When your business’s primary accounting drive fails, immediately power down the computer or server. Continued operation, even for a few minutes, can turn a recoverable situation into a permanent data loss, especially for mechanically failing hard drives or logically corrupt solid-state drives.
A drive failure can halt your invoicing, payroll, and tax compliance, putting your entire business at risk. In this article, we’ll explain the immediate steps you should take and how a professional recovery process works to get your financial data back securely.
Datarecovery.com provides risk-free evaluations, and our no data, no charge guarantee gives you peace of mind as your case progresses. To speak with an expert, call 1-800-237-4200 or submit a case online.
Accounting Data Recovery: File Types and Challenges
Accounting data is typically stored in complex, structured database files where the integrity of the entire file is important. File corruption could make the database less useful — or entirely useless — so data recovery engineers need to understand the database structures to verify the recovery.
Common accounting file types include:
- QuickBooks Company Files (.QBW): This is a proprietary database that can grow to several gigabytes. If even a small part of the file is corrupt or unrecoverable, QuickBooks might refuse to open it. Associated files like the Transaction Log File (.TLG) are also critical for ensuring data consistency and for establishing audit trail checks.
- Sage 50 Company Data (.SAI, .SAJ): Sage uses a combination of file format. The .SAI file is a shortcut, while the .SAJ is a folder containing the actual database components, often built on MySQL. Older versions used the .SDB and .SDW extensions.
- Database Files (.MDF, .ACCDB): Custom or older accounting systems may use standard SQL Server or Microsoft Access databases. Like QuickBooks files, these are highly structured, and corruption can render the database unreadable.
- Spreadsheets and Documents (.XLSX, .PDF): While less complex than databases, spreadsheets containing financial models or scanned receipts and invoices are often just as vital. These files are generally more resilient to partial damage — corruption might damage one part of a spreadsheet, but the rest will usually be intact.
The primary challenge is that a single, multi-gigabyte .QBW or .MDF file can be physically scattered across thousands of different locations on an HDD’s platters or spread across dozens of NAND flash chips inside an SSD.
How Drive Type Affects Recovery Strategy
The process for recovering your accounting database will differ depending on whether it was stored on a traditional hard drive, modern solid-state drive, or a server. We’ll provide an overview of the basics below, but submit a case online to get a more detailed recovery plan for your device.
Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Failures
Most hard drive failures are mechanical or electronic. A common scenario is a head crash, where the read/write heads that hover over the spinning platters make physical contact, scraping away the magnetic material. This is a serious scenario, and operating the drive can cause permanent data loss — do not boot a drive that makes unusual noises or shows any other signs of physical damage.
Recovery requires a cleanroom environment to safely open the drive and replace the damaged components. Our engineers then work with this clone to reconstruct the files, bypassing bad sectors to piece together the critical database.
All Datarecovery.com locations are fully outfitted with cleanroom technology. Learn more about the importance of cleanrooms for hard drive data recovery.
Solid-State Drive (SSD) Failures
SSDs have no moving parts, so they fail differently. The most common point of failure is the controller chip, which manages drive operations.
When the controller fails, the map of the data is lost, and the raw data on the chips is unusable. SSD recovery for a damaged SSD may involve chip-off recovery, which can be summarized with these (purposely oversimplified) steps:
- The NAND flash chips are carefully removed from the SSD’s circuit board.
- The raw data from each chip is individually read.
- Engineers reverse-engineer the drive’s proprietary Flash Transition Layer (FTL) and error correction algorithms to reassemble the data in the correct order.
This is a highly complex process, and it cannot be replicated with software. Datarecovery.com has decades of experience with storage technology, and we’ve established proprietary processes for restoring data from damaged SSDs.
Verifying a Successful Recovery of Accounting Data
For accounting data, recovery isn’t complete until we’ve verified the usability of the files. A recovered .QBW file that is the correct size but still won’t open in QuickBooks is not a success.
Our verification process often involves loading the recovered company file into a test installation of the relevant software (for instance, a trial version of QuickBooks). We then work with you to confirm that the data is intact.
We support all data recovery cases with a no data, no charge guarantee: If we’re unable to recover the data you need, there’s no charge for the attempt. Partial recoveries are pro-rated.
Your Immediate Action Plan for Recovery Accounting Data
If you’ve lost access to accounting data, follow these steps:
- Power Down the Device. Do not attempt to reboot the computer repeatedly. If the drive is a hard disk drive (HDD) with internal mechanical damage, each cycle can cause the read/write heads to do more damage to the platters that store your data. If it’s a solid-state drive (SSD), continued operation can trigger background processes like the TRIM command that may permanently erase deleted or inaccessible data.
- Do Not Install or Run Recovery Software. Commercial data recovery software is designed for simple cases, like accidental deletion from a healthy drive. It is not equipped to handle a physically failing or electronically damaged device. Running scans on a failing drive can worsen mechanical damage on an HDD or cause fatal corruption in an SSD’s controller firmware.
- Document the Symptoms. Take note of exactly what happened. Did the computer freeze? Did you hear any unusual noises from the hard drive (clicking, grinding, buzzing)? Did you see a specific error message?
Trusted Solutions for Accounting Data Recovery
At Datarecovery.com, we have spent decades developing the proprietary tools and techniques required to tackle complex database recoveries from all types of failed HDDs and SSDs.
We provide a risk-free evaluation, and our “no data, no charge” guarantee ensures that if we can’t recover the specific financial data you need, you don’t pay for the service.
If your business is at a standstill because of a failed accounting drive, we’re here to help. Contact our experts at 1-800-237-4200 or submit a case online for a free, no-obligation evaluation.
