Hard Drive Data Recovery

Most hard drives, subject to normal conditions and use, will fail. In a lot of cases, it may take up to 10 years. But in some cases, it can be less than a year. Whatever the case may be, when your hard drive fails, whether it is on your PC, server or laptop, it is important to understand that professional hard drive data recovery is available.

Hard disk drives are very complex devices. They consist of a number of moving parts and a circuit board to hold them together. If we speak about hard disk data recovery, the first thing that you must evaluate is whether it is a hardware problem that is preventing you from accessing your data files on the hard drive. Many hardware problems include a faulty circuit board or problems with the moving parts like the actuator arm.

A faulty circuit board is characterized by a drive that does not 'spin up', meaning that platters are not turning underneath the copper wire. A faulty actuator arm or some more serious mechanical errors are characterized by a strange clicking noise or a grinding noise. The best advice in determining whether you have a hardware problem is to listen to the sound of your hard drive. If you cannot hear the platters spinning (i.e. it is quiet when it is turned on) or you hear more serious noises then you should try to make a backup of your data and stop using the drive immediately.

The faster computers and servers get, the smaller they get (such as laptop or notebook computers) and the more advanced hard disk drives get, the more susceptible they are to physical damage and hard drive failure. This is because of the heat these devices generate, which often may result in the need for hard drive data recovery, hard disk repair or professional level services such as exchange data recovery.

If you think you may need hard drive data recovery, consult this checklist:

1. Have you lost a few files, or is your computer not booting properly?
2. Has your hard drive made any buzzing or clicking noises?
3. When booting, does your computer see your hard drive, or instead provide you with a message like: I/O error?
4. What were you doing when you first encountered the data or hard drive loss?
5. Did you experience what many in the PC industry call "the blue screen of death"? If you had, what was the error message?

Once you have the answers to these five simple questions, you are ready to determine whether or not you need hard disk recovery software-based, or hardware data recovery. The last can be very expensive because technicians often need to first disassemble your hard drive to fix the problem. But you should always try first to run some diagnostic tools which can help you to determinate how serious the problem might be. Physical hard drive data recovery is usually done in a special 'clean room' without dust (picture below) because hard drives are specially sealed to avoid errors caused by dust or other particles. Also hard drives are very finely tuned devices and it takes special equipment to read the platters from a physically damaged hard drive.

If you are sending your hard drive to a data recovery specialist then you should attempt to obtain an upfront estimate of fees (although you will rarely get one), ask that if you send your hard drive for quotation purposes will they send it back to you in the same condition if you choose not to use the service, and make sure you send it to a reputable company as you may only get one chance at hard drive data recovery.

Help With Data Recovery

If you’ve had something bad happen to your hard drive and find yourself looking for data recovery help, your probably in a hurry, not wanted to listen to hype or schemes. Many individuals who have experienced the loss of their data cannot wait, and need to have their data now. Businesses on the other hand, need to have their data up and working so that they can continue to carry out their normal day to day operations. Anytime you experience problems with your hard drive, you can count on data recovery to recover your data. There are a few options available, the first being recovery specialists that can actually come to you. They will look at your computer and your hard drive, and first determine what caused the hard drive to malfunction. Data recovery specialists are highly skilled computer technicians, and know the hard drive inside and out.

Good specialists are those who can be there anytime you call. You don’t want someone who isn’t reliable, especially if you are looking to establish a relationship. If the technician is able to be there immediately, he or she is showing that they are dependable. In the event of data loss or hard drive failure, you’ll want someone who doesn’t waste any time at all.

Another option available to you is software programs. These programs are great to use, although they must be used before you problem. You can’t use them after the disaster has happened, as there is nothing there to install it to. If you install the program before hand and keep it installed, it can help you after the disaster. Most programs keep your previous data and information on file, so just in case something does happen to your hard drive, it will be available.

In the event of a hard drive failure, virus, or natural disaster, there are options that you can use to recover your data. The most popular are data recovery technicians and data recovery software. For businesses and corporations, technicians are the preferred way to go. Technicians can recover your files, even rebuild your hard drive if they need to. In the event of a hardware problem, the software won’t be able to do much for you.

