If only people understood how hard it can be to totally delete data from a hard drive they would really be a lot more careful, especially in these days of identity theft and identity fraud. Data recovery companies are well skilled at restoring data, but then so are the computer criminal specialists, and if all you have done is a simple reformat or deletion then your personal data can be much more exposed than you would like to believe.

So what lengths do we need to go to in order to ensure that our data is securely removed?

To put it simply there is no safe and easy way of ensuring that data is permantly eradicated from a hard disk or any other form of storage medium in reality. That doesn’t mean however that it can’t be done.

In order to completely erase data on a drive it is best to overwrite the original several times but not necessarily using the same methodology on each rewrite. Using a method that involves numerous passes over the data either using specialist software or with a manual process that adheres to recognized data erasure standards will under most circumstances guarantee that the data has been successfully erased.

There is software available that can help in the task but many people prefer to leave data elimination to professional services as they will at least understand the exact processes that need to be followed to ensure complete elimination of any data and the chance of it falling into the wrong hands.

Apart from software and manual deletion there are more robust methods of data disposal which is commonally know as data destruction. This involves the complete destruction of the disks to the point where recovery would be impossible.

While it would not be recommended DIY data destruction is an option you could try but this would mean that you would need to totally dismantle the drive, remove the platters and physically damaging as much of the disk as possible including destroying (shattering ) the disk as well.

Always remember deleting a file does not remove your data beyond the point of recovery. Formatting a hard disk, even full formats/low level formats do not guarantee complete data erasure. Re-installing an operating system does not get rid of your data either. The only reliable method is the multi-pass method.

Not all data will needs to be totally destroyed using the above methods and if you are happy that none of your data is personal or sensitive (both business or personal) then simply dispose of it in an enviromentally responsibly way, but if you are at all unsure don’t take the risk.

Your local data recovery company will be able to advise you on safe hard drive recovery data disposal methods and will probably have a local service. data recovery and data disposal should always be left to professional operators who are happy to certify their work.

No matter if you have taken all the required precautions, when a server or a hard drive fails you can guarantee that the search for a company to sort out the problem will be the foremost thing on most peoples minds, but how do you choose the best comapny to do the job for you?

Making the right choice in which data recovery company to work with can be a bit of a chore at an often crucial time, but getting it right is vitally important to ensure the best success rate.

The company that gets your vote should have dedicated Data recovery staff that are professionally trained for the required task

It should certainly not be something they do as a background activity, so don’t be afraid to ask some very pointed questions.

A true data recovery services company will be able to successfully recover data from Servers, Laptop’s, Desktop’s, CD/DVD’s and all other types of storage media, not simply just from a failed hard drive

They should be up to date with the latest hard drive technology and Raid recovery techniques and if top tier will also conduct their own research and development.

If they are leaders in data solutions they should also be able to offer a full gamut of data recovery services including full server and raid recovery capabilities. If the company are an industry leader they will also offer a call out service as this is often a key requirement for server and raid data recovery.

Most professional data recovery will have proper labs facilities not just a back office with a bench. The data recovery lab is often the heart and sole of the operation.

Most businesses also need to get their data back as soon as possible as downtime costs money so make sure that the company you work with don’t have to send your drive abroad if they don’t have their own lab facilities.

Suffering a data loss has been known to make a business go under but no matter how urgent the situation do your self and your business a favor and make sure you are giving your data to a company that has the best capability to get it back for you.

Removing data from a hard drive, permanently, is something that sounds an awful lot simpler than it proves to be in reality. As we all know deleting a file does not remove the file or its content from the hard drive permanently, data recovery companies can normally aid in the recovery of such files, no doubt other less scrupulous individuals are equally capable of such recovery feats.

So if it is so hard to remove private data from an old hard drive what exactly should you be doing to ensure your data has no risk of getting into the wrong hands?

To put it simply there is no safe and easy way of ensuring that data is permantly eradicated from a hard disk or any other form of storage medium in reality. That doesn’t mean however that it can’t be done.

Data can only be considered completely erased when it has been overwritten several times, each time using a different method. The level of overwriting usually considered to guarantee that data has been successfully erased is a seven pass overwriting method using software or manual processes that adhere to the DoD 5220.22-M standard for data erasure.

There are many companies that can provide such data elimination services, and there are also a number of software applications that can serve the process including Evidence Eliminator, M-Sweep Pro Data Eliminatior and R-Wipe software from the company behind R-Studio Data Recovery Software.

There are also more permanent methods of data destruction, few data recovery companies can retrieve data from a hard drive where the disk’s platters have been physically destroyed.

If you wish to attempt this yourself, it is important to note that the platters within the device should be completely destroyed, this means bending, scratching, smashing, shattering or whatever else seems reasonable to completely annihilate the hard disk platter.

Always remember deleting a file does not remove your data beyond the point of recovery. Formatting a hard disk, even full formats/low level formats do not guarantee complete data erasure. Re-installing an operating system does not get rid of your data either. The only reliable method is the multi-pass method.

Not all data will needs to be totally destroyed using the above methods and if you are happy that none of your data is personal or sensitive (both business or personal) then simply dispose of it in an enviromentally responsibly way, but if you are at all unsure don’t take the risk.

Your local data recovery company will be able to advise you on safe hard drive data disposal methods and will probably have a local service. raid data recovery and data disposal should always be left to professional operators who are happy to certify their work.

When money is tight often we are all tempted to do those little repairs that we would other wise get professional help to do and data recovery is no exception. Quite often data recovery are presented with hard drives that have been opened in an unsafe environment and also drive that have sustained further data loss through incorrect use of DIY recovery software.

In most cases this software will be a hard drive recovery programme for a hard disk drive that has suffered from some form of logical table corruption and will not assist with

1. Mechanically failed devices
2. Degraded hard Disk Drives
3. Devices with electronic failures

This software will of course not be able to help and if the drive is degraded or suffering from a mechanical failure attempting to run this software will in most cases cause further damage to hard disk drives, potentially making the disk unrecoverable.

Downloadable recovery software often seems like a good buy and can be quite reasonably priced but unfortunately it will not be able to help with as many hard disk problems and that is an important point to note. If you get it wrong you could lose your files forever!

There are of course a lot of IT experts around of course and you may even have some in your own business, but do they really know what they are doing when it comes to the serious issue of data recovery? You would think that your onsite IT support would be data aware bit this is quite often simply not the case.

In a typical case a drive was initially presented for diagnosis and duly diagnosed with a blown PCB - the drive seemed completely dead and would not spin at all. As an additional test a new PCB was placed on the board so that the response of the heads could be tested. The result of this test was that the heads appeared to have been “blown” by a power surge through the drive.

Upon further discussion, with the client, it transpired that the IT dept had decided to remove the HDD from the laptop and as it was an IDE device mount it as an external storage device by using an IDE connector. Unfortunately they plugged the HDD to the connector “upside down” meaning that crucially the drive received a huge power spike through it when the connector was hooked up to a PC.

It may well have been in this particular scenario that the actual problem could have been no more a few bad sectors on the disk, however due to a certain level of incompetence within this department what originally was more than likely a simple job for a data professional turned into a much more costly full drive rebuild.

Naturally the client is somewhat annoyed that his data, whilst probably still recoverable, is likely to cost much more and take longer in the recovery process.

Unfortunately most Data Recovery Companies will probably have their own tales of customer mishap or IT Technicians making their job more difficult through there well intentioned but often misinformed knowledge of hard disk drive technology.

So the moral of this is that whilst many people will look for a quick and cheap fix for their hard drive recovery problems, they really are best leaving it to the experts.