Data Recovery - Frequently Asked Questions
How can I minimize risk of data loss?
Question: How can I minimize risk of data loss?
Answer: No one wants to lose vital data stored on a hard disk. To ensure
the integrity of data, backup copies can be the best line of
defense. When the unthinkable happens, and data cannot be seen from
the operating system, another route must be taken to retrieve lost
data.
The table below outlines the main causes of data loss, showing the frequency of occurrence:
Table 1 Common Causes of Data Loss
Cause |
Chance |
Accidental removal of files and folders and then emptying Recycle Bin |
~ 75% |
After physical damage of critical sectors on HDD ("bad clusters") some drives become unreadable |
~ 6% |
Loss of information due to a power failure or power surge |
~ 5% |
Deletion of logical drive or partition itself then recalling important data on it |
~ 3% |
Damage of MBR, Partition Table, Volume Boot Sectors by virus |
~ 3% |
Other |
~ 8% |
Don't Forget following these Recovery Tips to avoid data loss.
Recovery Tips
CREATE DISK IMAGE IF YOU HAVE EXTRA HARD DRIVE, OR OTHER LOGICAL DRIVES ARE BIG ENOUGH!
Disk Image is a mirror of your logical drive that is stored in one file. This can be useful when you want to
backup the contents of the whole drive, and restore it or work with it later. Before you start recovering the deleted files, it
may be a good idea to create a Disk Image for this drive, if you have enough space at another drive. Why? Because if you do
something wrong while recovering the files (for example, recovering them onto the same drive could destroy their
contents), you still will be able to recover these deleted files and folders from the Disk Image that you have wisely created.
DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ONTO THE DRIVE CONTAINING YOUR IMPORTANT DATA THAT YOU HAVE JUST DELETED
ACCIDENTALLY!
Even data recovery software installation could spoil your sensitive data. If the data is really important to you, and you
do not have another logical drive to install software to, take whole hard drive out of the computer and plug into another
computer where data recovery software has been already installed.
DO NOT SAVE ONTO THE SAME DRIVE DATA THAT YOU FOUND AND TRYING TO RECOVER!
While saving recovered data onto the same drive where sensitive data was located, you can intrude in process of recovering by
overwriting table records for this and other deleted entries. It's better to save data onto another logical, removable,
network or floppy drive.
DO NOT MAKE DISK DEFRAGMENTATION. You should not use any disk defragmentation utilities such as CHKDISK & SCANDISK. The HDD sectors containing information of the previously deleted files can be overwritten with the new data.
