How files get lost
Whether files can be retrieved successfully often depends on how they were lost in the first place. Here are just some of the ways data can be lost…
Hardware failure:
Power surge – this can affect information on the disk. Some may be lost, but disk will still be recognised and files will often be recoverable.
Disk electronics – The electronics on the disk can fail, causing the disk to be unrecognisable to the computer. In this case recovery is far harder, and cannot be achieved with recovery software. More advanced techniques employed by large data recovery companies can sometimes have some success, but can be very expensive and aimed mainly at financially valuable information.
Physical trauma – Laptops and disks can get dropped or suffer impact in other ways. This can cause physical damage to the disk electronics (see above) or errors on the surface of the disk.
General wear and tear – Disks die. This is a fact of life. Manufacturers provide a warranty for the disk hardware but data is excluded from this cover, and if the disk is in warranty it will simply be replaced with a new one.
User error:
Manually deleted files – Deleted files normally go into the recycle bin, and can be restored simply by going into the bin and clicking Restore. If the recycle bin is emptied, or the file is deleted permanently (by holding down shift while pressing delete) the files remain recoverable using software.
Disk formatting – If a disk is formatted, especially if “Quick Format” has been used, files remain recoverable until overwritten in the same way as they do when just deleted. The exception to this is when some sort of secure deletion has been performed, which will overwrite the disk space that was occupied by the deleted files.
Coming soon – Recovering files… (in the meantime, if you have a file recovery issue please feel free to call or email)