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Data loss is one of our industry's most misunderstood concepts. Very little information has been made public about data loss, and the information that does exist is inconsistent. Due to the mixed messages they receive, users find it difficult to properly evaluate their data loss situations and make educated decisions to recover from them. Most "lost" data is not lost at all, it has simply become inaccessible to the user. Hundreds of thousands of gigabytes (GB) of data have been lost simply because users were not aware of their options and gave up hope of recovery. While data may be inaccessible to you, our experiences indicate that approximately 95% of all inaccessible data can be recovered. This number approaches 100% if the drive is received before commercial utilities are exercised. Our data recovery experts have the ability to recover your data using proprietary techniques and tools developed through years of Research & Development. How does a hard disk drive store data? Hard disk drives store data on one or more metal oxide platters. These platters, which spin at a rate of 3600-10,000 revolutions per minute, hold magnetic charges. A read/write head attached to an actuator arm actually floats on a cushion of air, 1-2 micro-inches (one millionth of an inch) above the surface of the platters. Data flows to and from these heads via electrical connections. Any force that alters this process may cause data loss to occur. More data is being stored in smaller spaces. Fifteen years ago hard drives stored 40 Megabytes (MB) of data. Today's hard drives store up to 80 gigabytes (GB) on a smaller surface than the drives of a decade ago. Increasing storage capacities amplify the impact of data loss. As more and more data is stored in smaller and denser areas, mechanical precision becomes crucial. As a part of this advancing technology, the drive tolerance (distance between the read/write head and the platter where data is stored) is steadily decreasing. A slight nudge, a power surge or a contaminant introduced into the drive may cause the head to touch the platter, resulting in a head crash. In some situations, the data residing in the area touched by the head may be permanently destroyed. The current tolerance drives is 1-2 micro-inches (millionths of an inch). Comparatively, a speck of dust is 4-8 micro-inches and human hair 10 micro-inches. Contaminants of this size can cause serious data damage. Backup technology and practices have failed to adequately protect data. Most computer users rely on backups and redundant storage technologies as their safety net in the event of data loss. For many users, these backups and storage strategies work as planned. Others, however, are not so lucky. Many of our customers back up their data, only to find their backups useless in that crucial moment when they need to restore from them. These systems are designed for and rely upon a combination of technology and human intervention for success. For example, backup systems assume that the hardware is in working order. They assume that the user has the time and the technical expertise necessary to perform the backup properly. They also assume that the backup tape or cartridge is in working order, and that the backup software is not corrupted. In reality, hardware can fail. Tapes and cartridges do not always work properly. Backup software can become corrupted. Users accidentally back up corrupted or incorrect information. Backups are not infallible and should not be relied upon absolutely. |
Understanding Data Loss |