What is Data Recovery and How it Works?

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 20 Mar, 2023
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Summary: Have you ever lost data from your digital device and wondered how you could recover it immediately? This blog describes the process of data recovery in detail and gives you smart suggestions on safeguarding your valuable data. If you happen to lose your data, then don't worry, a data recovery software such as Stellar Free Data Recovery can trace your lost data and recover it. Download the software from the button below and recover up to 1GB of your data for free.

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How does data recovery work?

Loss of data in storage devices remains a cause of concern for users and businesses alike. Data is a most critical asset in today’s digital world and any loss of important data can lead to financial, legal, and emotional trouble.

Fortunately, any information stored on a storage media is almost always recoverable. The process of recovery of inaccessible data, due to the device’s logical or physical failure is known as “Data Recovery.”

Let us look at the logical and physical device failures and see the different ways data loss can happen.

Logical failures: Data loss due to accidental data deletion, drive formatting, volume deletion, drive corruption, boot failure, reinstallation of an operating system, etc. comes under logical failure.

Physical failures:Data loss due to bad areas in the physical storage space, connectivity issue, component damage, electronic equipment malfunction, etc. are a few examples of physical failures.

A Data Recovery process scans for lost files in the storage devices and retrieves them successfully. This is how data recovery software works.It recovers data from various storage devices, such as internal storage drive of laptop or desktop, external hard disk drive, solid-state drive, USB flash drive, an optical storage medium (CD/DVD/BD), and memory card (SD, SDHC, SDXC).

Understanding Data Loss

When you delete files from its stored location, you don’t lose them irreversibly. You can find these files in Recycle Bin (Windows) and Trash (Mac) folders. From here, you can easily restore the deleted files to their original locations.

Even if you delete files from Recycle Bin/Trash, the files aren’t lost permanently. These files are still present in your storage medium and can be recovered bydata recovery software. The same applies to other logical and physical data loss situations.

What makes Data Recovery possible?

During the deletion or formatting process, all operating systems are designed to maximize the speed of computing. This means that the OS would remove the references of the deleted files on the existing file system(or recreate a new file system) instead of permanently erasing the files by overwriting them. Overwriting takes more computing resources and time,which is why an OS would do deletion instead of erasure.

So when data in a drive is deleted or formatted, it is not removed from the storage drive. Instead, the data remains intact in the storage medium in an inaccessible state ready to be overwritten by new data. This marooned data can be retrieved by using a data recovery software that uses file signatures to scan the entire storage drive bit by bit.

Why Data Recovery?

Data recovery helps you to preserve your personal and official data. Imagine losing your treasured digital memories like photos, videos, voice recordings, etc. A data recovery tool can help you avoid emotional distress. Or consider losing critical business documents, project files, software, etc. Permanent loss of such information can be devastating to your career. A data recovery tool becomes your ally in such a situation.

Scope and limitations of Data Recovery

It’s not easy to recover data from certain new hardware introduced in the market. E.g. data recovery is not possible in a Solid State Drive, which has TRIM command enabled. The deleted data in such drives is erased permanently. For SSD’s where TRIM is disabled, data recovery is possible. The same applies to external SSDs.

Data recovery can be difficult or impossible when,

1) Data has been overwritten

2) Data is corrupt (it is possible to recover corrupt data in some cases but it is difficult)

3) Data is present in a bad sector of the drive.

How to prevent loss of data?

Prevention is always better than cure, and backing up your data prevents you from permanent data loss.

Creating a backup in an external USB device and regularly updating it is a great data hygiene practice. Another option is to create a backup in the Cloud. You can use Windows OneDrive, iCloud or third-party services such as Dropbox, Zoho, etc. The biggest advantage of having a cloud backup is the flexibility you get to access your data anytime and on any device. Plus, the security of your data becomes the responsibility of the cloud vendor. Cloud backup services are usually paid services, so please compare the prices and features before opting for a plan.

Loss of data can also occur due to virus attacks. Having a good anti-virus software can shield your computer from the virus and help you preserve your valuable data.

