Data Recovery Techniques

Backup is better than recovery; just as 'prevention is better than cure'. Always keep a backup of your crucial data. Infact, you should not try the different recovery techniques on crucial data. It is always advisable, that in such cases you contact a data recovery agency which can provide you with accurate details as to what percentage of the data is in its recoverable form. This may cost you some bucks, but then, it is worth it if your data is important enough.

Various softwares and tools are used by the data recovery agencies, which have been designed by their engineers, or may have been purchased by them. For data recovery process that you can undertake on your own, you can use the open source softwares that are available for download. The first and the most important thing that you need to keep in mind, once you have realized that you have accidently deleted some data, is not to use the drive where you had stored the data. Do the preliminary checkings first, before you start with the recovery process. Check the recycle bin, if you have accidently deleted the data. Perform a search operation, using the search feature of your operating system, to check out if you have placed the data into some other location. If you are using Windows operating system, open the folder where you had stored your data and click on tools in the menu bar. Select 'folder options' from the tools menu and click on the view tab. Select 'Show hidden files and folder'. In case the data files are hidden because of some virus problems, you may be able to view them again with this process.

If all these processes do not help you out, you can start off with the data recovery techniques. By the way, you must be wondering, how can deleted data be recovered? Let me try to explain. Computers store your data in the binary format, i.e. 0 and 1. Once you delete some data or format the hard drive, that portion of the hard drive loses its name and identification (the word is address) and becomes free to allocate new data, but the binary digit format continues to exist in it. The only way this binary digit format can be lost is, if some other data is saved by the computer at the same location. The other way is of course, when you want to intentionally eliminate the data from your system, and you have used a file shredding software to do the same.

Depending on the file system that you have chosen, while installing your operating system, download a compatible recovery software. Some softwares like N-Data recovery will work well for both FAT and NTFS, while NTFS file recovery will work only for NTFS file systems. Please make it a point to download the software into some other drive and not into the one from which you have lost your data. Infact, it is better if you download the software into another computer. Install the software in a drive that is not among the suspected list of drives, from where you think you have lost your data. Better install the software in a USB drive (pen drive or portable hard disk). Scan the suspected drives. The process will take some time and consume a lot of RAM, so avoid using the computer for any other work when the scan is in progress.

Save the recovered files (if they have been recovered at all) into a drive. If you do not get proper results, try some other software which has advanced features. There are recovery softwares available which allow you to enter details like the type of file or the file extension of the file you are trying to recover. This makes the recovery process for the software a lot simpler. The recovery softwares available can be used on almost all types of memory, the hard disk or pen drive or a portable music player.

These processes can help you recover the data, but there is no guarantee. Softwares are also available which will recover your data in a different format and you will have to purchase a licence key of the software, to reconvert your data into its original form. Some softwares will recover the data for you, but won't provide you with a facility to save it unless you buy a licence key. So, choose an open source software for the recovery process, if you do not want to spend any money for data recovery.