USB Drive and Data Failure

Globalization is the biggest achievement of human beings in this era and for upcoming generations. It has changed the entire perception of every individual relating to human needs and civilizations. A Chinese citizen asking for a Coke, an African enjoying his lunch at McDonald’s and an American child playing Japanese video games are all examples of globalization. Thus, no organization wants to contract its limit over the boundaries of its nation, going global has become the limit.

We all know globalization is only possible with a strong IT backbone. Therefore, information should be transferred within seconds, able to be shared simultaneously around the globe, should be portable and easily accessible. Hence, to meet this stance in IT, storage devices with lightning fast data transferring have been introduced.

USB Flash Drives:

A USB flash drive which is also known as a flash drive, flash stick or thumb drive was commercially introduced by trek technology and IBM in 2000. These USB drives are composed of NAND flash memory data storage wafers in devices that are typically of low cost and are easily removable/rewriteable and weigh less than an ounce, all that with a USB (universal serial bus) interface.

USB flash drives are the new age replacements of older storage devices like: floppy disks, CD’s and Zip drives which were extremely small, slow to transfer data and had low storage capacity as compared to flash drives. A survey made on thumb drives and its uses around the world showed that approximately 88.22 million USB drives were shipped around the globe in the year 2005, in 2006 this increased to 115.7 million. Similarly, Gartner Dataquest statistics shows that on average there is a 100% rise in the number of USB drives users purchased worldwide.

The Merits of USB Flash Drives:

• USB drives are very economical as they are very cheap and easily accessible.
• USB drives have zero possibility of dust and scratches of the saved data as these devices have zero moving parts.
• The data storing capability is enormously as compared to CD/DVD’s, floppy disk and other storage devices.
• They are extremely handy and lightweight so they are a good portable device.
• As compared to hard drives these USB drives use very little power for storing and removing data.
• Booting up a computer is possible with flash drives.

The Demerits of USB Flash Drives:

• Every flash drives depending upon its memory and function has limited cycles of data writes and removes. Thus, they cannot be made a primary storage device as they will render useless over time.
• Although these drives are very handy, the risk of virus attack and data failure is a major problem seen in flash drives.
• USB drives are made fragile, they are lightweight. Thus, the possibility of external damages and getting crushed is unquestionable.
• Being small in size the risk of misplacing, theft or lost is likely.
• Most flash drives ignore the write-protect mechanism.
• Being small and portable the risk of storing confidential information is not applicable in these devices because they can be easily stolen and smuggled. Huge business organizations have to deal with this issue. 

USB Data Failure and Data Recovery:

USB drives have become one of the major sources of data transferring  sources since 2000. And along with this, the rate of data failure due to virus attacks and device failures is also increasing day by day. Many data recovering software products are available in the market but due to the lack of knowledge and mishandling even a simple recovery becomes a nightmare for the user.

Data recovery is possible via data recovery software but knowing the right software for the recovery and using its functions correctly is very important for a success in recovering the data. Sixty-five percent of data loss falls under a Tier 1 type recovery process; data loss case can easily be fixed economically as compared to Tier 2. It is often observed that each case becomes much more difficult to recover from due to mishandling by end users.

Data recovery handled professionally is the best solution for any kind of data loss from your pen drive, hard drive, memory stick or any other storage device. A systematic scan of the damaged device is essential for starting the right type of action for each attempt at data recovery. Depending on your file system combination, the drives operating system and document types there are different ways to handle data loss.

It is always best to consult with expert guidance for scanning and determining your data loss type and severity because even a minor mistake can permanently erase your files and data forever.

Data Recovery From Logically Damaged Flash Drives:

Logical damage is usually caused by virus attacks and power outages. A virus attack on your device corrupts your stored data and hampers the file system which leads to the absence of data in your device or problems in showing you the corrupt files. Similarly, power outages prevent data being completely transferred to your device. Hence, different options are  used to get these errors under control. 

In some cases, logical damage is considered to be the main problem leading to the wrong actions taken which creates serious data loss. All data recovery operations are carried out in special labs where humidity, pressure and temperature are maintained.

Data Recovery From Physically Damaged Flash Drives:

Flash drives are fragile and one of the benefits of its fragileness is its lightweight which makes these drives handy and portable. But the risk of these drives becoming broken and damaged is high. 

A physically damaged drive if managed properly can have a 100% success in data recovery. Recovering data from a physically injured device requires multiple techniques. Some recoveries include simple scanning and data reading whereas in other complicated losses a special disk-imaging procedure is used. Specialized microscopes are often used for physically injured devices & data recovery.

This procedure is complicated; every readable bit from the surface needs to be retrieved. Once the data is recovered all of it is transferred to a safe medium; experts perform different tests to determine the logical damage on the device if there is any.