Data recovery FAQ: answers to your questions
Find answers from our specialists to the most frequently asked questions about data recovery: hard drive failures, SSD, RAID, USB drives, pricing, turnaround times and process. SOS Data Recovery (Tesweb SA), Swiss specialist since 2006 with over 10,000 cases handled, answers your questions.
Why consult our data recovery FAQ?
Our technicians answer the most frequently asked questions about hard drive, SSD, RAID, NAS, USB drive and memory card failures. Each answer is based on over 10,000 cases handled since 2006 and regularly updated. If you cannot find the answer to your question, contact us — free diagnosis within 3 hours.
Is it possible to recover data encrypted by ransomware without paying the ransom?
Yes, in a significant number of cases. The possibility of decryption without paying mainly depends on the type of ransomware and the existence of an exploitable cryptographic flaw.
Several recovery paths exist:
- Public decryption keys — some ransomware has been decrypted by security researchers and agencies like Europol. The No More Ransom platform (nomoreransom.org) centralizes these tools for free.
- Flaws in cryptographic implementation — some poorly programmed ransomware have vulnerabilities that allow keys to be reconstructed.
- Shadow Copies (VSS) — if the ransomware has not deleted Windows Shadow Copies, a restoration is possible.
- Unaffected backups — offline backups, NAS snapshots, or unsynchronized cloud storage.
Our laboratory analyzes each case individually. A diagnosis allows us to determine which ransomware family is involved and what decryption options are available.