Frequently Asked Questions

HOW IS DATA RECOVERY PERFORMED? Data recovery in most cases is a very intricate process. The first step is to determine if the hard drive failure is being caused by logical or physical reasons. One way of determining this is to listen to the hard drive for noises. Often with a physical problem, there will be a grinding, whining or clicking noise. This indicates a head crash, which means the read/write heads have landed on the platter. If this occurs, the hard drive should be powered off and a data recovery company should be contacted immediately. Operating a drive with this type of problem could mean permanent disaster for the data residing on the platter. Clicking noises may also originate from bad sectors on the hard disk causing the read/write heads to continually try to access the same area on the platters indicating a servo problem. Other noises could mean a motor failure, defective spindle, or worn bearings. Physical data recovery must be performed by expert technicians in a sterile clean room environment using special recovery equipment and tools. Opening a hard disk drive outside of this environment can cause dust and debris to settle on the surface of the platters. If the data on the drive is important, it is crucial to allow a professional data recovery company open the drive in a clean room. The chances of a successful recovery depends on the extent of hard drive damage. Logical data recovery is often necessary due to damage to the file system. Such damage can result from various factors including improper shutdown, system crash, power surge and computer viruses. As a result, the file system is left in an inconsistent state. Logical recovery involves repairing file system structures in order to access the data. It is extremely important not to format the hard drive under any circumstances. Performing a format will overwrite data that exists on the hard drive and destroy the file allocation table entry. This will certainly make data recovery more complicated and maybe impossible. Most data recovery companies have proprietary tools and techniques to recover data from physical and logical hard drive failure. Desktop hard drives vary in size and type. The size ranges between a smaller drive with a certain number of megabytes all the way up to a high capacity 5 teribyte drive. There are also various types such as IDE, SATA or SCSI. Hard drives offer reliable data storage; however like any device, they are subject to failure. Hard drive failure can occur for many different reasons and can occur even if the drive is brand new. PHYSICAL REASONS FOR HARD DRIVE FAILURE The failure of a hard drive can be caused many things that indicate a physical failure. A new drive can be just as prone to failure as an older drive. This type of failure can be caused by simple wear & tear or mishandling by the user. The section below details the physical causes of failure. SCORED OR SCRATCHED PLATTERS The circular shaped platters inside the hard disk that contains all of the data on the drive are susceptible to scratching or scoring caused by debris, dust, fingerprints, or contact with other internal parts of the disk. ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE The circuitry on the drive is vulnerable to electrostatic discharge. This is why you will find that hard disks are shipped in an anti-static bag or shell. The user should always ground themselves before handling a hard drive in order to prevent such discharge. FRICTION OF INTERNAL PARTS There can be friction of the internal parts of a hard disk. This can cause scoring of the platters or cause other parts to be misaligned. READ/WRITE ARM FAILURE A failure in the read/write arm of the hard disk can cause a "clicking" noise. It is caused by the read/write heads on the arm trying to find the information needed. If the information is not found, the heads can crash onto the surface of the platter causing data loss at that location and a need for a read/write arm replacement at the very minimum. HARD DISK MOTOR FAILURE Sometimes the motor can fail in a hard drive. It causes the drive to give out- the platters stop spinning and the drive shuts down. PARTS DETERIORATION Any of the physical components inside the hard disk can deteriorate causing hard disk failure. TEMPERATURE CHANGES A drive is at risk for sudden temperature changes including overheating and condensation. A sudden change in temperature that causes condensation inside the hard drive can cause the material on the platter to evaporate which causes the read/ write heads to stick to the platter and stop it from rotating. Overheating can also be an issue. Overheating can cause the platters to expand- which makes the read/write heads travel farther in order to read the data. The expansion of platters can cause friction which can lead to a head crash. POWER SURGE A power surge can at the minimum burn the circuitry on a hard drive and at the maximum could destroy all of the data on a hard drive. To protect against power surges, connect your computer using a high quality power strip or UPS (uninterrupted power supply). Of course to receive maximum protection against lightning strikes you should unplug your system during such storms. HEAD CRASH A head crash is when the read/write heads crash onto the surface of the platters instead of the parking zone. A head crash can damage the surface of the platters causing data loss. WATER DAMAGED HARD DRIVE A hard drive can suffer water damage as a result of flooding from storm surge or water leaks. Never apply power to a water damaged pc. If you are able to remove a water damaged hard drive from a system, do NOT power up the drive or attempt to dry the drive with a hairdryer. Doing this will cause the debris inside the drive to stick to the surface of the platters or scratch the platters destroying the data. If the data on the drive is important, the drive should be placed in a container to keep it damp while a data recovery company is contacted. FIRE DAMAGED HARD DRIVE Sometimes the intense heat from a fire can melt the platters which will destroy all the data residing on the platters. In most cases however, fire damage to a drive causes the electronic circuitry of the drive to be destroyed. In this case, the circuitry will need to be replaced in a clean room before the data can be retrieved. LOGICAL REASONS FOR HARD DRIVE FAILURE The failure of a hard drive can be caused many things that indicate a logical failure. The section below details some common logical causes of failure. MASTER BOOT RECORD FAILURE The master boot record is located in the first sector of the hard disk. It gives the operating system boot instructions. The master boot record can become corrupted due to many factors including shutting down the computer improperly, power surges, and computer viruses or worms. BOOT SECTOR FAILURE A boot sector corruption can be caused by many factors including hardware malfunction or a computer virus/worm. If the sector contained operating system files, it may cause the system to not be able to start. OPERATING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION Also referred to as a "system crash", an operating system malfunction can damage the master boot record or boot sectors. DELETED DATA Data can be accidentally deleted by the user, but still reside on the hard disk. In most cases, the data still exists but the path to the data has been deleted. Such data is recoverable. CORRUPT FILE SYSTEM Files can become corrupted for many reasons including improper shutdowns, computer viruses or worms, or a number of physical causes. CROSS LINKED FILES Files that are cross linked share the same point on the hard disk. This can be caused by improper shutdown, or during a system crash. IMPROPER SHUTDOWN This occurs either intentionally or accidentally and results in the system not being able to go through its normal shutdown process. It is not advised to shutdown your system in this manner as doing so can cause a multitude of problems. DISK REPAIR UTILITIES There is a great amount of disk repair software utility programs on the market today that should not be run on a hard disk that contains important data to be recovered. Running these utilities could potentially cause data recovery to be much more difficult or actually cause a permanent loss of data. REPARTITIONED OR REFORMATTED HARD DRIVE A reformat will wipe the hard drive of all of its data. You should never reformat a hard disk that contains important data that needs to be recovered. Repartitioning can create and delete partitions on the hard disk. This is also something that is not recommended if the data on the disk is of any importance. COMPUTER VIRUS An piece of code that when introduced to a computer can replicate itself in the memory causing a loss of data or damage to the systems on the computer.