What Is Data Recovery? - A Brief Introduction
By Simon Steggles - www.disklabs.com, Wed Dec 7th

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What is Data Recovery?

Data Recovery is the process of retrieval of inaccessible orcorrupt data from digital media that has become damaged in someway. can be used to recover data from devices asvaried as Hard Disk Drives, Memory Cards, Tapes, Mobile Phones,Personal Digital Assistants, Floppy Disk’s, CD’s, DVD’s, DataCartridges, Xbox’s and many more items.

Data Recovery may be needed for reasons as diverse as hardwarefailure, (the tape has been ‘chewed’ up, the hard disk drive hasfailed, the user has maliciously damaged the computer or digitaldevice, or it could have suffered fire or flood damage). All ofthese instances will require the services of a professional datarecovery company if the data was of such value (be itsentimental or financial) that the cost of the services are lessthan the perceived value of the data which is no longeraccessible.

It is not just businesses who are at risk from Data loss.Clients requiring come from all walks of life,including large corporates, smaller businesses, and the selfemployed to “joe public” who, with the introduction andsubsequent boom in the use of digital cameras etc to recordholidays and special occasions may have lost anything fromsentimental data to critical e-mails, and personal accountdetails. Students are often grouped under this heading too.

There are numerous ways that Data can be recovered from digitalmedia which can vary greatly, the simplest method can ofteninvolve the running of basic software on the storage medium inquestion. This is always a dangerous idea, because the recoverydata could overwrite the very data that is being recovered. Morecomplex commercial software tools are available which will dothis job more professionally. No software fix should beattempted prior to the original media being imaged, enabling therecovering company to work on a ‘back-up’ of the originalsoftware. The most professional companies will also take asecond image should there be a problem with the first image thatis being worked on for recovery.

The next problem is what happens when the hard disk or storagedevice































































doesn’t work. For the smaller ‘Data Recovery Companies’,this is a problem, and it is when the more serious Data RecoveryCompanies get involved, (such as Disklabs,http://www.disklabs.com ), who specialise in higher end DataRetrievals. It is always recommended that the most critical workshould be sent to a true specialist, (check outthe accreditations - ensure the specialist has ISO9001-2000Quality Assurance status, and is certified to ISO BE EN 14644 toensure that their clean facility is at the correct level forintrusive work, find out how long that company hasbeen trading, and check their testimonials). Once you have foundthe company that you are happy with, if the data storage devicedoesn’t work, there is a high likelihood that the digital mediawill require spare parts, this is where organisations such as1st Computer Traders Ltd, ( http://www.1ct.com ) are of service.Organisations such as 1CT sell spare parts for hard disk drivesto organisations such as Disklabs, ( http://www.disklabs.com )enabling them to get the original data accessible for longenough to image the data onto a stable storage device, enablingthat data to be duplicated again which in turn allows a saferecovery attempt to be achieved.

The job is generally finished when a list of allthe recovered files is sent to the client. Once the clientapproves this file listing, they are then shipped the data of anappropriate media. This can be a hard disk drive, floppy disk,CD or DVD. Alternatively, if a file is considered critical, itcan be encrypted and then emailed to the client.

It should be noted that in extreme cases it may be impossible torecover any data, however the bottom line is, as soon as youhave lost data you should power off your device and send it to aprofessional Company to optimise your chances of asuccessful recovery.

Simon Steggles Disklabs and Computer ForensicsServices

www.disklabs.com www.mobilephoneforensics.com www.1ct.com

About the author:Simon Steggles is a Director of Disklabs and also a director of1st Computer Traders Ltd, (www.1ct.com). Disklabs are datarecovery and computer forensics specialists, 1CT.com specialisein hard disk drive repair.

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