This overview brings together all the questions and answers relating to data recovery at LanCologne – from initial emergency assistance for a hard drive that is making clicking noises or is no longer recognised, through to RAID, NAS, SSD and encryption issues, right up to industry-specific scenarios, brand-specific features and frequently asked questions about the process. Click on a category to view the relevant questions.
First aid: symptoms, error messages & immediate action
- Why should a storage medium no longer be used after a data loss has been detected?
- Can a waterproof outdoor hard drive still retrieve data after being submerged?
- What does the message ‚No Boot Device Found‘ or ‚Operating System not found‘ mean?
- What does the blue screen error INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE mean for data recovery?
- What does it mean if a hard drive is extremely slow to respond or frequently causes time-outs?
- From a technical point of view, what happens if a hard disk is suddenly disconnected from the system whilst it is running?
- What does it mean if an external hard drive doesn’t make any noise at all when switched on?
- What should you do if your laptop won’t switch on at all – is it the hard drive that’s the problem?
- Could an unreliable USB hub be the cause of apparent data loss?
- What should you do if a laptop’s recovery partition has been accidentally deleted?
- What should you bear in mind when dealing with an old HFS+-formatted Mac hard drive?
- How can I recover data from an old hard drive that was accidentally reformatted during a PC migration?
- What happens if a hard drive cloning process is interrupted partway through?
- What should I do if I have accidentally wiped the wrong hard drive using a data-wiping tool?
- How does deleting a file using Shift+Delete affect its recoverability?
- Can files still be recovered from an emptied Recycle Bin?
- What should you do if a pet has damaged a cable or an external storage device?
- How can I recover files that my child has accidentally deleted?
- Can data still be recovered from a hard drive after it has fallen into the toilet?
- Can a laptop still retrieve data after being damaged by coffee or a drink?
- Why does a hard drive sometimes display an incorrect capacity or a capacity of 0 bytes?
- What should you do if a hard drive no longer starts up after an interrupted UPS power supply?
- What happens if a failed BIOS or UEFI Update corrupts the system hard drive?
- What should you do if a Windows Update has corrupted the system drive?
- What should you do if an Outlook PST or OST file is corrupted following a system crash?
- What should you do if a large exFAT-formatted external hard drive suddenly appears as ’unformatted‘?
- Is it even possible to recover files that have been overwritten?
- What happens if I try to repair a faulty hard drive myself?
- What should you bear in mind if your external hard drive has fallen onto the floor?
- Can data still be recovered from an external hard drive that has fallen into water?
RAID and NAS systems
- What does it mean if, following maintenance, a RAID controller recognises drives in a different order or as ‚foreign‘?
- What should be taken into account if a single Blade-Server fails in a Blade chassis?
- What happens if a hot-swap hard disk is accidentally removed whilst the system is running?
- Why shouldn’t a standard desktop hard drive be used in a NAS system instead of a NAS hard drive?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a failure of a hyper-converged storage system (e.g. Nutanix)?
- What should you bear in mind if a Dell or EMC storage array fails?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a failure of a NetApp storage system with a WAFL file system?
- Why shouldn’t a damaged RAID array simply be reinitialised?
- What is the difference between a RAID recovery and a RAID rebuild?
- What should you bear in mind when using a RAID card in a Mac Pro?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a failure of an Intel RST or VROC RAID array on the motherboard?
- What should be taken into account if a PCIe RAID card fails in a Workstation?
- Do WD Red NAS hard drives fail less often than standard hard drives?
- What should you bear in mind if your Buffalo NAS fails?
- What should you bear in mind if a G-Technology or SanDisk Professional RAID fails?
- What does the RAID-5 write hole problem mean for data recovery?
- What is the difference between SATA and SAS hard drives when it comes to data recovery?
- What happens if a tape robot in a tape library malfunctions?
- What happens if a RAID array is set up again with incorrect parameters?
- What should you do if a RAID rebuild has been started accidentally, even though the array was already damaged?
- What happens if a RAID array is displayed as ‚foreign‘ after a motherboard replacement?
- What should you bear in mind if a read error occurs during a RAID rebuild?
- Why doesn’t RAID replace data backup?
