Data loss does not need to be a disaster

Posted on by

You were working on your dissertation and suddenly your computer screen went blue! OK.

You restart the computer, the computer turns on with a long delay. No sign of the Windows logo or anything else! Then you get the dreaded message “The Operating System Not Found!. Insert the boot disk and press any key”. Furthemore, the clicking sound coming from the computer does not look good at all! What a calamity! You realise your hard disk has crashed and all your dissertation including all your emails, photos and other documents are gone! Well, perhaps you can live with the loss of some photos and the emails and some doucuments. But what about your dissertation which is due next week and for which you have been researching for the past 3 months. This is disasterous! You meant to back up your data to an external hard drive several times but you just postponed it until this happened. You bang on the desk and blame yourself for not backing your data and how stupid you were not to have backed up your data. You think you will never get your data back. However difficult this situation is, you should know, that help is at hand. Your situation is not unique. But you need specialist help. The only people who can help is a data recovery company. An IT support person cannot recover the data but perhaps they can help you find a suitable and reputable data recovery company. One such company, who were among the first data recovery companies in the UK established in 2001, is Data Recovery Lab. Just call 0207 516 1077 and they will be very happy to help you recover all your data and advise you on how the process of data recovery works.

Common myths about data recovery: What is right and what is wrong

Posted on by

Right and Wrong About Data Recovery

Losing data can make people desperate and irrational, and it is in desperate situations that people invent all kinds of strange and quite often untrue theories as to how they can recover their data. Data Recovery Lab will uncover what theories are right and what is wrong.

Here are some of the most common myths about data recovery:

  1. “Data cannot be recovered once you have formatted a drive.” WRONG. We CAN recover it.
  2. “Data that has been deleted cannot be recovered.” WRONG. As long as the data has not been overwitten by a new set of data, deleted data such as documents, pictures, music, emails, etc CAN be recovered.
  3. “Data that has been overwritten is recoverable.” WRONG. Overwritten data is NOT recoverable. this is because spaces used by data that has been marked as “deleted” by the operating system is replaced by new data. The more data written onto a formatted hard disk, the less likely to recover the data; However some RAW data recovery may be possible using advance disk editing technicians. Call 0207 516 1077 or visit Data Recovery Lab to discuss the case.
  4. “There is a universal tool available that can recover data from all hard disk drives irrespective of the drive’s state.” WRONG. There is no such general and universal way to recover data from a faulty hard disk; in fact in the majority of the cases each hard drive failure may require an individual aprroach to achieve a full and successfull recovery.
  5. “There are devices that can be placed next to a computer in order to extract the data from a faulty hard disk drive.” WRONG. How can anyone recover any data from a failing hard disk without even CONNECTING it to the failty hard disk which is the subjeact of data recovery.
  6. “A hard disk drive can be wiped by placing a strong magnet close to the drive.” WRONG. Most hard drives use magnetic shielding to prevent any loss of data just in case they comes into contact with device which has magnetic properties such as a speaker, strong electric current, medical equipment, cord;ess phones, mobile phone, walkie-talkies, etc.
  7. “Data is always recoverable.” RIGHT. However there are THREE exceptions to this rule. A) Data is not overwritten, B)The surface of the platters inside the hard disk which holds the data is NOT scratched by landing of a failing read/write head; C)The hard disk has NOT been professionally securely wiped by a military grade wiping tool to ensure permanent clean-up of the data for security and data protection compliance reasons.
  8. “Placing a hard disk drive in a refrigerator solves hard disk failures issues.” WRONG. The shock and contraction caused to the disk can cause even further damage to the heads and consequently head swaps and hard disk repair for the purpose of data recovery will become permanently impossible.
  9. “Blue laser technology can be used for data recovery.” WRONG. Ther is no such thing as blue laser technology to recover data.

How To Deal With Data Loss and Where To Get Help

Posted on by

Here is the latest video released by Data Recovery Lab. It explains how you can deal with a data lost situation and where you can get help. Filed under: Apple Mac Data Recovery, Data Recovery, Hard Drive Recovery, RAID Data Recovery, USB Data Recovery

View article:
How To Deal With Data Loss and Where To Get Help

Hard disk repair when disk crash warning signs show up

Posted on by

Hard drives work like the human body in the sense that if we don’t keep them properly maintained, we will need hard disk repair. It’s also similar in that we have a tendency to not worry about small problems until things completely stop working because of a serious issue. Before a hard drive crash we don’t think about the measures for hard drive repair and why backups are a superb choice. Since data recovery techniques are not easy tasks and frequently must be handled by trained professionals and computer proficient people, it often remains “out of sight, out of mind”. Fortunately, despite the technical nature of a hard disk, damage can be quite predictable.

Hard Drive Crash Warning Signs

Understanding the early signs of hard drive failure is key to being ready for a crash. It doesn’t mean that these signs will automatically lead to hard disk crash and a need for data recovery, but it will surely help. The always infamous “blue screen of death” (BSOD) in Windows systems, is a key indicator, as it can predict crashes better than most signals. Your BIOS’ S.M.A.R.T. system can also alert you to signs of a failed hard disk.

Other key physical failure signs include abnormal clicking, scratching or crushing noises. If you observe any of these, shut down your system immediately. In this case, it’s likely your hard drive might be having a mechanical issue and needs data recovery. This sound is the sound of your drive heads, which may be scraping the platters. The more your drive heads damage the platters, the more critical data may be lost.

Are You Backed Up?

When hard disk damages occur, professional hard disk repair is the best possible option to get back your data. Hard disk repair must be performed by professionally trained people. Understand that it is possible that 100% of the data cannot be retrieved. The most prominent reason for this is the permanent damage to the hard drive. This is why backing up your data on a daily or at least weekly basis is really the only way to be certain about your data protection.

Platters in your hard drive spin at thousands of RPM. Small elements like dust particles and unnecessary movements can create irretrievable harm by damaging platters. When the data is backed up, it reduces the probability of data loss due to hard disk failure. The frequency of backup should depend upon the magnitude and significance of data.

Put The Drive Down Slowly

Avoid opening the cover of a damaged hard drive with the intent to repair. Technologies have changed: hard disk drives are completely susceptible to damage from minor dust particles, gases and atmospheric elements. This is not a time to be a mechanical hero. Seek professional help if you need your data recovered.

Keep It Safe

Taking care of your drive through disk checks and defragmentation is a proactive way to ensure its future. But, be aware that failure is inevitable, and one day you may have to consider seeking professional hard disk repair help from a reputable data recovery company.

Data Recovery Guide

Posted on by

How does the data recovery process work?

Once we receive your hard drive, it will be logged into our system & queued for evaluation by one of our data recovery technicians.

An initial FREE data recovery diagnosis report will be produced and emailed to you which tell you about the failure mode of the drive. Hard disk failure mode can be either Logical, where a drive is working, but the data is no longer accessible or electronic failure where one or more components have failed on the electronics board or logic board on the back of the hard drive. Another possibility is that the internal pre-amplifier circuitry located inside the disk has failed. Another mode of failure is mechanical failure which means either the read/write heads or the motor have become faulty; This is normally associated with clicking or a grinding noise when you power up the hard drive. For a successful data recovery, faulty parts have to be replaced in a class 100 clean room using a donor hard disk. This will repair the hard disk temporarily and allows the data technicians to recover or extract as much data as possible. The report will contain the nature of the failure, cost of data recovery and an estimated completion date with various service options.

Upon receiving your approval to proceed, your hard drive will be “cloned”, to safeguard the integrity of your data as all recovery procedures are performed on an exact sector by sector duplicate of your original drive and queued for the actual data recovery procedures.

If your hard drive is repairable, and passes all the “hard drive fitness test” then we will return your data on your repaired drive. If it is determined that your drive cannot be repaired or the repair is temporary just for the sake of data recovery, we would then return your recovered data in a variety of ways, including copying it onto a new hard drive or writeable CD/DVDs. If you have brought your laptop or PC for data recovery, then we would replace the faulty hard drive, reload your Operating System and copy the recovered data back onto the computer’s new hard drive. (Additional costs may apply in this case therefore we will seek your approval before doing so.)

