Posts Tagged ‘Data Recovery’

Reasons Not To Try DIY Data Recovery

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

In recent times with the “Credit Crunch” beginning to bite a lot of people may well be tempted to try to repair or recover their data from a failed hard disk drive or memory stick. Alternatively they try to use recovery software, which is easily available on the net, can be paid for and downloaded online.

In most cases this software will be a hard drive recovery programme for a hard disk drive that has suffered from some form of logical table corruption and will not assist with

  1. Mechanically failed devices
  2. Degraded hard Disk Drives
  3. Devices with electronic failures

This software will of course not be able to help and if the drive is degraded or suffering from a mechanical failure attempting to run this software will in most cases cause further damage to hard disk drives, potentially making the disk unrecoverable.

The software itself is very often very reasonable priced – usually under $100 but is only good for one purpose to recover either deleted or logically failed drives, so if you are not sure what you are doing trying to do a self recovery can in the long run cost a lot more.

In a recent case a teacher brought in a laptop hard disk drive which had been previously diagnosed by the schools own IT department. The teacher concerned had done exactly what any person probably would do and trusted that the onsite IT dept at the school would have a degree of knowledge and competence when dealing with a suspected HDD failure. Unfortunately the opposite seems to be the norm in many cases.

In a typical case a drive was initially presented for diagnosis and duly diagnosed with a blown PCB - the drive seemed completely dead and would not spin at all. As an additional test a new PCB was placed on the board so that the response of the heads could be tested. The result of this test was that the heads appeared to have been “blown” by a power surge through the drive.

Upon further discussion, with the client, it transpired that the IT dept had decided to remove the HDD from the laptop and as it was an IDE device mount it as an external storage device by using an IDE connector. Unfortunately they plugged the HDD to the connector “upside down” meaning that crucially the drive received a huge power spike through it when the connector was hooked up to a PC.

It appears that the lack of care taken by the IT dept has caused the drive far more problems that what was probably a simple case of “bad sectors” on a hard disk drive. The cost of a simple bad sectors recovery has now become a full HDD rebuild with the search now on for suitable parts - causing delay and additional costs to the School concerned.

Many businesses need to get their data back as quickly as possibly so it is quite frustrating to have additional costs and additional downtime whilst you are waiting for data to be recovered

Unfortunately most Data Recovery Companies will probably have their own tales of customer mishap or IT Technicians making their job more difficult through there well intentioned but often misinformed knowledge of hard disk drive technology.

So the moral of this is that whilst many people will look for a quick and cheap fix for their hard drive recovery problems, they really are best leaving it to the experts.

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Planning For Data Disasters

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

 

Frighteningly a very high percentage of business around the world are only a very short step away from total data loss even though they believe they are all ok. A principal culprit here is un-validated tape back ups. Simply put many companies go through a tape backup procedure but in the event of a problem it is only then that they realise the company back up has failed

Through some basic steps, businesses can better protect themselves against catastrophic data loss, these steps include:

  • · Why do I need a Disaster Recovery Plan (DR) plan?
  • · Defining and planning
  • · Implementation
  • · Testing

There are numerous disasters that could befall any business at any time in reality, and most of these will be unforeseen, the UK has in recent times suffered from unprecedented floods and in the US ice storms and power failures are the most recent issues, all the more reason for ensuring you have a disaster recovery plan of some description ready to roll out.

The first thing you need to do is understand what is important to your business. Identify those systems that are critical to the running of your business, be it an email server, bespoke financial package or other data, building a continuity plan will help you recover these systems in the most cost effective, efficient way possible.

Another important aspect of your plan should be that the business downtime should be a short as possible, an hour lost in a small business with a few employees can be manageable but if you have hundreds of employees then even an hour downtime is equivalent to weeks of lost work cumilitavely.

Have your data backed up securely offsite, even in the event of a total loss of premises your data can be available in a different location with minimal fuss. Traditional tape backups although adequate if set up correctly can and do fail recovery is a lengthy process even for a single file. Other technologies such as data replication and remote offsite backup are more efficient, simpler and more reliable.

No two companies are the same; it pays to plan your implementation. A documented project plan can help with your disaster recovery procedures, A project plan allows it to be broken down into more manageable chunks. With proper planning you can avoid some of the pitfalls and ensure nothing in left unaccounted for and will prevent having to go back.

And last but not least test test test! Sadly numerous stories abound of companies that have set up a DR plan of sorts then simply assumed it would work. You need to ensure your plan is robust and tested on a regular basis to ensure key personnel are practiced in its implementation.

Disaster recovery planning, data recovery service and online data backup protocols should be in place for every business that has critical business data and systems. Don’t wait until it is to late and disaster has already struck.

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Data Recovery One on One - How To Choose A Raid Recovery Company

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

No matter if you have taken all the required precautions, when a server or a hard drive fails you can guarantee that the search for a company to sort out the problem will be the foremost thing on most peoples minds, but how do you choose the best comapny to do the job for you?

Making the right choice in which data recovery company to work with can be a bit of a chore at an often crucial time, but getting it right is vitally important to ensure the best success rate.

The company that gets your vote should have dedicated Data recovery staff that are professionally trained for the required task

Unfortunately some companies only undertake recovery tasks on an irregular basis and do not have either the skill set or necessary tools to carry out a full recovery of your data.

A true data recovery lab will be able to successfully recover data from Servers, Laptop’s, Desktop’s, CD/DVD’s and all other types of storage media, not simply just from a failed hard drive

They should have both the leading technology and skilled technicians to identify and solve the most challenging recovery situations presented to them.

If they are leaders in data solutions they should also be able to offer a full gamut of data recovery services including full server and raid recovery capabilities. If the company are an industry leader they will also offer a call out service as this is often a key requirement for server and raid data recovery.

Frighteningly some companies will only have a basic workbench to recover your data, you want to ensure at the very least they have a certified (preferably certified to ISO class 3 standards) clean room.

In the event of your drive needing to be stripped down you need to know who is actually handling your data and is it secure? Having to send your drive to another country for assessment should not be a requirement in this day and age.

To sum up losing data can cripple a company or cause personal heartache, so make sure you are dealing with a reputable firm as much as you can, and ask the awkward questions.

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