Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged, failed, corrupted, or inaccessible storage media. This storage media can come in the form of hard disk drives, USB flash drives, RAIDs, solid state drives, CDs, DVDs and assorted electronic devices. The damage to the storage media can be either physical or logical in nature. Physical damage can come about in many ways including water, fire, electrical surge, and impact damage. Physical damage can also occur in a hard drive crash where the head damages the disk surface. Logical damage can occur due to corruption, accidental deletion, viruses, or other media errors.
Data recovery techniques will vary depending on many factors. Many logical failures can be approached with proprietary data recovery software, methodology, and tools that do not require actual opening or disassembly of the storage medium. Logical problems can occasionally be addressed remotely if the recipient of the data recovery service has a stable broadband Internet connection. Physical failures often require trained data recovery technicians to open the damaged media in a controlled and clean environment. Data recovery technicians should utilize air-filtered clean rooms and wear protective clothing when opening media to prevent further damage.
The first hard drive was introduced by IBM in 1956. It was called RAMAC and could store five megabytes of data. With the birth of this technology also came the advent of data recovery technology. If data could actually be stored, then it could be lost. As time passed, data storage media shrunk (RAMAC was the size of two refrigerators). By 1971 the first hard drive for personal computers and the eight inch floppy disk were introduced. People and organizations quickly learned to make backup copies of their data. But as storage media got smaller and storage capacity grew, the need for data recovery was greater than ever.
Through the years, data recovery techniques have pretty much evolved with the ever-changing methods of data storage. As hard drive technology has become more complex and the components more sensitive, data recovery firms have responded. By building state-of-the-art clean rooms, investing in sophisticated machines and tools, and participating in ongoing training programs, companies like BounceBack have kept pace with data storage technology. To stay competitive, a data recovery company must have the capabilities to deal with encrypted data, flash technology, high security clients, and countless brands and types of mobile devices.