Wednesday, September 2, 2009

What is So Hard About Hard Drive Data Recovery?

Almost everyone has had to deal with a hard drive failure and most of those people have had experience with hard drive data recovery. A failed or crashed hard disk is one of the worst things any computer user can experience. Until, that is, they see what it can cost to recover their data. Depending on the damage done to the drive, the cost can be hundreds to thousands of dollars. Just for a single drive. But there is a reason this process is so expensive. It is not simply because computer people get paid a huge hourly rate. What is required to restore the data on a hard drive is extremely intensive.

The first factor is the kind of damage done to the drive. If the data has simply been corrupted due to a virus or other software problem, the hard drive data recovery process is much simpler. Since the hard disk drive is mechanically sound, it is very easy to get it up and running again. The major problem with this type of failure is that operating systems lack the ability to read corrupt data. But a professional can break the data down into its binary form and then reconstruct it back into a useable format that the OS can read. This process is a lot simpler and cheaper to fix than a mechanical failure.

A hard drive is the only moving part in a computer with the exception of fans. When one of those moving parts fails, and they are prone to do so because they are very delicate, replacing them is a difficult prospect. First, not just any part will do. The data recovery team does not simply have a box of replacement heads lying around for every hard drive ever made. The pieces must come from a hard drive so similar that it may have been made at the same time and in the same factory as the damaged one. Finding and buying that specific hard drive can be costly. Then repairing the old drive and getting it running also costs a lot.

The most expensive aspect about recovering the data from a damaged drive is actually getting the drive up and running. Rebuilding corrupted data can be fairly simple and much cheaper. But if your drive was damaged because the drive was opened or from water or heat you will be looking at a much larger bill. Typically, the size of the drive or number of files to be recovered has an impact on the price as well if the data has to be rebuilt.

Obviously, the cheapest thing you can do is to prevent all these problems from occurring in the first place. While even the hardiest drive will eventually fail after prolonged use, you can backup often enough that you will only have to worry about replacing the drive, not the data.

If your computer files and data are important to you, don't take risks when it comes to computer crashes! It may cost a little for an online backup service, but compared to the cost of hard drive data recovery, you will be saving quite a bit.

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