Anytime you need help with data recovery, you should always look towards a specialist to help you. They can fix most problems, and more importantly - restore your precious data. No matter where you live, there should be specialists close by who are always on call. Most charge very reasonable prices, and will come to you in the event of an emergency. When you compare specialists to software - the specialists are by far the best option for helping you with your data recovery.

The Evaluation Process Of Data Recovery

As most people already know, almost all hard drives fail due to normal use and conditions. Although it can happen at anytime, hard drive failure normally takes several years to occur, due to normal wear and tear. No matter what the case may be, you should always be fully aware of the options that are available to you, and what you should do if your hard drive fails.

Data recovery is the most useful and by far the best way to retrieve data that has been lost or deleted from a hard drive. Hard drive recovery can restore files that have been lost, no matter what the cause may be. From viruses to crashes, data recovery can restore the files on your hard drive by rebuilding the platters and the structure of the drive. Most experienced computer technicians can restore your hard drive in just a couple of days.

Before you hard drive can be rebuilt, it must be evaluated. The evaluation process will give the technician a chance to go through your hard drive, determine what caused the failure, and what they need to do to restore your data. This is a very extensive process that involving a series of steps performed by the technician. First things first, the technician must determine if the problem is logical, physical, or possibly a combination of both. Physical failures result in hardware malfunctions, while the logical problems lie in the software. Once the technician has found the problem and the cause, he can plan out the repair process and what he needs to do to recover the information. If the technician is able to gain access into the hard drive, he or she will then create a mirrored image of the drive and continue the process. The data structure will come next, where the technician will determine just how much of the data can be saved. This step in the evaluation can be the most time consuming, as the technician or technicians will have to go through each sector step by step and located what data can be retrieved and what data cannot be retrieved. Once the evaluation process has been completed, the results will be given to you. The technician will normally go over everything with you, and explain the options you have available. This is where they will discuss pricing, as well as how long it will take. They will also let you know how much data can be retrieved, and what they think caused the problem. You can always get a second opinion if you choose, or go ahead and use the technician. In the rare event that no data can be retrieved, the technician will tell you that nothing can be done for your hard drive. Keep in mind that before they do anything to retrieve data, they will always contact you first to find out what you want to do. Normally, most data can be retrieved in as little as 48 hours. The evaluation process may take a few days, as it is more time consuming and planned out than the actual data recovery process. The evaluation process can take longer depending on the parts that are needed, or if other technicians need to be involved with the process. If the technician has all of the necessary parts on hand and the experience, it normally doesn’t take long. On the other hand, if the hard drive has a lot of hardware and mechanical problems - it can take a few weeks before you find out anything.

Recover Data From a Dead Hard Drive

Actually, the first thing to do is determine if it really is a hard-drive failure you’re confronting, and not one of the countless other equipment glitches that can cause a boot failure. If you have access to another computer, remove the failed hard drive from your sick PC, and hook it up as a secondary drive to the alternate computer. The easiest way to do this is through a USB universal drive adapter it costs about $30 and is a good device to have around for all sorts of hard-drive diagnostics. On a Mac, the process is a bit simpler. Use a FireWire cable to hook your nonworking Mac to a working Mac, then, “target boot” the nonworking machine by holding down the T key as you power it on. With either method, it’s possible that your failed hard drive will show up on your healthy computer and reveal its files, in which case your hard drive is probably fine, but your operating system needs to be reinstalled. (Don’t forget to offload your files before you do that.)

If your files don’t show up on the secondary computer, then you are at one of those pivotal moments in life when you find out how much your hard work and treasured memories are really worth to you. Depending on how your drive is damaged, an attempt to salvage your data can cost anywhere from a hundred dollars to several thousand. What’s more, the process can take days—and there is no guarantee that the money and time you invest will produce any results whatsoever.

Now that we’ve gone through the depressing task of properly setting your expectations, here’s the good news: Very often, the data on failed drives is recoverable. In fact, it’s surprising how resilient that information can be—just ask any corporate embezzler who thought he had deleted all the evidence from his PC, only to have it show up later in court. The comparison is apt, since the very same computer forensic tools that uncover digital misdeeds are the ones that can find your treasured family photos.

