Data recovery companies take advantage of the fact that their customers don't know much about the process and often get away with charging outrageous prices for any recovery, no matter how hard it is. This article gives answers to the most important questions people need to ask before buying data recovery services: What does a hard drive do? How could they lose? How likely is it that I can get it back, and how much will it cost? Know what you're up against.
Most people don't know much about the world of data recovery, and some IT professionals don't know much about it either. This is mostly because hard drives are complicated devices, and most people don't know much about how they work. Data recovery companies take advantage of the fact that their customers don't know much about the process and often get away with charging outrageous prices for any recovery, no matter how hard it is. I hope that both consumers and professionals will find this article to be useful. I explain the basics of data recovery by explaining how hard drives work, how they can break, what the chances are of getting the data back, and how much the user should expect to pay. This information will help the user choose a company for data recovery in an informed way.
A little bit about hard drives.
Data is stored on metal oxide platters that can spin up to 10000 times per minute in a hard drive. The "head" reads and writes data in the form of magnetic charges one-millionth of an inch above the surface. The "head" is on an actuator arm. Any drive can have more than one read/write head, and each head can fail on its own. When the read/write head touches the disk's platters, this is called a "head crash" (more on head crashes below). As manufacturers try to add more space to hard drives without making them bigger, the data is written closer together. This makes it hard to get the data back if one or more heads fail. The controller board is the brain of the hard drive. Each hard drive has its own controller board. The service track of a hard drive is another important thing to talk about. This part of the disc platter is on the outside, and it is where the drive's firmware zone is. The "firmware" of a hard drive is the information that tells the computer how to talk to the drive in the right way. These are the main parts of a hard drive that make it work. Let's talk about what can go wrong now. There are many things that can go wrong with a hard drive. Hard drives are very fragile and can break in many different ways, which can cause data to be lost. The most common types of drive failure are logical errors, mechanical failure, electronic failure, firmware corruption, bad sectors, or any combination of these. Logical errors are usually the ones that cause the least damage to data.
Logical errors are often the easiest and sometimes the hardest things to deal with when you're trying to get your data back. They can be as small as an invalid entry in a file allocation table, which is a simple problem that doesn't require much work, or as big as the whole file system getting corrupted or lost. Logical errors can be found when files can't be opened, the computer takes too long to start up, or programs don't work right. Logical errors are often thought to be simple because there is nothing wrong with the physical drive. This leads users to try to fix the problem themselves by using software from a third party. This is risky, though, because running this kind of software on a drive that is broken can cause all of the data to be lost. The best way to keep your hard drive from getting logical errors is to use the Disk Defragmentation tool in your operating system as often as possible. Visit the A HREF="http://www.datarecovery.com/tips">tips/A> section of our website for more information on how to keep your data from getting lost.
Recovering a drive with logical errors can be easy and quick, but if the data needs to be reconstructed bit by bit by hand, it can also be hard and take a long time. Logical errors are usually on the cheaper end of the price range because they don't require disassembling the drive by hand. However, there are times when logical failures end up on the more expensive end. When it comes to logical errors, the sooner they are found and the less the user changes the drive, the better chance there is of a quick and complete recovery.
Mechanical failures are often much worse than other kinds of failures and often cause data to be lost in whole or in part. Most mechanical failures happen when the read/write head hits the disc platter. This is called a "head crash." Head crashes can be caused by a lot of different things, like a physical shock, static electricity, a power surge, or a problem with the way the head reads and writes. If the drive is broken mechanically, it will make a constant clicking or grinding sound. If you think your computer has a mechanical problem, you should turn it off right away and call a data recovery company for advice.
Most of the time, mechanical failures are the most serious and hardest to fix. All mechanical problems must be fixed by taking the drive apart. One of the most difficult and expensive things a data recovery engineer can do is replace a read/write head. This is especially true for drives with more storage space. The chances of getting the data back depending on how badly the drive has been damaged, but they can be pretty good. Not all of your data will be lost if your head crashes. Again, the sooner you notice a problem with your drive and turn it off, the more likely it is that you can save your important data.
Most electronic failures happen after a power surge or because of another electrical problem. Control board failure is the most common type. A power surge can damage the control board, which stops the BIOS from finding the drive. Because each drive has its own control board, it can be hard to get this type of drive back. But the good news is that most of the time, once the problem with the control board is fixed, the data can be recovered in full.
Recovering a drive that has failed electronically can take a long time, mostly because it takes time to figure out what the problem is. Once it's been diagnosed, though, the recovery is usually not too hard, and the cost is probably in the middle of the range. Most of the time, we can get all of the data back from hard drives that have failed electronically.
Firmware corruption is caused by both logical and physical damage to the disc platter's firmware zone. When the firmware gets messed up, the computer often can't talk to the hard drive right, and the drive doesn't show up in the BIOS. When the drive fails because of a problem with the firmware, it's usually possible to get all of the data back once the drive has been fixed.
Using our own technology, it is possible to get data back from a drive that has been corrupted by Firmware. Most of the data can be recovered because the firmware information is kept separate on the edge of the disc. How hard it is to fix a drive whose firmware has been messed up depends on how badly the service track on the disk's platter has been damaged. Costs for this kind of recovery are likely to be in the middle to high range.
Bad sectors are something that happens to all hard drives. At some point, all drives get parts that don't work anymore, and when that happens, the operating system separates them. Bad sectors are like bumps in the road. The read/write head will avoid them, and the user will no longer be able to use them. If mission-critical data is on the drive, you should back it up as soon as possible, because bad sectors often mean that the drive is about to fail. Lastly, and most importantly, do NOT run the ScanDisk or Chckdisk utilities when you can't get to your data. Only file system errors can be fixed by these utilities. If your hard drive has bad sectors, these utilities will make things worse. Bad areas are easy to get to.
We can fix drives that have bad sectors by using our own mirroring technology. The process is often done manually, bit by bit, which can take a long time. Most of the time, the price for this kind of recovery will be in the middle of the price range.
I hope that all computer users can learn something from the above explanations. The simple fact is that everyone loses data from time to time. Every hard drive crashes, and it usually happens when you're not looking. Both end-users and business users need to back up their data, and there are many great ways to do so. But if you've lost data, try to figure out why before you call a company that can help you get it back. Get the facts, save money, and get your data back.
