Data Recovery
Data stored on electronic media is susceptible to a number of issues that can make the data inaccessible. These issues seem to have a way of cropping up at the most inopportune times. A digital forensics examiner from Vestige can employ advanced forensic data recovery processes and procedures to retrieve lost data from not only most, but the most severely damaged media. Whether the data failure is due to a logical failure (misconfigured/corrupted data), electronic failure or physical component damage, Vestige can assist in assessing the damage, determining recovery feasibility and recovering data.
If you suspect damage to the drive and the data is worth anything to you, you should take immediate steps to ensure the success of any digital forensics data recovery attempts. Specifically:
- Do NOT attempt to recover the data yourself. While you may be successful, the activity may make it worse. There are a lot of $39 software packages out there that claim to recover data–and some do–sometimes! Ask yourself if your data is worth more than $39?
- Stop using the device. If there is an electronics issue or physical damage, continued use can exacerbate the problem.
- Do not open the drive/device casing. Electronic storage media is manufactured and sealed in special clean-room environments, opening a device will introduce contaminants that can further wreck havoc on recovery efforts.
- Document as much information as you can about how and when the problem arose, information that is useful to know includes: a description of what is happening, the type of filesystem on the media, the operating system (any and all, if present) on the media, the type of content that is on the device, the type of content that is most critical to you for recovery, the use of encryption (if applicable), what steps you took when you noticed the issue and any attempts that you did make at recovering the data.
- Hire a reputable Expert. Again, there are a lot of recovery facilities out there. Make sure the one you send it to has the requisite knowledge.
- Find a facility that doesn’t void your warranty. While data storage prices are minimal compared to the data that is on the drive, there’s nothing to add insult to injury than to find that the recovery facility couldn’t recover the data AND in the process voided the warranty on the media.