- How does a failed RAID controller battery (BBU) affect stored data?
- How can a company recover data from a failed Windows Storage Spaces cluster?
- What should you bear in mind if an Apple SoftRAID array fails?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a RAID controller failure in a Dell or HP Server (PERC/Smart Array)?
- How can a company recover data from a failed SAS hard drive in a Server?
- What should you bear in mind when recovering data from a Drobo enclosure using proprietary BeyondRAID?
- How can a company recover data from a faulty Thunderbolt RAID enclosure?
- What should you bear in mind when recovering data from a QNAP NAS system?
- What technical considerations are there to bear in mind when recovering data from a Synology NAS with an SHR array?
- What should be borne in mind when carrying out data recovery from a RAID-10 array with several failed hard drives?
- How can a company recover data from a failed JBOD array (Spanning)?
- How should a company proceed following a double hard-disc failure in a RAID-6 array?
- Why does the failure of a single hard drive in a RAID 0 array usually result in total data loss – and what options are still available?
- What happens if both hard drives fail at the same time in a RAID-1 mirror?
- What happens if an additional drive fails during a RAID rebuild?
- What should you do if a NAS system fails to boot after a Update firmware update?
- How can a company continue to operate following the failure of two hard drives in a RAID-5 array?
SSDs, flash memory, USB-Sticks & memory cards
- What does it mean when an SSD has reached the limits of its wear levelling and bad block management?
- What happens if an SSD with firmware version Update fails in the middle of the process?
- What should you bear in mind when using an all-in-one PC with permanently soldered memory?
- What should you bear in mind if a mini PC has a faulty internal memory?
- What is the difference between M.2-SATA and M.2-NVMe in terms of data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind if a USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 enclosure with a high data transfer rate is faulty?
- Could a faulty card reader have caused further damage to a memory card?
- What does the ‚RAW‘ error message mean when it appears on a hard disk or SSD?
- Can an electrostatic discharge (ESD) cause permanent damage to a hard disk or SSD?
- What implications does a known firmware issue affecting certain Samsung EVO or PRO SSD models have for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind if an older Corsair or OCZ SSD fails?
- What should you bear in mind if your ADATA or PNY SSD is faulty?
- What should be taken into account if the SSD cache tier fails in a tiered storage system?
- Why does a memory card sometimes show a lower capacity than the one printed on it?
- What does the ‚Read-only‘ error message on a memory card mean in terms of data recovery?
- Why do some counterfeit memory cards show a higher capacity than they actually have?
- What does it mean if a USB-Stick shows a higher capacity than is actually fitted?
- What should you bear in mind if an Apple Fusion Drive (HDD+SSD combination) fails?
- What should you bear in mind if an external Thunderbolt dock containing several hard drives fails?
- What does a corrupted UDF structure on a USB-Stick or a memory card mean?
- What should you bear in mind if you have a damaged FAT32 memory card or a FAT32-USB-Stick?
- What does a damaged Flash Translation Layer (FTL) mean for an SSD?
- What happens if the DRAM cache on an SSD fails?
- What does end-of-life wear and tear in SSD memory cells (NAND) mean for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind if your Kingston USB-Stick is faulty?
- What should you bear in mind if your SanDisk memory card is faulty?
- What should you bear in mind if a Crucial or Micron SSD fails?
- What should you do if a failed firmware flash has rendered a hard disk or SSD unusable?
- What should you bear in mind if your external gaming SSD is faulty?
- Can data be retrieved from the internal hard drive or SSD of an Xbox or PlayStation following a fault?
- What happens if a Secure Erase command is accidentally executed on an SSD?
- What are the implications for data recovery of a known firmware fault in certain SSD models?
- How does the TRIM command on SSDs affect the chances of recovering deleted files?
- What does ‘power-loss protection’ in enterprise SSDs mean for data recovery following a power cut?
- Can damaged GoPro recordings be recovered from a microSD card?
- How can data be retrieved from eMMC storage in a faulty tablet or Chromebook?
- What should you bear in mind when recovering data from CFexpress cards?
- Is it still possible to retrieve data from damaged CompactFlash cards from professional cameras?
