When a data loss is revealed many users vigorously start seeking various data recovery utilities in the Internet or try to solve the problem with file system repair software integrated in the Windows operating system. Such attempts may lead not only to failure to recover data but complicate or make impossible data recovery at all.Firstly, if a program is downloaded from the Internet and not from the manufacturer’s web-site, it is possible that it is infected with a virus or it contains a Trojan program. An attempt to use such program for data recovery may lead to unexpected outcomes. The worst case scenario is when the computer is captured by malware (malicious software) that on top of everything may delete all files from computer disks. Of course, anti-virus programs to a certain degree allow detecting malicious code, though they do not provide full guarantee. That is why if important data has vanished you should not attempt to recover it with programs that you got from a source that is not trustworthy.
Secondly, even if you use a specially designated data recovery software there is a chance of deterioration. Inexperienced in data recovery users may mistakenly or unknowingly install such software to a disk that is subject to recovery or save on the disk recovered files. It will inevitably lead to rewriting of files and inability of further recovery.
Thirdly, an attempt to recover data from a disk that has bad sectors by ordinary programs may lead to a sharp increase of number of bad sectors. The thing is that controller makes multiple attempts to read contents of defective sector by constantly landing heads to the beginning of disk and to the failed area. This may provoke snowballing growth in number of bad sectors and, as a consequence, to inability to recover all or partial data.
Data recovery utilities as rule are useless for recovery of data from damaged data carriers, failed hard disk drives and memory cards. There is no way to recover data without special hardware solutions.
Data recovery in special cases shall include expert diagnostics of the condition of damaged data media allowing to determine scope and nature of damage accurately. Using semi-automatic and even manual recovery, special equipment and technologies we can help in many difficult cases when automatic utilities are simply not able to recover data or are not applicable at all.