The data on the image media would be tested for accessibility and integrity and that the critical files open within their respective programs, any further logical repairs are made if necessary.

We will keep a copy of your data for 8 days week to ensure the successful your data has been received safely. After 8 days, your data will be automatically erased from our data recovery servers.
Defective Hard Disk Drive Heads: Commonly known as the ‘Click of Death’. Your hard drive is on its way out, along with your data. When the drive initially powers up, a logical procedural check is initiated to ensure that the drive has gained the required level of speed before positioning the heads across the platters. If the drive does not reach a ‘Ready’ state, the logic is repeated for a set number of times causing a clicking sound, after which it stops trying. The hard disk drive will appear dead.

Do not run “software” recovery programs in this state. They cause Disk I/O read / writes, and
this exerts a lot of stress on the read/write heads, which in turn causes errors to be written onto the disk, further decreasing the chances of data recovery.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HARD DISK FAILURES

Crashed Hard Drive Heads: In the event of a head crash, the hard drive will most likely make a grinding or scraping noise. This is very serious and may stripping the magnetic coating off the platters. This is highly damaging to the drive. Immediately turn the drive off and disconnect it from your computer. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO POWER ON THE COMPUTER OR THE HARD DRIVE AS THIS MAY CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE. At this stage, you need to call the Data Recovery Lab technicians on 0207 516 1077 who will advise you what to do next.

Hard Disk Drive Motor Failure: A typical hard drive motor usually spins between 4200rpm and can go up to 15000rpm in high-end end desktop or server hard drives. This is precisely controlled by firmware- information held in the system area of the hard drive-to enable synchronisation for reading the data from the platters. Hard drive motor can fail in two ways; it won’t either spin or won’t start. In this case the motor gets stuck and you can usually feel a slight vibration or hear a humming sound on the drive when it powers up. Erratic speed variations of the motor may cause the drive to take an extended period of time to come to the ‘Ready’ state. Please note that prolonged or repeatedly powering up the hard drive could cause further damage. Turn the computer off or disconnect the hard drive and call the Data Recovery Lab technicians on 0207 516 1077 who would advise you what to do next.

Hard Disk Drive not seen in BIOS: BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System and it simply provides a set of instructions to your computer, telling it how to start, and how to interface to the first ‘Boot’ device. When it reaches the first boot device, it then receives further instructions from there to follow up, and eventually loads your operating system if everything is OK. During the start-up, the BIOS may fail to detect the hard drive, and therefore it is not listed by the BIOS during POST. First, check all connections and try again. If it still doesn’t work, failure to recognise the hard drive may have been caused by a number of factors, like corrupt boot sector. However, at start-up, your computer you can tell whether the drive has been detected by the BIOS or not. Power up the computer, and look for the on-screen instruction to tell you how to enter the BIOS. Usually this is achieved by pressing F1, F2 or DEL keys. Examine the menus for options on viewing the BIOS IDE peripheral setup and set your BIOS to automatically detect IDE drives. On some BIOSes there is an option to “automatically detect hard drives now”. If you run this option and the computer ‘hangs’ or appears inactive for a a minute or more then it is likely that your Hard Disk Drive has failed to be recognised by the system BIOS. Before getting too worried, power down the computer and unplug the hard disk and check if all the jumpers on the hard drive are set correctly according to the hard disk manufacturer’s instructions. Incorrect jumper setting can prevent the hard drive from being detected by the BIOS. In some hard drives such as IBM and Hitachi, incorrect settings will corrupt the data and damage the logical structure of the hard disk. Again, at this stage, you need to consult a Data Recovery Lab technician who would advise you what to do next. Remember, data recovery analysis and consultation is FREE with Data Recovery Lab. Unlike many other UK data recovery companies, we do not charge for data recovery analysis or data recovery consultancy. You only pay if we successfully recover your data.

