Data recovery is an issue where the solutions range from the cheap and easy to the downright frustrating. The type of technology in use makes a big difference, and so does the exact level of failure. If you're worried about getting your data back, follow these tips.

Know the Physical Type of Media

There's a huge difference between getting lost data off a failed SD card or SSD drive and dealing with a hard drive recovery project. Hard drives, in particular, can be challenging to deal with because they use a large number of mechanical components. Every one of these components is a potential point of failure, and attempting an amateurish recovery effort might make things worse.

On the other hand, flash memory systems, such as we see in SD cards, microSD cards, thumb drives, and SSD drives, tend to fail in a manner that makes recovery more likely. This is because the use of static states in solid media doesn't carry with it the additional risk of continuing mechanical failure. If you're not sure what type of drives you're using, it's best to take your system to a professional technician.

Identifying the Level of Failure

Drives don't always completely fail in a single shot. This is especially the case with mechanical drives. For example, you may see a Windows desktop computer begin to complain about and try to fix hard drive failures on boot up. If this becomes a regular thing, but the system continues working, you're probably early enough in the process to transfer the drive to another machine and use data recovery tools to fix it. With mechanical drives, keep an ear out for funny sounds. They all make lots of whirring sounds, but any clicks or ticks coming from them are bad signs, even if everything is still working.

Flash-based drives have a tendency to try to address failures as they operate. This can make their failures sneaky, as they will move data from failed blocks to good ones, slowly wearing out the whole drive. You may not detect a total failure until this process has reached the point where no more good storage blocks are left. Fortunately, these blocks tend to remain readable at this stage.

Attempting Recovery

Recuva is a widely used free program for data recovery. Install Recuva on another system, and then place your drive in it to run a scan. If this fails, you're encouraged to visit a pro.