Beware- Not All Data Recovery Services are Equal
Data loss can be seriously worrying. From irreplaceable family photographs to data essential to your business, it can all disappear in the blink of an eye, and it’s no laughing matter. Once this happens, your first thought might be to try a data recovery service.
That’s a sensible idea, but be aware- not all data recovery services are equal.
Don’t be fooled by other companies that tell you they can do data recovery. Many of them know little more than the man on the street and use free or consumer-grade software to recover data. In the hands of someone with little experience, these programs can do more harm than good, and you only get one chance to recover data.
That’s where Disc Depot Dundee comes in. Our data recovery specialist has over eight years of experience in the field, and our cleanroom environment lets us carry out hard drive data recovery services that just wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
(For an in-depth look at a typical example showing the issues involved and why you should choose Disc Depot, see our hard drive data recovery case study).
Data Recovery from a Wide Range of Devices
Hard Drive
Our skills with HDD data recovery extend far beyond other companies’ limited software-based services.
Eight years of experience and specialist equipment lets us retrieve data even in cases of serious mechanical, physical or electrical failure.
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SSD
SSDs operate very differently to hard drives, and present a whole new range of issues in data recovery. Many repair centres are unaware of this- but our experienced data recovery specialist has already been working with this technology for several years now.
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USB Flash Drive
Data loss from so-called “pen drives” can be either due to user error, data corruption or mechanical or physical damage. We know how to handle them all!
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Memory Card
If your photos or valuable documents are on a memory card that’s faulty, inaccessable or suffered physical damage, bring it to us.
SD, MicroSD, CompactFlash and more- we can handle them all.
RAID Array
Recovery of data from RAID arrays is generally more complex than working on a single drive. You need an experienced company that knows what it’s doing- one you can trust to get it right.
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…or Anything
Generally speaking, if you can store data on it, there’s a good chance that we can get data off it!
Contact us to find out how Disc Depot Dundee can recover your data.
What to Do When You Realise That You’ve Lost Your Data
Data loss is a nasty business, and often the cause of panic if you realise that you didn’t have a recent backup. What if that data was important to you and you really have to get it back?
Follow These Instructions
As soon as it is clear that there is a problem with the drive (or data storage device), shut your computer off and disconnect the drive (safely) if possible.
Once your computer has been turned off:-
- DO NOT turn the computer back on* until we have looked at it
- DO NOT attempt to write to the drive – in fact, avoid this as much as possible, as it may increase data loss
- NEVER attempt to reformat the drive if you are hoping to recover any data still on it
*If the corrupt drive is a removable one, you should be able to use the computer after the damaged drive has been safely disconnected. However, do not attempt to use the damaged drive itself until we have taken a look at it.
If the faulty storage is a memory card, or similar, turn the camera (or whatever it’s plugged into) off. Remove the card as soon as possible, and avoid writing anything to it! Once you’ve done this, keep the card in a safe place. You don’t need to bring it to us straight away, but you should not use that card again until we’ve finished looking at it.
Once this has been done, bring the drive or computer to our store just off Dundee Nethergate and we’ll take a look at it and advise further.
What Can Be Done?
There are never any guarantees in recovering data. We’ll let you know the status and condition of your drive, and whether it’s likely your data can be recovered.
However, you might be pleasantly surprised to find out how often it is possible to recover data from damaged hard drives, SSDs, memory cards etc.
There are generally two reasons for “loss” of data. The first is a software or data error, where the catalogue or disc structure gets messed up, but some or all of the data is still there. The second is due to actual hardware failure, where recoverability of your data can often depend on what has done wrong with the drive.
In general, the best thing to do is to follow the advice above about keeping your drive or card safe, and then discuss it with our technicians.
