Bypassing the Operating System
When a hard drive is accidentally formatted, intentionally wiped, or hit with a localized ransomware strain, the Master File Table (MFT) is often the first casualty. The MFT is the index your operating system uses to locate files. Without it, standard off-the-shelf recovery tools simply see empty space.
Our Methodology: X-Ways Forensics
Instead of relying on the operating system's broken index, we use X-Ways Forensics to read the raw binary (hexadecimal) of the drive. Every file type—whether it is a PDF, an AutoCAD drawing, or a JPEG—has a unique "header" and "footer" signature in its raw code.
By executing sector-level file carving, we scan millions of sectors to manually isolate these signatures, effectively rebuilding the file from the raw data fragments left behind on the platters or flash memory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. If you use niche software, we can manually script custom carving rules to search the raw hex for your specific file headers.
Usually, no. Because the MFT (which stores the names) is destroyed, carved files are typically recovered based on their file type and contents, not their original names.