What is Data Recovery All About?

Data Loss is a Realityclassified into two categories i.e.:
What to do if an individual or an organization loses its1) Physical Damage
vital data? The lost data is not an umbrella or aThe storage media can get damaged due to a
walking stick, for which you can place annumber of reasons. Optical disks may have their data
advertisement in the lost and found columns of somestoring layer scratched off or damaged due to
local newspaper. It requires much more then this.mishandling, exposure to light, high temperature or
Data loss is an undeniable and inevitable reality inmoisture. Tapes may simply warp or snap due to a
today's techno savvy world. It may occur due to afaulty head or some other reason. Hard drives may
variety of reasons. First and foremost, the thing tosuffer a mechanical or electronic failure due to
be kept in mind is that despite all the technologicaldamage to some internal component. Most of the
advances, all the storage media that are currentlytimes, physical damages can not be repaired by the
popular tend to have a definite life span. For example,end users and they often require the services of
hard drives have a life span of three to six years.expert data recovery technicians to salvage the lost
Optical discs have an average life span of aboutdata.
thirty years. Hence data loss may occur due to failure2) Logical Damage
of storage media. Other common reasons for dataLogical damage occurs due to a file system
loss are hardware or system malfunction, virus orcorruption. This may happen due to a number of
malware attacks, human error, software corruptionreasons such as a malware attack, accidental deletion
or program malfunction and natural calamities.of important files or folders, power spike or
Necessity is the mother of invention. As it is possibleelectro-static discharge. This leads to a fault in the
to loss data, so we need data recovery.program design, owing to which it responds
What is Data Recovery?inappropriately or may completely crash. Sometimes,
Data recovery is the process of recovering datathe logical errors can be corrected using the DIY data
from a damaged or corrupted storage media, when itrecovery software. However, if the damage is
becomes impossible to access it using the regularsubstantial, it may necessitate the services of a data
procedures. Data recovery also involves salvagingrecovery company.
deleted files from a storage media. Data recoveryIs Lost Data Always Recoverable?
services are usually provided by highly specializedMost of the times lost or erased data can be
concerns, which have the expertise and know-howrecovered with a high success rate. Often when a file
to perform this complicated task. Highly skilled datais deleted, it continues to reside unharmed in the
recovery technicians use an array of software andunallocated clusters on the disk and is recoverable.
hardware tools that are at their disposal, to retrieveSometimes even the files which get written over can
the lost data.be recovered, using highly sophisticated data
Why Do We Need Data Recovery?recovery techniques. So, practically speaking, we
Due to widespread digitization of institutions andrarely come across cases, where the lost data is
organizations in the last few decades, the rate athundred percent irrecoverable.
which data is being generated per year is constantlyEssentials for Data Recovery
on the rise. Businesses and corporations have totallyOwing to a continuously rising demand, a number of
computerized almost all the aspects of their daydata recovery companies have mushroomed over
today activities. In such a situation, where companiesthe years. However, the companies which are
rely heavily on the saved data, a potential data lossgenuine and authentic can be counted on fingers.
disaster can jeopardize the very survival of aProper infrastructure (Class 100 Clean Room facilities),
concern. Physical assets are increasingly beingskilled technical staff and customized tools are the
replaced by virtual assets and every bit of data isindispensable requisites for any good data recovery
sometimes worth its weight in gold. As per a recentcompany. Moreover, a bona fide data recovery
estimate, the value of 100 megabytes of lost datacompany should be backed by dedicated R&D
stands to be approximately $1 million. In a scenarioto offer a wide range of solutions to its customers.
where 43 percent of the companies facing a dataSo next time you lose any data, do not get scared
loss disaster end up in bankruptcy, data recovery is aor anxious. The chances are that some good data
necessity.recovery company will be able to save the day for
Reasons for Data Lossyou.
Generally speaking the reasons for data loss can be