Vantage Data Recovery

DIY or “do it yourself” projects are as popular as ever.  The satisfaction and sense of accomplishment, not to mention financial savings are great motivators for those of us who would rather take on projects ourselves than hire someone to do them.  But we must know our limits.  I might, for example, change a faucet on the bathroom sink.  If I want to move the sink to another location I know that I need to find a good plumber.  I just don’t have the tools, knowledge or experience to do that kind of job and be sure it will be done right.

The internet abounds with information on how to do almost anything, and data recovery is no exception.  Your drive doesn’t work?  Hit it.  Drop it.  Tap it.  Slap it.  Kick it.  Freeze it.  Heat it.  Spin it with a drill.  Open it up and take a look – but do it in a steamy bathroom.  While you are there, swap the board.  Swap the heads.  Swap the platters.  Move the disks with your fingers.  Run the drive with the cover off.  Run this software.  Run that software.  Reload your operating system.  Use the recovery disk that came with your system.

STOP!!!

For each of these suggestions there are any number of people who swear that it’s simple, it works, it worked for them many times.  These “experts” will say that data recovery companies tell you not to do these things just to make money.  They will suggest that these are the methods employed by professionals.  They are not.  I am not saying that someone couldn’t have gotten lucky with at least some of these so-called techniques.  People win the lottery too.  But while I may buy a ticket, I am not going to bet my life on winning.  Which is what you may be doing if you risk important data with these home-grown fixes.

Drive technology has changed rapidly over the past ten years.  As the size of drives decreases and capacity increases, tolerances become tighter, and drives become more sensitive to temperature and shock.  All of the freezing and banging that people claim worked for them in the past should be firmly relegated to the past. 

Opening a drive for any reason other than pure curiosity just before it goes to the dump is a big no-no.  Professional data recovery companies spend money on clean rooms for a reason.  Hard drives are enclosed for a reason, and while they are not air-tight, they do have tiny air filters to keep the air inside clean.  Data heads “fly’ on a cushion of air so small that the tiniest particle of dust or a fingerprint can cause a head crash, literally scraping all of your data off the platter along with the magnetic coating.  The minute you open your drive outside a clean room you are inviting trouble.

There are also probably hundreds of types of data recovery software out there, from big name companies to freeware.  I can’t tell you which ones work, because we only see the results when people use them either incorrectly or for problems beyond the software’s diagnostic capability.  Did you empty your recycling bin by mistake and need that file back?  Fine.  But PLEASE be sure of a few things before you start.   Are you positive that you have correctly diagnosed the problem?  Are you sure you understand the underlying cause of the data loss symptom that you see?  Does the software have to be installed on the problem drive/media?  Will the software be writing directly to the problem drive/media?  Software has limitations.  It cannot think.  If your system is unable to see your drive correctly due to a corrupted partition or other problem the software may address it incorrectly and create bigger problems.  You must be sure that you are not installing software on, or in any other way writing to the problem drive/media may in fact overwrite any chances for data recovery.  (By the way, this holds true for CHKDSK, Scandisk, FDISK, etc.)  I cannot say this to people often enough – if your data is important don’t do anything to compound the problem.  If you are not 100% sure of what you are doing, you could make your data completely unrecoverable!

Finally, the recovery disk.  These are provided by your hardware manufacturer.  The hardware manufacturer does not care about your data.  A recovery disk will recover your system and operating system to its original, pristine (read data free) condition.  Not necessarily what you are looking for.  Do not use it unless your data is safely stored elsewhere, or is just not important.

The best DIY data recovery is an effective back up plan.  Short of that, you must decide how important your data is and what will be the best course of action for you to take to retrieve it.