The Cotswold Company |
Before You Take the Plunge: Essential
Information For Users Considering 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. 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. If you need a hard disk data recovery expert, you need one now. You have just lost a good amount of work that you need to send, well, yesterday. No matter how well versed you think you are in the computer world, chances are that at some point, something will go wrong. This is when you will want to find the right person or company to help solve your problems. Data disk hard recovery is a touchy situation, though. So, to help you find the hard disk data recovery expert that you need, here are a few helpful hints. • First off, take the time to find the right company. Don’t simply choose one that says they will do the job for you. They can make things worse if they are not prepared. It only takes a few minutes to find out what they can do for you. • Consider the company itself. Does it have the ability to service your manufacturer? What experience do they have? How do you know its not a bunch of college kids? Ask questions, do some basic research. It takes only minutes. • You will want to know what specifically they will do for your data disk hard recovery needs. The hard disk data recovery expert should be able to handle your specific problem. More than likely, they will ask you just what happened, what type of application is being used and if you know what the source of the problem is. From here, they should provide you with some sort of plan of action that they will take. • Very important is that the work that they do will not violate your computer’s warranty. You will specifically want to make sure of this. • Will they need you to bring your system in? Or, many of the hard disk data recovery experts will work with you over the phone to help you restore data within minutes. That will save you quite a bit of time and expense. Often times they will log into your system and handle the issue professionally. In many cases, though, you will need to take your system in. • How will they provide the lost media to you? The hard disk data recovery experts often offer a number of methods to provide you with what you lost. They can often be transmitted to you, sent to you on CD-ROMs or hard disk drives. Most of the time, the choice is up to you. • Lastly, it is also important to know what the hard disk data recovery experts will charge you when the data disk hard recovery is unsuccessful. Will they charge you for the service or will the service be free? Perhaps they will offer you a lower price? Finding the right company to choose from is not that hard. The hard disk data recovery experts that are available to you are able to help you in your time of need. In many cases, they can have your files restored as you need them within a few hours, days or in extreme cases a little longer. Nonetheless, their data disk hard recovery service is something you will likely need and not be able to think twice about having the service preformed. But, when you take the time to find a qualified hard disk data recovery expert, things can go right, right from the beginning! |