It is comparatively easier to retrieve data lost through logical data loss than due to physical reasons. When data loss happens from an office computer due to physical reasons, the recovery process can take very long, and can cost a huge sum. However, if the data is very precious, then one has to go for the recovery process as offered by professionals who tackle these problems.

Reasons for Physical Data Loss

There are various factors that can cause physical loss of data. They can be broadly grouped under the following headings:-

• Dust – If a disk is exposed to a lot of dust at one time, or left exposed for a long time in a ‘normal’ room, the amount of dust gathered on it may fatally damage the data. The dust particles gathered on the disk’s surface can corrode the metal, literally scratching the information away. A very badly exposed disc would have little chance of recovery.


• Fire, water and humidity – Most discs are designed to resist rising temperature up to 770 degree centigrade, which is the melting point for iron. So beyond it, the information basically melts away, and can be very hard to retrieve. A disaster like a fire or a flood is obviously rare, and the chances of recovering data from such massively damaged discs are slim, but not nil. Water is especially damaging, as the metal gets corroded, and then there is not much left to work upon. Humidity is not a common problem in the UK, but in certain countries keeping a disc stored without precautions at normal room atmospheric temperature can damage it.


• Dropped – A standard disk absorbs 300 G of shock – which is quite a lot. However, if the vertical component of this drop is more than the speed at which the read head rotates, then the jarred data may be lost for ever. The type of impact is also important, i.e. the height from which it fell, how it landed etc.


• Malfunctioning of other components – If the read heads are malfunctioning, or there is a motor failure, or the mother board has sustained physical damage, one will have to take recourse to data recovery services.

The Process of Recovery

A data recovery firm has the provision of a Clean Room – a chamber where atmospheric conditions are stringently regulated. The disk can be checked for damage in this room because it is safe to open it for inspection here. If it is a problem like a malfunctioning read head i.e. a component needs to be replaced, then it can be done now. Since discs are becoming increasingly customised, major software compatibility issues may crop up at this point. Some times, even replacing the damaged device with another of similar model number may still cause problems. In that case, a new drive has to be created all over again.

A method of disc replication is MFM (Magnetic Force Microscope) Photography. As the name suggests, the disk’s surface is actually photographed portion by portion showing the magnetic impulses. This is an extremely painstaking process and can take a very long time – several months, maybe. It will also be a very expensive process, but the data is often worth more than this cost. In fact, methods have come up now, where it is possible to recover data from a disc that had caught fire, sunk, dropped with considerable impact and broken, and been buried under rubble in an earthquake.

It may sound quite strange, but according to some experts, if a disc had been immersed in water, it should be kept wet till the copy is made. The logic is that if the water evaporates, the surface may get corroded in the aftermath, and the metal would be eaten away. However, there are others of diametrically opposite opinions, who believe that a wet disc (if such a tragedy happens at all), should be dried with all speed.

A commercial organization has no choice, but for the home user, there are data recovery packs available on the net. Unfortunately, those deal only with Logical Loss of data.

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James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk