• Home

DataMole
Data Recovery Resource

Data Recovery: can you do it yourself?

When deciding whether or not you can do your own data recovery, you must take into account the cause of the data loss, the extent of the data loss, the type of data lost, and the importance of the data. Another factor to consider is whether or not it is preferable to have data recovery expertise and facilities in-house; larger organisations may prefer to make some investments in this area, building up to a situation in which they may even take on outside work.

The cause
Primary causes of data loss are hardware malfunction, software corruption, computer viruses and operator error. Hardware malfunctions usually indicate a level of data loss and complexity of recovery that requires significant expertise, facilities, and time. Software corruption will often require specialised software, as is the case with virus infection, although nowadays it should be rare to find computers that are unprotected by anti-virus solutions.

The extent
One important consideration here is if the extent of data loss is increasing; in other words, data retention is in a degenerative state. In this case it becomes very important to follow procedures to minimise data loss and recover as quickly as possible; not the time to be experimenting and learning-as-you-go.

Type of data
In situations where system files on the hard drive are inaccessible, data recovery can be made easier by prescribed operating system recovery procedures, which can usually be carried out in-house. Data such as documents and databases however, will require you to compile your own procedures.

Importance
Data recovery can be extremely expensive, even if it is done in-house. It can take days, even weeks if the data loss is extensive, and this could tie up important resources and require investments in hardware and software. When weighed against the value of the data, it may be more cost-effective and timely to recreate instead of recover.