Avoid SSDs for important files, says data recovery firm
Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack recommends that consumers and businesses alike store precious data on mechanical disks
If your data's important to you, store it on a mechanical hard disk rather than an SSD.
That’s the advice of Phil Bridge, managing director of data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack.
"My wife asked me if she should buy a laptop with spinning media or solid-state storage," he told PC Pro at the company’s UK premises in Epsom. "Honestly, I’d go with spinning media right now. Because I know that if something goes wrong, and we don’t have a backup, that’s going to be easier and cheaper to recover."
If someone sends in a Western Digital or Seagate drive, we’ve seen those a thousand times before
While recovering lost data from solid-state media is possible, the process can be time-consuming - and therefore expensive.
"With spinning media you’ve got pretty well established sets of standards," Bridge explained. "With solid-state, it’s almost as if every drive that comes in has a different structure and different technology. Many of them require bespoke development to get the data back – whereas if someone sends in a Western Digital or Seagate drive, we’ve seen those a thousand times before."
Kroll Ontrack mainly serves large organisations that can afford to pay for a specialist service, but Bridge emphasised that its services are open to consumers too.
"We can do data recovery in our lab from £299," he said. "If you figure out what the impact is of re-ripping 500 CDs, and ten DVDs... and what’s the value of all of last year's holiday photos? You’ve probably got £300's worth of data right there."
"But if it's going to take a bespoke development job to get them back... that’s not the customer’s fault, but it’s a problem."