- How can a physically damaged NVMe M.2 SSD be read out in the laboratory?
- What should you do if an external Samsung SSD (e.g. T5/T7) is no longer recognised?
- How can I recover data from a damaged micro SD card in a Nintendo Switch?
- USB-Stick with a broken or bent connector – is data recovery possible?
- Can damaged RAW photo files still be recovered following a memory card failure during a photo shoot?
- How can I recover damaged drone footage from a memory card?
- Can damaged video recordings still be recovered from a dashcam memory card?
- What does a faulty controller chip in an SSD mean for data recovery?
- Is it still possible to retrieve data from a memory card taken from a damaged camera?
- Can data still be retrieved from a MacBook with a soldered-on SSD after it has failed?
- How can I retrieve data from a USB-Stick that has been accidentally formatted?
- From a technical point of view, what happens when an SSD suddenly stops being recognised?
- What are the chances of recovering deleted photos from an SD card?
Encryption, lost passwords & access issues
- What should you do if access to an encrypted container is blocked because you have lost your two-factor authentication details?
- What should you bear in mind if a Cryptomator-encrypted cloud sync folder is damaged?
- What should you bear in mind if you have forgotten the password for a self-encrypting drive (SED)?
- What impact does a faulty TPM chip have on access to BitLocker-encrypted data?
- What should you do if you have lost your BitLocker recovery key?
- What should be done if an encrypted company laptop hard drive is left without a password following an employee’s departure?
- What should you bear in mind regarding PGP- or GPG-encrypted files following a storage device failure?
- What should you do if a KeePass or 1Password database file is corrupted following a storage device failure?
- Can data still be retrieved from an Android smartphone with full-disk encryption if the screen is broken?
- What does the Knox security architecture on a Samsung device mean for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind regarding an encrypted Synology shared folder following a system failure?
- Can browser bookmarks and saved passwords be recovered from a faulty hard drive?
- What should I do if I have forgotten the password for an encrypted container?
- What happens to a damaged VeraCrypt or TrueCrypt container file?
- Is it still possible to retrieve data from a hardware-encrypted USB hard drive (e.g. one with a PIN keypad) after it has failed?
- What should you bear in mind regarding a LUKS-encrypted Linux hard drive following a failure?
- How can I recover data from a FileVault-encrypted Mac hard drive following a failure?
- What can a company do if a BitLocker-encrypted hard drive is no longer accessible?
Server, Databases, Virtualisation & Cloud Infrastructure
- What should you bear in mind if a MongoDB database is damaged?
- What should you bear in mind if an Elasticsearch index structure is damaged?
- What should be taken into account in the event of data loss affecting the build history of a Jenkins or CI-Server?
- What should you bear in mind if a Terraform state file is corrupted?
- What should you bear in mind if a Kubernetes persistent volume fails?
- What should you bear in mind in the event of data loss in a Docker container volume?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a system failure involving an SAP HANA database?
- What should be taken into account when dealing with a damaged Oracle database containing corrupt tablespaces?
- What should be taken into account in the event of a failure of an Exchange Database Availability Group (DAG)?
- What should you bear in mind if an Active Directory database is damaged (NTDS.dit/SYSVOL)?
- What are the implications of a damaged thin-provisioning structure for data recovery?
- What happens if a snapshot chain in a storage system is corrupted?
- How does deduplication affect the chances of data recovery?
- What does erasure coding mean for data recovery from object storage?
- What should be borne in mind in the event of data loss affecting the configuration of a firewall or router system?
- How can a company recover call recordings from a failed VoIP or telephone system?
- How can a company access a self-hosted mail server (Postfix/Dovecot) following a Server failure?
- What should you bear in mind if your self-hosted Jira database is damaged?
- How can a company have a corrupted GitLab or Git repository restored?
- What should you bear in mind in the event of data loss in self-hosted project management software?
- What should you bear in mind if your self-hosted wiki (e.g. Confluence) is damaged?
- How can a company access a self-hosted ticketing system following a system failure?
- How can a company access a self-hosted CRM system following a Server failure?
- What should you bear in mind if the WooCommerce database on a WordPress Server site is damaged?