Power Surge, Reversed Polarity, Power Supply plugged in the wrong way around: This is a frequent occurrence – particularly plugging the power lead in the wrong way around. Despite the shape of the Molex connector, the cheaper versions are often are made of a soft plastic and can easily be plugged in incorrectly. Often this results in the drive appearing totally dead with no noise coming from the motor and an unpleasant burning smell. This is specially true if you try to plug a laptop hard drive in a USB enclosure or if you plug the laptop hard drive to a an IDE-to-laptop connector incorrectly. You must make sure you do the right the thing as the outcome of your mistakes can be disastrous. Similar faults occur when the power surge can damage the computer motherboard and hard drive circuitry. In this case, you must immediately unplug the computer from the mains power supply and withdraw the hard drive to a safe place until data recovery can take place.

Data Recovery Lab technicians can recover data from the following faulty hard drives:

* Desktop/Laptop/Notebook USB & Firewire IEEE1394 hard disks;
* Repair / Recover fix Mechanical / Electrical / Firmware Hard Disk drive Problems;
* Hard Disk Drive not recognised in BIOS;
* Noisy Hard Drives with clicking, scraping or clunking sound;
* Hard disks with read/write head crashes;

File Repair and/or data recovery from the following file systems:

FAT FAT32 and NTFS file systems; Linux with EXT2fs, EXT3, XFS, file sytems on standalone & RAID volumes; Data recovery from from faulty or corrupt partitions, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged; Data recovery from all Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, NT 4.0, Windows™ XP and Windows™ 2000 systems;

Data Recovery Lab technicians are able to recover / retrieve files in the following situations:

- UNC Uncorrectable Data Error – especially Maxtor SATA;
- Damaged Hard Drive As A Result of Power Surge;
- Hard drives damaged as a result of reversed power polarity and/or voltage from incorrectly plugging in power leads or cable;
- Data corruption in FAT/FAT32/NTFS File Systems
- Recycle Bin emptied or files were deleted without Recycle Bin;
- Data Loss As A Result Of Hardware or Software failures;
- Data loss As a Result of Power failure and power outages;
- Data Loss as a result of virus attack or virus infection;
- Data recovery from formatted or repartitioned hard drives;
- Data loss due to improper system shutdown;
- Data loss due to partitioning or boot sector problems
- Data loss due to hard drive PCB or logic board failure
- Data loss as a result forgotten or lost ATA password or decryption key

> If you have any questions or concerns, please do contact us on 0207 516 1077. We are fully committed to easing the fear and frustration that is normally associated with recovering from a data loss. Next time, do make sure your back up your data!


What is RAID?

Posted on by

What is RAID? What are most common RAID systems?

RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and refers to a RAID array. The hard drives can be connected together in certain combinations. Depending on the combination and configuration of the individual disks, different types of the RAID arrays are possible. The number of hard drives is also important .

How do RAID 0 and 1 compare?

RAID 0, strictly speaking is not actually a RAID system because there is no reliability or redundancy of hard drives built in. RAID 0 is rather used to double the writing speed of the hard disk. A file does not reside on just one hard drive but is synchronously written onto two or more hard drives. The more disks are used, the higher the write speed will be. In this type of RAID, the risk of a defective hard drive bringing down the entire RAID 0 array is greatly increased. To make the matters worse, recovering data from RAID 0 is extremely difficult and costly.

On the other hand, RAID 1 is the antithesis of the RAID 0 system. The stored data on one of the hard disks is is “mirrored” and lie on both hard disks simultaneously. If one of the hard drives, fails the other disk can take over without any loss of data.

What is RAID 5?

The most commonly used RAID used in servers and high end system is RAID 5. All popular server use this type of server and redundancy and tolerance is built into the system. The RAID 5 system must at least have three disks. The hard drives must have the same size. When a file is written to a RAID 5 system, the data is split saved on 2 hard disks. The 3rd hard disk receives a checksum of the saved file. In this RAID configuaration, if one drive fails, the system immediately switches to the RAID system recovery and the checksum is calculated over the lost part. RAID 5 systems are often equipped with a hot-swap system. This system allows you to change the hard drives in a live environment. When the fualty hard disk is swapped with a new one, the server calculates the checksum and rebuilds the partition and thus data loss is prevented.If, however, 2 hard disks fail at the same time, we have a broken RAID system which is a huge problem. The recovery of the data gets very complex and the cost of a typical RAID 5 data recovery will run into a couple of thousand £s.

