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Thursday, 21 May 2015 00:00

5 More Myths About Data Recovery

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It’s been nearly a year and a half since our last blog about data recovery myths. We gave you 15 myths that most people believe in regards to data recovery and data loss. While you are likely not planning on becoming a data recovery professional, a basic understanding of how data recovery works can help you understand what is, and what isn’t, necessary when it comes to data recovery. Hopefully by now, you understand that data recovery is not something only for businesses and people with too much money. Data recovery can be affordable, and necessary, for everyone. If you don’t understand how data recovery works, you could potentially find yourself overpaying for service, or not understanding why a price is reasonable for your data recovery case.


To add to those myths we gave you previously, here are 5 more myths about data loss and data recovery:

  1. My hard drive’s manufacturer is the best qualified to recover my data.
    Often, when you send a drive in because it is not working, the manufacturer will verify what caused the problem and replace your drive with a new one, if applicable. They will make no attempt to recover your lost data, as it is your responsibility to backup your data. You’ll also encounter the problem that drive manufacturers are no well versed in data recovery. They might be really good at building drives, but the intricacies of recovering data is a completely different area of expertise.

  2. I have a backup solution in place, so I’ll never need data recovery services.
    Unfortunately, this just isn’t true. If your backup solution is saved locally, any number of factors could affect both your live data as well as your backups - for example, natural disaster. Your locally saved backups can also be compromised by a virus that destroys your live data.

    If your backups are saved at another location (ie, you use a cloud service to store backups), corruption can affect your backups, making them unusable. The off-site storage location could also suffer from their own data loss, losing the backups you had stored there.

    It’s also possible, that even with a backup solution in place, your important files had not yet been backed up when you suffered data loss. There are too many potential ways that data could be lost, despite a backup solution being used.

  3. I can use a place that advertises a flat fee of $300 to get my data recovered quickly.
    Data recovery professionals that charge a flat fee for all cases, no matter what the cause of loss is just don’t exist. You might find a business that does data recovery like this, but they are not professionals. These types of providers often cut corners - for example, they do not use a clean room when they open your drive - and can potentially cause your drive to be damaged beyond repair.

    If a data recovery professional does offer a flat fee without diagnosing your drive, they would either be overcharging customers with simple cases or under charging customers with complicated cases. Very few customers would be charged a reasonable rate.

    At Info Recovery, we offer free standard diagnostics and a no-obligation quote created specifically for your case. This quote takes into account the speed with which you need your data, as well as the cause of the data loss and what action will be needed to resolve the problem. This ensures that the price you pay is the right price for your case.

  4. If I don’t pay for expedited service, I will get put on the ‘bottom of the pile’.
    While this might be true of small data recovery companies with limited resources, established data recovery companies can adjust to provide reasonable turn-around times for both customers utilizing expedited service, as well as customer utilizing the standard data recovery service option. At Info Recovery, we give you an estimate on how long your data recovery case will take to complete, and we do our best to not only return your data to you by that date, but we make ever effort to exceed your expectations and return your data sooner than we quoted.

  5. All data recovery specialists must operate with a certain level of security for all data recovery cases.
    There are no ‘industry-standards’ that dictate how data should be handled while being recovered. It’s important to look for a company that utilizes standards set for data security, so that your data is safe. There are a number of certifications a company can carry to show you that the company uses exceptional security practices. One big certification is SSAE 16 Type II certification (this was previously known as SAS 70). This is a certification that lets you know the business at least meets the minimum security requirements for handling the data of financial institutions. Another endorsement to look for is a GSA contract. A business holding a GSA contract is able to do business with government agencies.

Hopefully these 5 myths have helped you better understand the process of data recovery. In case you missed our first 15 myths, here is a quick overview of the myths we covered previously:

  1. Shockproof housing for external drives will keep you from losing data.
    This is a marketing ploy, and the shockproof housing is the equivalent of wrapping that money you spent around your drive to ward off accidents.

