Myths and facts about data recovery

1. Myth: I can recovery the data myself

Fact: Do it yourself (DIY) projects can work especially if the hard drive has a logical failure of the file system. We however do not recommend this for  Some reasons include like :The media has physical problems and running the software against the media made things worse; or, the software was run against the media and the recovered data was written back to the same media effectively destroying the data. Before you consider a DIY data recovery project call us for advice.

2. Myth: All data is recoverable

Fact: In many cases data is recoverable, but unfortunately not in all cases. There are times when the damage is catastrophic. Fortunately these cases are often rare and not the norm for a legitimate data recovery company. We can assess the media and determine the problem and provide a solution to you.

 3 Myth: My drive is making a really weird noise, therefore it is unrecoverable.

Fact: If your hard drive is making unusual noises TURN IT OFF IMMEDIATELY. This symptom can indicate a catastrophic failure or a head crash and could destroy your data. The noise your are hearing is generally the head stack (the read/write heads) in the hard disk drive trying to find data in a location on one of the platters it needs to start the drive. Any attempt at recovering these drives yourself may cause further damage or permanent data loss. But, this symptom is not always caused by the heads failing. There is other code called “firmware” in the drive that may be corrupt and causing the same action by the heads. This can only  be diagnosed by a trained professional. Be aware Do It Yourselfers, because this firmware is unique to that hard drive, swapping the hard drives PCB could make the drive unrecoverable.

4. . Myth: I can take my hard drive to my computer friend, they can recover my data.

Fact: Taking your hard drive to a friend or some “computer nerd” you know may sound logical and cost effective, but it could potentially cause more damage. Knowledge of computers does not mean that they understand the inner workings of a hard disk drive. We do not recommend this at all.

5. Myth: I read on the Internet all I have to do to recover my data is…..

Fact: The Internet is a wonderful thing. It does however provide some false hope and misinformation when it comes to data recovery. Some of the information is correct, but, some of it is not.  The question is how as a consumer do you know? There are so many Do It Yourself (DIY) data recovery videos on YouTube that one could get the impression that data recovery is a fairly simple field and anyone can do it on their kitchen table. The question is “What is your data worth to you?” If it is worth something, consider getting advice and assistance from a qualified data recovery service before doing it yourself.