There are two ways that drives crash: Logical failure and mechanical failure. In a logical failure, the drive’s components are physically undamaged, but because of either accidental formatting or a corrupt file system, the drive is not able to find and navigate its own data. However, unless it has been overwritten, that data still exists on your drive.

A mechanical failure means that your drive has broken parts that are preventing it from working busted drives often make a telltale clicking sound as they futilely attempt to access their files. If you hear that, your data may still be there, but you’re not getting it back without calling in the experts (see “Worst-Case Scenario,” next page). And those experts make good money. Data recovery services from Kroll Ontrack, Seagate’s i365 and Iomega charge between $500 and $2500 to attempt to salvage data from either logical or mechanical disasters, depending on the severity of the situation. But if you are just dealing with a logical failure, you can get your files back on your own for far less.

We recently attempted a data recovery from the crashed drive of a Popular Mechanics colleague whose 120 GB MacBook drive had spontaneously given up the ghost. We removed the drive from her laptop, then used our USB drive adapter to hook it up to a desktop computer for diagnosis. We didn’t hear any sounds that indicated a truly dead drive, so our first step was to download the free demo diagnostic tool at Prosoft Engineering to check what might be salvageable. Many companies offer demos that will scan your drive and give you a pretty good idea of what’s recoverable before you lay down money to buy their software.

Once the assessment indicated we’d get good results, we used Prosoft’s Data Rescue II software ($99), which is tailored for the Mac OS and Mac-formatted drives. There are far more options for PC owners, including Prosoft’s Data Rescue PC ($99), as well as Ontrack EasyRecovery DataRecovery ($199) and RecoverMyFiles ($60) from GetData.

Most of these products work in a similar way. Install the software, select the defective drive as your source and choose a destination folder to receive the data. (Make sure your recovery drive has enough space for the contents of your failed drive.) Then be prepared to wait, and wait. A full scan and recovery of our 120 GB drive took four days, and a larger drive could take longer.

Recovering a hard drive is a bit like getting back a stolen car—you’ll be happy to have your files back, but the results could be messy. No data recovery program will return your files to you in exactly the condition you originally kept them. These programs are designed to essentially do a data dump from your problem drive to a new drive. Files will be organized by type (JPEG images will be in one folder, Word documents in some other folder, MPEG movies in another) and your songs and photos will be mixed with random sound and image files from your computer’s system folder.

Additionally, the names of all your files will have been changed to various alphanumeric sequences, such as IMG1039.jpg or MOV2010.mov. So be prepared to settle in for a long weekend of sifting through and renaming your files. Oh, and while you’re at it, now’s a good time to buy that backup drive.

Hard Disk Failure and Data Recovery

Hard Disk: An Introduction

Hard disk is a non-volatile data storage device that stores electronic data on a magnetic surface layered onto hard disk platters. Word “Hard” is use to differentiate it from a soft, or floppy disk. Hard disks hold more data and can store from 10 to more than 100 gigabytes, whereas most floppies have a maximum storage capacity of 1.4 megabytes and in addition are faster too.
Normally term hard disk is much familiar with computers only but it is widely used as network attached storage for large volume storage. Furthermore, appliance of hard disk drives spread out to video recorders, audio players, digital organizers, digital cameras, and even in latest cellular telephones.

Reynold Johnson invented the first hard disk in 1955 for IBM 305 computer with fifty 24 inch platters and total capacity of five million characters, and in 1956 - first commercial hard disk was launched with 5 megabyte capacity, the IBM 350 RAMAC disk drive.

Within time frame of 50 years and rapid progress in technical enhancement, we have now reached to latest 2006 - First 750 GB hard drive from (Seagate) and First 200 GB 2.5" Hard Drive utilizing Perpendicular recording (Toshiba).

