Fifteen myths about data recovery and loss
Over the years, we at Storelab Data Recovery have collected a small collection of myths about data loss and recovery. Some of them are actively replicated on various computer and not very forums - so, hopefully, this article will be useful to those who are looking for help when the disk is broken or data is lost. So a post on how not to make a difficult situation worse.
In the photo - the result of the "cooling" of the hard disk.
This is a marketing move - rubberized cases do not save the hard drive from damage after a fall, for example. They, of course, look beautiful and spectacular, and give the hard disk the look of reliability, inspiring confidence in the buyer - they are buying from them. However, they do not significantly reduce the overload on the parts of the disk during impact or fall. This can save on the condition of a small height (up to about 50 cm for 2.5 inch hard drives, up to 20 cm for 3.5-inch disks) and for a disk in the off state. In the on state, the disk almost always fails, because The maximum allowable overload on a working disk is 5-7 times less than that of a disconnected one. We carried out a crash test of Samsung, Hitachi, WD, Seagate double-byte drives. Dropped on, starting from a height of 5 cm, then ten, then every 10 cm. All the disks, except Samsung, were broken after 15 cm. Samsung broke 40 cm due to rubber dampers standing between the hard and the case. All drives were external 3.5-inch.
To achieve this effect, you can still hit the disc a little on the floor. Only it will not be the “repair effect”. As a result of such dances with a tambourine, small parts of what will break away inside will scratch the disk and the data will not be restored. You can especially destroy data if you turn on a disk and then drop it from a height of about one meter (see the previous paragraph). On its surface, beautiful blisters form, after the appearance of which the data will no longer be recovered.
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- or, as some of our customers say, “inert gas”. Therefore, if you accidentally open the hard drive, you will suck into it due to the fact that the air from the room “sucks” into the vacuum space of the hard drive. Good myth, sorry to dispel it: maybe it will be possible to dissuade some “craftsmen” from making their data “ineligible for recovery” by disassembling a disk? However, in fact, inside the disk - just clean dust-free air, so that nothing gets into the space between the disk and the head.
About 10-15 years ago, the discs were really completely sealed, they could even be poured with water, drowned, then wiped the electronics board and used further - the water did not get inside. On modern discs, there are always holes in the core of the HDA or the lid with the words “DO NOT COVER THIS HOLE”, under them are air filters that trap unwanted particles. This change was made by manufacturers due to the introduction of new production technologies, cheaper production costs and a number of other reasons. If such a disk is dipped into water, it will get into the HM through the filter.
For example, you can disassemble-assemble a disk in the bathroom, if you clean it beforehand. This is one of our favorite delusions. Even an expert with experience is unlikely to cope without a comfortable table, a chair, the necessary tripods, tweezers, screwdrivers and pullers. And to organize a full-fledged workplace at home in the bathroom with all the necessary tools the user will not be at least for economic reasons, because Usually they try to repair the discs on their own to save money As we said in the previous post , the disc is assembled and disassembled in a special dust-free space, and the specialist working with the disc is dressed in special clothes. Although, if you wash your bath properly ... No, we still do not advise doing this.
In fact, if there is no agreement with the disk in the software language, a specially trained hardware is used, which establishes a “dialogue” with the problem disk. At this level, you can clean the bed, replace the idle software of the disk itself, you can “remove” the information from the bed and transfer it to another medium, etc.
Disassemble the disk is necessary only when it is physically defective.
The hard disk has a servo drive that allows you to more precisely adjust the position of the head relative to the disk, and there is a surface layer of the disk. There should be a certain gap between the head and the disk. But sometimes the head starts to fail. Little knowledge is worse than ignorance: someone thought that as a result of the natural heating of the disk and all sorts of things about expansion and compression of materials, it is treated by cooling / heating. As a result of freezing the hard drive, condensate forms between its plates. At the first inclusion after such cooling the disk can be irrevocably damaged. In the photo at the beginning of the post - an example of what the disk turns into when you turn it on after an hour in the freezer.
The origins of this myth are in the human imagination. Supposedly the faulty hard stuff is stuffed into some kind of machine, which seems to be acting like magnets, and the data that “lay on the disk in disarray” and therefore could not be read ”is again lined up in even“ rows ”. In fact, they use either software, or special devices, or a “clean room” (read, disassembling a disk). The data on a physically faulty disk is not restored back - a donor is used for this.
Utilities will not help if the disk is physically damaged. It is necessary to restore at least in the "healthy" section, and better - to a new carrier.
Change his program, and then find and hide bedy - you can. But the drive will not fix it. Data needs to be restored to a new disk. That is why when you contact data recovery specialists, a “donor” is used - a working device to which data is restored. If someone promises to fix the dead disk, he most likely does what is described in this paragraph: but the disk is not done by either the new or the “repaired” disk and working with it in the future is not safe for the safety of your data. If his hour has struck, he has struck.
