We are all dealing with data loss, whether due to hard drive failure, data corruption, or accidentally deleting a file. If you’ve ever had massive data loss, you’re probably wondering what data recovery is – how does it work? How effective? How much does it cost? We learn.

Loss of data and recovery

Data loss can take many forms – accidental erasure, hard drive failure, software failure, data corruption, hacking, even a simple power failure can cause data loss. And there are, of course, more extreme cases, such as when the hard drive is recovered from a plane crash; Surprisingly, some data recovery services have technicians which can access data from almost destroyed media.

If you previously had data on your hard drive, hard drive, USB flash drive, RAID or other media, you can offer someone (or buy software) to recover the data. Data retrieval is a simple way to store and recover lost data. Of course, data retrieval is not always possible; sometimes a system can be damaged or damaged to retrieve much of the data.

How does data recovery work?

The methods used to lookup lost data depends on how the data was lost; let’s take a look at some of the most common forms here.

Delete files

Interestingly, deleted files remain on disk until they are overwritten by another file. This means that if you act quickly, you have a good chance of recovering the file. If you delete files, you can use file recovery software, such as TestDisk, which uses sophisticated algorithms that search the hard drive for information to find where the file is located. If you guess it correctly, you will get the file back. If not, you’re in luck.

Corruption of the file

If you’ve come across one of the dreaded “damaged hard drive” errors, you know how frustrating it can be. However, it is still possible that data can be recovered. If you connect the hard drive to another computer, it may be that only the operating system is damaged and the rest of your data is in order – in this case you just have to copy everything to another hard drive.

A further problem that can lead to this is a damaged distribution table that can be repaired with the right software. If you can successfully recover the spreadsheet, all your files should be light.

File system format or corruption

Like deleting a file, the formatting of the file system destroys previous file and disk structure information, but the amount of data you delete depends on the system format. For example, FAT formatting destroys large amounts of data and overwrites this part of the disk with zeros, greatly reducing the likelihood of data recovery. Some file systems, such as NTFS, are likely to recover more if overwritten with the same file system, while others are less likely to overwrite the same system.

The best measure to prevent long-term data loss is the one that has long been said: Make lots of backups! Use a cloud-based backup provider, keep a hard drive in your home and prevent power outages or accidental formatting. And especially take measures to prevent file damage.