Online Price Guide
Zip Disk Data Recovery
Due to the specific and the unique problems regarding zip drives, data recovery from these storage mediums requires specialist software, techniques and expertise.
Similar to floppy disks, Zip disks are equally susceptible to physical damage and magnetic sources than that of a hard drive.
Always keep Zip disks away from sources of magnetism, one often overlooked yet devastating source of magnetism is Mobile Phones. They frequently produce electromagnetic radiation pulses as they determine their position within the network. The pulses are often much stronger during an actual transmission, especially in an area of bad reception. One single EMR pulse is enough to zap a Zip disk and completely destroy its data, resulting in an unreadable ZIP disk.
Another common source of magnetism is from metal-detector scanners in places such as airports. If you have to take a Zip disk through a metal-detector place it in the tray provided or give it to a security guard before going through the scanner.
Other sources of physical damage are dust or foreign bodies breaching the protective metal sleeve around the Zip disk's surface.
Always keep the disk in its plastic case and never pull the protective metal sleeve back. If you get error messages when trying to read a Zip, such as: ‘cannot read sector’, ‘Invalid media’, ‘cannot find file’, ‘invalid disk’, etc., these all indicate a corrupt Zip disk. In most cases Fields can recover all of the original data.
Typical error messages:
- ‘Disk initialization failure; track 0 bad’
- ‘Bad seek; drive error’
- ‘Bad CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check); Drive error’
- ‘Record not found; drive error’
- ‘The zip is not recognised’
- Clicking sound or the so called ‘Click of Death’ or CoD problem
Note: Recovered data is returned on CD-ROM or DVD.
“I am not technical at all and was a bit wary of contacting a data recovery company when I lost all my work, but the staff at Fields really put me at ease. My files are now recovered and I am a very happy customer!”
Lucy Saunders, Rotherham, April 2009 [ Read More ]