Tag Archives: Recover Data

Recover Data

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

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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.

Data loss and what to do next

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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

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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.

Use a data recovery expert if you data is important

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You may need an expert to recover your data

You will probably need the help of file recovery products at some point if you regularly use a computer or notebook. After all, just about everyone has made the honest mistake of deleting a file. But when you lose your data and your backup program fails, you need a data recovery solution to help you to get back on track.

A lost file could still exist even though you can’t find it. A file could be deleted or lost due to a power outage, software application crash, virus attack, partition problem or an accidental format; a software crash; partition table problems; and the world-famous accidental format.

File recovery experts

Data recovery tools are not always the answer. There are some situations that just you can’t the programs available on the market. If you experience a situation beyond the recovery abilities of an automated tool, you do need the services of a hard drive data recovery expert as the best way to recover data.

How does data recovery work? — Part 1

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In this video, a Data Recovery Lab technician explains how the process of data recovery works.

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How does data recovery work? — Part 1