Data Recovery - What Is It?

Data recovery is the process by which information that cannot be accessed normally is retrieved. This includes files that have been deleted or lost in partitioning changes. It also includes recovering data from storage devices that have been damaged, either electronically by corruption or viruses, or mechanically through break down or disaster. There are many techniques for data recovery. The correct one will depend on the reason for the data loss.

Perhaps the most common cause of data loss is through the accidental deletion of files. This is correspondingly the easiest problem to fix. Most deleted files are not actually removed from the hard drive. The space they occupy is simply marked as being able to be written to by new data. Given the size of modern hard drives, it can be a considerable length of time before new data is written to that space. This is how recovery software works. They are able to track down what data is stored in sectors labeled as blank and recover the desired information.


There are numerous types of mechanical failures that can cause physical damage to storage media. Old style floppy disks and CD-ROMs are susceptible to damage – floppy disks through magnetic fields and CD-ROM’s by having their metallic substrate scratched off. Hard drives are complicated pieces of machinery with moving parts that operate at speeds like 7200 rpm. Physical damage always causes at least some data loss. Often the logical structures of the file system can be damaged. Before any data can be recovered, the logical structure must be rebuilt.

Unfortunately, most of us are incapable of repairing any physical damage to our hard drives. Thus a number of companies have been formed that specialize in the recovery of data from damaged or destroyed hard drives and other storage devices. A hard drive is a sealed system. If any dust is allowed to settle on the disk surface, it can cause more damage. Clean room facilities are needed to reliably repair damaged drives. A reputable data recovery service will have onsite a Class 100 clean room. They will also have all the specialized tools and experience necessary to recover lost data. It can be surprising the amount of data that can be recovered from a drive that would appear to most of us to be destroyed. There are data recovery companies out there that can salvage disks that have been through fire and the subsequent water damage.

Data recovery is not limited to hard drives. With the proliferation of digital recording equipment, from cameras to PDA’s to MP3 players, the use of data recovery techniques on such things as Flash cards is growing. Also, many organizations find that they have important information stored on older technologies like tape drives or zip disks. These forms of media may have been damaged over the years, and most companies probably do not have the skills or equipment to recover data from them. There are data recovery services out there that specialize in this type of work.

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