To avoid data loss due to power surges, it is advisable to have a UPS..

Finally

You can lose your valuable information stored on your storage device at any point in time. There are various scenarios such as accidental deletion, virus attacks, software crashes, physical damage, etc. which can lead to loss of data and lead to emotional distress. To avoid such consequences, you should take regular backup of your data.

In the absence of data back-up,you can opt for an efficient Data recovery solution like Stellar Windows Data Recovery. It is a professional tool that uses advanced techniques to recover data from any loss scenario. The free version of the software can recover up to 1 GB of your data. If you wish to recover more data, then you can opt for the paid versions.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

118 comments

Flora Paul says:

July 23, 2015 at 4:26 am

I use MS Excel on the daily basis. I was working with office 2010 and my Excel (.xlsx) file got corrupted. I was not so much aware of the file repair process. I just downloaded the demo version of Stellar Repair for Excel and I have seen the preview of repaired file. I immediately purchase it and repaired my corrupt .xlsx file. Well, it superbly worked in my case so I will suggest this tool for those Excel users who are facing the file corruption problems. Thanks a lot!!

Reply
Grey says:

July 22, 2015 at 8:48 am

My Windows OS XP doesn’t boot up properly. Each time I start the system it just brings me to a black screen. I tried booting in safe mode. Some web solutions suggest performing a system restore or restoring from a recovery disc. I am new to Windows; don’t know how to perform system restore. Also I don’t have any recovery media. Please help!!!

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  July 22, 2015 at 8:51 am
  
  Hi Grey,
  
  I’m afraid that you need to perform complete format to bring everything back to normal. However, It’ll erase everything on the drive. Consider removing the drive and connect it externally. Use recovery programs to get your files back.
  
  This is the most safest way of data recovery and mostly successful. Once the data has been recovered, you can begin installing fresh Windows from scratch.
  
  Reply
Jeremy Gilbert says:

June 12, 2015 at 4:14 am

While deleting some unwanted files from my system to get some extra disk space, I lost two important folders which had some files of my client’s project and I need to send them to the client next week. Problem is that I have emptied the recycle bin also and I’m not able to find those two folders in my backup.

I need those files on urgent basis, could anyone help me out?

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  June 15, 2015 at 4:31 am
  
  Run a complete system scan at the earliest using Stellar Software to find whatever is lost or deleted. Once you see the files in the preview pane, you’ll be able to actually save those files. For list of software, you can use the link below: Read More
  
  Good luck!!
  
  Reply
  1. Jeremy Gilbert says:
    
    June 15, 2015 at 10:37 am
    
    Hi Abhay,
    
    I have tried your software and got my lost folders back.
    Thanks for your help.
  2. Abhay says:
    
    June 16, 2015 at 2:28 am
    
    Glad it helped Jeremy!!
Norman D. Moody says:

May 22, 2015 at 3:03 am

I have HP 1 TB external hard disk and I accidentally used clean command in diskpart to clean it. My entire data has been erased. Please suggest me what to do?

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  May 28, 2015 at 3:06 am
  
  Hi Norman,
  
  Data hasn’t been erased permanently and you can still recover it. Download Stellar software and install it on your PC. Use the below link to get setup:
  
  Read More
  
  You can recover emails, documents, pictures, videos and almost anything you’ve lost or accidentally deleted.
  
  Good luck!!
  
  Reply
Daniel says:

May 21, 2015 at 6:05 am

Hello Everyone,

Great tutorial, I must say!! Though, it didn’t includes any particular guide or steps on recovering data using software. I’m in deep trouble as one of my Seagate external hard drive runs into problem and asking to format the drive. I’ve already tried changing the drive letter, running CHKDSK command as suggested by experts in forums but to no avail.

I just want to recover data and the drive isn’t accessible. Please tell me the possible ways to recover files and any best data recovery software that can easily recover files.

Any help will be truly appreciated.

