Data recovery is the process of rescuing inaccessible data from a storage media. Inaccessible data from hard drives, flash drives, optical disk and any other storage devices.

When the data is no longer accessible by normal means of computer operation, data recovery is required to regain access to the data. Will you as user be able to regain access to the data? Maybe not!

Let me describe a method of handling data here so that you will be informed and learn the difference; data backup and data recovery.

Data Backup is a process of creating an identical copy of the original data and save it on to a new media. Normally a data backup is performed when you still have normal access to the data.

Example data backup:

A computer runs normal and gets to the user desktop. The user plus in a flash drive into the USB port brose to the folder that contains the data to backup. The user grabs a copy of the data and saves it in a new folder onto the flash drive. When this process is completed, the user now has a copy of the same data. The user just performed a data backup.

Data Recovery is a process of retrieving lost or inaccessible data. Data recovery is a specialized and complex operation in the process of saving the data. Data recovery is performed by experienced technical individuals (true data recovery experts).

There are many levels of data recovery, but I am going to separate this in two for easy explanation (Software based recovery and Hardware recovery). Experienced data recovery specialists know exactly what needs to be done when he/she handles a media with inaccessible data. How data recovery experts determine this? Experienced Data Recovery engineers at Netcontrol Disk Laboratory determine the best method to proceed in a data recovery scenario by performing a media analysis which can also be known as Data Recovery Diagnostics.

When dealing with a data recovery project, the technical individual can be very good in software recovery and reconstruction but may not be well experienced with mechanical difficulties and vice versa. This is the reason why experts from the data recovery labs must not accept user's and third party diagnostics. Inexperienced technical agent can lead to catastrophic data loss.

Users don't know the difference of data recovery and data backup. User’s first instinct is to trust the computer repair guy...the computer technician with best intention will just damage the media further. Of course don’t get me wrong some technicians do know when to stop and refer the customer to a data recovery specialist; unfortunately this does not always happen.  The results makes the data recovery at the lab that much harder.

Example of data recovery:

A user’s laptop is caught up in a look of blue screen from a windows system.  The computer emits a faint scratchy noise; the user tries to run windows in safe mode without succeeding.  The user rush to the computer guy, the technician immediately determines the computer has a bad hard drive and will be unable to perform a data backup.  The technician stops and informs the customer to contact The Data Recovery Experts.