Data Recovery Forums - Help & Discussions

Isabella · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 100

Always consider that the kind of data that needs to be recovered does matter. Just assume you are able to recover a hypothetical 90% of all lost files. If these files were pictures you can consider this rate a success, you got 9 out of 10 pictures back. If your files were tables of a database and 10% are missing, the entire database will probably be worthless because the data depends on each other. The more the data is depending on each other, the greater the devastation will be if even a small percentage of data is missing. Another interesting aspect is the "time dimension": a data recovery is usually worth less with each day, sometimes each hour, that passed by.

Physical Data Recovery:Extracting the raw data from the affected media (physical data recovery)

logical Data Recovery:Reconstructing the files (logical data recovery)

You can have pure logical data losses. For example, file deletion, drive formatting or virus attacks only require logical reconstruction. On the other hand, a mechanically failed drive that is successfully repaired will not need logical reconstruction.

In reality many physical problems will need subsequent logical reconstruction because not all data has been retrieved.