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It’s often not a question of if, but when you will need data recovery. However, when that time comes, you can trust that SalvageData Recovery has the extensive experience and expertise to recover data from every manufacturer, make, model and operating system storage device. With some of the most proficient recovery engineers around today, state of the art data recovery tools and clean room facilities we can ensure every client receives professional and fast data recovery service.

The data recovery process is highly dependent on the type of data and the media upon which it is stored. For more details on the most commonly requested scenarios, please select from the list below. If your data loss issue concerns a proprietary or otherwise unusual data or media type, please call or email us to discuss your options.

SalvageData Recovery has a full range of recovery services available for hard drives and operating systems, including:

People lose access to data for a multitude of reasons. The two most common categories of data loss are logical and physical.

 

Where the computer is unable to make sense of the data that is randomly stored across the disk. This is usually caused by the computer’s index system being damaged or corrupted. The data is there, but the computer is unable to recognize it, and thereby unable to reconstitute it into a readable document or file. Where structural corruption is the cause of the data loss, your chances of getting all the data back are extremely good. With the use of software tools and manual, structural work, the data can be returned to a state that is understood by the computer.

Physical malfunction of the storage hardware is much more serious. At SalvageData Recovery, we group hardware failures into three broad categories.

 

 

Where the external electrical circuits have failed. Recovery from a hard disk in these cases is the easiest to provide, as long as a replacement circuit board can be located. This is not as simple as it sounds, as each hard disk may go through many revisions during its life-cycle, and a revision specific printed circuit board must be held in our parts inventory, or available from our suppliers.

 

 

Where the internal mechanics of the hard disk drive have failed through internal factors such as age, minor manufacturing defects, or as a result of external factors such as shock, heat or water. The internal mechanics within a modern hard disk are very delicate, and have extremely small tolerances. Again, specific revision parts are required, and the internal mechanics will need to be mended or replaced in order for the hard drive to be able to read the data again. The hard disk will need to be disassembled in a class 100 clean environment to prevent damage to the disk platters upon which the magnetic media stores the data.

 

 

Where the magnetic media on the surface of the hard disk platters has become damaged or corrupted. This is most often caused by what is known as a ‘head-crash’. This is where the electronic heads that read the data, from the disk surface, actually crash into the spinning platter surface and begin to scrape the media away. Once magnetic media that contains your data is scrapped away, and turned to dust, not even our technicians can put it back together. Because a computer stores data randomly across a set of platters in a hard disk drive, a relatively minor head crash can damage many files. Whole files and sometimes parts of files can be recovered but it is likely that the quality of the recovery is going to be lower than another type of hardware failure. On many occasions, the media damage is so severe that little valuable data can be salvaged.

 

When a user deletes a file, whether accidentally or intentionally, the actual data is not destroyed, but the computer system now regards that data as no longer required.

As long as the ‘deleted data’ has not been overwritten by new data, it can be found, reconstituted and recovered. Therefore the quicker you can get the affected hard disk drive to us, the better your chances of receiving 100% of your deleted data.

In some circumstances, a file itself may be seen and recognized by a computer system, but the internal structures of the file have become damaged, or are corrupted.

This is particularly common with large databases or email files. SalvageData Recovery has the tools and expertise to ‘fix’ a large range of corrupted data files so the data they contain can be recovered.

Due to the importance of the data stored on these systems, speed of recovery is often the key consideration. The good news is that RAID's hardware fault tolerance makes the chances of a successful recovery extremely high.

RAID and other enterprise server environments have a high degree of fault tolerance, however, they are sometimes susceptible to corruption. The successful and timely recovery of data from these servers requires a thorough understanding of the server set up. Our development staff are experts in evaluating the soft and hard configurations of your system to understand how the data loss has occurred and how to solve the problem in the fastest time possible.

Each recovery is highly specific, and the more detail you can provide us with at the initial assessment phase, the greater our chances of a fast recovery. Where appropriate, you may be required to interface directly with our development staff.

Tape is susceptible to three main types of data loss: head-alignment issues, partial over-write and tape breakage.

In many cases, the tape or tape drive can be mended so that the data can be read and copied out to a different medium. We have access to all tape drives commonly used, and are experienced in the handling of all tape types and formats.

Cards used to store data in digital cameras, MP3 players and USB storage devices are often ‘solid-state’ memory devices. This means that the data is stored on chips rather than on moving media such as hard disk drive platters or tape.

Chips come in two main types: volatile and non-volatile. Where a chip set is described as volatile, any loss of direct power to the chip means that the data is lost. Where a chip set is non-volatile, the data is retained, even if electric power is not continually applied. The logical structure of data on non-volatile storage media like most ‘flash memory’, is very similar to that on a disk drive, and can be recovered in a similar way. ...