Hard disk recovery techniques

All of us use Hard Drives to store data on our computers. They help us store huge amount of data easily and efficiently. But like any storage device they can develop errors or get corrupted due to various reasons. The process through which data is recovered after data loss is called Data Recovery. You need to understand the concept of data recovery as well as the various techniques associated with Data Recovery.

A Hard Drive can suffer from logical or physical damage. An instance of logical damage includes virus attack, operating system corruption, or file deletion. In cases of logical damage special disk imaging procedures are used. They help to recover readable data from the hard drive surface. Data loss which occurs due to these factors can be overcome using hard disk recovery software.

Other instance of data loss can be due to physical damage to the hard drive. Even though hard drives have become much more reliable and sturdy these days but the possibility of physical damage is still there. A physical damage can take place when the read-write head touches the platter resulting in damage to the head and coating of the platter. Physical damage can also take place due to mechanical wear and tear of the parts in the hard drive. There can also be Media failure or a failure while the data is being written.

These days hard drives come with SMART which is Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, a tool to detect and report on various indicators of reliability of hard drives. You will frequently encounter error messages after a media read error. The files stored on the hard drive will not be accessible even though they will still be there. Additionally, bearings which help the platter rotate can also fail due to damage and the drive will become very noisy. If the bearings fail completely the drive will stop rotating and cease working.

In all these above mentioned cases, Data recovery will be undertaken by Data recovery specialists. It is also very critical to understand that data recovery process only needs to be initiated by competent and qualified professionals.

When the physical recovery of Hard drives is attempted, the damaged or failed components are repaired or replaced. Special hardware and software tools are utilizes during this process. The physical data recovery can be also attempted when a hard drive is severely damaged. It must be mentioned that for any type of physical data recovery, the disk drive or the damaged components must be sent to a data recovery lab.
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