Data Recovery Lab specialises in recovery data from all types of Seagate and Maxtor hard disks as described above. If you have one of these hard disks and it has failed, do not hesitate to call 0207 516 1077 or use the contact form to get in touch with us.

What Seagate hard drive is good for you?

Posted on by

When it comes to storage of data, users may not be sure what is the best choice in selecting a hard disk for their specific needs. As Seagate is the biggest manufacturer of hard disks after they acquired Maxtor in 2006, we decided to provide you with details on the range of hard disks they have on offer. In this post, we have examined different versions of Seagate hard drives which have been specifically designed to satisfy a certain need. Clearly, each series focuses on what it was made for and therefore they vary in quality, performance, speed and price. In the following list, we have introduced each Seagate hard drive type and the purpose it is meant to be used for.

External Hard Drives: External USB hard drives are designed to connect to any computer with USB port, making it convenient for the user to use without any need to intall or configure it or fit it into a computer, No screws or technical knowledge is ever required. Here are some Seagate USB external hard drive families to consider:

FreeAgent® Desktop and Portable Drives: They can be used for PC or Mac or desktop or laptop. FreeAgent drives give you the good data transfer rates available and a relatively sleek design. They designed for storing photos, music, videos or other data. The FreeAgent family has self-powered portable 2.5″ laptop and non-portable 3.5″ desktop versions. They come in various designs and sizes.

Laptop Storage: Momentus® Hard Drives: Seagate® Momentus® hard drives provide the a combination of performance, capacity and mobility in a 2.5-inch form factor. They are also a good in certain non-PC applications, including external storage, copiers/printers and entry-level blade servers. Designed for applications requiring robust performance, including laptop PCs, small form factor PCs and non-mission critical blade servers.

Desktop Storage: This type of Seagate hard drives are used in mainstream and high-performance PCs, workstations, gaming PCs, RAID systems, external storage and low-cost servers.

Barracuda® Hard Drives Seagate offers both mainstream and high-performance, high-capacity desktop drives suitable for a broad range of applications. Barracuda hard disks are designed for for mainstream PCs, high-performance PCs, gaming PCs, workstations, desktop RAID and personal USB external storage devices

Maxtor® DiamondMax® Hard Drives: Maxtor® DiamondMax® hard drives provide a value solution for applications that require a balance of most-popular capacities, basic performance and reliability. Good for entry-level PCs, home desktop PCs, business desktop PCs, non-traditional ATA storage applications and USB external storage. They are considered the basic Seagate range of hard disks which is adequate for entry-level data storage and usage.

Consumer Electronics Data Storage: Pipeline HD™ Hard Drives: They operate with low power and low vibration. Thy are bedroom quiet and are designed for constant use such playing hundreds of hours of blockbuster movie content, all with relatively high performance. Good for video streaming applications such as digital video recorders (DVRs), video surveillance systems, home media centers, karaoke and audio jukeboxes, music recording studios and other multimedia streaming applications.

EE25 Series™ Hard Drives: Seagate® EE25 Series™ 2.5-inch hard drives with RunOn™ Technology are designed to work in extreme temperatures and tolerate high levels of vibration and shock. These hard drives are specially designed for use in automotive systems, military aircraft, commercial aircraft, industrial controls, mobile surveillance, marine transport and shipping industry. Although they are fully shock-proof but they have been made to withstand tough conditions constantly moving systems with relatively high temperatures.

DB35 Series™ Hard Drives: Seagate® DB35 Series™ hard drives are specifically designed to meet the requirements of DVR applications and also offer continued support for applications requiring a PATA interface. Good for digital video recorders (DVRs) and home media servers.

