Data Recovery Blog

Reduce or Eliminate the Impact of Storage System Failures
Storage systems have become their own unique and complex computer field and can mean different things to different people. So what is the definition of these systems? Storage systems are the hardware that store data.

For example, this may be a small business server supporting an office of ten users or less—the storage system would be the hard drives that are inside of that server where user information is located. In large business environments, the storage systems can be the large SAN cabinet that is full of hard drives and the space has been sliced-and-diced in different ways to provide redundancy and performance.

The Ever-Changing Storage System Technology
Today’s storage technology encompasses all sorts of storage media. These could include WORM systems, tape library systems and virtual tape library systems. Over the past few years, SAN and NAS systems have provided excellent reliability. What is the difference between the two?

SAN (Storage Area Network) units can be massive cabinets—some with 240 hard drives in them! These large 50+ Terabyte storage systems are doing more than just powering up hundreds of drives. These systems are incredibly powerful data warehouses that have versatile software utilities behind them to manage multiple arrays, various storage architecture configurations, and provide constant system monitoring.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) units are self-contained units that have their own operating system, file system, and manage their attached hard drives. These units come in all sorts of different sizes to fit most needs and operate as file servers.

For some time, large-scale storage has been out reach of the small business. Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive-based SAN systems are becoming a cost-effective way of providing large amounts of storage space. These array units are also becoming mainstream for virtual tape backup systems—literally RAID arrays that are presented as tape machines; thereby removing the tape media element completely.

Other storage technologies such as SCSI, DAS (Direct Attached Storage), Near-Line Storage (data that is attached to removable media), and CAS (Content Attached Storage) are all methods for providing data availability. Storage Architects know that just having a ‘backup’ is not enough. In today’s high information environments, a normal nightly incremental or weekly full backup is obsolete in hours or even minutes after creation. In large data warehouse environments, backing up data that constantly changes is not even an option. The only method for those massive systems is to have storage system mirrors—literally identical servers with the exact same storage space.

How does one decide which system is best? Careful analysis of the operation environment is required. Most would say that having no failures at all is the best environment—that is true for users and administrators alike! The harsh truth is that data disasters happen every day despite the implementation of risk mitigation policies and plans.

When reviewing your own or your client’s storage needs, consider these questions:

What is the recovery turn-time? What is your client’s maximum time period allowed to be back to the data? In other words, how long can you or your client survive without the data? This will help to establish performance requirements for equipment.

Quality of data restoredIs original restored data required or will older, backed up data suffice? This relates to the backup scheme that is used. If the data on your, or your client’s storage system changes rapidly, then the original data is what is most valuable.

How much data are you or your client archiving?Restoring large amounts of data will take time to move through a network. On DAS (Direct Attached Storage) configurations, time of restoration will depend on equipment and I/O performance of the hardware.

Data Recovery

Data Recovery Vendor Considerations

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago06 mins

When looking for a data recovery provider, it’s important to ensure that the one selected can handle not only the various types of media, but also understands the data security regulations of today’s organizations. For example, encrypted data requires special data handling processes — from the clean room to the technically-advanced recovery lab. This isolation ensures no one person has complete access to the media throughout the recovery process, thereby providing security while maintaining recovery continuity and quality.

Additionally, it is important to note that some data recovery companies have been cleared for security projects and services for U.S. government agencies. As a result, these companies implement data privacy controls that are based on the U.S. government’s Electronic Defense Security Services requirements for civilian companies that are under contract for security clearance projects or services.

Unfortunately, most data loss victims only consider data recovery right after they have experienced a data loss and are scrambling for a solution. Emotions run high at this point. The fallout from a data disaster and corresponding data loss is sometimes crippling, with the IT staff working around the clock to get the computer systems back to normal. These distressed circumstances are not the time to think about what makes a good data recovery vendor. Incorporating this important decision into your business continuity planning is best done in advance. Some key questions to ask as part of this proactive exercise include:

Do you have a relationship with a preferred data recovery vendor?
What should you look for when reviewing data recovery companies?
Do you include data recovery in your disaster and business continuity planning?
Do you have a plan for how to handle data loss of encrypted data?
Do appropriate people have access to the encryption keys to speed up the recovery process?

Sometimes planning for these procedures can become involved and tedious, especially if you are planning for something you have never experienced. Do some investigating by calling data recovery service companies and presenting data loss situations such as email server recoveries, or RAID storage recoveries or physically damaged hard disk drives from mobile users. Ask about data protection and the policies in place to protect your company’s files.

Additionally, find out the techniques and recovery tools the providers use. Ask the companies how large their software development staff is. Inquire about how they handle custom development for unique data files. For example, will they be able to repair or rebuild your user’s unique files? Does the data recovery service company have any patents or special OEM certifications?

