recoverygod.com - Data Recovery Services

05/09/2023

Tiny Read/Write Heads: The read/write heads in hard drives are incredibly small and float on a cushion of air just a few nanometers above the spinning platters. This is about the same height as the wavelength of visible light. If a speck of dust were to get between the head and the platter, it could cause data corruption.

02/04/2023

File systems
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A file system is a process of managing how and where data on a storage disk, which is also referred to as file management or FS

Windows File systems:
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Microsoft Windows simply uses two types of files system FAT and NTFS.
A) FAT, which stands for “file allocation table,” is the simplest file system type. It consists of a boot sector, a file allocation table, and plain storage space to store files and folders. Lately, FAT has been extended to FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. FAT32 is compatible with Windows-based storage devices.
B) NTFS, or “new technology file system,” started when Windows NT introduced in market. NTFS is the default type for file systems over 32GB.

Linux File systems:
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We already know that Linux is an open source operating system. It was developed for testing and development and aimed to use different concepts for file systems. In Linux there are varieties of file systems.
A) Ext2, Ext3, Ext4—This is the native Linux file system. Generally, the file system is called the root file system for all Linux distribution. Ext3 file system is just an upgraded Ext2 file system that uses transactional file write operations. Ext4 is further development of Ext3 that supports optimized file allocation information and file attributes.
B) ReiserFS—This file system is designed for storing huge amount of small files.
It has a good capability for searching files and it enables allocation of compact files by storing file tails or small files along with metadata in order not to use large file system blocks for this purpose.
C) XFS—This file system used in the IRIX server which is derived from the SGI company.
The XFS file system has great performance and is widely used to store files.
D) JFS—This is the file system currently used by most modern Linux distributions. It was developed by IBM for powerful computing systems.

MacOS
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File systems:Apple Macintosh OS uses only the HFS+ file system, which is an extension of the HFS file system. The HFS+ file system is applied to Apple desktop products, including Mac computers, iPhones, iPods, and Apple X Server products. Advanced server products also use the Apple Xsan file system, a clustered file system derived from StorNext or CentraVision file systems.
This file system, in addition to files and folders, also stores finder information about directories view, window positions, etc.

04/12/2022

Hard drive failures

When we get a data recovery call,we usually ask for an evaluation first and then talk about the possibility of a recovery.Every data recovery is an unique case.You cannot tell beforehand how much time it may take.Evaluation can give an estimate for time taken and the percentage of recovery.

Logical issues

When the physical parts and the softwares are functioning correctly,there can be cases where a data may be deleted,formatted,or missing from the drive due to other reasons.Those issues are logical issues.It could be an individual mistake,virus attack or sudden change in file structure due to other reasons.Recovery is possible in such cases .

PCB failure

Failures in the circuit that passes electricity to the hard drive for its function. Its also called "hard drive controller board". PCB failures may be caused by a chip burnt ,especially Motor Controller Chip and also the diodes and controller IC not functioning,etc.In most of the cases the PCB shall be replaced for the recovery.

Firmware issues

Hard drive communicates with the operating system through a program called firmware which can also be considered as the software of the hard disk.The firmware can get corrupt sometimes making hard drive inaccessible.The firmware can be reloaded using special tools and one has to be careful while updating or modifying the firmware.So it is best to leave it to the experts.

Read/Write Head failure (Inside hard drive)

There can be physical bad sectors developing in the magnetic platters of hard drive over time.Also the read/write head can get weak over time.In such cases the hard drive is opened and using some specialized equipments an image of hard drive is created and then the data is extracted from the image..
Another cause is deposition of dust over time making the internal parts fail.Sometimes the head slider has come right off the head assembly and may result in multiple scratches on the disk surface.In some cases there may be zero chance of recovery.

Mechanical/Physical issue

A clicking sound or a dead hard drive with physical damage is considered to have a physical issue.Platter exchange,swap and re-assembling drive parts is a common procedure for solution.The process is complex and done in a data recovery lab

10/06/2022

https://www.androidauthority.com/ufs-4-0-explained-3168034/

UFS 4.0 is the latest storage tech destined for smartphones and tablets. It promises speed and efficiency improvements over UFS 3.1.

20/11/2021

https://droidcops.com/different-types-of-ssd-storage/

SSDs on the market today can be distinguished based on their shape and size. These types of SSDs can be used for computers, whether a laptop or desktop.

25/10/2021

Solid State Drives (SSD) have now become the main storage devices in modern computers, even in very inexpensive models. They have many advantages over conventional hard disk drives: they have higher read/write speed, consume less power, and are more shock-resistant. Even their two main disadvantages, relatively less capacity and higher cost, are steadily descending.

At first, SSD devices had the same form factor (2.5" HDD) and interface (SATA) as conventional hard drives did. But now they also have a different, much smaller, form factor M.2, more convenient for laptops. They also may have several different interfaces: SATA 3.0, USB 3.0, and the fastest one: NVM Express (NVMe), which is based on the PCI Express bus.

24/10/2021

Optical data devices recovery.

CD-R, CD-RW, Mini CD-R , DVD-RAM , DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W , dual-layered DVD, mini DVD-R/RAM, Magneto Opticals

There may be cases where you are unable to access your CD DVD media which contain your important documents or backup archive as a result of unreadable, formatted, inaccessible or deleted data.

Commonly, the optical media may display the following errors:

Data media not accessible
Directory information is missing or corrupted
Garbage display or strange characters
Error message on “file not exist” while trying to open file
Media shows blank information with no data
Computer "hangs" while accessing mediaOptics

25/08/2021

The first disk drive, called RAMAC (random access method of accounting and control), was developed for the IBM 350 computer in 1957. Over the past decade,as the demands for digital data have exploded, the storage capacity of HDDs has grown at a matching
rate, if not faster. Today, a 3.5” HDD has a capacity of 160 GB, capable of storing nearly a thousand times more data than a HDD of the same size just ten years ago. The area storage density of a disk
surface in a RAMAC was only 2 kbit/in2. It is now 60 Gbit/in2, a 30 million-fold increase over the past
46 years with an average annual growth rate of
nearly 80% during the last ten years. Recent
demonstrations have shown area recording densities2
as high as 150 Gbit/in2.

25/08/2021

Magnetic hysteresis occurs when an external magnetic field is applied to a ferromagnet such as iron and the atomic dipoles align themselves with it. Even when the field is removed, part of the alignment will be retained: the material has become magnetized. Once magnetized, the magnet will stay magnetized indefinitely. To demagnetize it requires heat or a magnetic field in the opposite direction. This is the effect that provides the element of memory in a hard disk drive.

04/01/2021

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/linux-file-hierarchy-structure/

A Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes and practice/competitive programming/company interview Questions.

24/11/2020

Common data recovery do not go for criminal investigation but digital forensics do that..https://www.atlanticdf.com/blog/2019/05/29/digital-forensics-vs-common-data-recovery/ #:~:text=Digital%20forensics%20specialists%20have%20the,could%20prove%20useful%20in%20court.

While the jobs of digital forensics specialists and data recovery specialists share many similarities, there are also fundamental differences that separate the two fields.