Heart of hard disk consists of four basic components:
The Platters: Platters are the actual disks inside the drive that store the magnetized data. Conventional platters are made of a light aluminum alloy and coated with magnetize-able material but latest technology uses glass or ceramic platters as they are thinner and also heat resisting. Most drives have at least two platters and the larger the storage capacity of the drive, the more platters there are.

The Spindle Motor:
Hard disk drive consists of a spindle on which the platters spin at a constant RPM. Moving along and between the platters on a common arm are read-write heads. The platters in a drive are divided by disk spacers and are clamped to a revolving spindle that turns all the platters in a uniform motion. The spindle motor is built right into the spindle and rotates the platters at a constant set rate ranging from 3,600 to 7,200 RPM.

The Read/Write Heads:
Read/write heads read and write data to the platters, and each head is fixed to a single actuator shaft so that all the heads move in harmony.

Typically, only one of the heads is active at a time either reading or writing data. When not in use, the heads are inactive, but when in motion the spinning of the platters generate air pressure that lifts the heads off the platters. The space between the platter and the head is so minute that even one dust particle or a fingerprint could disable the spin. When the platters cease spinning the heads come to rest, at a preset position on the heads, called the landing zone.

The Head Actuator:
All the heads are attached to a single head actuator arm, which moves the heads around the platters. The Actuator arm moves the heads on an arc across the platters as they spin, allowing each head to access almost the entire surface of the platter. Contemporary hard drives use a voice coil actuator, which controls the movement of a coil toward or away from a permanent magnet based on the amount of current flowing through it.
Fundamental structures of all hard disk are same, and are composed of the same physical features, but their performance depends on the quality of their inner components.

Hard Disk Failure:
Hard Disk Failure occurs when a hard disk drive malfunctions and the accumulate data cannot be accessed. It may happen in the course of normal operation due to an internal or external factor. Disk failure varies and the most common is “Head Crash” where the internal read and write head of a device touches a platter or magnetic storage surface often grinding away the magnetic surface. Head hover just micrometers from the platters plane which makes such collision the common one. This sort of crash usually invites severe data loss and unprofessional data recovery attempts results further damage to the remaining data.
Hard drive also includes other controller electronics i.e., semiconductors, valves or electronic circuits, and major components such as Platters, Spindle Motor and Head Actuator. Failure of any these devices may cause a hard disk failure.

Factors causes disk failure are numerous, yet most common are power surges, voltage fluctuations, electronic malfunction, physical shock, wear and tear, corrosion, exposure to high magnetic waves, sharp impact, high temperature exposure etc.

The phenomena of hard disk failure is raising higher and higher; as to increase the read and write speed, today we have latest hard disk rotating amazingly faster and this immense revolving speed generates massive centrifugal force, a single adverse cause in the course of normal operation can cause severe hard disk failure.

Hard Disk Data Recovery:
Hard disk data recovery is the process of recovering the trapped data from the damage hard disk device, when it can not be accessed in normal circumstance.Several Techniques are used to retrieving data from damaged hard disk and techniques vary accordingly. It can be done by moving disk drive to a working CPU, or may have to open the disk drive and replace parts such as read/write heads, arms and chips and sometime the platters have to be removed and placed into another drive.

Physical damage can not be repaired by the general users, as it requires clean and dust free lab environment, in addition proper hardware and technical expertise; where under microscopic examination with proper tool and techniques, the damage drive is put on to observation for data salvaging.

Data recovery after Virus attacks

Virus – a threat to every computer whether used at home or in any organization. Most of us must have encountered a data loss after a virus attack on our computer. Those who haven’t may face a virus attack in future. A virus basically is a computer program, which is capable enough to destroy the entire data saved in the hard drive of a computer system.

Who creates these computer viruses ?

Programmers with good knowledge of various computer programming languages create such malicious applications, which are intelligent enough to target certain loopholes like open ports, code vulnerability etc. of the computer operating system or BIOS.

What are the main causes and consequences of a computer virus?

The main cause of a computer virus is the connection of the computer system to the internet. Most of the viruses attack the computers when a user is downloading any file from the internet. Viruses can attack your system when you are downloading an attachment (containing the virus) from your email. Installation of poor anti-virus software can also lead to virus attack on your computer. If no firewall is installed on the computer or the network (hardware firewall) can result in virus attack.