- How can a company recover data from a failed Fibre Channel SAN storage system?
- What should you bear in mind if an iSCSI LUN is damaged?
- What should you bear in mind if your Google Drive for Desktop folder is damaged?
- How should a company proceed following a failure of an on-premises object storage system (S3-compatible)?
- What should you bear in mind regarding a local OneDrive or Dropbox cache file following a hard drive failure?
- What should you bear in mind if a Ceph or GlusterFS storage cluster is damaged?
- What should you bear in mind if your Thunderbird email archive file is damaged?
- What should be taken into account in the event of data loss in an industrial PLC or data logger application?
- What should be taken into account if a PostgreSQL database is damaged following a Server failure?
- How can a company recover a corrupted MySQL or MariaDB InnoDB database?
- What should you bear in mind if a Hyper-V VHDX file is damaged?
- How can a company regain access to its virtual machines following a corrupted VMware ESXi datastore?
- How can a company recover a corrupted DATEV or Lexware database following a system failure?
- How can a company recover a corrupted Exchange or SQL database following a system failure?
- How can a company have a damaged virtual hard disk (VMDK/VHD) recovered?
Data Recovery for Businesses & Sectors
- How can a painting and decorating firm access quotation and project data following a data loss?
- How can a co-working space access its membership management system following a system failure?
- How can a management consultancy access project and analysis data following a data storage failure?
- How can a cycle shop or bicycle repair workshop access workshop orders following a system failure?
- How can a recruitment agency access applicant and candidate data following a data breach?
- How can a music school access pupil and lesson data following a data loss?
- How can a furniture shop access its order and customer data following a system failure?
- How can a gardening and landscaping firm access project and planning data following a data loss?
- How can a travel agency access booking data following a system failure?
- How can a winery access its operational and stock data following a data loss?
- How can an events agency access project and client data following a data loss?
- How can a translation agency access project files and translation memories following a hard drive failure?
- How can a bakery or patisserie access its sales data following a cash register system failure?
- How can a motor vehicle surveying firm access survey data following a data storage failure?
- How can a dental laboratory access CAD/CAM order data following a data storage device failure?
- How can a veterinary practice access its patient data following a data loss incident?
- How can an optician access customer and order data following a system failure?
- How can a tax adviser access their clients’ data following a system failure?
- How can a driving school access its administrative software following a data loss?
- How can a printing company access job and print files following a hard drive failure?
- How can a security service access its operational logs following a data breach?
- How can a cleaning company access its order management system following a data loss?
- How can a funeral director access their management software following a data loss?
- How can a gym access its membership management system following a data loss?
- How can a pharmacy access its stock management system following a system failure?
- How can a physiotherapy practice access its appointment management system following a data loss?
- How can a nursery access its management software following a system failure?
- How can an online shop operator access their Magento or Shopware database following a Server failure?
- How can a club access its membership records following a data loss?
- How can an engineering firm access measurement data following a hard-disc failure?
- How can a farm access precision farming data following a data loss?
- How can a publishing house access its editorial archive following a system failure?
- How can an advertising agency access its creative project files following a hard drive failure?
- How can a car dealership access its dealer management system following a system failure?
- How can an estate agent access their property database following a data loss?
- How can a haulage company access its fleet management data following a Server failure?
- How can a notary access their digital archive of deeds following a system failure?
- How can an insurance broker access their customer database following a data loss?
- How can a hotel access stored booking data following a failure of the booking system?
- What should you bear in mind in the event of data loss in warehouse or logistics software?
- What can a craft business do if its order management software no longer starts up following a hard drive failure?
- How should a school or university proceed following a failure of the administration server?
- How can a retailer resume operations following a failure of the point-of-sale (POS) system’s hard drive?
- Can 3D printing or CNC project files be recovered following a data storage failure?
- How can a photographer or videographer continue working following a failure of the editing RAID?
- What should be taken into account when dealing with damaged audio project files from a recording studio following a hard disk failure?
- What should be taken into account in the event of data loss in a dental practice’s X-ray or DICOM image archive?
- How can a law firm access its document management system following a hard drive failure?
- How can an online shop operator recover lost order data following a database failure?
