The data recovery process can be a difficult and time-consuming experience, but it’s important that you have the right tools and information to help you through it.
In this article, we’ll discuss the different types of data recovery, the different techniques that are used, and the resources that you’ll need to get started. We hope this will help you get the most from your data recovery process.
Hard Disk Data Recovery
When it comes to recovering data from a failing hard disk—whether it be from a mechanical or a solid-state drive—you have a few different options. In some cases, you can simply replace the disk and recover the data on a new disk.
In others, you can use specialized hardware to read the data from the disk’s media.
To determine which method is right for you, you’ll need to understand a few things about how hard disks work.
First, understand that data is stored on the disk as a large number of tiny magnetic “sector” particles. This data is composed of a specific arrangement of these particles, which is what makes it readable as digital data.
And these particles are organized into tracks, which are then laid out on the disk as concentric circular rings. The sectors are stored on these tracks and are separated by a “head gap” that makes sure the particles’ magnetic polarity is properly aligned.
If data on the disk becomes damaged or unreadable, you’ll need to use specialized hardware to read the sector particles again, and then “write over” the read data to make it inaccessible. Data can be read from a damaged disk with specialized hardware.
But it’s usually a more time-consuming and resource-intensive process. When it comes to mechanical hard disks, most mechanical data recovery companies can read your data directly from the platters.
That said, depending on the extent of the damage, it could take a long time and a lot of work to get all the data off the platters and onto the company’s hard drives. In most cases, this will be more efficient than reading the data of the damaged platters directly.
Online Data Recovery
Online data recovery companies use a similar approach to mechanical hard disk data recovery. However, the reason they are able to recover data is that the server or website that hosts the data has the capacity to store that data again.
This can be done by simply replacing the disk; the data will be recovered and hosted again. Online data recovery companies also have the capacity to analyze the data to determine what can be recovered.
Data analysis can reveal what kind of data is stored on the server, such as names, addresses, and other information. Knowing what kind of data is on the server can help the recovery company with choosing the right hardware, software, and approach for the job.
RAID Data Recovery
RAID, or a redundant array of independent disks, is a type of hardware that allows you to spread data across multiple disks, sharing the same read/write head. In other words, you can read and write the same data to all of the disks at the same time.
Critical components, such as the file system, have to be stored on the RAID controller. If you have a RAID failure and wish to recover your data, data recovery companies usually use sophisticated tools to read data from the RAID controller, which can provide access to the physical disks.
You can also use RAID data recovery software to get your data back. Most RAID data recovery software is designed to recover RAW data, which means the software has to read the entire hard drive sector by sector. So this is usually a more time-consuming and resource-intensive process than reading from a mechanical hard disk.
Software Data Recovery
Software data recovery is a process where you recover data from a computer software file, rather than from a hard drive. This is often used when a file has been deleted accidentally, or in some cases, maliciously. This can be done by extracting the file and analyzing the data.
There are two types of software data recovery. One is file recovery, which looks at the file system and tries to recover the data. Another is data recovery, which looks at the data itself and tries to recover it.
File recovery software is usually more reliable and less time-consuming than data recovery software.