TOC · Work · Data Recovery

Data Recovery from Damaged Devices

If you are in doubt about physical health of your device (error messages, slow responding, extraneous sounds, there was a hit, fall etc.) it is highly recommended to appeal to specialists. Any further work with the disk (including even starting up) may worsen the problem and cause complete inability to recover data. If you decide to try by yourself it is at your own risk. Anyway it is possible only if the device is accessible using the software (contents are readable), and device size is detected correctly (info on incorrect device size).

Software Bads

Some errors are due to external reasons - bad contacts, unexpected power loss or disconnection, etc. If sector is not completely or incorrectly written then the device report an error when reading such sector even there is no physical damage (software bad). The device is working normally except reading several sectors. In such case you may eliminate the initial cause for the errors (check if PCB contacts are oxidised, replace wires, etc.) and continue accessing the device safely if the situation does not become worsen (some software bads may still remain). Of course this does not apply to cases there was hit, the device become slower responding, etc. Anyway it would be safer to make a copy of the entire device before continue recovery.

Device Cloning

It is highly recommended to first clone the damaged device.

Data recovery software usually scans the entire device, then again analize some structures on the disk, then read again data sectors when actual recovery is performed. You may also try different software. This causes reading the device again and again damaging the damaged device more and more. Making a sector-wise copy (clone) of the device to a healthy destination disk eliminates this problem. The device is read only once and further work is performed with the copy.

In DMDE you may use the tool Copy Sectors to make the device clone.

If Cloning is Impossible

Sometimes the device is at the stage the entire cloning is impossible. Full copy may take an unreasonable time but you need to recover only some important files. In such case you may try data recovery without performing a full scan.

DMDE allows opening volumes and finding some files without preliminary full scan. You may try opening the volume if it is visible in the window Partitions just after selecting the device. You may also try opening volumes as soon as they appear in the results of Full Scan without waiting it completes. Make sure to Save scan results to avoid future rescanning in case of some failure. After opening the volume recover the most important files first and check if they can be opened/played.