Disk Cloning Scenarios #4: Recover Data from Disk Image

Jean updated on Oct 31, 2024 to Disk/Partition Clone | How-to Articles

It can be the best choice to recover data from disk image. This ensures you retrieve valuable information as much as possible while keeping the original failing hard drive intact. EaseUS Disk Copy helps create a 100% identical duplicate for rapid data recovery.

Suffering from a corrupted or physically damaged hard drive can be a tough situation since every action you perform on the disk may cause additional data loss. Follow this guide from EaseUS software to maximize the chance of getting data back from the failing drive.

User Scenario: Hard Drive Failure and Data Loss

In today's digital age, data is valuable yet vulnerable. The critical documents, cherished photos, or important work files saved on an internal or external hard drive can easily get lost if the storage device is failed, corrupted, or damaged.

If you see some signs, such as overheating, strange sounds, corrupted data files, system slowdown or crash, and a blue screen of death, be aware that your hard drive may be broken.

Once these symptoms exist, you need to stop reading and writing files on this disk immediately. Otherwise, data on the hard drive can be overwritten, and the chance of getting data back is slimer. You'd better perform a data recovery as soon as possible.

Disk Cloning for Data Recovery

There can be various significant files on the damaged hard drive. To preserve data from the disk to the fullest extent, do not repair the disk directly without specialized knowledge. There may be only one chance to get data back. Mistaken operations may reduce data integrity and destroy bits of history that cannot be recovered.

What you are recommended to do is clone the failing hard drive immediately. This will create a 100% identical copy of the original drive, including the system, files, folders, applications, and everything. Then, recover data from disk image instead of from the original disk.

See some benefits of recovering data from disk image:

  • Cause no further damage to the original hard drive.
  • Put an end to the loss of more data.
  • Allow for multiple recovery attempts without affecting the source drive.
  • Appy for forensic investigations to analyze evidence without altering the original data.

To clone the failing hard drive to another functional device, use professional disk cloning software like EaseUS Disk Copy.

Its sector-by-sector clone technology helps you copy a drive bit for bit, including operating systems, applications, and personal data.

If your hard drive has encountered severe bad sectors, EaseUS Disk Copy can skip them and stop using them on your failing drive to prevent further damage.

In short, to save you time and increase the chances for successful data recovery, clone the original disk and recover data from the disk image. You can seek help from a professional data recovery service, data recovery software, or DIY yourself if you can afford the risk.

Tips for Keeping Hard Disk Healthy

In the last part of this article, let's talk about how to keep your hard drives and SSDs healthy and extend their lifespan. Here are a few practices that can help minimize wear and tear and reduce the risk of failure.

  • Use a software tool that monitors SMART data to track the health of your drive.
  • Place the drive in a cool and dry environment. (20°C to 25°C; 68°F to 77°F).
  • Handle hard drives, especially HDDs, carefully, and make sure they are securely mounted in your computer or chassis.
  • For SSDs, use TRIM to manage space efficiently and keep a close eye on disk usage to keep it below 75%.
  • For HDDs, regular defragmentation can help optimize performance by reorganizing fragmented data.
  • Use power management features to shut down hard drives that are not in use.