Understanding Data Recovery

Logical and Physical Data Recovery

When computer data becomes inaccessible due to hard drive problems, the problem can be classified as logical damage, or physical damage, or both. Examples of logical damage are corrupted firmware or missing system files. Physical damage can range anywhere from a failed read head to water or fire damage. The act of performing data recovery to these respective types of damage is referred to as Logical Data Recovery and Physical Data Recovery. In both situations, it requires the assistance of a professional data recovery company that provides service in the Nichols area to help retrieve the data safely and reliably.

Logical Data Recovery is considered a software-level file system restorative procedure. It does not entail physical or mechanical repair. Normally Logical Data Recovery entails problems like accidental file deletion, accidental partition formatting, virus infections, file structure damage, firmware corruption, operating system corruption, database indexing corruption, and clone-by-mistake. However these are only a few examples of logical damage. By far, the most difficult problems to perform Logical Data Recovery on are the clone-by-mistake issues and the database indexing issues.

Below are some symptoms of logical damage:

• Primary hard drive can be heard spinning, but the operating system does not start
• The operating system is unable to detect the disk
• Drive partitions are lost
• "Device not Recognized” error messages when disk is inserted
• Certain documents are unreadable or are completely missing

Physical Data Recovery, as its name states, involves the mechanical or physical restoration of the hard drive in order to retrieve the data within. Hard drive physical damage can be caused by sudden physical impact (ie being shaken, bumped or dropped while running), natural disasters like fire or flood in the Nichols area, and even manufacturer defects. Damaged components can manifest problems such as head crashes, scratches on the disk platters, bad tracks, motor seizures, burnt PCBA, etc.

Symptoms of physical damage may include but are not limited to the following:

• Hard drive makes a "clicking" noise
• Hard drive making "ticking" sounds
• Hard drive has a grinding noise
• Hard drive giving off a burnt smell
• Hard drive makes a faint beeping sound when turned on
• Hard drive not responding to system commands
• Hard drive freezes due to bad sectors
• Hard drive is detected by operating system but unable to be read
• Hard drive not detected by operating system
• Hard drive not spinning
• Hard drive unable to power up

Konicom Data Recovery Solution

We structure our data recovery services into three categories by the complexity of the recovery; Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 data recovery. Click here for pricing and details about our data recovery services for our customers in the Nichols area.

Logical Data Recovery will fall under either Tier 1 or Tier 2 data recovery depending on the complexity and difficulty of the data recovery procedure. The data recovery is accomplished by utilizing various types of professional logical data recovery software.

Any minor physical damage on the surface of a hard disk drive, like bad sectors, are usually product defects and can be resolved by reallocating bad sectors or partitions. This is considered Tier 2 recovery.

Physical Data Recovery performed on hard drives with internal damage, motor problems or damage to the chips on the PCBA is considered Tier 3 data recovery. These procedures are usually performed in our ISO 5 / Class 100 "cleanroom" (a dust free environment), where damaged components are manually replaced by our experienced technicians who service the Nichols area with the assistance of industry-specialized tools. Performing the data recovery procedure in a cleanroom is critical to the success of Physical Data Recovery. Any dust particles in the air that touch the hard drive surface may interfere with the recovery or cause scratches to the platter, resulting in the data being permanently unrecoverable. Any mistakes made during parts replacement can result in hard drive disk misalignment and destroy the data when powered on. Because of the higher complexity of the procedure, the high technical skill requirement, and the need for unique industry-specific tools and a cleanroom environment, Tier3 Physical Data Recovery is the most expensive data recovery service we provide in the Nichols area. Our data recovery service rates cover the cost for any replacement hard drive components (also known as donor parts) regardless of the price we pay when ordering them from our vendor.

Click here to contact our Nichols data recovery service portal for your inquiries. or call us at (888)311-3282.