Data Recovery

Hard drive recovery solution to the Error

A Disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart

Computers with their huge storage capacities are the mainstay of our lives. Since plenty of files and folders are stored in the PC’s hard drive, its is of vital importance. If this information or stored data is lost or deleted, it may lead to a huge problem. However, with the availability of easy-to-use and professional softwares, deleted photos, text documents, digital pictures, financial documents, music files and graphic files from hard disk can be recovered. So, the users don’t face any hassles due to loss of data.

There are numerous ways introduced by the Microsoft Windows to assist you in protecting the data structure.

• An automatic de-fragmentation of your hard drive which is done every month to secure data. This feature is functional on RAID configurations that equalizes stripe configuration. The idea behind this configuration is to survive without losing data.
• External drives such as CDs, DVDs or USB drive can be used for data protection.
• Keep printed copies of your important documents. This way even when the data is lost from PCs, such hard copies can be consulted.

Easy data Recovery After Physical Damage

Physical damage of the computers and the data storage devices always causes some data loss. There are several reasons for physical damage that may include tapes breakage, dye layer scratched off or metallic substrate on CD-ROMs, head crashes and failed motors etc.

Recovery Techniques

Multiple techniques are involved for physical data recovery including:

• Restoring data in the hard disk
• Disk-imaging procedure for recovering readable bit from the surface

Hardware Repair

• Deleting a damaged PCB (printed circuit board) and using matching PCB for restoring it.
• Hard disk platters are removed from damaged drive and installed into a healthy drive.

Best Data Recovery From Logical (Non-Hardware) Damage

Overwritten Data

With the use of Scanning transmission electron microscopy, data can be overwritten on a hard disk. Peter Gutmann introduced this method in 1996. Later on, in 2001, Gutmann and Colin Plumb further improved on the “Gutmann method”, which is now used by disk scrubbing software packages.

Corrupt Filesystems

Due to damage in the filesystems, hard drive data is unreadable. In this case, damaged filesystem can be repaired for recovering a portion of the original data. No special physical equipment is required in this process and thus, it can be performed by an unskilled user.

Online Data Recovery

Deleted data can be restored through online data recovery. This recovery process is executed by a recovery technician who is not the vicnity of the affected PC but still accesses it from another location. It is a convenient and user-friendly technique that requires a stable broadband Internet connection.

Software Applications For Hard Disk Data Recovery

Wide range of software applications have been designed as data recovery programs that well suit your needs.

In-depth scanning of your storage device may help you recover data.

A defined cluster size is used to manage data and while formatting the disk, partitions are elaborated in terms of clusters. Moreover, the cluster size can also be customized with the availability of third party tools. Thus, it is recommended that before using any third party tools, backup of all-important data should be taken as the process may cause some data loss.

Example:

You received an error message “A Disk read error occurred Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart” or your stored data is inaccessible.

Source of data loss: This error can occur due to a fault in MBR (Master Boot Record), which is accountable for loading of the OS.

Recovery: The Window installation CD/DVD is required to resolve the error. So, in order to repair MBR, the command ‘Fixmbr’ from the installation CD will run at the command prompt. If in case, ‘fixmbr’ fails to repair, hard disk needs to be reformatted.