How does recovery software work

Data recovery can be defined as a process of obtaining the information located on a storage device that cannot be accessed by the standard means due to its previous deletion or certain damage to the digital medium. Different approaches are used to regain the missing files, yet, only on the condition that their content is present somewhere within the storage.

For instance, data recovery doesn't cover the situations when a file has never been written to a persistent storage, like documents that were created but could not be eventually saved to the hard disk drive due to a power failure. Also, none of the existing restore methods can cope with the cases of permanent erasure which occurs when some other information occupies its storage space — under such circumstances, the lost files can only be retrieved from an external backup.

In general, data recovery techniques are divided into two types: software-based and ones involving the repair or replacement of the damaged hardware components in a laboratory setting. A software-based approach is employed in the majority of cases and involves the use of specialized utilities able to interpret the logical structure of the problem storage, read out the required data and deliver it to the user in a usable form for further copying. Physical repairs are conducted by specialists in the most severe instances, for example, when some mechanical or electrical parts of the drive no longer work properly — in this case, all the measures are directed towards a one-time extraction of the critical content, without the possibility of continued usage of the affected device.

By and large, the overall success of a data rescue procedure depends heavily on the choice of the right method for retrieval and its timely application. That is why it is highly important to understand the nature of the particular loss instance and know what can be done in each specific scenario.

In contrast, the wrong actions can lead to the irreversible destruction of the information. Each file system acts differently when deleting a file.

Hint: To learn more about file systems and their types, please, refer to the basics of file systems. Data recovery software is designed to scour the drive and locate any recoverable data, piecing it back together and providing it in a salvageable format. The best data recovery applications provide a preview of recovered files, filtered and searchable results, easy file restoration and additional tools.

File recovery programs can be used to resurrect files of any type or size, from pictures, music and videos to documents and spreadsheets. Data recovery software can locate and restore emails, executables and compressed files. The best file recovery software can even maintain the folder organization of your files, and it may be able to recover a complete partition or drive.

This new data will overwrite the existing disk service information about the entire physical disk. However, the rest of the data from the old partitions remains untouched, including the info about files and folders.

Thus, file recovery programs can scan the disk, find this information, and recover those files and folders that haven't been affected by the new partition data. An extra search for known file types is rarely necessary. This case is described in more detail in this article: File Recovery after Re-installing Windows.

Reformatting is typically more disruptive than repartitioning, depending on the type of disk format operation that was performed. A full format causes all data on the partition to be overwritten with a certain pattern usually 00 or FF. This makes it impossible to recover any files from the partition. A quick format causes some or all of the info about files and folders to be overwritten, but leaves the file data untouched.

File recovery programs can scan the disk, find what remains from the previous file system, and recover files and folders accordingly. Depending on the file system s before and after the reformat, the data recovery results will vary widely using the first method. An extra search for known file types can be very successful in this case, even if the first method fails to find any files.

If computer freezes or crashes during a disk defragmentation or repartitioning operation, the results can be disastrous. This is typically the worst case scenario for file recovery. Although the info about the files and folders may look healthy, the meta-data may point to the wrong physical addresses for files that were in the process of being moved. For example, the data may have been written to a new location, but the info about the files and folders may not have been updated yet.

Or, the info about the files and folders may have been updated, but some or all of the file data hasn't been moved yet. In these cases, even an extra search for known file types may be unsuccessful, as many files may be fragmented. Although this article only gives a brief overview of the basic file recovery concepts, it should help you understand what to do and what to expect from your data recovery scenario. For more detailed instructions on how to use file recovery programs like R-Studio and R-Undelete, refer to their online help documents.

You can also find detailed case studies and tutorials on specific file recovery cases in our online articles. As always, the best way to estimate your chances for file recovery is to try our programs for free. Using the demo mode of R-Studio or R-Undelete, you can perform the full disk scan and advanced data recovery analyses in order to see which files are recoverable. If the files you are looking for are recoverable, you can register-on-the-fly in order to fully recover your files and save them to another disk.

We are committed to providing fast, efficient, and affordable software solutions that set new standards in the software development industry. PRO Data Recovery:. Backup and System Restore:. PC Privacy and Security:. Data Recovery Articles. Data Recovery Feedback. THX : bye Tom from Hungary. Tamas Balazs Konczol. I want to upgrade it to the technician tool. This tool is amazing. It did a byte copy of the disks and then replicated the array layout and I could see the files instantly.

Daniel Cambridge. I almost had to come to terms with the darkest of dark scenarios, losing it all to oblivion and no one to blame but myself. Then I came across the demo version of R-studio and decided to giving it a final try. These include anything from documents and music to spreadsheets, emails, and PDFs.

There are 2 main methods as we will see below. These are:. Detailed information about the files and folders on a storage device is kept on storage devices. This information includes the following:. Data recovery software can scan for this information and use it to detect files that may have been deleted by mistake.

If the information is intact, then the software can use it to reconstruct the file. However, data recovery software can simply carry out a search for common patterns that indicate the beginning and end of a file.

By using this search method, the software can detect the presence of files like photos, documents, and others that may not be viewable in your regular file explorer.

Each file type has a signature that data recovery software can detect. We have discussed data recovery in detail. However, we focused on the process after it had been somewhat compromised.

The methods described above are not a surefire way of recovering your data. However, making backups is. If your data is regularly backed up, you can simply revert to the latest backed up version of any file that you need. Backups can be made to local storage or to the cloud. They are also limited to staying put in a fixed location.

However, local backups have the following benefits:. Whichever route you take really depends on your needs. When it comes to backups, other than their storage location, you should also consider the different types of backups.

Full backups make a copy of everything from a specified storage location. This is the most complete type of backup. However, running this type of backup takes up the most space when compared to the other types of backups and may not be necessary every single time.