- What can a doctor’s surgery do if the practice management software fails to start following a system failure?
- How can an architectural or engineering firm recover CAD project files following a hard-disc failure?
Photo, video, smartphone and gaming devices
- What should you bear in mind regarding an external gaming hard drive with RGB lighting and the risk of failure?
- What should you bear in mind regarding data access on a Huawei smartphone running the HarmonyOS operating system following a fault?
- Can contacts still be recovered from a damaged SIM card?
- Can footage be recovered from a dashcam with built-in, non-removable storage?
- Can data be recovered from a vehicle’s infotainment system?
- What should you bear in mind if you lose data on a fitness tracker?
- What should you bear in mind if your Android tablet has a faulty internal storage unit?
- What should you bear in mind if your Nintendo 3DS or Switch Lite console with internal storage is faulty?
- Can songs or settings be recovered from a faulty digital piano or keyboard?
- Can recordings from a faulty dictation machine still be recovered?
- What should you bear in mind if your GPS or sat-nav device, which has saved tracks, is faulty?
- What should you bear in mind when choosing an action camera with built-in, non-removable storage?
- Can the internal, non-removable memory of a digital camera be read after it has failed?
- What does it mean if an Android smartphone gets stuck in Fastboot or Download mode?
- What do you need to bear in mind regarding data access on an iPhone with a faulty Face ID or Touch ID?
- What should you do if your smartphone screen is broken and you can no longer unlock it?
- Can I recover data from a smartphone that’s stuck in a boot loop?
- Can files stored locally on a faulty Chromebook be recovered?
- What should you bear in mind if your Photos library on your Mac is damaged?
- How can I recover footage from a faulty Ring or Nest security camera?
- What should you do if a dual-channel dashcam has only recorded one channel and the file is corrupted?
- Can data be recovered from a faulty e-book reader, such as a Kindle?
- What should you bear in mind if you lose data on a smartwatch?
- What should you bear in mind if your Steam game library is damaged following a hard drive failure?
- Can old game save files be recovered from a faulty games console hard drive?
- If I accidentally perform a factory reset on my smartphone, is it still possible to recover my data?
- What happens if a smartphone ends up in the washing machine?
- Can an iPad still retrieve data after a fall or water damage?
- Can WhatsApp chats and attachments still be recovered from a faulty smartphone?
- How can a company recover video recordings from a faulty DVR or CCTV system?
- How can a smartphone that’s been soaked after falling into water still provide data?
Ransomware, cyberattacks & backup issues
- What is the difference between traditional data recovery and data restoration as part of an incident response following a cyber attack?
- What should you bear in mind in the event of a failure involving a NAS router with built-in storage and a cloud backup function?
- What should you do if a restore from a cloud backup fails?
- What happens if the wrong tape or an overwritten tape is accidentally inserted into the tape drive?
- What should be done if it is not the production system but the Backup-Server itself that has failed?
- Why is paying a ransom no guarantee of successful data recovery?
- What are the implications for data recovery if ransomware also deletes a system’s shadow copies?
- What are the implications of double extortion (data leak) in a ransomware incident for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind regarding a locally cached, encrypted iCloud backup following a storage device failure?
- What are the implications of a corrupted Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind if a Veeam or Backup Exec backup file is corrupted?
- What does the 3-2-1 backup rule mean, and why is it recommended?
- Why do Time Machine backups sometimes fail, and what does this mean for data security?
- How can a company check, following a ransomware incident, whether data recovery is still possible?
Technical background on hard disk and SSD faults
- Can a short circuit caused by a damaged USB cable damage an external hard drive?
- What should be done if two different data storage devices fail simultaneously in a system?
- What are the implications of a corrupted GPT backup partition table for data recovery?
- From a technical point of view, what happens during a head crash, and what is still possible afterwards?
- What does it mean when a volume is shown as ’uninitialised‘ in Windows Disk Management?
- What does the message ‚S.M.A.R.T. Status: Bad, Backup and Replace‘ mean in relation to a hard disk?
- What happens if an external hard drive has been exposed to extreme cold or frost?
- What happens if an external hard drive is damaged by an incorrect power supply?
