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How does EaseUS software recover data? A Review
Here's a fair warning:
This isn't the usual kind of review of the show. I go into a few ideas about data recovery to try to explain how their software works based on the technical descriptions of some parts of their programs that are in their patents. Lastly, I hope my explanations are clear and that you enjoy reading the article.
Introduction
As someone who knows their way around the internet, the name EaseUS rings a bell every time I hear it.
It is well-known for its data recovery software, in addition to other excellent products, any of which can be quickly located by conducting a search on the internet. One of these, the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, has been on the market since 2005; that's over 17 years!
Our Chinese colleagues have also patented the inner workings of their systems, which serves as evidence of the high quality of the software they have developed. It's possible that they're responsible for hundreds of patents!
If you are interested, you may go to Google Patents and look at a list of some of their patents to see what they have created.
On the other hand, for the typical person, it might not even be worth their time to read through all of these. What exactly is the point? You may be familiar with the expression "see to believe," which has now fallen out of use. In our scenario, the key to recovering your data is not seeing what's happening but rather understanding what is happening.
It's possible that you're aware that, when it comes to software that handles sensitive data, you have to have complete faith in the application before you can even download it or invest money in the company in the first place. This is especially true of cloud-based services.
Can EaseUS guarantee safe retrieval of data?
In most of the cases it covers, thereby their “99.99% recovery rate”, which is exaggerated, but let’s take that out of account.
So, what does it cover?
Logical problems — and that's oversimplifying.
What the heck does that mean?
As you may have seen, before getting to that point, it's best to fully understand how EaseUS helps you recover your data and what that means for a disk that can be recovered without professional knowledge or equipment.
A Slight Dive Into the World of Data Recovery
Always making backups of your data is a good rule of thumb. If that's not the case, how can you be sure that a disk can be salvaged? In order to safely jump to a conclusion, it is best to first familiarize oneself with the various disk problem kinds.
There are both logical (software) and physical (hardware) problems. It might be clear when one applies and when the other does not, but sometimes it isn't.
Software/Logic Problems
In short, they include problems that some programs, the operating system, or the computer may have when trying to access a disk or part of a disk that has been corrupted or damaged, like a partition or a bad disk sector, as explained in one of their patents. If you're interested, Linus Tech Tips shows such a scenario:
What's a Partition?
In general, it is one of the parts of a disk that has been split up so that it can be managed separately. The data that is stored in it is used for a specific purpose.
For example, on a modern computer, Windows needs to use more than one partition:
A "boot" partition that enables Windows to start up on the computer.
The system partition, which includes the files required for Windows to function.
A reserved partition lets Windows take care of the whole hard drive.
However, Windows also creates a "recovery" partition, which, contrary to popular belief, cannot recover data but does allow troubleshooting Windows in a specialized environment, which is worth noting in case any other partition is inaccessible, corrupt, or accidentally deleted if data is compromised. In reality, EaseUS offers Partition Recovery software for individuals that are interested.
What about a disk sector?
A sector is a unit of data that is moved back and forth between the drive and the disk in a single operation. This is because a disk is a "slow" mechanical system. It is the smallest amount of data that can be stored. Its importance comes from the fact that it organizes chunks of information. Its size has changed over time, going from tens of bytes to the current standard of four kilobytes. This is a small but huge change.
In the end, as Mental Outlaw explains in the video below, these problems can be caused by a sudden shutdown of the disk while it's still running. This can corrupt the sectors being accessed, which can completely ruin any files on those sectors or make it hard to access the data inside a partition as a whole.
Still, a sudden shutdown can damage more than just chunks of data. It can also damage the firmware, the built-in software that lets the disk work on a system. This is expensive to fix and requires specialized equipment and knowledge.
Physical/hardware issues
Clearly, any physical damage falls under this category, and its severity varies accordingly. However, it also encompasses damage resulting from power imbalances, such as those caused by a power outage. Depending on the extent of the damage, these can be more expensive to fix than logical issues.
Now that the most fundamental concepts of disks and issues have been covered, it is safe to explain how the EaseUS Data Recovery software operates.
Then, how does EaseUS recover data?
Based on their patent, EaseUS software can properly load a logically damaged disk that would otherwise freeze, give an error message, or even crash when trying to access the files on it.
After Windows, for example, figures out the structure of the whole disk and all of its partitions, it tries to read data from each one. However, if it finds one that is invalid or can't be read, the whole process can get stuck at trying, crash, or give an error, which can also affect the system.
You might wonder why Windows would keep trying when it finds something strange on the partition.
Linus put it well when he said that consumer systems like Windows expect the drives to work and will keep trying if they don't because they think the drives might be the problem. Recovery tools, on the other hand, expect that the drive won't work right and that it will have problems, just like a diagnostic tool would.
At the end of the day, it's better to try than not. Take good care of our valuable drives!
He who does not believe will not under stand. For he who does not believe will not experience, and he who has not had experience will not know. Agustine de Hippo, id.