Your computer systems happened to crash, your most valuable data is gone and you’re looking to get all your data back…if this is you then you may be asking: how long does data recovery take?

In most cases, data recovery takes approximately 3 to 5 days. However, the time it may take will depend with the issue and the extent of the damage. The data recovery engineers require to have a look at the issue and run a diagnostic on it.

This will help determine the estimated time of recovery.
In short, how long the data recovery process will take will depend on many factors and issues that are involved in the recovery. Here are a list of some of the simple factors that may affect the time of data recovery;

1. The Size of the Hard Drive
   Bigger hard drives will normally take longer to recover than smaller drives because bigger drives have more sectors to go through when recovering. However, it will also depend with the kind of damage. There are cases where a physical damage on a drive with bad sectors will take long regardless of the size.
2. The Model or Series of Hard Drive
   Even though most/or all data recovery softwares are made to match industry standards, some hard drive models are faster to recover than others. It all depends with the manufacturer’s technology use.
3. The Type and Size of Your Files.
   This goes without saying, when a hard drive has a lot of data, it will take longer than which has less. Also, large files such as videos etc may take longer to recover because of their size.
4. The Environment You Operate Your Computers In.
   The conditions in which the device was being used on also affects the speed of recovery. This is because poor conditions lead to electronic and physical damage that make the recovery process longer.
5. Data recovery equipment in use.
   Some data recovery equipments are better than others in that they are able to offer all necessary tools to repair and recover the data. Ie firmware for new hard drives etc.
6. Donor Availability.
   Donor hard drives are normal hard drives that are identified since they match the faulty hard drive or are from the same family. Donors help in repair because their parts are used for repairing. In some cases, some donor hard drives are very rare to come by such as new ones. This may make the process take long.
   When your hard drive fails it’s better to first consult a data recovery engineer because any unprofessional attempt on it may lower the chances of success or even increase the recovery time which becomes more costly for you.