There are a number of reasons why data is lost: Devices can be hacked or physically damaged, power failures can damage drives, and files can be accidentally deleted. We’ve developed proprietary tools and software that enable us to restore data to a range of media and operating systems, from desktops and laptops to external drives and iPods. Here are some causes for data loss and an outline of our recovery procedures.
Data Loss: Desktop/Laptop
We can restore files to desktops and laptops that that have suffered physical and logical damage due to electrical or mechanical failure, human error, or software corruption, such as:
- Notebooks that have been dropped or bumped and no longer turn on.
- CPU won’t boot.
- Corrupted data.
- Applications which are unable to run or load data.
- Virus attack.
- Hard disk crashes.
- Accidental file deletion.
- Failure of hard disk parts.
- Media surface corruption and destruction.
- Fire and water damage.
- Reformatting.
Recovery procedure for hard disk drives
Most single hard drive recoveries are divided into two wide categories: External and Internal.
External cases
- Logical (drive is functioning):
- Erased files.
- Corrupted file-system structures.
- Physical:
- Read errors.
- External electronic issues.
These issues can be addressed without opening the drive’s Head Disk Assembly (HDA).
The complexity of the recovery process depends on the severity of corruption. Apple Macs and UNIX systems are also more complicated than other hard disk drives.
Internal cases
- Electro-mechanical.
- Head crash.
- Contamination.
These issues can only be targeted by opening up the Head Disk Assembly (HDA) of the drive in clean room conditions.
Internal recovery can be complicated by the high-cost of certain parts (especially for 200GB SCSI drives). In additional, drives from UNIX and Apple Mac systems are also more complicated than failures on other internal systems.
The specific price of any case is determined by two main factors:
- The cost of components.
- The total lab time used and the amount of work done by subordinate, intermediate and higher ranking technicians. Lab time and staff superiority are affected by:
- The extent of reconstruction needed.
- The file-system category, e.g., different Windows systems, such as FAT32 and NTFS, and Apple Mac or UNIX systems.
Other factors affecting cost include:
- The sequential lab accomplishment ratio on certain types of data loss on particular models. Note that if data cannot be recovered the expense incurred in attempting the recovery is borne entirely by Data Detect and the client will not be charged.
- Data recovery for new technology is more expensive, owing to the research and development required to maximise the chances of recovery.
Data Loss: Removable Media
Data can be restored to removable media that have suffered physical and logical damage due to software corruption, mechanical malfunction, or human error, such as:
- Ruined data.
- Unobtainable media.
- Viruses.
- Accidental data deletion.
- Media surface corruption and destruction.
- Fire and water damage.
- Reformatting.
Recovery procedure for removable media
Preliminary analysis will determine whether or not the data is recoverable or not. If it can be recovered, we conduct a more in-depth analysis to determine the severity of the problem and then draw up a recovery plan. Using proprietary software that our data recovery engineers have developed, we restore files and repair hard drives so that you can carry on with business as normal.
Mean Repair Time
- Desktop/Laptop: Total restoration time, including examination and recovery, is between one and five days. Some critical cases can take a longer.
- Removable Media: Total restoration time is usually between one and five days. Some critical cases can take longer.
- Palm/Pocket PC/iPod: Total recovery time is usually between two and seven days.
- RAID: Total repair time is usually between two and fourteen days. Some critical cases can take longer.