can you recover data for free at home.

Due to the enormous amount of data we store, it is inevitable that some will get lost, especially if we don't back it up regularly and diligently.

When faced with data loss, your first instinct would probably be to search online for a data recovery solution. The internet is a source of a lot of helpful solutions but, unfortunately, can also be a bottomless pit of bad advice. Because of this, you need to have deep knowledge about the storage device whose data you’re trying to recover in order to be able to filter between what is useful and what isn’t. Additionally, a single wrong step could cause your data to become completely unrecoverable. 

The general rule is that data recovery software can help in the event of accidental file/partition deletion, or other logical problems, while physical data recovery should never be attempted at home.

how data is stored on a hard drive.

Data is stored on a hard drive as a string of numbers which are then converted to binary numbers. Conventional numbers go from 0 to 9, while all numbers are represented as binary numbers - 0 and 1. 

A simple example would be a document containing just words, with each letter represented by a number. 

Photos are more complex, as each pixel needs to be assigned things like color and brightness. 

Videos are even more complex as they are made up of a series of photos while also containing sound. 

When you delete a file, you actually delete the master file table reference, which acts as a map to where the data is stored on your drive. The space is then marked as free, ready for new data to be written to it. 

Data recovery software scans for file signatures that identify potentially lost files, allowing for them to be recovered, but only if they haven’t already been overwritten.

how do you know if your hard drive is failing.

Symptoms that may indicate a failing drive are:

• The hard drive has been dropped. In this case, it is dangerous to power the drive up again, as it may increase the damage.

• You get a message from the computer saying that the hard drive is failing, and recommending that you backup your data.

• You receive a S.M.A.R.T. error.

• The drive starts clicking or making strange sounds.

• The computer has been getting slower, and you can hear more hard drive activity.

• The computer shows the BSOD (“Blue Screen of Death”) on a Windows PC, or a spinning ball or gray kernel panic screen on a Mac.

• The hard drive does not appear to be spinning up, or you have experienced problems following a power surge or interruption.

• If it takes an unusually long time to copy files from the drive. The same goes for if your recovery program estimates a completion time of days instead of hours, or you receive a warning such as “the process has slowed due to hardware malfunction” - in this case, it’s best to quit while you are still ahead.
  

You should not, under any circumstances, attempt a recovery at home if you experience any of the above mentioned conditions because you can make things much worse and reduce the possibility of a successful recovery, even if you take it to a professional data recovery company later on.

Along with that, if you bring the drive to a data recovery immediately after hard drive failure, they can, for example,  charge you $200 for recovery, while additional damage caused by DIY recovery attempts can cost you thousands of dollars.

why you should not attempt data recovery on a failed or failing drive.

• The drives that have been dropped or otherwise damaged may experience a head crash, with damage to the platters that hold your valuable data. The heads of a hard drive are designed to levitate a microscopic distance above the platters on a cushion of air created by the rotation of the platters. When the drive experiences physical shock, the heads may crash into the platters, which ruins the heads and will likely damage the delicate media as well. If you continue to operate a hard drive with a damaged head, the heads will continue scratching the platters and metallic particulates from the platter surfaces will contaminate the drive. This can make the drive unrecoverable.

• For hard drives that haven't been dropped, but are in the process of failing, a built-in feature that is designed to make the hard drive more reliable actually ends up making things worse. During normal operation, hard drives may develop bad areas. Special software on the drive, known as firmware, attempts to move the data to a safe area, and mark the errant sector as “bad”, so that it won’t be used again. This process is known as “sector reallocation.” If a hard drive's head is in the process of failing, it may mistake good sectors for bad ones, and start marking them out and moving the data in an almost continuous fashion. Sometimes the list that keeps track of where the good and bad sectors are becomes corrupted, and data recovery becomes more difficult.

when could you potentially try to recover data on your own.

If you’ve accidentally formatted your drive or deleted files you didn’t mean to, prematurely shut down your PC, or encountered a harmful virus, then you may be able to recover your data using any data recovery software. 

Some data recovery softwares work better than others with specific problems to be recovered.  Each software solution uses different recovery algorithms to reconstruct data. Research well online before purchasing.

Most data recovery software offer free versions that can be used to recover a small amount of data with no upfront cost. This is usually less than 1GB, which is good for a few photos or documents.  If you have to recover larger files such as videos, you will have to purchase a full license. 

Important: never install any data recovery software on the same drive/partition that your lost data/files are on.

The software can overwrite the sectors where your deleted data is still on and thus make data recovery unsuccessful. 

If the data is important and to be safe, you need to make a clone - sector by sector copy of the drive - and then perform the data recovery on the clone, so that if something goes wrong, you can always make another clone and try a different data recovery process on it.

when you should not try to recover data on your own.

Physical data recovery should never be carried out at home for several reasons:

• Hard drives are not designed to be opened, since even a small particle of dust can make your problem much worse, potentially leaving your lost data permanently unrecoverable. 

• If you attempt your own data recoveryand you unawarely recover data to the same drive, the recovered data will overwrite the hidden files that you are attempting to recover. In case the initial recovery attempt is not a complete success, this will severely limit your recovery options. 

• There are some basic risks of working on a hard drive that has not been professionally examined and diagnosed. For example: operating a drive with a bad head may cause the drive to eventually fail and become totally unrecoverable.  

Therefore, if your data is critical, valuable, irreplaceable or exists only on the failed drive, do not risk losing it forever and do not attempt DIY data recovery.  Data recovery on physically damaged devices should only be performed by a professional data recovery company in a controlled environment using special tools and techniques to maximize the results of the recovery.

Kotar Data Recovery has the equipment, expertise and experience to recover data from any make, model, brand or operating system, and from all types of data loss - including physical damage, deletion, reformatting, electronics failure or malware.