Server and Enterprise Storage: Constellation™ Hard Drive Family: Seagate® Constellation™ portfolio includes the world’s first 2.5-inch hard drive for Tier 2/nearline environments with very good power efficiency and 3.5-inch high-capacity hard drives with up to 2 TB of storage for data-hungry applications. Constellation drives offer a good combination of performance, enterprise-class reliability, low power consumption and high capacity. Good fo high-density, multi-spindle Tier 2 storage purposes including servers and NAS, SAN and RAID storage environments.

Savvio® Hard Drive Family: Seagate® Savvio® 2.5-inch enterprise 10K and 15K drives are 70 percent smaller than 3.5-inch drives, enabling more drives per system and providing higher performance and reliability while providing ultra-low power consumption. Good for mission critical 2.5-inch enterprise server storage applications that demand high reliability, performance and the lowest in power consumption.

Cheetah® Hard Drive Family: Seagate® Cheetah® drives are the standard for 3.5-inch 10K-RPM and 15K-RPM hard drives used in mission-critical server and storage solutions, where system availability and reliability are of utmost importance. Desined for large form factor, mission critical enterprise storage applications, in demanding network and server storage environments.

Barracuda® ES.2 Hard Drives: The Seagate® Barracuda® ES.2 is a 3.5″ drive with SAS or SATA interfaces and provides high-capacity, 7200-RPM nearline storage for situations where dollars per GB and GB per watt are primary metrics. Multi-spindle high-capacity applications such as nearline, NAS, SAN, RAID and multi-host applications (SAS) and, clustering (SAS).

Data Recovery Lab specialises in recovery data from all types of Seagate and Maxtor hard disks as described above. If you have one of these hard disks and it has failed, do not hesitate to call 0207 516 1077 or visit www.datarecoverylab.co.uk.

Symptoms of Hard Disk Failure

Posted on by

Most Common Symptoms of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Failure

This section deals with the most common symptoms of hard disk drive (HDD) failure what primary steps you need to take before taking the hard disk to data recovery specialist company. The most common symptoms of hard disk failure maybe one or a combination of any the following listed below:

a) Hard disk drive (HDD) makes an occasional or repetitive clicking sound;

b) Disk powers up, but then spins continuously with a loud noise;

c) Hard drive makes a continuous clicking sound;

d) There is a scraping noise when the hard drive powers up;

e) BIOS says operating system not found.Hard drive unit powers up, but drive won’t mount;

This is what we call a “physical internal hard drive failure”. Mechanical hard disk failures are caused by physical damage to internal components of the hard disk itself; e.g. the read/write head, motor, logic or printed circuit board (PCB), hard disk platters, and/or actuator arm. The most common solution to recover data from a physically damaged hard disk is to identify and replace the damaged components in a certified ‘clean room’ environment. If the damaged hard disk is exposed to normal environment, microscopic dust particles on the surface of the platters will disk recovery almost imppossible. Therefore, if you hard disk is clicking or makes an unusual noise, do not be tempted to open it to see if anything had got “stuck” inside. You will just ruin any prospects of a successful data recovery by a qualified technician.

a) Hard disk drive does not display any sign of power;

b) There is no sign of the drive ‘winding up’;

c) Hard drive powers up, but then suddenly powers down;

d) Your computer reports disk error;

e) Hard drive won’t spin up when turned on on and is not recognised by the computer;

f) The system is extremely slow and it takes a very long time to load a program or access a folder;

g) The system hangs during the boot process does not go anywhere;

Any of the above symptoms indicate an electronic failure. This typically occurs when an electronic surge or power spike knocks out the disk’s controller board or fries one of the chips on PCB thereby preventing the hard disk from spinning up and making it impossible for the computer to recognise it. People wrongly assume that if they buy an exactly identical hard disk, they can just swap the PCB and then expect the electronically faulty disk to work like a dream! WRONG! Please note that head positioning information and translation module are stored on a chip which is called “firmware”. Almost always two exactly identical hard drives will have different firmware revisions. Therefore swapping the PCB can can actually damage a perfectly healthy disk giving it the wrong instructions on where the data is and how it can access the service area (SA). This will cause the hard disk to “click” hence damaging the head assembly of the hard drive. DIY data recovery must be avoided if you have lost critical data. Just call a Data Recovery Lab technician on 0333 5 777 120 from a mobile phone or a land line and we will be able to offer you the best advice on what your next move should be.

a) Files inaccessible despite hard disk spinning;

b) The computer automattically starts scanning the hard disk at start-up;

c) The computer shows a menu of different start-up options including safe mode;

d) When the computer has completed the boot-up process, you no longer see your files in their usual places and it looks like all your files have disappeared.

The above symptoms are indicative a file system failure or corruption. File systems are essentially “data containers” which is used by the operating system to store data on a hard disk or memory stick. Examples of file systems are “NTFS” for Windows, “FAT32″ for Windows and Apple Mac OS, “HFS” for Mac OS and “Ext1″ “Ext2″ for various Linux distributions and NAS hard disks. File system corruption can happen as a result of sudden power cut, electro-static discharge, virus infection or bad sectors in hard disks and memory sticks. Again DIY data recovery must be avoided if the inaccessible data is critical. A Data recovery techncian can help you and advise you on best course of action. Normally the rate of success in these circumstances is close to 100% as long as it is handled by a qualified data recovery technician. Call 0333 5 777 120 from your mobile or landline for further details or help.

a) No boot-up disk is available;

b) The hard disk spins up when turned on, but is not correctly recognised by the computer;

c) The hard disk spins up but is not recognised at all by the computer;

The above symptoms point to what is known as “firmware failure”. Firware is essentially the software that controls the physical drive hardware. If it is corrupted, or becomes unreadable for any reason, then the computer can not interact correctly with the hard drive. Addressing firmware issues is a specialist data recovery job that requires the hard drive ROM on the PCB to be reprogrammed using special equipment. Data Recovery Lab are among the very few data recovery companies in the UK who have access to specialist equipment that allows them to guarantee a successful recovery from this kind of problem.

Whilst he above list covers the majority of common symptoms of data loss, it’s by no means an exhaustive list. If any of the above symtoms apply to you, just do not panic! The best course of action is to switch off the computer or power down the hard disk and call a data recovery specialist at Data Recovery Lab on 0333 5 777 120. It is important NOT to power up the computer or the hard disk as this may cause further damage. Do not experiment with DIY data recovery software if you data is critical and you cannot afford to lose it. Our engineers will advise you further on what the best course of action is. With a highly qualified team of data recovery technicians since 2001, we will be able to help you with the recovery of all your data and copy the recovered data onto a healthy portable hard disk and give it to you.

Data loss and what to do next

Posted on by

What a calamity! I have lost my data! What do I do?

Imagine a situation where you have been working on a university, business or school project and exactly at the time you want to put the finishing touches onto your completed projects, you get the dreaded blue screen on your computer and every goes bang. You desperately try restart the PC but you find no joy in getting the beast to restart! How disappointing! How heart breaking! Now it is time to cry out loud and blame yourself why you did not fulfill your promise of doing a backup. Certainly need someone get you out of this misery. It is devastating to find out that your deadline will come to an end in 3 days’ time and your hard disk has just failed and your data has vanished. Don’t panic and just keep cool. You are not alone in big trouble. Unfortunately there are many people like you who have lost their data and your situation is not unique. The good news is that all is not lost and data recovery specialist can indeed help recover all your data. It is reassuring to know that in such a terrible state to know someone can help you retrieve all your lost data. Data recovery technology has made massive progress since 1998 when the first specialist data recovery companies began operating in the UK. Now it is possible to recover data from any faulty hard disk no matter how bad the damage is.

Logical vs Physical Data Recovery

Generally, your hard disk may have failed in several ways. Here are some of the possibilities:

  • Your dropped your external hard disk or your laptop:

This most probably will cause serious physical failure which may lead to read/write head seizure; this is analogous to human cardiac arrest. In order to recover the data from a hard disk which has suffered from a physical failure, it has to be taken apart in a dust-free environment and read/write heads have to be replaced. In addition to this, the the motor, which spins the platters, has to be re-aligned. In prectice, this means athat a temporary repair of the hard disk is required in order to keep it alive enough to clone or image it bit by bit. Once we have the image, data can be recovered from the image. The repaired hard drive is no longer required and it may even fail after it has been imaged.