- Why does a hard drive that hasn’t been used for a long time sometimes fail to start up?
- Can data still be retrieved from a hard drive that has been run over by a car?
- Can a hard disk still retrieve data after being exposed to a strong magnetic field?
- Why can the same error code have different causes on two different hard drives?
- What should you bear in mind when replacing the USB bridge chip in a portable hard drive?
- What does it mean if the system area (service area) of a hard disk is damaged?
- What is meant by ‘servo data’ on a hard disk, and why is it important for data recovery?
- What is a defect list (G-list/P-list) for a hard disk?
- What should you bear in mind when replacing a hard disk’s spindle motor?
- What should you bear in mind when replacing the head stack (read/write head assembly) on a hard disk?
- Why is simply replacing the circuit board on a hard disk drive often not enough?
- What impact does a PCB fault involving individual faulty components (resistors/capacitors) have on data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind if the hybrid MBR structure on a Boot Camp Mac is damaged?
- What should you do if a computer’s EFI system partition is corrupted?
- What do you need to bear in mind regarding the Windows.old folder after a failed Windows Upgrade installation?
- Can previous system restore points still be used after an error?
- What should you bear in mind if you have a damaged ReFS file system on a Windows Server?
- What happens if two hard drives from different systems have the same volume signature?
- What should you bear in mind if a hard disk has a significantly increased number of bad blocks?
- What does an interrupted ZFS scrub operation mean for data integrity?
- What happens if a BTRFS balance operation is aborted whilst it is in progress?
- What does using a GPT partition scheme rather than an MBR partition scheme mean for data recovery?
- What should you bear in mind regarding dynamic disks in Windows following an error?
- What happens if an LVM snapshot is corrupted?
- What should you bear in mind if the LVM (Logical Volume Manager) structure is damaged in Linux?
- What should you bear in mind with a hard disk drive that has multiple actuators (dual-actuator)?
- What happens if the seal on a helium-filled hard drive fails?
- What does an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) hard drive mean for data recovery?
- Does gently tapping a rattling hard drive help?
- What does it mean if a hard drive no longer starts up at all (no spin-up)?
- Why should a hard disk with numerous SMART warnings no longer be used as normal?
- What are the consequences of prolonged overheating for a Server hard drive?
- Can a hard drive still be repaired after being struck by lightning or following a power cut?
- What should you bear in mind if you lose data on a Boot Camp partition?
- How can a damaged APFS container be recovered on a Mac?
- How can a company recover data from a corrupted BTRFS file system?
- How can a Linux hard drive with a damaged ext4 file system journal be recovered?
- What does a degraded ZFS pool mean for data recovery?
- Is it still possible to read data from an external hard drive with a damaged partition table?
- From a technical point of view, what happens if the Windows Master File Table (MFT) on a hard drive is corrupted?
- How can I tell if a hard drive has suffered mechanical head damage?
- How realistic is data recovery following fire damage to a data storage device?
- What does a ‚click‘ or ‚clacking‘ sound from a hard disk mean in technical terms?
- What should I do if my external hard drive suddenly starts making clicking noises?
Brand- and model-specific features
- What does the colour coding (Blue, Black, Red, Gold, Purple) on Western Digital hard drives mean in terms of data recovery?
- Why do external hard drives from budget brands such as Intenso or Verbatim fail more often?
- What should you bear in mind when recovering data from an older Fujitsu hard drive?
- What should you bear in mind if an HGST or Hitachi Enterprise hard drive fails?
- What should you bear in mind if an Apple Time Capsule hard drive fails?
- What should you bear in mind if your Netgear ReadyNAS fails?
- What should you bear in mind if you have a faulty LaCie hard drive (e.g. the Rugged series)?
- What should you bear in mind if a Toshiba hard drive is making clicking noises?
- How can I recover data from a WD My Cloud following a system failure?
- What should you do if a Western Digital My Book won’t start up due to a power supply problem?
- What does the well-known BSY problem affecting older Seagate hard drives mean for data recovery?
Old and exotic storage media
- What should you bear in mind if an external Blu-ray or DVD burner containing stored data is faulty?
- Can recordings be recovered from a damaged MiniDisc?
