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Blog — Data Recovery and Cybersecurity

Technical analyses, prevention tips and data recovery news from the experts at SOS Data Recovery, Swiss laboratory since 2006.

Cybersecurity & prevention

In-depth technical analyses

Expert practical advice

Why read our data recovery blog?

The SOS Data Recovery blog covers all topics related to data recovery, cybersecurity and the protection of digital storage media. Our experts share in-depth technical analyses, prevention tips and insights from over 20 years of laboratory experience.

Whether you are an individual looking to protect your photos and documents, or an IT professional managing RAID servers and NAS systems, you will find practical, verified information here. SOS Data Recovery is CyberSafe certified and CyberSafe partner and rated 4.8/5 on Avis Vérifiés (296 reviews).

Our articles

Data Recovery After a Fire: What Heat Really Destroys (and What Survives)

Is a hard drive pulled from a fire lost? Far less often than people think. This guide explains why the chances of recovery after a fire are often good, especially for hard drives: the device is rarely exposed bare to the flames, and its metal tower, or even the melted material of the equipment, acts as a shield. You will learn the three forms of damage from a fire (heat, corrosive soot, extinguishing water), what makes a device truly unrecoverable, and the real work of a laboratory: thorough cleaning, replacement of the electronics, cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, opening in a cleanroom and migrating the platters to a donor drive. Above all, two vital reflexes: plug nothing back in, open or clean nothing yourself, and do not wait for the insurer or the cleaning company, because acidic soot keeps eating away and every day counts.

June 14, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Crisis Management #Data protection #how-to guide

Unreadable or Corrupted SD Card: How to Save Your Photos and Videos

Is your SD card showing an error, no longer detected, or asking you to format it? Before you panic, this guide explains the right reflexes: stop taking photos or filming, never format, and start with the mundane causes such as the small write-protection latch. You will learn what a memory card really contains, why modern microSD cards are monoliths that complicate recovery, and what each error message means. The guide details the cases specific to photo and video: the GoPro or drone video cut off in mid-recording, the wear of heavily used dashcam cards, and the trap of counterfeit cards with false capacity. Finally, it shows what a laboratory really does, from chip-off to reading via test points, and reminds you that an SD card is never a backup.

June 05, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Data protection #how-to guide #Memory Card

USB Flash Drive Not Recognised: What to Do (and Not Do)

Is your USB flash drive no longer recognised, showing a nonsensical size or asking to be formatted? Above all, do not format it and stop writing anything to it: in most cases, your files are still present in the memory chip, and the fault lies with the connector, the controller or a corrupted allocation table, not with the data. This guide explains what is really inside a USB flash drive, how to interpret each symptom (wrong size, the “please format” message, a drive not detected) and why the notorious format message is a trap you must never accept. You will also discover what a laboratory actually does when the controller is dead: unsoldering the NAND chip (chip-off), reading a monolith through the test points, then reconstructing the data by algorithms. Finally, the right moves to adopt and why a USB flash drive is never a backup.

May 27, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Data protection #how-to guide #Memory Card

Ransomware: can you recover your data without paying?

Can you recover your data after a ransomware attack without paying the ransom? Often yes, because ransomware encrypts files, it does not erase them: they stay on the disk, unreadable without the key. This guide explains what ransomware really does, why the direct decryption of a recent strain is out of reach, and above all what a recovery laboratory can still save without ever contacting the criminals: deleted but not overwritten RAIDs, snapshots (Shadow Copies), partially encrypted files, forgotten backups. You will find the steps to take in an attack (shut down, isolate, overwrite nothing), an honest decision on whether to pay, the shift toward blackmail by disclosure, your legal obligations in Switzerland (FOCS, nFADP) and the only real safeguard: an offline, immutable and off-site backup.

May 18, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Crisis Management #Cybersecurity #Ransomware

I Formatted or Deleted by Mistake: Your Real Chances of Recovery (and the Error That Destroys Everything)

Deleting a file or formatting a drive does not physically erase it: on a hard drive, the data stays on the platters as long as no new data has been written over it. Your chances of recovery after an accidental deletion or format are therefore often good, on one imperative condition: stop using the device immediately. This guide explains why deleting is not erasing, how the allocation table (the drive's table of contents) works, and where the real danger lies: overwriting, caused by updates, antivirus or defragmentation that write into the freed space. You will understand the decisive difference between a hard drive and an SSD (where TRIM erases fast), between a quick and a full format, and above all why the recovery software you download can destroy what it claims to save. Finally, how a lab protects your device with a bit-for-bit copy before any intervention.

