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Before You Take the Plunge: Essential Information on Data Recovery
Know what you're dealing with
The world of data recovery is a big mystery for most consumers
and even some IT professionals. This is largely because hard
drives themselves are complex devices and their technological
specifics are not generally well known. Data recovery companies
thrive on their customers' lack of information and often get
away with charging obscene rates for any recovery, regardless of
complexity. I hope this article will be a helpful resource for
consumers and professionals alike. I provide some basic
information about data recovery by shedding some light on how
hard drives work, how they can fail, what are the chances of
successful recovery and how much the user can expect to pay.
This information will enable the user to make an informed
decision when choosing a data recovery company.
A bit about Hard Drives
A computer hard drive stores data on metal oxide platters which
spin up to 10000 revolutions per minute. An actuator arm
contains the 'head' which reads and writes the data in
the form of magnetic charges one millionth of an inch above the
surface. Any given drive can have multiple read and write heads
and each head can 'crash' independently. A head crash
occurs when the read/write head comes in contact with the
platters of the disk (more on head crashes below). As
manufacturers strive to cram more space on hard drives without
increasing their physical size, the data gets written
increasingly closer together, making for very difficult recovery
should one or more heads crash. The brain of the hard drive is
its controller board and this is unique for each
individual hard drive. One other detail worth a mention is the
service track of a hard drive. This is an area located on the
outer part of the disk platter and it contains the drive's
firmware zone. The firmware of a hard drive is the
information used by the computer to communicate correctly with
the drive. These are the main components that make a hard drive
work, now let's talk about what can go wrong.
There are many ways in which a hard disk can fail
Hard drives are extremely fragile and can suffer failures in
many different ways, leading to a loss of data. The five most
common types of drive failures are: logical errors, mechanical
failure, electronic failure, firmware corruption, and bad
sectors, or any combination these. Least severe of these is
usually data loss due to logical errors.
Logical errors are often the simplest and sometimes the
most difficult problems to deal with when recovering data. They
can range from an invalid entry in a file allocation table, a
simple problem that needs little work; to severe issues such as
the corruption or loss of the entire file system. Logical
errors can be spotted when files become inaccessible, there is a
delay in starting up the computer, and programs do not run
properly. Logical errors are often seen as simple because
there is nothing wrong with the physical drive leading users to
try recovering it themselves by using third party software. This
is quite risky, however, as running such software on a damaged
drive can result in total loss of data. The most effective way
to prevent logical errors on your hard drive is to regularly use
the Disk Defragmentation tool in your operating system. For more
comprehensive information on preventing data loss, visit the tips section of
our website.
Recovering a drive with logical errors can be simple and
quick, however if the problem requires manual bit-by-bit
reconstruction of the data, it can also be quite complex and
time consuming. Normally, logical errors are in the lower end of
the price range as they do not require manual disassembly of the
drive, however there are cases when logical failures end up in
the higher end of the price range. The bottom line with logical
errors is the sooner they are caught and the less a user tampers
with the drive, the better the chances for a quick and thorough
recovery.
Mechanical failures are often much more serious than any
other failure and frequently lead to a partial or even total
loss of data. The most common type of mechanical failure is a
head crash, which is when the read/write head comes in contact
with the disk platter. Head crashes can be caused by a variety
of reasons, including physical shock, static electricity, power
surges, and mechanical read/write
failure. Mechanical
failures are detected by a constant clicking or grinding noise
coming from the drive. If you suspect mechanical failure,
you must immediately shut down your computer and call a data
recovery company for advice.
Mechanical failures are usually the most severe and most
challenging to recover from. All mechanical failures require
physical disassembly of the drive. The replacement of a
read/write head is one of the most complex and costly procedures
that can be performed by a data recovery engineer, especially
with larger capacity drives. The chances of recovery depend
entirely on how much damage the drive has sustained, however
they can be quite good. A crashed head does not mean that all
your data is lost! Once again, the sooner you catch a
mechanical problem and turn off your drive, the more of your
precious data is likely to be rescued.
Electronic failures are most common after a power surge
or due to some other electric problem, and the most common type
is control board failure. A power surge can knock out the
control board, making the drive undetectable in the BIOS.
Because each drive is fitted with a unique control board,
recovery of this type is relatively complex. However, the good
news is that normally once the control board issue is fixed, the
data is usually 100% recoverable.
Recovering a drive that has suffered from an electronic
failure can be time consuming, mainly because the specific
problem takes some time to diagnose. Once diagnosed, though, the
recovery is usually not tremendously complex and would probably
land in the mid-range in terms of price. Most of the time, we
are able to achieve a 100% recovery from drives that have
suffered an electronic failure.
Firmware corruption is caused by logical problems or
physical damage to the firmware zone on the disk platter. When
the firmware becomes corrupt, the computer is often unable to
properly communicate with the hard drive, and drive is not
recognized in the BIOS. Fortunately, when the drive fails due to
firmware corruption, the data is usually fully recoverable once
the drive has been repaired.
Recovering a drive that has suffered from Firmware
corruption is possible with the use of our proprietary
technology. Because the firmware information is isolated on the
outer rim of the disk, most of the data can be recovered
successfully. The complexity of recovering a drive that has
suffered from firmware corruption depends on the amount of
damage suffered by the service track on the disk's platter.
Expect the cost of this type of recovery to be in the mid- to
high-price range.
Bad sectors are a common fate of all hard drives.
Eventually, all drives develop areas that are no longer
functional and when this happens, they are isolated by the
operating system. Bad sectors are very much like bumps in the
road, areas which are avoided by the read/write head and which
are no longer accessible to the user. If mission critical data
exists on the drive, we recommend to backup as soon as possible,
as the formation of bad sectors often indicates the impending
demise of the drive. Finally, and most importantly, do NOT under
any circumstances run the ScanDisk or Chckdisk utilities when
data becomes inaccessible. These utilities are designed to fix
only file system errors and not any other types of errors, so if
your hard drive has suffered from bad sectors, these utilities
only make things worse.
Bad sectors are accessible
We are able to recover drives with bad sectors using our
proprietary mirroring technology. The process often involves
manual mirroring bit-by-bit, which can be time consuming. The
price of this type of recovery will generally be in the
mid-range of the pricing schedule.
I hope the above explanations are of some use to all computer
users. The basic fact is that data loss happens to everyone.
Every hard drive crashes, and often when you least expect it to.
Backup is essential for end-users and business users alike, and
there are many excellent ways to back up your data. But if
you've lost data, attempt to understand the problem before
calling a data recovery company. Be informed, save your money,
get your data back.
About the author:
Alex Bezborodov is the technical writer for Accurate Data Recovery.
Let ADR bring your data back to life!
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