Data Recovery Tools

Data recovery refers to the recovery of data on a computer that has been lost due any potential reason. Most operating systems in use nowadays have some kind of repair tool built into them, even if these tools are very basic in nature. For example, Microsoft Windows comes with a chkdsk facility, Apple's Mac OS X has a Disk Utility, and Linux has an fsck utility.

While these utilities help repair minor inconsistencies, they're quite useless in the event of large scale data loss. There are third party utilities available, some of which are far superior to these built-in utilities on these operating systems. These third party utilities can even recover data from disks that are not recognized by the operating systems? own repair utility.

Data recovery tools use two main techniques to achieve the desired results. Consistency checking is performed by scanning the logical structure of the disk and making sure that it is consistent with its specification.

The second technique is to assume very little about the state the file system that is to be analyzed and use hints and bits of the undamaged file system to rebuild the destroyed file system from scratch.

There are numerous data recovery tools available on the market. All it takes is a simple online search to pull up thousands and thousands of companies as well as descriptions of the various tools they offer.

Different data recovery tools work in different ways, though most use the same concept. The method of recovery depends on the type and extent of damage.

Most software data tools are quite ineffective when the damage is physical. Physical damage of a drive requires completely different techniques of recovery compared to logical damage.

Selection of the right data recovery tool depends on a number of factors like the type and extent of damage, effectiveness of the tool, and its cost.