Data recovery refers to the process of recovering or retrieving data that has been deleted, compromised, damaged or inaccessible. This corruption of data usually occurs in secondary storage devices, mainly hard drives. The process is complicated and one needs to have a good understanding of software and hardware before recovering data him/herself.
Data recovery requires an extra software installation in your device. In some serious cases, your data cannot be recovered and we might need to replace the hard drives which have been compromised. With the advancement in technology, science has been able to answer many of our questions like why do we need this recovery and how can we accelerate the process.
What type of data can be recovered?
The first question that arises here is why does one feel the need to go for data recovery? If one has deleted the data, obviously it was because the data wasn’t needed anymore, so why bothering to recover it? Well, sometimes you mistakenly delete the important things and may want them back at any point in time. Also, science has evolved like a bullet fired from a gun. Information technology has been revolutionizing on daily-basis. With these advancements, many malware and techniques are introduced in the black market which can deter your data and cause permanent changes or removal of the data.
In a nutshell, with globalization and a complex connection network of computers and drives, your data is not safe here anymore. Stored data can be damaged due to mechanical, logical, or other failures. The mechanical losses encompass the wear and tear of the drives storing the data. Mishandling the data can be another reason. And no matter, how advanced science has become, or how many data recovery techniques it has in store, losing something important is not fun and recovering it is not easy.
Your device can be involved with consistent or one-time data loss depending upon various factors. If your device is under a virus attack, which in special terms is called malware, your data is not safe and can be lost or reused, without your knowledge. Formatting your device can also delete all your stuff unless you haven’t backed the data up already. Many people run away from this step because they find it hard to undergo recurrent back-ups, but without effort, you cannot be successful or safe. Other reasons for the data loss is simply deleting. Maybe you have deleted the data and instead of moving to the recycle bin, the data or file is deleted permanently.
In tablets, and phones and many other variants, the recycle bin feature has been minimized to save time. But its absence has cost people more. You can also lose your data if your drives are corrupted. Drives are susceptible to many physical and logical corruptions that can meddle with your important information. Other reasons that might lead to data loss include damage (physical or mechanical). The damage can be inflicted upon the drive and the data. Natural mishaps like fire can also corrupt or trap your data in the compromised devices.
It is important to keep in view that not all data is retrievable. You must have the basic knowledge of which data can you save and which you cannot. People ask if the data has been removed how it can be recovered. Easy! Your data is never really gone unless it’s over-written. In easy words, when your data is deleted, it is secured somewhere in the hard drive, it’s only lost from the storage device and visual outputs. But all of your data is available on the backend. You can hence recover the data once it has been deleted, all you have to do is do not use the drive. Because your use will over-write the data and then it would be gone forever. Your data can also be recovered it the hard drive has undergone any physical damage which is not so serious.
For ICs and hard-drives special cleanrooms are allocated. Temperature, pressure, humidity, light, microbial growth everything is controlled in these rooms. These optimize the recovery process. Your data cannot be recovered from a phone that has been reset. Factory resets permanently delete the data. Similarly, in case of physical damages, if the data has been removed from the platter of the hard drive, it is lost. Lastly, data loss owing to the damage of hard disk drives cannot be recovered.
What is some special features data recovery services offer?
The best recovery software has something special that distinguishes them from others. Some software gets back to you in 3 to 4 days, while some have emergency services that can help recover your data in a day. Rarely does it happen that the data recovery process costs you less. But with one of the best services, you can perform DIY recovery by downloading the software and following the protocol carefully. This is a cost-effective technique and helps you if you don’t trust the marketers. But this feature can only recover the data which is not crucial or is not badly trapped.
For complex data, advanced services are required which cannot be provided by any layman. Software companies have their patent software to deal with such issues. These can aid in retrieving data from the scratched and mechanically damaged hard drives. Services for this data recovery are offered on-site. Others include delivery, remote or server recovery services. As they work with complex data, their cleanrooms must be of a level with very low bacterial growth, so that the ICs are not infected.
Some software services have directly established contact with the top names of manufactures so that they can in data access directly from the main hub. Also, their services are competent and proven, and few software services can extract data from totally damaged disks. The process may take some time but in the end, it’s always worth the wait.
What are the techniques of data recovery?
The categorization of data recovery techniques varies according to different bases. This basis of differentiation can be time taken to recover data or type of damage we are facing. We will be discussing two techniques based on the latter category.
Logical errors that are not related to any mechanical or physical damage to hard-drives can be treated with logical data recovery. In these scenarios, the data is present but it is inaccessible due to some OS or other logical failures. Partition, deletion or overwritten data can be some of the challenges faced by this technique. It is best to stop using the hard drive once you have noticed the damage.
Physical data recovery comes into the function when the data is lost due to human errors. Hard drives are sensitive equipment. A slight injury and your data can be lost. For such scenarios, you may need physical recovery services, maybe your data can be extracted from the compromised drive and a new one has to be bought. This type of recovery is complex and mostly requires hard-drive repair.
Conclusion
You need to take the utmost care of your hard drive because once it’s compromised, your data can be deleted or become inaccessible. To avoid such scenarios even if the hard drives are corrupted, you need to recurrently back-up your data. This will store your data in your designated cloud storage and is accessible even if the hard-drive is beyond recovery.