  • Your hard drive has been damaged as a result of a power surge:

Unregulated power, wrong polarity or power surge is a major cause of hard disk failure. This normally results in the burning out of the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) on the hard drive. Sometimes a chip on the PCB may be fried and it can be visibly detected. The common misconception among most users is that if you buy an exact match of the failed hard disk from eBay or some other online shop and swap the PCB, the hard disk will work and data can be accessed without any further action. This is wrong!This can be potentially dangerous because if you do not have the correct PCB with the exact firmware version, you may even damage your hard drive and render your hard drive completely inaccessible. In most cases, a data recovery technician would repair the original circuit board and the replace the faulty chip or power component using special tools. This requires a special hot air gun to be blown onto the faulty chip or electronic component so that the data recovery technician can replace the faulty parts without damaging the adjacent miniature components. Quite often, even after the hard disk PCB has been repaired, the data stored on the partition, is not yet accessible because the original electrical fluctuation and wrong polarity may have corrupted the partition. Therefore when you mount the disk after the repair, it shows up as “unallocated” in the disk management utility. In order to recover the data from the corrupted partition, the disk has to be edited manually using a hexadecimal editor by a suitably trained data recovery technician.

  • Logical or soft hard disk failure:

This happens when your hard disk becomes inaccessible as a result of a virus infection, partition corruption or multiple bad sectors. A more serious failure in this category is when the SMART- Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology -which is responsible for recoding the bad sectors and error correction, fails. This can extremely slow down access of the data on the hard disk and in some cases, will completely render the disk inaccessible. Recovery of data from logical or soft failures is less complex and data can recovered more quickly and cost-effectively.

Data loss can break your heart but not necessarily your back:

If you have lost data in any of the above ways, you must seek help as soon as possible because hard disk failure is progressive and the hard drive can degenerate quite rapidly. Data Recovery Lab specialises in data recovery services including hard drive recovery, RAID data recovery, PC recovery, Mac recovery, laptop data recovery, USB external hard disk data recovery and computer forensics. Recovers data from faulty or damaged hard drives and computers. It provides free data recovery analysis and free quotes. Operates a no-data, no-fee guarantee. Data Recovery Lab has ISO-certified data recovery lab facilities employing highly experienced data recovery technicians equipped with advanced data recovery tools. Data Recovery Lab has been serving business as well as private customers since 2001. For more details, visit datarecoverylab.co.uk or call 0800 840 21 31.

Hard Drive Recovery Tips: How To Deal with Data Loss

Posted on by

The hard drive or HDD is probably not the most vital part of a computer. But, once it gets corrupted, inaccessible or damaged, it will turn into the most valuable assent in a PC. All precious videos, photos, favourite MP3′s and important written works and documents can be lost in an instant. Keeping a backup is the utmost solution for data recovery. Important files must be saved in other types of media such as external drives, optical media or through an online file storage facility.

In today’s technology where everything is electronic and digital and uses a hard disk,  anyone may experience data loss in one way or the other. So, it is important to know what to do in case this happens to you.

If you have a faulty hard drive,  stop writing on it. It might further damage the hard disk and the problem may get worse. The best initial thing to do is identify if the damage is physical or logical.

If the hard disk is physically damaged, it will usually click or make unusual sound will not show up  in Windows disk management. In this case, no software on earth can recover from it. It is advisable to hire professional data recovery company to retrieve the files you have lost.

Note that there are a limited number of companies who can help you. Go for companies who have the resources and the expertise to perform data recovery. One key requirement is that they must have an ISO-certified clean room in which they are able to repair the faulty hard disk by swapping the head assembly using a donor hard disk. Some IT companies pretend to be data recovery companies. These companies will not be able to recover your data successfully and may actually damage your hard disk in such a way that a qualified data recovery specialist will not be able to help you. Therefore it is wise to take all the necessary precautions and ask all the right questions when contacting a data recovery company. You may have to travel or post your hard disk to your chosen data recovery company. It is highly unlikely to find a data recovery company in the high street or anywhere close to you.