In order for this to work, you will have to guess with your own disk program, a disk series - well, in general, take the exact same disk and put a pancake on it from the exact same disk. However, this does not negate the need to work in a specially prepared room, the availability of equipment (see Section 4 about the "clean room").
Some companies would like you to believe in this myth. In fact, the price is made up of various factors. How difficult it is to recover the data will depend on what you did with the disk after it refused to work. Turn off the computer (so that it does not have the temptation to “repair” the disk itself), do not use utilities, do not disassemble the disk - and it may be possible to recover the data without resorting to “clean room” - and this is the most expensive option. When the hard disk is physically functional, the cost of data recovery should be around 1500 rubles. Diagnostics should be free of charge , and if, for some reason, the data could not be recovered, you should not pay anything.
There are no moving parts in a solid-state drive, as in a hard disk, and there is nothing special about spinning and breaking in it. However, this does not mean that they can play football - they are not insured against collapse. In an effort to make them smaller in size and larger in volume, manufacturers sometimes forget to make them more reliable. In addition, from normal fall or drowning, these drives are protected just like any hard drive: only by your own prudence and good fortune. In addition, they are more expensive and have a limited number of rewrite cycles. In addition, SSDs released before 2009 were often slower than the HDD, especially after long use.
4% of such disks break in the first year. The fact is that the time stated on the packaging is the estimated time of how much the disc of this model should theoretically work. And there it is not said a word that your disk will work so much.
Data cannot be recovered “better” or “worse”. They can be restored or not restored. Special software, special devices and, finally, tools and a “clean room” are used for this. Data recovery devices are expensive in and of themselves, but do not differ so much as to greatly influence the price difference for data recovery services. This is all PR and marketing.
This myth comes from the past, when computers were large and hard computers were small. On hard disks up to 1MB there was a byte-by-byte record, that is, simply put, one disk cluster was equal to one byte during recording. In this case, it made sense to look for the residual magnetization and restore data on it. Now, when the data is recorded sector-by-sector, and in one sector 512 bytes, and the recording density of tens of gigabytes per square centimeter is no longer possible.
In the photo - the result of the "cooling" of the hard disk.
1. Shockproof enclosures for external drives
This is a marketing move - rubberized cases do not save the hard drive from damage after a fall, for example. They, of course, look beautiful and spectacular, and give the hard disk the look of reliability, inspiring confidence in the buyer - they are buying from them. However, they do not significantly reduce the overload on the parts of the disk during impact or fall. This can save on the condition of a small height (up to about 50 cm for 2.5 inch hard drives, up to 20 cm for 3.5-inch disks) and for a disk in the off state. In the on state, the disk almost always fails, because The maximum allowable overload on a working disk is 5-7 times less than that of a disconnected one. We carried out a crash test of Samsung, Hitachi, WD, Seagate double-byte drives. Dropped on, starting from a height of 5 cm, then ten, then every 10 cm. All the disks, except Samsung, were broken after 15 cm. Samsung broke 40 cm due to rubber dampers standing between the hard and the case. All drives were external 3.5-inch.
2. If the hard drive junk, knock on it during the download, for example, with a screwdriver
To achieve this effect, you can still hit the disc a little on the floor. Only it will not be the “repair effect”. As a result of such dances with a tambourine, small parts of what will break away inside will scratch the disk and the data will not be restored. You can especially destroy data if you turn on a disk and then drop it from a height of about one meter (see the previous paragraph). On its surface, beautiful blisters form, after the appearance of which the data will no longer be recovered.
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3. Inside the hard disk vacuum
- or, as some of our customers say, “inert gas”. Therefore, if you accidentally open the hard drive, you will suck into it due to the fact that the air from the room “sucks” into the vacuum space of the hard drive. Good myth, sorry to dispel it: maybe it will be possible to dissuade some “craftsmen” from making their data “ineligible for recovery” by disassembling a disk? However, in fact, inside the disk - just clean dust-free air, so that nothing gets into the space between the disk and the head.
About 10-15 years ago, the discs were really completely sealed, they could even be poured with water, drowned, then wiped the electronics board and used further - the water did not get inside. On modern discs, there are always holes in the core of the HDA or the lid with the words “DO NOT COVER THIS HOLE”, under them are air filters that trap unwanted particles. This change was made by manufacturers due to the introduction of new production technologies, cheaper production costs and a number of other reasons. If such a disk is dipped into water, it will get into the HM through the filter.
4. “Clean room” can be provided at home and disassembled disc
For example, you can disassemble-assemble a disk in the bathroom, if you clean it beforehand. This is one of our favorite delusions. Even an expert with experience is unlikely to cope without a comfortable table, a chair, the necessary tripods, tweezers, screwdrivers and pullers. And to organize a full-fledged workplace at home in the bathroom with all the necessary tools the user will not be at least for economic reasons, because Usually they try to repair the discs on their own to save money As we said in the previous post , the disc is assembled and disassembled in a special dust-free space, and the specialist working with the disc is dressed in special clothes. Although, if you wash your bath properly ... No, we still do not advise doing this.
