All electronic devices are bound to fail, that’s a universal truth. The question is not whether they will fail but rather when they will fail. In the digital era, storage devices play a pivotal role in housing important data: anything from cherished memories such as videos, photographs to creative and other important research and business-critical assets. When data loss occurs because of hardware failure and a backup is not available, it’s hard to resist the temptation of trying to figure things out yourself. After all, there are so many online do-it-yourself data recovery tutorials available. However, it’s important to recognize that do-it-yourself methods could decrease chances of professional data recovery down the road, at the risk of losing precious data forever. Here are the top ten do-it-yourself tactics to avoid when experiencing data loss:
1. Opening a hard drive: Opening a hard drive without the experience and the right tools to handle the fragile components of a drive can cause further damage to the device. Significant physical damage to a drive will result in unrecoverable data. Instead, trust professional data recovery service labs who operate in anti-static, clean rooms that are specifically equipped and designed to keep away contaminants such as airborne particles (dust, hair, skin flakes, etc.)
2. Keep using a drive that is clicking: It’s important to stop using a clicking drive immediately to prevent further data loss caused by media damage. Furthermore, be sure to promptly disconnect the device from power sources for safety reasons.
3. Replacing the circuit board: In past hard drive models, it was possible to swap the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with that of a drive in the same range. However, in most modern hard drives, the firmware is unique for each individual drive so the drive will simply not work without the original PCB. Expert data recovery service companies can repair this by leveraging the firmware from the chips.
4. Formatting or initializing the drive: This process will make any data recovery much more complicated as it will overwrite existing filesystem data. Formatting a drive can potentially wipe out all of the data stored in the hard drive.
5. Freezing a hard drive: When condensation settles on the platters of a drive, it affects the coating on the platters by introducing water particles. This is detrimental to the functionality of the drive.
6. Tapping the hard drive against a solid surface: Under its chassis, a hard drive is made of fragile components. When mishandled, a drive will be damaged because components break or move out of place.
7. Forcing data access: Forcing data access or attempting to read damaged sectors directly on the hard disk drive can lead to further physical damage of platters and exacerbate potential read/write errors.
8. Using improper tools: Leveraging the wrong tools will cause additional harm to the hard drive by further corrupting the remaining usable parts of the drive.
9. Overwriting data sections: Do not write new data onto the hard drive while attempting to recover existing files as this can destroy remnants of lost information that have the potential to be recovered later with more advanced techniques.
10. Attempting repairs: Repairs like replacing platters or rebuilding the drive's internal components without proper training would be a mistake as they lead to additional damage to the media, further complicating recovery efforts by professionals.
Bottom line, when experiencing data loss from a storage device, it’s best to leave data recovery attempts to professional data recovery service providers to optimize chances of getting the data back. However, shopping for the right service provider is a daunting task. Looking beyond expert skillsets, confidently select a company that provides fair pricing, a fixed price for data recovery service as opposed to an escalating pricing scheme that depends on the evaluation of the drive for example. Fair pricing also means that the company is willing to give its customers a full refund for unsuccessful data recovery attempts. ATP Data Services deeply understand its customers’ needs as it already serves a wide range of customers across industries, recovering data from any brand of storage technology.