  2. Tapping a malfunctioning hard drive (say with a screwdriver) while it is booting will make it work right again.
    If your read/write heads are stuck, and not moving, this could potentially knock them loose. This will cause physical damage to the hard drive. You may lose data immediately, but if you don’t, the data loss fairies will be paying you a visit in the near future.

  3. The inside of a hard drive is a vacuum or ‘inert gas’ that keeps you from being able to take a hard drive apart.
    While there is a section in your drive that is dust-free, most of them are not a vacuum, and infact, have a filter that keeps dust and contaminants from getting inside the drive when air circulates. For more information, read Anatomy of a Hard Drive.

  4. I can make a “clean room” at home so I can open my hard drive to repair it.
    Dust and contaminants in the air are so small that even in the cleanest room in your home, there are millions of invisible particles in the air that will damage your drive, just by touching it. Read about our cleanroom and why it is important here.

  5. If the BIOS or OS does not see your hard drive, it will have to be disassembled to be repaired.
    Drives are only disassembled when there is physical damage. This is an issue that is almost always a logical problem, and can be addressed with specialized programs.

  6. Putting my hard drive in the freezer will make it work right again.
    Due to the condensation that is created between the platters of the drive, this is more likely to damage the drive beyond repair than it is to make it work right, even if you ‘protect’ your drive while in the freezer.

  7. Lost data is recovered by a special “data recovery machine.”
    While specialized software is used to address different failures you might seen in a data loss scenario, the process is not completed by a big machine. Data recovery is actually possible thanks to highly trained and skilled technicians that use specialized software as one of many tools used to recover your lost data.

  8. I can get my data back myself with some of that specialized software.
    Before using data recovery software, you first have to know what is causing the problem. If the drive is physically damaged, you will only damage the drive further and not recover any of your data.

  9. My damaged hard drive can be repaired.
    The actual hard drive is not repaired, per say. When a hard drive is damaged, the platters containing your data are moved into a new hard drive, and that hard drive is then programmed to work properly with the transplanted platters.

  10. I can transplant the platters myself.
    Because a hard drive contains programming that includes data like locations of bad sectors, if the firmware on the hard drive doesn’t match the data on the platters, the drive will not work. This reprogramming can only be done by experienced data recovery professionals.

  11. Professional data recovery is too expensive for me.
    Data recovery can be expensive. At Info Recovery, we offer free shipping, free diagnostics, no obligation-fixed quotes, and flexible options to help you balance speed with price as you need. We can recover your hard drive for as little as $300 in some cases.

  12. SSD drives cannot be broken.
    SSDs do not have moving parts, and therefore can’t break in the same way as platter drives. That does not mean they cannot fail or break.

  13. My drive will run as long as the manufacturer claims it can.
    No matter how long your drive is ‘certified’ to live, any drive can die at any time. They call it the ‘bathtub curve’.

  14. Higher price equals better quality data recovery.
    Data recovery cannot be ‘better’ or ‘worse’. You do want to ensure that the provider you chose has a clean room, if needed. For the most part, this idea is a marketing ploy that overpriced providers use to scare you.

  15. You can recover data after a magnetized wipe.
    This comes from a time before data was written in sectors. Because of the way data is saved on modern hard drives, this is not true.




Last modified on Thursday, 21 May 2015 14:00
Data Recovery Expert

Viktor S., Ph.D. (Electrical/Computer Engineering), was hired by DataRecoup, the international data recovery corporation, in 2012. Promoted to Engineering Senior Manager in 2010 and then to his current position, as C.I.O. of DataRecoup, in 2014. Responsible for the management of critical, high-priority RAID data recovery cases and the application of his expert, comprehensive knowledge in database data retrieval. He is also responsible for planning and implementing SEO/SEM and other internet-based marketing strategies. Currently, Viktor S., Ph.D., is focusing on the further development and expansion of DataRecoup’s major internet marketing campaign for their already successful proprietary software application “Data Recovery for Windows” (an application which he developed).