What is the data recovery process?

The data recovery process can be broken down into a number of key steps:

1. Evaluation
   The device is evaluated by a specialist data recovery engineer to determine if a recovery attempt is possible and if so what approach is needed.
2. Repair/Engineering
   if necessary, physical damage is repaired or engineering work completed. This process may require the use of spare parts.
3. Cloning
   An attempt is made to image the hard drive or device, this is called cloning. This retrieves the available data in a raw format as it appears on the source media. If the device is showing signs of potential failure during the process, then as a precaution the most important data is targeted first.
4. Data retrieval process
   The cloned image is processed using data recovery software to determine what data can actually be recovered.
5. Repair
   Any logical errors in the recovered data are repaired if possible.