Data Recovery Options and Data Backup Recovery Plans

Data recovery is the extraction of data from a secondary storage device or media such as a CD, floppy disk, or even from an online data storage server when this data cannot be accessed normally on the primary storage data storage unit. Generally, the primary data storage device is a CPU and the data cannot be accessed due to it having been lost somehow. Often times, file recovery becomes necessary due to damage to the primary storage device (CPU) or because of damage done to that primary storage device's file system. Occasionally, data recovery becomes necessary due to natural disasters damaging or outright destroying a CPU, the theft or abandonment of a CPU, viruses affecting the CPU's software, or other reasons the owner or other users of the CPU may never become aware of.

To implement total data recovery, many CPU owners and users make use of multiple data backup plans. This way, even if the data storage and data recovery media they use is damaged, they can still implement a full data recovery.

However, data recovery can also mean the process of salvaging data from damaged hardware, whether it's the CPU or secondary data storage devices.

Secondary storage media can be damaged in a multitude of ways. CD-ROMs can have their metallic substrate or dye layer scratched off. Hard disks can have a head crash or failed motor. Disk tapes can break. Physical damage always causes at least a small amount of data loss. It can also damage a file system's logical structures. In the event of this happening, this logical damage must be dealt with before any files can be salvaged and data recovery can be performed.

In most cases, the user cannot repair the physical damage to implement data recovery. They do not typically possess either the hardware or technical expertise needed to achieve those ends. Thus, data recovery experts and company repairmen are hired or consulted in salvaging the data, though this can be costly.

Multiple data recovery techniques for physically damaged hardware exist. Sometimes, the damage might be repaired by simply replacing parts in the hard disk. Other times, data recovery involves a specialized disk imaging procedure that recovers every readable bit from the disk's surface. The acquired image is then analyzed for logical damage and might allow much of the original file system to be reconstructed.

Several other examples of physical data recovery procedures include: removal and replacement of a damaged printed circuit board, changing the original damaged read/write head assembly with a healthy drive's matching parts, or removing hard disk platters from the original damaged drive and installing them into a healthy drive.

However, logical damage to a file system is more common than physical damage. Logical damage is mostly caused by power outages preventing these file systems from being completely written to the storage medium, leaving the file system in an inconsistent state. This can cause system crashes, data loss, and strange CPU behavior (infinitely recursing directories for example).

Most operating systems come with programs that correct these inconsistencies. For example, Mac OS X has disk utility and Microsoft Windows has chkdsk.