Losing data is an experience we all, at some point, have shared. Many of us don’t understand that searching for “data recovery near me” is one of the best ways to find a provider. Most, if not all of us, have experienced corrupted data disk, accidental file deletion, or a dreaded hard drive failure. Data recovery has crossed your mind when you’ve gone through a major data loss. You start to ponder how it works, if it truly does and just how effective it is. Is it affordable? Let’s get to the bottom of this.
Hard Drive Recovery Associates offers a variety of data recovery service solutions. We never charge for a recovery diagnosis. Our 24 hour toll-free support line is always open to customers across the country to answer your specific hard drive questions, and our engineers are experienced with nearly every kind of hard drive data recovery scenario, whether we’re talking about iPhones, SSD drives, laptops, Macs or even RAID 5, 6 and 10 arrays. Even in cases of fire and water damaged hard drives, we can restore your data immediately. While we do work with customers nationwide, we have offered specialized data recovery services to the Irvine, Santa Ana and the surrounding Orange County areas since we began. For businesses, this means immediate, free server pickup on RAID recovery and repair jobs. For consumers, this means a fully-equipped and appointed clean room lab that is located directly off of the I-5. Plus, we are also just a call away.
Data Recovery Types
When we say data loss, it comes in different forms. You can end up losing your precious data just by the results of a power failure or the more common accidental deletion, data corruption, software bugs, hacking, hard drive failure, etc. Data loss and the need for nearby data recovery services can also be caused by a more serious yet uncommon problem. For instance, a hard drive that has survived a plane crash. Despite the hard disk being almost destroyed, it can still be recovered by certain data recovery experts.
Professional data recovery near you is performed if you are trying to recover data from any storage media; whether it is a RAID device, a typical hard drive, or an SSD (solid state drive). In essence, data recovery is trying to salvage or fix lost data.
However, it is not always possible to recover lost data, especially in the case of severely damaged or corrupted systems. The good news is that there are now major advancements to data recovery technologies.
How Does Hard Drive Data Recovery Work?
How you recover data is dependent on how you lost the data first off. Here are some of the typical issues we all face:
Accidental File Deletion
Most people misunderstand what file deletion is. The file is technically not yet lost until another file takes its place on the drive – in short – it is overwritten. Hence, you have higher chances of recovering a lost file if you act promptly to restore it. A data recovery software like TestDisk utilizes complicated algorithms when it comes to file deletion. The application looks for tiny bits of data remaining on the drive to determine the file’s storage location. You can safely retrieve your file if the guess is right but it can mean bad news to you if the guess is incorrect.
The tricky thing here is that any data writing action on your computer can lead to the overwriting of the file and consequently losing it for good. It might come as a surprise, but merely surfing the web can lead to storing cache or cookies in that particular storage location and accidentally overwrite the data you are trying to recover. As ironic as it may sound, the same thing may also happen when you install a data recovery software. Unless the file has not yet been overwritten, the probability of retrieving it depends on the file system’s format.
For instance, description info for the data is retained even after deletion of a file in the Windows NTFS system. As a result, it is easier to retrieve the lost data using data recovery software. The same can’t be said on other systems, though, such as FAT and UTF. Those file formats tend to make it virtually impossible to determine the file’s location on the disk using data recovery algorithms.
Corrupted Data And Files
Nothing is sadder than discovering you have a “corrupted hard drive”, but it does not mean there is nothing more you can do about it. You will often be able to see a corrupted operating system, but the data is unaffected when you attach the corrupted drive to a different computer. Salvage the situation by making copies of the file to a different hard drive.
A corrupted partition table is another issue that could lead to file corruption. The use of the right software can fix the problem. You can easily retrieve your files by successfully fixing the table. However, it is possible not to retrieve all lost files depending on how badly corrupted the partition table is. With the help of a recovery software, there is still a likelihood of getting enough usable portions to help you recreate whatever file you retrieve in less time than usual.
A data recovery software can help you get enough usable portions from a corrupted drive given the right file is found by the software, it will attempt to recover it. Regardless if the file you get is usable or not, you may still be able to recover portions that can help recreate the lost data in less time.
Formatting or Damage to the File System
Formatting a file system is essentially similar to a file deletion where all info stored in the files and disk structure is destroyed. The extent of system format determines how much data is lost.
For instance, it is next to impossible to get your data back when formatting with FAT. This often results in a lot of data is destroyed because most sections of the disk are rewritten with zeroes. Meanwhile, you will have higher chance of recovering your data with a system like NTFS, even when the file has been overwritten by new data.
The extent of the damage and what data can still be accessed by the data recovery software affect how many files can still be recovered in a damaged file system. It is possible to get some of your lost data back if there is sufficient data for the recovery software to fix the damage on the file system.
Physical Damage to the Hard Drive Requires Professional Data Recovery
It is one thing to retrieve formatted files or the ones that have already been deleted – it is also an entirely different story to retrieve lost files from a drive that’s been physically damaged. It is wiser to let the pros (go to Google, search out “data recovery near me”) take over more complicated cases of physically damaged drives. This is because it requires taking the drive apart, which isn’t necessary for problems that can be solved by the use of a data recovery software.
Not everyone can take apart a hard drive and put everything back together without damaging it further. Only data recovery service experts like Hard Drive Recovery Associates can do the job right, mainly because this job requires opening the hard disk drive in a clean room. A clean room is a highly-controlled environment virtually free of any pollutant. Nearby data recovery service experts are careful when opening up hard drives because even a tiny speck of dust can make it crash and result in various HDD issues. Even the clothes worn by HDRA engineers and the equipment we use emit little to no static, since static electricity can worsen the damage to the drive.
There are a variety of factors that contribute to hard drive failures: e.g. a crashed head and a broken controller board. Replacement of the defective part sometimes fixes the problem but more often than not, you may need expert help if the hard drive has been physically damaged.
Upon meeting with a Hard Drive Recovery Associates, we’ll perform a series of steps such as a full disk image. If it’s economically feasible, we will make use of available data recovery software to fix the corrupted parts and retrieve any lost file. Hard drive recovery fees are expensive if you take into consideration the expense of rebuilding the drive, clean room maintenance, and patented imaging technologies. Some charge several thousand dollars for a drive, but there are data recovery companies like Hard Drive Recovery Associates that work for far less, and obtain better data recovery results.
SSD Data Recovery
The popularity of Ultrabooks has led to an increase in solid state drive use. It is pretty understandable why recovering data from SSDs can be difficult because the technology is relatively new when compared to HDDs. Some data recovery techniques, though, can be used in retrieving lost data from a formatted computer or has been deleted.
Since the technology is still considered fairly new, one can expect to pay more when trying to recover data from a physically damaged SSD.
The Best Solution: Avoid Data Loss
While you can count on the data recovery experts at HDRA to retrieve your data, bear in mind that it is only effective about 95% of the time. Protect yourself by always making plenty of back-ups! We say it time and again. It is your only safeguard against data loss of any kind. Save files on a backup drive in your house. Make use of the cloud in saving duplicate files. Also, try to avoid accidental formatting and power surges whenever possible. One should exercise preventive steps against file corruption to spare yourself from all these troubles in the first place.
Oh, and do that search for “data recovery near me”. It’ll help!
Do you need data recovery help now? Contact us for a free evaluation here!