What to do when you experience data loss?
It is very important to stop any work with the damaged device as soon as possible, do not play with it and try to make it work and do not let your local IT/Repair shop try to do it. Send it to the professionals who handle data recovery every day, in most cases when playing with the device it can cause further damage or loss of data.
In cases of hard drives:
- Drive making noises – clicking, knocking or scratching – shut down immediately. We may still be able to recover it with forensic tools we utilize, if you continue working you may cause further damage and in some cases the data will be unrecoverable.
- Accidental Format/Deletion – shut down the drive or the computer it is in, do not continue to work with it as the data location may be re-written and data may be lost forever. If you continue to work with it, the chances are lower of recovering the data. Do not re-install the operating system (Windows, Linux, MacOS etc.) unless you have backed up the data already.
In cases of flash drives & digital cameras:
- Unresponsive Card – if a memory card is not responding and asking to format, do not proceed with formatting the card. Take the memory card out and bring it to us.
- Accidental Format/Deletion – do not continue to work with it as the data location may be re-written and data may be lost forever. If you continue to work with it, the chances are lower of recovering the data.
In cases of smart phones:
- Phone Failure – in case of hardware (phone) failure – shut down and bring it to us.
- Accidental Format/Deletion – do not continue to work with it as if you continue to work with it, the chances are lower of recovering the data. The further you work with it, the chances are lower in recovering the data. Do not re-install operating system or do any updates unless you have backed up the data already. Check if you have a local backup on your computer (if you sync it) and bring it with you.