The main consequences of a fatal virus attack are as follows:

1) Loss of data viz. from My Documents folder in Windows as the viruses target files with certain extensions as well 2) Operating system file corruption viz. Windows/System/System32 folder files get infected in Windows 3) System performance degradation 4) Instable computer behavior

In order to protect the computer from viruses, users install anti-virus software, firewall, and spyware.

Out of the above consequences, the worst that a user encounters is the loss of important data. In order to recover the lost and corrupted data, the user needs to use effective data recovery software. This data recovery software uses advanced scanning algorithms to restore the lost data, which has been affected by a computer virus.

Stellar Information System Ltd. provides the finest data recovery software. The data recovery technicians at Stellar Information System Ltd. are equipped with good technical skills, which allow them to extract complete data from any storage device that is affected by a computer virus. These technicians perform data recovery process from the storage devices in sterilized surroundings in Class 100 Clean Rooms. Stellar Information System Ltd. has more than 1,000,000 customers worldwide and the list is increasing on daily basis.

Log on to Data Recovery software for your data recovery needs .

Simply Recovery of Data from a Dead Hard Drive

Actually, first of all what to do is determine if it really is a hard disk drive failure you’re confronting, and not one of the countless other equipment glitches that can cause a boot failure. If you have access to another computer, remove the failed hard drive from your sick PC, and hook it up as a secondary drive to the alternate computer.

On a Mac, the process is so simpler. Use a FireWire cable for hooking your nonworking Mac to a working Mac, then, “target boot” the nonworking machine by holding down the T key as you power it on. With either method, it’s possible that your failed hard drive will show up on your healthy computer and reveal its files, in which case your hard drive is probably fine, but your operating system needs to be reinstalled. (Don’t forget to offload your files before you do that.)

If your files don’t show up on the secondary computer, then you are at one of those pivotal moments in life when you find out how much your hard work and treasured memories are really worth to you. Depending on how your drive is damaged, an attempt to salvage your data can cost anywhere from a hundred dollars to several thousand. What’s more, the process can take days—and there is no guarantee that the money and time you invest will produce any results whatsoever.

Now that we’ve gone through the depressing task of properly setting your expectations, here’s the good news: Very often, the data on failed drives is recoverable. In fact, it’s surprising how resilient that information can be—just ask any corporate embezzler who thought he had deleted all the evidence from his PC, only to have it show up later in court. The comparison is apt, since the very same computer forensic tools that uncover digital misdeeds are the ones that can find your treasured family photos.

There are two ways that drives crash: Logical failure and mechanical failure. In a logical failure, the drive’s components are physically undamaged, but because of either accidental formatting or a corrupt file system, the drive is not able to find and navigate its own data. However, unless it has been overwritten, that data still exists on your drive.

A mechanical failure means that your drive has broken parts that are preventing it from working busted drives often make a telltale clicking sound as they futilely attempt to access their files. If you hear that, your data may still be there, but you’re not getting it back without calling in the experts (see “Worst-Case Scenario,” next page). And those experts make good money. Data recovery services from Kroll Ontrack, Seagate’s i365 and Iomega charge between $500 and $2500 to attempt to salvage data from either logical or mechanical disasters, depending on the severity of the situation. But if you are just dealing with a logical failure, you can get your files back on your own for far less.

Recovering a hard drive is a bit like getting back a stolen car—you’ll be happy to have your files back, but the results could be messy. No data recovery program will return your files to you in exactly the condition you originally kept them. These programs are designed to essentially do a data dump from your problem drive to a new drive. Files will be organized by type (JPEG images will be in one folder, Word documents in some other folder, MPEG movies in another) and your songs and photos will be mixed with random sound and image files from your computer’s system folder.

Additionally, the names of all your files will have been changed to various alphanumeric sequences, such as IMG1039.jpg or MOV2010.mov. So be prepared to settle in for a long weekend of sifting through and renaming your files. Oh, and while you’re at it, now’s a good time to buy that backup drive.