Hard Drive Data Recovery in a Professional Clean Room

There are different kinds of failure that can lead to data loss in hard drives. A logical damage is the most common form of damage that leads to data loss. It could be due to various reasons including power failure, virus attack, etc, preventing the file system to be written to the storage media. This corrupts the data present on the storage media, even leading to severe data loss. Such data can be recovered using a professional data recovery software by the user itself.

However, in case of physical damage done to the hard drive, using a data recovery software would not help. As the hard drive includes various mechanical components, any damaged parts would require an expert to fix it and recover all the data. This requires the hard drive to open, which is only possible in the data recovery center. In addition, cleanliness is a crucial factor in data recovery as any contamination could make the data unrecoverable. That is the reason why almost all data recovery centers are equipped with professional Clean Rooms.

A Clean Room is not a new concept or it is not just used for hard drive data recovery. It is used in various fields of manufacturing or scientific research. It is very helpful in providing a sanitized environment free of pollutants like dust, aerosol particles, airborne microbes, and chemical vapours.

Because of its wide range of application, Clean Rooms are classified broadly under different classifications. The classification specifies the number of particles permitted within a cubic meter of air. Generally, the particles are about 0.1 micrometer size and the classification criteria lies within the standards of ISO 14644-1.

However, for data recovery at least a CLASS 5 Clean Room is required in ideal condition. Here the room can have a maximum of 100,000 particles within a cubic meter, which is very less as compared to outside urban environment. Generally, there are around 35 million particles per cubic meter in a typical urban environment.

As the class goes higher, the number of allowed particles decreases. For example, a CLASS 100 Clean Room can allow a maximum of 100 particles of 0.5 micrometer size per cubic foot. This classification follows the FED-STD-209 E standards. However, by the year 2001 the technology used in CLASS 100 was considered outdated and hence the standard was cancelled.

So, anyone who wishes to avail the data recovery services should look for at least an ISO CLASS 5 Clean Rooms. Such Clean Rooms are the certified ones and work within the defined standards. This would ensure a suitable environment for data recovery from the hard drives. However, there are different kinds of such similar services, yet different from the Clean Room services. Such services are the ones that offer ‘clean benches’ and are considered inferior to the Clean Room services. So, one should avoid such services as it does not guarantee full security of your precious data in the hard drive.