WHY YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT A
DO-IT-YOURSELF DATA RECOVERY
Data recovery is a highly specialized and
complicated procedure. Care must be taken
to prevent the disturbance of the fragile components that reside
in a hard drive or other media. For this reason, data recovery
can be expensive. Many people receive a price quote from a data
recovery company and in an effort to save costs, they decide to
take matters into their own hands. This can be a fatal mistake
for your data. By taking
matters into your own hands, you could cause damage that can
make the data irretrievable even by a data recovery company.
Listed below are some common techniques that can cause permanent
data loss:
Do Not Run Partitioning Software on the
Failed Media
Using disk repair software can cause
irreversible data loss. Most of these utilities write
to the disk which can cause your data to be overwritten. The
steps taken by most of
these utilities are very complex. It only takes one incorrect
option chosen, and you
could damage the file structure of your disk beyond repair. By
using these utilities,
you are taking a significant risk with your data.
Do Not Reformat the Failed Media
This is crucial as reformatted disks make
data recovery very difficult. A reformat allows
the master boot record to be overwritten. It is important not
change partition information
or initialize the disk if prompted.
Do Not Open a Failed Hard Drive to
Attempt Recovery
Many people do not understand the delicacy
of the internal components of a hard drive.
A hard drive should never be opened unless in a clean room
environment. Inside the
drive, there are platters which hold the data. These platters
are made of either light aluminum alloy, glass or ceramic and
are coated with a magnetic substance. There
can be one or
multiple platters depending on the disk capacity. The disk
platters are
very fragile and sensitive to dust, debris and fingerprints.
It is also easy to scratch the surface of
the platters, which could permanently damage them. The platters
are attached to a spindle that turns the platters
simultaneously. A motor also exists to ensure the platters are
spun at a set speed. The actuator arm
houses the read-write heads which are present to access the data
on the platters. These heads never actually touch the platters.
The spinning of the platters creates air pressure which lifts
the read-write heads off the platters, enabling them to access
the data. It only takes 0.5 micron of dust on the platter
surface to disturb the functionality of the drive.
This is why a hard drive should never be opened unless done in a
clean room by a data recovery company.
Do Not Freeze or Heat the Failed Hard
Drive
Many people have read about freezing a
failed hard drive in order to recover the data. Beware of doing
this as condensation can cause the drive to be ruined thus
causing permanent data loss. On the flip side, you should also
not attempt to heat a hard drive using the oven or microwave
oven. This will also cause the drive to be ruined causing
your data to be permanently gone. Once again, the internal
components of a hard drive are extremely fragile. An extreme
change in temperature can cause problems.
Do Not Physically Abuse the Drive
Some people have read about tips others
claimed have worked including hitting a hard drive or dropping
it on the floor in order to cause the parts to begin functioning
properly again. This is not advised as it can break the internal
components or scratch the surface of the platters which can
destroy the data residing on those platters.
Data recovery is more successful when
trusted in the hands of a data recovery company. It is important
that you do not take chances with the data you are trying to
recover.
