Have you wondered about what to do when you need to recover a deleted file? Data recovery is a broad range of techniques and methods that allow users and IT specialists to restore files that have been deleted by accident or modified by viruses and other malware threats. In our article we would like to present how data recovery actually works.
Introducing Data Recovery – Is It Magic?
Data recovery is not something overly complicated, computer experts define it as the process of rescuing inaccessible, damaged or corrupted data from various media and storage devices that cannot be accessed in the ordinary manner. In many cases this is synonymous with restoring deleted files. The extraction source can range from internal and external hard drives to various removable media such as magnetic tapes, optical discs (CDs and DVDs) and even RAID array configurations. In many cases the data recovery methods are used to extract valuable files from failed physical drives or devices. From this we can conclude that there are two types of data failure:
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Physical Damage – These problems are caused to physical failures on the storage media or devices themselves. Reasons for this can be mechanical failures, breakage, natural disasters or inappropriate human handling. In most cases data loss is permanent and data recovery can only produce a limited effect when restoring user data. Many types of physical failures cannot be repaired by the owners.
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Logical Damage – Logical damage refers to errors that are not caused by hardware problems. They can range from anything from corrupted partitions, file systems to overwritten data by mistake.
The majority of cases where users would want to recover their files is when a malware or another type of virus has compromised their systems. Over the last few years we have seen an enormous spike of ransomware infections that target both individual users and organizations and businesses. Other logical errors are the result of file system or master boot record (MBR) corruption often caused by operating system issues and accidental file deletion. Physical damage is usually related to hard disk failure due to mechanical defects in the drives themselves. There are different data recovery methods that can be employed in each case scenario.
Deleted or Modified Data Recovery
Many users delete files by accident or they have their data compromised by viruses. In any cases deleted data by software (logical) reasons is one of the most common complaints that computer experts receive. In many cases at least portions of the compromised data can be recovered using specialized data recovery software. Deleted data is in fact overwritten with new information which makes it possible to recover the deleted files if not enough write passes have been made. There are several steps that are used to restore affected files when using data recovery methods which include both hardware repairs and sophisticated software tools:
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Hard Disk Drive Repair – This is enforced when a physical cause has prevented data access for the computer user.
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The creation of a backup image – Recovery experts usually create an accurate image that contains an exact copy of all the data that can be accessed from the client’s computer. This is used to prevent further data loss and ensures that a secondary copy is available on a safe device.
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Recovery of Data Via Software Solutions – This employs the use of specialized data recovery software solutions that can recover files, partitions, the Master Boot Record (MBR) and all filesystem structures.
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File Repair – File restoration techniques are employed to recover files which are corrupted and have not been restored in previous steps. This can be due to data written in a bad sector. Various software methods are used to reconstruct the data structures which allow for the files to be recovered.
Many of the popular file systems have an undeletion feature which allows partial data recovery. Many of the modern graphical desktop operating systems actually do not delete the user data. When the users press the “delete” button they actually move the “undersired” data to a temporary holding area where the files are processed periodically. This is usually known as the “recycle bin”.
Data Recovery Software
Data recovery can be done easily by ordinary computer users when they use specialized data recovery software. There are professional grade tools that are easy to use and we can highly recommend them for both being a fast and reliable way to recover affected data. You can use them to restore your lost files and folders.
We have handpicked two of the best applications that guarantee a high level of efficiency and are very easy to use. We have provided instant download links so that you can easily get your own copy of the software.
Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional software to recover deleted or inaccessible Windows partitions. This tool will render data from partitions lost due to system malfunction, virus attack, disk failure or sabotage.
- Recovers partitions, data, documents, photos, and 300 more file types
- Recovers files from damaged or corrupt optical media
- Recovers deleted emails in MS Outlook and Outlook Express
- Supports data recovery from Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP
