WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.560 So picture this. You're firing up your PC for another day of hard work, or slacking off at work, 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:11.840 and nothing happens. I mean, the computer turns on, but instead of getting to the operating system, 00:00:11.840 --> 00:00:14.880 you get some kind of recurring error message about your storage. 00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:22.080 Then it hits you. Your hard drive or your SSD is dead, and the data is about as accessible as 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:27.520 the Ark of the Covenant. But all might not be lost. You can still send your drive off to a 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:33.520 data recovery service so that your tax documents, personal photos, or save games aren't lost to the 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:38.000 ether. But how do you even get started with that? Well, today we're going to tell you how, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.920 and we'd also like to thank our friends over at Drivesavers for sponsoring this video. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:47.520 First things first, if you use a professional service, it probably won't take a super long 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:53.440 time to get your data back if it is indeed recoverable. But it also won't be a matter of a couple 00:00:53.440 --> 00:00:58.720 of hours before you can breathe again either. If you can afford rush service and your recovery job 00:00:58.720 --> 00:01:03.600 ends up not being very complicated, it could be turned around in as little as a day. But you may 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:09.600 also end up waiting around a week, so keep your expectations reasonable. If you only need logical 00:01:09.600 --> 00:01:14.640 data recovery, the process tends to be quicker. So this is when a drive is still in good shape 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:19.600 physically, but you've lost your data due to something like a problem with the operating system 00:01:19.600 --> 00:01:25.600 or an accidental format. However, if you have a physical issue, like a head crash, you might be 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:29.840 waiting around for longer since they'll probably have to take your drive apart, possibly in a 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:34.960 clean room environment, and repair the drive just enough so that there can be a chance that you 00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:40.080 can get some of that data back. But how do these processes work? Let's first talk about logical 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:44.880 data recovery, which for example, you might need if there's a problem with the master file table, 00:01:44.880 --> 00:01:50.000 which serves as kind of like an index or a record of the physical locations that each 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:56.000 file occupies on your disk. Issues with the MFT can result in your computer simply not knowing 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.480 where to find the data, even though it's still on the disk. So that can often still be recovered 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:08.320 with tools that use strategies like bypassing corrupted file system infrastructure or scanning 00:02:08.320 --> 00:02:13.360 the data manually and then putting it back together using signatures that are common to certain file 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:18.480 types. Physical recovery is obviously more complicated. Of course, if a drive is very 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:23.120 badly physically damaged, there might not be anything even the best data recovery companies 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:28.000 can do. But if that isn't the case, recovery companies do have a variety of tricks up their 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.840 sleeves. It could be repairing or replacing the drive circuit board. You could move the disk 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.880 platters to a new drive, a tricky proposition because of how close the read and write head has 00:02:38.880 --> 00:02:44.320 to be to the platter surface. And even a drive that suffered a head crash, where the head actually 00:02:44.320 --> 00:02:49.200 impacts the disk, it can partially be salvaged by physically moving the head out of the way 00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:53.840 before attempting to read any data on whatever good parts of the platter are left. Though it 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:58.640 should be noted that the area directly under the crash is often unrecoverable. If we're talking 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.480 about SSDs, the company might actually have to remove the NAND flash that stores the data 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:10.240 and transplant it to a new board with the original controller chip. And then for corrupted firmware, 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:15.440 which also counts as physical failure, by the way, the data recovery company might have to repair 00:03:15.440 --> 00:03:21.040 or rebuild the firmware to access your data, which can add additional time. And sometimes data can 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:25.760 be unrecoverable even if there's no physical damage, as is the case of a hard drive that's 00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:30.560 overwritten with zeros or an SSD where the trim command has been run. You can learn more about 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:35.520 those things here and here. Now that you have an idea of how it works, how do you go about 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:40.560 picking a service provider? Well, one thing to keep in mind is that reputable places will often 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:44.720 provide some kind of results-based payment structure. You ever see those lawyer commercials 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:49.840 where they say, you don't pay if we don't win? Well, a good data recovery place also shouldn't 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:54.320 be billing you if they can't get your data back. So look out if they try to charge you large amounts 00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:58.640 of money that you'll be on the hook for regardless of whether anything is actually recovered. 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:02.400 And on that note, make sure you get a quote in writing before signing anything. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.000 Also, make sure that your provider has comprehensive security protocols in place. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.160 They should be protecting your data and getting rid of any copies that they have 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:14.240 once the recovery process is complete. And of course, like anything else, 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.400 read reviews and make sure there aren't an inordinate number of complaints about a particular 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:23.520 company because they took two months and all they could recover was a big folder of Linus face memes. 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:27.440 For example, not that I speak from personal experience. 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:30.560 Thanks for watching guys. Like dislike, check out our other videos, 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.480 comment with video suggestions if you want to see a Techquickie topic in the future, 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.880 and don't forget to subscribe and follow.