Why Did My SD Card Fail?

SD (Secure Digital) is a popular data storage format developed by the SD Association, a joint partnership between several major flash manufacturers.  The SD format encompasses a number of related technologies:SDHC microSD miniSD SDIO SDXC SDUCAll SD formats...
August 25, 2023

Can a Magnet Destroy Data on a Hard Drive?

Hard drives store data magnetically — the read/write heads float above platters, which are disks coated with a thin layer of magnetic material.  The actuator heads rely on magnetism, so it’s logical to wonder whether another magnet could interfere with...
July 12, 2023

The Hard Drive Freezer Trick: Debunking the Oldest Data Recovery Myth

Can you freeze a broken hard drive to restore it to a functional condition and recover the data?  No, you cannot — at least, not anymore. The “freezer trick” was one of the first data recovery methods to hit the...
July 10, 2023

What Is Chip-Off Data Recovery for Flash Media?

Chip-off data recovery (or chip-off forensics) refers to the process of removing the memory chips from a USB drive, smartphone, memory card, or another device that uses non-volatile flash memory. After removal, raw data can be extracted from the memory...
June 29, 2023

Why a Flash Card Reports an Incorrect Capacity

If your computer recognizes your flash card but presents an incorrect capacity, it’s probably due to firmware issues.  Firmware is specialized software that provides basic instructions to your computer, enabling your machine to read the target device.  If firmware becomes...
June 26, 2023

Why You Shouldn’t Use Rice to Dry Hard Drives (or Anything Else)

When we treat water-damaged hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices, we often receive the devices in plastic bags filled with white rice — which tends to complicate the data recovery process. Of course, “put it in a bag...
May 26, 2023

5 Myths About Solid-State Drives (SSDs)

The market for solid-state drives (SSDs) was valued at over $30 billion in 2022 — and it’s continuing to grow, for somewhat obvious reasons.  SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives, more resistant to physical damage, and capable of...
May 10, 2023

Hard Drive Seek Error Rate What It Means (And Why It Matters)

Seek error rate is a hard drive performance metric reported through Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) tools.  Hard drives, solid-state drives, and other storage devices use SMART to monitor for issues that may indicate an impending failure. For hard...
May 3, 2023

Hard Drive Seek Time: What It Means (And Why It Matters)

A hard drive’s seek time is the time that the head assembly takes to travel to a specific track on the platters where data can be stored. Since seek time varies depending on which track it needs to access, “seek...
May 2, 2023

Is It Possible to Recover Data from a Formatted SSD?

If you’ve accidentally formatted an SSD, data recovery is unlikely, but potentially possible. Here’s an overview.
April 19, 2023