What is data recovery and when to use it?

The term “data recovery” seems so clear that you may never have stopped to think about what it really is and, above all, when it can be of use to you as a user.

For this reason, we wanted to make this post in which we will explain (in a simple and clear way) what data recovery is and you will learn to know in which cases it is necessary.

Data recovery, definition

Data or information retrieval is defined as the set of procedures used to access information stored on a digital medium that, for various reasons, is not accessible in the conventional way.

Or to put it in a more understandable way:

Data recovery is the technique of accessing and recovering all the information on an electronic device that you cannot access normally for some reason.

We are often unaware of how relatively easy it is to lose our data and files.

We don’t often realize how delicate the hard drives of our devices are or other devices such as pendrives or memory cards and the actions that can cause us to unintentionally cause loss of important information.

If you keep reading, from today on this will no longer happen to you.

What type of information may be lost and need to be recovered?

In the 21st century, we all live surrounded by information and store files and data on our cell phones, computers, tablets, cameras, video consoles, etc.

The photos of our last vacation or those of a lifetime, the documents that we have spent hours preparing for the next meeting, the contacts collected over the years, the invoicing program or the database of our business…

All this information stored in our electronic devices is susceptible to being lost and needing to be recovered.

How is the data lost?

There are different reasons why we may lose our precious data.

These are the situations that occur most frequently:

Accidental loss: what we usually call logical data loss. It is when we unintentionally modify or delete a file, or the file system becomes corrupted and inaccessible by operating systems (such as Windows, Mac or Linux).
Device failure: known as physical data loss. Our electronic device (hardware) or its internal operating system (S.A Service Area) fails, preventing us from accessing the information.
Cyber-attack: a virus damages or deletes the information stored in our device.

But there are also other more peculiar cases in which data recovery may be necessary, such as when we have spilled a liquid on our device and we can not turn it on, we have caused a power failure by connecting a wrong power supply or even in forensic investigations.

Is it always possible to recover lost data?

Now you know the cases in which you may need to search for and recover your data or files.

But, you may be wondering if you will always be able to recover the data that by accident, failure or malicious people you may lose.

What is certain is that each case must be analyzed independently.

In the vast majority of cases the data is recovered in full, preserving all its information and its complete structure.However, there are cases in which due to the complexity and/or damage of the device only the data without its structure (folders and names) can be recovered.

In these cases, all files are grouped by type (photographs in one folder, words in another folder, etc.).

To learn more about when it is possible to recover data and when it is not, check out our post: Will I always recover all my lost data?

How can I avoid losing my data?

In future articles we will expand on this information because, as in almost everything, prevention is the best solution.

But these are the tips to avoid losing our beloved data:

Make backups often, either in the cloud or on an additional hard drive (find out which is the best system for which is the best system for backupshere👈🏻).
Get a good antivirus antivirusthat protects you against malware and other cyber-attacks.
Updateyour operating system and its programs to keep your device more protected against incompatibilities, bugs and viruses.
Avoid clicking on suspicious links that come to you via emailSMS, Whatsapp, advertisements or other means.
Be sure to save often and correctlyand correctly save the documents you are working on.
Shut down your devicesin the correct way to avoid unexpected shutdowns that may damage your data.
Prevents bumps and liquidsdamage your devices.
Take measures to avoid avoid electrical fluctuationsin the devices (e.g. with voltage limiters or the use of a UPS).
Do not obstruct the air outlet of your device to prevent it from overheating and damaging the hard disk.

What if I have already lost my data? What do I do to recover them?

We have already given you some guidelines on how to recover your datain our blog and we will continue to expand the information.

But the first thing you should know is what NOT to do when you lose data on your device..

The first step when you realize that you have lost your data is to STOP.

Yes, as you read it.

Stop, stop working, stop playing or stop wasaping (depending on the device in question) and get going to recover your dataeither by yourself or by hiring the services of professionals.

We talk about the importance of stopping because you run the risk of overwriting new information on top of the previous one and then it becomes unrecoverable.

In addition, if your device has a physical problem and you force it to be read by using software (instead of using physical data recovery tools) it can become even more damaged.

So, remember: stop using the device, do not store new information on it and use it only for data recovery.

Summarizing

We can all lose data that is important to us, including our memories of special moments.

This is even more delicate when it comes to companies that handle many documents and data essential to their work on a daily basis.

In these cases a loss of data, in addition to the loss itself, can result in great economic damage as systems need to be shut down during data recovery.

But we can also take we can take certain measures to minimize the risk of data loss and of data loss and have the peace of mind that in most cases this information is recoverable.

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