Disk Recovery Software

Disk recovery is the process of retrieving deleted or lost files. Files that are deleted using the 'shift-delete' function bypass the recycle bin and are erased from the operating system's memory. Files may also be lost due to power blackouts, computer viruses, and through unwanted, careless deleting or formatting.

Deleted or lost files can be recovered by using disk recovery software or freeware. It uses an FAT (file allocation table) and a MFT (master file table) to recover lost or deleted files from the hard disk. When a ?delete? command is executed, the operating system merely deletes the path of the file and registers the space occupied by the file as free space. The path is not removed from FAT and MFT and can be accessed using recovery software.

Freeware is generally used to recover recently deleted files. For recovering important and critical files, special recovery software can be purchased from data recovery firms. In cases where the hard disk is severely damaged due to water or other elements, it is removed from the hard drive bay and sent to a professional data recovery firm. These firms use special software and processes to make a sector-by-sector mirror copy of the damaged hard disk. Deleted files are recovered and sent back to the client.

Damaged Hard Drive Recovery

A hard drive failure is an unexpected event. A buzzing or ticking sound might be the only indication before all the ongoing work is lost in a matter of seconds. Since so much data is stored on the hard drives, data recovery procedures become a must in case of disk failure.

A hard drive may get damaged either internally or externally. Internal damage maybe caused by corrupt software, bad file structure or virus attacks. This is known as logical failure. When a component of the hard drive is damaged due to power fluctuations or heavy impact, it is known as physical failure. Both these cases can be rectified to recover the data on the hard drive.

The nature of the problem should be analyzed. The user can run disk utilities such as ?Scandisk? to determine if there are any problems with the hard drive. Such utilities scan the complete disk area for bad and lost sectors. Some utilities determine if there is any physical damage to the disk. Damaged data can usually be rectified by these normal utilities. The data in bad sectors can be copied to another location. If the basic disk utilities do not work, the user can go in for the high-end data recovery softwares available in the market. This software can recover almost all types of data losses.