Data Recovery

Data Recovery Services Montreal

Hard Disk Recovery, SSD, USB Stick Recovery, Memory Card Recovery

Standard Data Recovery Services

Standard Data Recovery Services can be performed on a hard disk that is not seriously damaged. If a hard disk must be repaired before data recovery can be performed, then it requires Advanced-Data Recovery Services. All Standard Data Recovery Services are based on a No Data / No Charge Policy with a Min $160 Diagnosis. Check out the Preliminary Diagnosis to match the condition of your device with the relevant Recovery Service.

Deleted File Rescue

Files that have been lost or deleted from disks that are functioning regularly can be recovered without a full Detailed Diagnosis or intensive physical recovery methods. In these cases, KSK can offer a Diagnosis and provide quality data recovery with fixed lower prices and faster turnaround times. Price classes are based on the total amount of data recovered.

When files are deleted from the recycle bin/trash can they are not completely removed from the hard disk, if you act fast there is a very good chance they can be recovered. Stop using your computer or device as soon as possible and especially avoid saving or creating any new data on the drive as this can overwrite the otherwise recoverable data. Remove the Hard Drive from your computer and Prepare it for Shipping.

KSK recovers all common file types from Windows, Macintosh and Linux file systems including; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, Access, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Avid, Aperture, Final Cut, Logic, CorelDraw, AutoCAD, Quark, Quickbooks, SQL, PDF, JPG, JPEG, TIF, BMP, MP3, WAV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, MOV, ZIP, RAR, StuffIt, HTML, PHP, ISO, BIN, etc. from FAT32, NTFS, HFS, ext2 file systems.

Damaged File Repair

We reconstruct and restore files from documents to databases. Files that have been corrupted, damaged, or infected by a crashing application/system or virus attack can often be repaired and restored. As the size and degree of damage can vary a diagnosis is required to determine an accurate repair price. Damaged files can be attached to a Service Ticket and sent to KSK for a diagnosis. We can attempt to repair your damaged Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, JPG, ZIP, RAR, TAR, ISO, etc. If you have any questions concerning damaged file(s) please contact KSK Data Recovery.

Email Recovery

When a computer’s email application no longer displays the stored messages, contacts & folders the mail data files may be deleted, missing, or corrupted. We recover and repair mail data files so they can be restored to your email application. In cases of lost or corrupted mail data files is it crucial that the computer and mail application are no longer used. This can severely affect the recovery possibilities by overwriting valuable data.

Password Recovery

We attempt to recover passwords from archives, databases, mail files, and documents. Files can be attached to a Service Ticket and sent to KSK for analysis. All data will be treated with the strictest confidentiality. After a diagnosis, a price class will be assigned based on the time and effort required.

Secure Data Destruction

Data Recovery processes can recover data that would otherwise be undetected, however, this is not always desirable. When sensitive or personal data should be totally, permanently, and securely destroyed, KSK can completely eliminate data from all types of media.

Simply formatting a hard disk will not remove the data it contained. There are only two ways to make data unreadable, either physically destroy the disk or securely destroy the data. KSK can completely wipe data, partitions, or entire hard disks and prepare them for reuse without any trace of the previous data.

Removable Device Recovery

(USB stick, Memory Card, SD, Micro-SD, iPod, Digital Camera, DVD)

When a USB Stick or Memory Card is no longer detected normally it has sustained some form of damage that is preventing access to the data contained on the flash memory chip(s) of the device. The types of damage range from software damage to the file system to physical damage to the device components. Full list of Removable Device Recovery Please Call Us.

Often the electronic failure of the component which controls communication between the flash chip and a computer or device will prevent the device and data from being detected correctly. When communication with the flash memory chip is no longer possible the chip can be removed from the device and read in a specialized flash chip reader.

In most cases, if the data on the chip has not been overwritten or severely corrupted it should be recoverable. If your USB Stick is no longer detected correctly by one or more computers, then send it to us for a diagnosis.

Recovery of photos (JPG, JPEG, TIF, NEF, RAF), video (AVI, MPG, MPEG, MOV, VOB), and any other type of data from all types of Memory Cards (micro SD, mini SD, SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, Smart media).

Removable Device Damages are classified into either Software or Hardware.

Software Damage:

– The Device is detected as hardware by a computer.

– Class-based on the total size of recoverable data.

Hardware Damage:

– The Device is not detected as hardware by a computer.

– Such cases require the internal memory chip(s) to be removed.

Some messages that indicate a removable device has not been fully detected:

– The disk in drive X is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?

– Please insert a disk in the drive X:

– USB device not recognized

If you see a message indicating the USB drive needs to be formatted, then do not click “Yes”. Safely remove and disconnect the device then try it on another USB port, if this does not make any difference try connecting it to another computer. If this does not resolve the problem, then the device has probably sustained Software Damage.

If you receive a message indicating the USB device is not recognized or there is no response at all when connecting the device, then it has most likely sustained Hardware Damage and the flash chip(s) will need to be removed and read in a specialized device.

If you have lost or deleted files from a USB stick or memory card then continuing to use it can result in the lost data being corrupted or overwritten with new data, eliminating the possibility of recovery.

Advanced-Data Recovery

Advanced-Data Recovery Services are performed on a hard disk that has suffered some form of damage that requires repair or part replacement before the data can be recovered. Such cases require a Detailed Diagnosis to determine the type of damage and repair required. This is necessary for disks that have crashed, no longer boot, and cannot be accessed or detected by the operating system.

When a hard drive crashes, and no longer boots, or responds it can be a result of either logical, electronic or physical failure. Once the type of failure has been identified a specific Damage Factor is assigned from the corresponding Fault class. The Damage Factor is based on the specific recovery process required.

Upon completion of the Detailed Diagnosis, a report with a list of Recoverable Data is provided along with the failure type and relevant Damage Factor.  Recovery costs are based on Deleted File Rescue Rates multiplied by the specific Damage Factor.

Logical Failures

Logical failures are caused by data corruption of either the operating system or file system/disk structure. In such cases, data recovery procedures are highly successful, unless data has been overwritten.  It is extremely important to stop using the computer immediately, as trying to reboot or run programs such as scan-disk can cause further data loss.  When important data is no longer correctly indexed on the disk it is seen as free space and even basic use of a computer can create new files (cache, log, etc) that overwrite the data.

Electronic Failures

When a hard drive has lost all levels of communication with the computer the hard drive controller may have failed. Electronic failures are a result of faults in the firmware or components of the hard drive’s controller board. Failure can occur due to a sudden power surge, heat, static electricity, or power failure. Evidence of this type of failure can sometimes be seen as a burnt-out component or chip on the circuit board of the hard drive controller.

Physical Failures

Physical failures are the most severe form of failure as they affect the operation of the drive’s mechanical parts. Grinding, scraping, or ticking sounds are characteristic indications of physical failure. One of the most common physical failures is a head crash which is a result of the read/write head coming into contact with the platters.

Other types of physical failures can affect the motor or gears which stops the drive from spinning up, making the data unreadable. Some physical failures can cause irrecoverable damage to a disk by scraping the data of the platters, this is why it is imperative to stop using the disk immediately for the best chances of recovery. In cases where internal parts must be replaced the hard drive must be opened in a clean room environment to eliminate the chances of dust causing further damage to the internal mechanisms.

Sounds of various physical hard drive failures can be downloaded via the links below. They are quite loud, so turn down your sound.

RAID Failures

RAID Recovery is often a fairly extensive process due to the way data is distributed across certain RAID sets. While RAID formations such as RAID 1 offer extended data protection by Mirroring the same data to two separate drives other RAID modes contain failure points that can lead to total data loss. This is because they use Striping to distribute the data across 2 or more disks. This technique provides faster read/write speeds as it can read from 2 or more disks at once but this also makes data more vulnerable to failure. If one or more disks fail the data becomes unreadable due to pieces of the same file being spread across the disks.

Performance configurations such as RAID 0 and RAID 5 are vulnerable to this type of failure. These configurations have at least 3 failure points, each individual disk, and the RAID controller, therefore the diagnosis and recovery process can be quite extensive. Please include as much information as possible concerning the configuration, partition information, block size, disk order, etc of RAID units before they failed and the effect of the failure (i.e. error messages, etc). This will help refine the analysis and enable an effective rebuild of the RAID set so specialized RAID Data Recovery can be performed.

NAS Failures

Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration. It is often manufactured as a computer appliance a purpose-built specialized computer. NAS systems are networked appliances that contain one or more storage drives, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAID.