,
Mobile Phones, Personal Digital Assistants, Floppy Disk’s, CD’s, DVD’s,
Data Cartridges, Xbox’s and many more items.
Data Recovery may be needed for reasons as diverse as hardware failure, (the
tape has been ‘chewed’ up, the hard disk drive has failed, the user
has maliciously damaged the computer or digital device, or it could have suffered
fire or flood damage). All of these instances will require the services of a
professional data recovery company if the data was of such value (be it sentimental
or financial) that the cost of the services are less than the perceived value
of the data which is no longer accessible.
It is not just businesses who are at risk from Data loss. Clients requiring
data recovery come from all walks of life, including large corporates, smaller
businesses, and the self employed to “joe public” who, with the introduction
and subsequent boom in the use of digital cameras etc to record holidays and
special occasions may have lost anything from sentimental data to critical e-mails,
and personal account details. Students are often grouped under this heading
too.
There are numerous ways that Data can be recovered from digital media which
can vary greatly, the simplest method can often involve the running of basic
software on the storage medium in question. This is always a dangerous idea,
because the recovery data could overwrite the very data that is being recovered.
More complex commercial software tools are available which will do this job
more professionally. No software fix should be attempted prior to the original
media being imaged, enabling the recovering company to work on a ‘back-up’
of the original software. The most professional companies will also take a second
image should there be a problem with the first image that is being worked on
for recovery.
The next problem is what happens when the hard disk or storage device doesn’t
work. For the smaller ‘Data Recovery Companies’, this is a problem,
and it is when the more serious Data Recovery Companies get involved, (such
as Disklabs, http://www.disklabs.com ), who specialise in higher end Data Retrievals.
It is always recommended that the most critical work should be sent to a true
data recovery specialist, (check out the accreditations - ensure the specialist
has ISO9001-2000 Quality Assurance status, and is certified to ISO BE EN 14644
to ensure that their clean facility is at the correct level for intrusive data
recovery work, find out how long that company has been trading, and check their
testimonials). Once you have found the company that you are happy with, if the
data storage device doesn’t work, there is a high likelihood that the digital
media will require spare parts, this is where organisations such as 1st Computer
Traders Ltd, ( http://www.1ct.com ) are of service. Organisations such as 1CT
sell spare parts for hard disk drives to organisations such as Disklabs, ( http://www.disklabs.com
) enabling them to get the original data accessible for long enough to image
the data onto a stable storage device, enabling that data to be duplicated again
which in turn allows a safe recovery attempt to be achieved.
The data recovery job is generally finished when a list of all the recovered
files is sent to the client. Once the client approves this file listing, they
are then shipped the data of an appropriate media. This can be a hard disk drive,
floppy disk, CD or DVD. Alternatively, if a file is considered critical, it
can be encrypted and then emailed to the client.
It should be noted that in extreme cases it may be impossible to recover any
data, however the bottom line is, as soon as you have lost data you should power
off your device and send it to a professional Data Recovery Company to optimise
your chances of a successful recovery.
About the Author:
Simon Steggles is a Director of Disklabs and also a director of 1st Computer
Traders Ltd, (www.1ct.com). Disklabs are data recovery and computer forensics
specialists, 1CT.com specialise in hard disk drive repair. |