Best,
Daniel

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  May 21, 2015 at 6:16 am
  
  Data recovery software works the same any other Windows programs does. However, you’ll need to be little more cautious while recvoering files as any wrong attempts will makes your data permanent non recoverable.
  
  In your case, I’d suggest you to connect your drive to any healthy computer and install Stellar Partition recovery Software. You can download it from the below URL: Read More
  
  Software will list your drive under ‘Drive Recovery’ and you can click on it to select and perform recovery attempts. Click on ‘Advance Recovery’ from the right hand pane and let the software complete the scanning. You can see the preview of recoverable items for free however saving is disabled in free version. You’ll need to further purchase the software to save items.
  
  Once the data has been recovered, you can go with formatting the drive to make it fresh and use it from scratch.
  
  Good luck!!
  
  Reply
Kavin Fellers says:

May 18, 2015 at 5:53 am

What is the first step that I should follow in the case of hard disk corruption? Please explain briefly.

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  May 18, 2015 at 8:48 am
  
  Hi Kevin,
  
  You should stop using the drive immediately and avoid using techniques like freezing or putting pressure on it to make it work one more time.
  
  Immediately seek for experts help if you are unaware of technicalities of hard disk corruption or use the below method to retrieve important files yourself using advanced data recovery that runs in read only mode to ensure that none of the lost of deleted files gets overwritten or damaged.
  
  1. Download Stellar File Recovery Software from here
  2. Install the software and run it from the desktop or all programs menu.
  3. Choose the problem drive listed under ‘Drive Recovery’ tab and select any subsequent recovery options like ‘Quick recovery’ or ‘advanced recovery’.
  4. Wait till the software completes scanning. After which, you’ll be able to see the preview of recoverable files and folders and check mark the box to recover it.
  
  That’s it. Do get in touch if you are facing any other type of problem.
  
  Till then, all the best!!
  
  Reply
Galvin says:

May 18, 2015 at 4:19 am

I am using this 1TB Seagate hard disk drive for clone backup. I found the drive is inaccessible on my MacBook Pro. I have backed up this Mac using CCC, but right now I am unable to restore some files. Is my hard drive failing? How can I get access to files that are stored on this external hard drive?

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  May 18, 2015 at 5:30 am
  
  Hi Galvin,
  
  You need to provide us more info on your hard drive status. Is your external disk drive producing unusual sound? You might notice some clicking/grinding noise from the drive. If so, your drive is failing physically. You can also download free software to check SMART status of your drive.
  
  However, it is quite possible that your disk is safe but it has went under file structure corruption. I suggest you download Stellar Mac data recovery software and scan your external hard drive. I suggest you run Software<<RAW Recovery to get out data from a corrupt hard disk drive.
  
  Reply
Dwayne says:

May 15, 2015 at 5:11 am

Hi Abhay,

That old folder is also missing. I think I have to take help of recovery software now. There are many recovery software listed at here , so can you let me know which particular software I need to try ?

Reply
1. Abhay says:
  
  May 18, 2015 at 3:47 am
  
  Hi Dwayne,
  
  You can try Stellar Partition Recovery Software (Download it from here). This tool looks promising in recovering files from old or formatted PC with their exact names and file structure.
  This tool has advanced scanning procedure to lets you perform deep (sector by sector) scanning to recover even severely damaged data.
  
  Give it a go and share your results!!
  
  Reply
Abhay says:

May 15, 2015 at 3:49 am

Hi Dwayne,

You can manually locate the old folders of Windows 7 by going to windows.old folder located in bootable volume. If it’s missing, try recovery software immediately to avoid any chances of overwritten. You can find few useful utilities over here and install it on your PC to perform complete hard drive scan.

Advanced recovery software have the capability to dig deeply and boost up your data survival chances. You can also perform signature based recovery if you are looking for any particular file types.

Please share which ways helps you!!

Reply
Dwayne says:

May 15, 2015 at 3:15 am

Recently I have switched from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 and found some important files are missing from some folders. I need those files urgently anyhow as those files contains important info about our clients and other records also. Can anyone please help me out and guide me to get back my lost files ?

Reply