Data recovery is a fine art that requires specialist tools and knowledge in order to be undertaken successfully. But why?

Unless the components of a data storage device such as a hard disk drive are physically destroyed, or the data is overwritten, then data recovery will be possible. However, attempting data recovery at home is dangerous can will more often than not lead to problems later down the line when you inevitably have to consult an actual data recovery specialist. In the lab, our data recovery team frequently deal with cases where the client has already tried to get their data back at home, only to cause even more damage, and in some cases, rendering data recovery impossible.

All physical data recovery work is undertaken in our class 100 clean room. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are assembled in heavily controlled environments, and our data recovery clean room aims to emulate these conditions.

In a class 100 clean room, there will always be fewer than 100 particles of dust per cubic foot in the air; in reality, due to other measures such as sticky mats, there will be way fewer. A clean room environment free of contaminants in the air enables our data recovery technicians to undertake work in a safe environment. Because an HDD’s read/write heads hover a fraction of a millimetre above the platters – which spin at around 15,000 RPM – even one small particle of dust could cause a catastrophic head crash.

There are so many data recovery myths out there, with one being that you can safely disassemble an HDD in a steamy bathroom. While it is true that the steam will clear the air of contaminants, doing this will run the risk of damaging the drive with water. Even if the drive is disassembled and kept dry and free from contaminants, the average person is unlikely to possess the skills and knowledge of our data recovery team, who have decades of experience between them.

We see many hard drives that have had data recovery attempted on them, both by amateurs but also computer repair stores or IT professionals. You might think that your local computer repair store will be able to assist you in getting your data back, but in reality, the most they can do is attempt to use data recovery software. This can work if you’ve accidentally deleted files, but if the problem is physical, a high street computer repair store is unlikely to be able to assist you in getting your data back.

At Data Recovery Specialists, our technicians have the experience, knowledge, tools and facilities to safely undertake data recovery on a number of devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, legacy tape formats and more; if it can store data, the chances are we can recover it. Our free data recovery diagnostic service means that you won’t pay a penny unless we can get your data back.