Hard drive data loss can happen in several ways. A summery has been given below:-
1) Loss of Data through physical means – In this case, the disk itself, or one of the related devices is physically damaged. Physical loss of data can happen in the following instances:
- Dust – Sometimes a disk may be taken out, and not stored properly. As a result, dust gathers on its surface. A hard drives surface is extremely delicate, and dirt can be too abrasive for it. The dirt gathers in the ‘folds’ on the surface of the circuitry, because it is not even. The drive itself is protected by a very sturdy cover, but it cannot always stop dust from getting in. If foreign particles can manage to get in touch with the surface of the actual disc, then the surface will be scratched, and one can easily imagine the consequences of this. One should always put the drive in a proper ziplocked bag, and keep it shock protected when not actually in a computer’s casing.
- Accidents or Fire – One may drop a hard drive, there can be a fire, or a flood. A hard drive is also susceptible to humidity and direct sunlight. It is a delicate object, and water is particularly bad for it. Here it must be pointed out that an overheated CPU is also not very conducive for the hard drive’s optimum use. Dropping a disc can be terribly bad for it, and if the disc is rotating even as it falls, the impact will be even worse.
- Motor or other devices – A malfunctioning motor, faulty read or write head – can all damage the hard drive. But in these cases, the problem can be solved more easily.
2) Loss of data through logical damage – Data loss can also happen through the following; the data itself is affected in this case, while the drive remains physically unscathed.
3)
- System faults – The operating system will refuse to start up, the disk may develop bad sectors. Fragmentation of data is a major cause behind problems like these.
- Formatting – Be it on purpose, or by mistake, an entire disk or a partition may be formatted. Thankfully, formatting moves the data from its original location on the disc, but it is not lost. The experts will have to work extremely hard for it, but this can be remedied.
- Viruses – A virus can crash the hard drive, corrupting the data and attacking programme files.
- Power surge / failure – Power spikes or surges might crash a hard drive, and are not always controllable by the uninterrupted power supply unit (UPS). This is somewhat of a common problem with laptops, which are often carelessly plugged in with sudden and disastrous consequences.
The Recovery Process
A hard drive crash need not sound like the tolling of bells of doom any more. There are several companies that deal with hard drive data recovery. Besides, the internet has some very good user friendly software packs that a home user can easily handle to recover lost data. The chances of recovering data lost through physical factors is usually less than recovering data affected by logical (software) problems. It must also be stated here that bad handling or incorrect installation of recovery software will damage the data further. In the majority of the cases where a company has lost data, the end user does not try to handle the problem at all, but goes for professional assistance.
A data recovery expert will first have an exact copy of the damaged disc created. Then the repairs will be made on that copy, using the original only for reference, but not touching it any further. In the case of fragmented files, one has to actually look through billions of file endings to locate the ones wanted, or damaged. At the end of the work, the damaged disc, the new disc, and a DVD or another drive containing all the information wanted is handed back to the client along with a record of the proceedings.
For more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk