What is data recovery?

Data recovery is the process which data is extracted from a device that holds data such as a hard drive or USB drive.  There are two types of data recovery, software and hardware data recovery.

Software data recovery is generally applied when data is lost due to deletion, formatting media, reinstalling an operating system or a virus.  When one of these events occur your data is not really deleted.  The space where the data is stored is marked available for new data to be placed.  As long as that space is not overwritten, data recovery is very successful.

Hardware data recovery is generally applied when there is physical damage to the media holding data.  For example when one drops a computer and the hard drive stops working or when the interface of a USB drive is broken.  The media device needs to physically be opened.  Depending on the circumstances of the the damage, hardware data recovery is very successful to partially successful.