- Is it still possible to recover data from an old ZIP or Jaz disc?
- What should be borne in mind when recovering data from an old SCSI hard disk system?
- What should you bear in mind when digitising and recovering data from old 3.5-inch floppy discs?
- Can an older LTO tape still be read on a newer drive?
- Can data still be read from a scratched CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc?
- Is it still technically possible to migrate data from an old IDE or PATA hard drive?
- What should a company do if a tape drive (LTO) can no longer be read?
Process, costs & frequently asked questions about LanCologne
- What characterises the collaboration between LanCologne and a client throughout the entire recovery process?
- Why is it worth contacting LanCologne at the earliest opportunity, as soon as you first suspect a data storage device has failed?
- Why is transparent communication important for customers during data recovery?
- What should be borne in mind when carrying out data recovery on a data storage device that is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings?
- As a private individual, how can I decide whether professional data recovery is financially worthwhile?
- Why can starting data recovery too late reduce the chances of success?
- What organisational changes should a company make following a successful data recovery?
- How can you prevent further data loss following a successful data recovery?
- How does the pricing differ between simple logical data recovery and complex physical data recovery?
- What happens if, during the diagnosis, it turns out that no data recovery is necessary at all?
- What should you do if a faulty cloning process has partially overwritten the destination hard drive?
- What should you do if the configuration of a smart home hub has been lost following a fault?
- Can professional data recovery be covered by home contents or business insurance?
- What is the difference between data recovery and a warranty or guarantee claim (RMA)?
- What is the difference between data recovery from an individual workstation and from a central company server?
- How is it technically ensured that a rescue attempt does not make the original situation worse?
- What is the difference between data recovery and standard data migration?
- What information should I provide straight away when making an enquiry to speed up the diagnosis?
- Why is the initial assessment so important for the rest of the data recovery process?
- How does the recovery of a single important file differ from a complete system failure?
- Can a data recovery operation affect the subsequent admissibility of data as evidence in a claim against an insurance company?
- What does the assessment ’beyond repair‘ actually mean in technical terms?
- Why can some data recovery cases take several weeks?
- Why might it be advisable to seek a second, independent diagnosis following an incorrect assessment?
- What technical qualifications are important for a professional data recovery laboratory?
- What is the difference between standard IT support and specialist data recovery?
- How is the success of a data recovery operation technically verified before the data is handed over?
- What should you do if recovery software displays files but you cannot open them?
- Why isn’t free data recovery software always the best first choice?
- What is the difference between professional data recovery and standard recovery software?
- Why does the cost of data recovery differ between a private photo data loss and a corporate server?
- How does LanCologne ensure that my data is not accessed by third parties during the recovery process?
- As a customer, can I drop off my data storage device in person at the laboratory and have the process explained to me?
- What is the difference between the written quotation and the subsequent invoice?
- Does LanCologne offer a collection service for faulty data storage devices in Cologne and the surrounding area?
- What happens to my original data storage device once the data recovery has been successfully completed?
- Is there an express or emergency service for particularly urgent cases?
- How long will my data be stored by LanCologne once the data recovery process has been completed?
- Can I track the progress of my data recovery whilst it is being carried out?
- Does LanCologne sign a data processing agreement (DPA) for data recovery?
- Does freezing a faulty hard drive really help?
- Why does data recovery often take longer for very large hard drives than for small ones?
- How can I tell whether an expensive data recovery service is actually worth it in my particular case?
- What should you bear in mind if a hard drive containing lots of small files (e.g. millions of image files) fails?
- What factors determine the cost of professional data recovery?
- How often should hard drives in a company be replaced as a precautionary measure?
- When is it more worthwhile to attempt data recovery than simply replacing the storage medium?
- What should I do in the first hour after noticing a data loss?
- Can a damaged cryptocurrency wallet file (wallet.dat) be recovered from a faulty hard drive?
- Can licence keys or activation files be recovered from a faulty hard drive?
- How should a faulty data storage device be sent securely to the laboratory?
- What is the difference between logical and physical data recovery?
- How can a company tell if a data recovery service provider is reputable before commissioning them?
- What steps can a company take if a data recovery attempt by another service provider has already failed?