May 09, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Backup #Data protection #how-to guide

RAID or NAS Failure: The Mistakes That Turn a Fault Into Permanent Loss

When a RAID, a NAS or a server fails, it is almost never the initial fault that loses the data, but the repair attempt that follows. This guide explains why the rebuild is the most dangerous moment in a RAID's life: reading every sector of drives of the same age often makes a second drive fail and, on a RAID 5, everything is then lost. You will understand the RAID levels (0, 1, 5, 6, 1+0), why a RAID is never a backup, and the mistakes that kill: deleting and recreating the RAID, multiplying the handling. The right reflex is counterintuitive: switch everything off, rebuild nothing, bring only the drives to a laboratory that works on bit-by-bit copies. Two counterintuitive pieces of advice complete the guide: mix the brands of your drives and steer clear of proprietary hybrid RAIDs.

April 30, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Backup #RAID #Server

Your Archives Are Sleeping on Dying Tapes: When and How to Migrate Your Old Backups

A well-stored magnetic tape preserves its data for decades: it is almost never the medium that dies, but everything you need to read it again. This article explains why a perfectly readable LTO, DLT or DAT archive can become inaccessible, and how to migrate before it is too late. You will discover the two major obstacles: finding a compatible and functional drive (the LTO compatibility rule, the headache of SCSI and SAS connectivity), then facing the software wall of the format and the backup catalog, without which you do not know what the tape contains. Through a real case where recovering a Retrospect backup meant digging out an old Mac, you will understand why the right benchmark is around fifteen years, prioritizing regulated data, patents and irreplaceable archives. Finally, the step-by-step course of a professional extraction.

April 21, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Backup #best practices #Magnetic tape

Smartphone Dropped in Water: The Right Response (and the Mistake That Destroys Your Data)

Has your smartphone fallen into water? In the vast majority of cases it survives, on one condition: do not put it back on charge. This guide explains why the real danger is not the fall but the plugging into the mains that follows, the one that triggers electrolytic corrosion and destroys the electronics within minutes. You will discover the right steps minute by minute: switch it off at once, save the essentials to a friend or relative while the device still works, dry it without excessive heat, and above all forget the bowl of rice, useless and time-consuming. A table helps you read the symptoms (no longer starts, no longer charges, faulty screen) and understand what they imply. Finally, the guide covers the serious cases, salt water and a deep fall, and what a laboratory does when faced with two soldered boards that no do-it-yourself can save.

April 12, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Data protection #how-to guide #Mobile security

Flooded Hard Drive: Why You Must Not Let It Dry Out (and What to Do Instead)

A hard drive that has been in water is not doomed, provided you do not let it dry out as is. It is not the water that kills a drive, it is the corrosion that follows: when the water evaporates, the conductive salts and residues remain on the circuit board and keep eating away at the metal. This guide explains, with the chemistry behind it, the three destructive mechanisms (short circuit, oxidation, electrolytic corrosion) and details the right first-aid steps: never plug it back in, remove the circuit board, rinse it with clean water, dry it fast, never open the casing, and hand the drive over to a lab as fast as possible. You will also find the aggravated cases (mud, extinguishing powder, chemicals), the time factor and an insurance trap well worth knowing: do not let the cleanup company sort through or throw away your storage media.

April 03, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Crisis Management #Hard Drive #how-to guide

Clicking Hard Drive: What the Noise Means and Why You Must Switch It Off

Is your hard drive going click click? This noise is not harmless, but it is not an immediate death sentence either. This guide explains what really happens inside: the read/write heads can no longer read the firmware stored on the platters, the circuit board keeps returning them to the stop of the parking zone, and this back-and-forth produces the clicking. Behind one and the same noise lie four possible causes, from a simple head replacement repairable in a cleanroom to permanent loss when a broken head grinds away the surface. You will understand why every restart to see if it works makes the failure worse, why the freezer, opening the drive or swapping the board must be avoided, and what the only reasonable action is before entrusting the device to a laboratory.

March 25, 2026 Author Stéphane Chapuis Read More

#Backup #Hard Drive #how-to guide

Blog — Data Recovery and Cybersecurity

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