5. If the BIOS or the axis does not see your hard drive, then it is broken, and it must be disassembled
In fact, if there is no agreement with the disk in the software language, a specially trained hardware is used, which establishes a “dialogue” with the problem disk. At this level, you can clean the bed, replace the idle software of the disk itself, you can “remove” the information from the bed and transfer it to another medium, etc.
Disassemble the disk is necessary only when it is physically defective.
6. The hard drive needs to be heated / cooled to work better.
The hard disk has a servo drive that allows you to more precisely adjust the position of the head relative to the disk, and there is a surface layer of the disk. There should be a certain gap between the head and the disk. But sometimes the head starts to fail. Little knowledge is worse than ignorance: someone thought that as a result of the natural heating of the disk and all sorts of things about expansion and compression of materials, it is treated by cooling / heating. As a result of freezing the hard drive, condensate forms between its plates. At the first inclusion after such cooling the disk can be irrevocably damaged. In the photo at the beginning of the post - an example of what the disk turns into when you turn it on after an hour in the freezer.
7. Data is restored with a special “data recovery machine”
The origins of this myth are in the human imagination. Supposedly the faulty hard stuff is stuffed into some kind of machine, which seems to be acting like magnets, and the data that “lay on the disk in disarray” and therefore could not be read ”is again lined up in even“ rows ”. In fact, they use either software, or special devices, or a “clean room” (read, disassembling a disk). The data on a physically faulty disk is not restored back - a donor is used for this.
8. Data recovery specialists are not needed because there are free utilities.
Utilities will not help if the disk is physically damaged. It is necessary to restore at least in the "healthy" section, and better - to a new carrier.
9. The disc can be fixed.
Change his program, and then find and hide bedy - you can. But the drive will not fix it. Data needs to be restored to a new disk. That is why when you contact data recovery specialists, a “donor” is used - a working device to which data is restored. If someone promises to fix the dead disk, he most likely does what is described in this paragraph: but the disk is not done by either the new or the “repaired” disk and working with it in the future is not safe for the safety of your data. If his hour has struck, he has struck.
10. You can take a pancake from a broken disk, take a working disk, remove the pancake from there, put a pancake with the data there, and take everything
In order for this to work, you will have to guess with your own disk program, a disk series - well, in general, take the exact same disk and put a pancake on it from the exact same disk. However, this does not negate the need to work in a specially prepared room, the availability of equipment (see Section 4 about the "clean room").
11. Professional data recovery is expensive, prices start at 25,000 rubles.
Some companies would like you to believe in this myth. In fact, the price is made up of various factors. How difficult it is to recover the data will depend on what you did with the disk after it refused to work. Turn off the computer (so that it does not have the temptation to “repair” the disk itself), do not use utilities, do not disassemble the disk - and it may be possible to recover the data without resorting to “clean room” - and this is the most expensive option. When the hard disk is physically functional, the cost of data recovery should be around 1500 rubles. Diagnostics should be free of charge , and if, for some reason, the data could not be recovered, you should not pay anything.
12. Solid State Drives - Non-Killable
There are no moving parts in a solid-state drive, as in a hard disk, and there is nothing special about spinning and breaking in it. However, this does not mean that they can play football - they are not insured against collapse. In an effort to make them smaller in size and larger in volume, manufacturers sometimes forget to make them more reliable. In addition, from normal fall or drowning, these drives are protected just like any hard drive: only by your own prudence and good fortune. In addition, they are more expensive and have a limited number of rewrite cycles. In addition, SSDs released before 2009 were often slower than the HDD, especially after long use.
13. If the manufacturer claims that the disc can work 500,000 hours, then it will be enough for the next 57 years and it will not break.
4% of such disks break in the first year. The fact is that the time stated on the packaging is the estimated time of how much the disc of this model should theoretically work. And there it is not said a word that your disk will work so much.
14. The more expensive you pay, the better you will recover the data, so you need to choose the most expensive recovery.
Data cannot be recovered “better” or “worse”. They can be restored or not restored. Special software, special devices and, finally, tools and a “clean room” are used for this. Data recovery devices are expensive in and of themselves, but do not differ so much as to greatly influence the price difference for data recovery services. This is all PR and marketing.
15. It is possible to recover data after complete rewriting by residual magnetization.
This myth comes from the past, when computers were large and hard computers were small. On hard disks up to 1MB there was a byte-by-byte record, that is, simply put, one disk cluster was equal to one byte during recording. In this case, it made sense to look for the residual magnetization and restore data on it. Now, when the data is recorded sector-by-sector, and in one sector 512 bytes, and the recording density of tens of gigabytes per square centimeter is no longer possible.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/151043/
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