Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm, the first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary.  If the drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of the drive will be performed to try and repair the file system corruption.  Sometimes a partition can be repaired and the drive restored to the status that it was before the failure.  If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector of the hard drive for files.  Once the files are located, they can then be copied to the media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive.  Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if the drive is on the verge of physical failure.  It's not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recovering the found files.

If the drive has suffered a physical failure, then the recovery procedure is quite a bit more challenging.  As mentioned above, there are really two sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic.  An important element in recovering data from a physical failure is having the necessary parts to get the drive functioning again.  Unfortunately with hard drives if you have a 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for example, then you will need another identical 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for salvaging parts.  In cases where the electronic circuit board has failed on the hard drive, then you have to have the exact same circuit board on hand in order to retrieve the necessary circuit components for replacement.  Many times you cannot even exchange circuit board for circuit board.  These repairs generally require soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be successfully completed.  You will most likely hear "Class100 Clean Room" thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery professionals.  Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard drives.  Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is needed. >>Continue To Page 5 - Data Recovery Report