What Is Data Recovery

Posted by palash mohane on July 10th, 2022

What is data recovery?

Data recovery in a very broad terms, is the process of obtaining the lost data, corrupted data, damaged files, inaccessible data, deleted data etc from hard disk drive or digital media.

Some of the most common reasons for data loss are:

1. Human error – accidental deletion of files & folders, by mistake, instead of formatting pen drive, format the hard disk, spilling / fall of water on notebook etc contributes to nearly 88% of data loss

2. Virus problem -malware, ransomware

3. Corruption of data due to sudden power failure

4. Hardware malfunction / Bad Sectors

Type of data recovery                            

There are two types of recovery

1.Logical data recovery: Here drive is physically ok but because of some reason like damaged partition/ file system, accidental deletion of data , user data is not readily visible.

2. Physical data recovery: Damage occurred due to failure of internal parts /mechanism of hard disk drive resulting in file corruption.

What is Physical Damage and What Causes It?

Physical hard drive damage occurs when the internal mechanisms of your hard drive fail. This type of damage can cause file corruption and even permanent loss if the damage affects the specific sectors where your files are stored. Physical damage can occur from a wide range of factors like a fire or flood, faulty electronic parts, a head crash, or even being dropped.

 If you’ve ever heard a strange buzzing, grinding, or clicking sound emitting from your hard drive, it has likely experienced physical damage. This type of damage is especially common with external hard drives, USB drives, and portable discs as they can easy be dropped or bumped around; however, this type of damage can also occur in your computer. One of the most common, and also most risky, causes of physical damage is a head crash. This type of damage occurs when the read-write head is jolted out of place and presses against the rotating platter, causing severe and often permanent damage. Head crashes are also common when users try to repair their hard drives themselves but do not have a clean space—thereby causing dust particles to interfere with the device which can result in a head crash.

Because there are many different electronic components inside of a hard drive, there can be many causes for the malfunction. In most cases, the only way to determine what is causing the corruption is to physically open your hard drive in a clean space and inspect the components. If you suspect your hard drive may be suffering from physical damage, it is advised not to attempt to use it again until it has been inspected and repaired, as this can cause even more severe complications.

Type of data recovery

There are two types of recoveries logical data recovery and physical data recovery.

The logical case is simpler and deals with a fully working hard drive, where data was lost due to accidental user actions, a crash by an application or the OS, or even partitioning/formatting of the hard drive by mistake.

Logical failure: This is where the hard drive is physically functional but the data cannot be accessed. Logical failure includes corrupt engineering chip, firmware failure, lost partition, deleted data, re-install and formatting.

What is Logical Damage and What Causes It?

As opposed to physical damage which effects the hardware mechanisms/components inside your hard drive, logical damage affects its software. With this type of damage, files become unreadable due to issues like damaged file systems or partitioned tables, or it can be caused by logical bad sectors and intermittent media errors. Other common causes of logical damage occur when system data is deleted, formatted, or lost from the drives. This can accidentally occur due to human error or it can be a result of a virus attack.

Logical hard drive damage is often detected when you try to access a file and get an error message stating that the file is corrupt. If you have every tried to open an image, for example, and found that part or most of the file was black or covered in multi-colored lines, this is a sign of logical damage.

In many cases, software can be used to rewrite system files and reformat your drive for data recovery. This type of damage can often be reversed and a portion, if not all of the data can be retrieved.