While these details may not seem important at first, they can be the decisive factors that determine whether your data recovery experience is a positive and successful endeavor.

Following is a checklist of factors to consider when searching for a data recovery vendor for encrypted data or ensuring your data recovery partner is able to comply with your data security policies:

Solid Reputation – Experienced data Recovery Company with a strong background.
Customer Service – Dedicated and knowledgeable staff.
Secure Protocols – Expert knowledge of encryption products with privacy protocols in place.
Technical Expertise – Capable of recovering from virtually all operating systems and types of storage devices.
Scalable Volume Operations – Equipped with full-service labs and personnel that can handle all size jobs on any media type.
Research & Development – Invested in technology for superior recoveries; not just purchasing solutions.

It is important to understand that data loss can occur at any time on any scale. It’s especially crucial to be prepared with a plan that adheres to your company’s security policy. The more prepared one is, the better the chance for a quick and successful recovery when a problem arises.

Hard Disk Repair

Data Recovery Equipment

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago06 mins

Today computer is being an integral and indispensable part in IT world. No matter what is your line, finance, education, business consulting and investigation, IT information security, or else. In fact, most people always take it for granted. You should never brag your computer can be failure-free.

The foremost use of computer is data storage. All the data is stored on a physical disk named hard disk drive which is a magnetic layer. And it is more likely to be stricken of any time by a wide variety of reasons, such as a partition lost, system can not access, human mistake (accidental reformatting, delete), file corruption, power surge, and virus attack, to the worst, these physical level failures typically are head crash, platter scratch, and motor failures caused by overwriting, physical damages, natural disasters, etc.

Sometimes a hard drive has been stricken dead or not working at all without any warning signs, but some other times there may be some clues that something is going bad or amiss. Such changes in performance or sudden blue screens are telltale signs that the hard drive may be on its way to collapse. The most obvious and common sign are clicking, squealing, scraping or grinding noises.

The computer become more involved in our daily life, so the danger of data loss also surfaces.

As most of us have already experienced data loss, it could be frustrated and traumatic, when you finally find your critical data are not able to recover. As a matter of fact, logical failures as I previously mentioned, a data recovery software program can simply work them out, but if more, No! Those drives with minor physical failures will need special equipment to repair hard drive or recover data.

Why data recovery software programs will stop there? The ordinary user-level repeated-read access method that used by imaging software bring a risk of damaging the disk and head, making data lost irretrievable. Also the software skips bad sectors directly in order not to get hang. Even so it gets hang most of the time in case the drive has lost of bad sectors. Still there is no guarantee that all the data will be extracted as much as possible, although days or weeks of time wasted on imaging bad drives. That’s why you should avoid it at all cost.

With a unique data recovery equipment known as Data Compass which is mostly used among experts and practitioners worldwide where traditional tools can not reach the height. DC reads data of each sector physically byte-to-byte, including good and bad, and copied to a good disk using its data extraction software and hardware. A ShadowDisk technology allows DC to maximally avoid second damaging drives.

However, we hardly figure out how much data normally can be recovered. It all depends. In most cases, data will be able to recover as long as the parts of hard drive are not severely damaged. Otherwise you should swap its components then are platters, heads, and a spindle motor.

A current tool HD HPE PRO used to open hard drive will be replaced by HPE SP. The new product is the offspring of the old one; what’s more, a brand new designed platter exchanger allows users to work on hard drives with spacers between platters. HPE SP is made of metal alloy and has had both quality and stability improved. If you have already known about data recovery, you can be an expert with the very option. Of course, you can go and find an expert elsewhere to fix your drives, if the extra expenditure is not a problem anyway.

Hard Disk Repair

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Command Queuing

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago3 years ago05 mins

Seagate has a proven track record of consistently delivering reliable products in volume, and the new Barracuda 7200.11 family is no exception. Designed with up to four platters and the only second-generation perpendicular recording technology in the industry, the Barracuda 7200.11 drive offers the ideal balance of world-class technology and value, providing customers with an optimal overall solution. The capacity, reliability and performance of this drive, along with its 5-year limited warranty, ensure the longevity of digital content for years to come.

Key Features and Benefits

Delivers the industry’s highest capacity—up to 1.5 TB of storage (also 1 TB and 750, 640, 500, 320 and 160 GB)
Ships with the industry’s most reliable and proven perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology
Delivers high performance
- Up to 120 MB/s sustained data rate
- 32-MB and 16-MB cache buffer (8 MB on 160 GB)
Environmentally friendly
- Consumes up to 43 percent less power during idle than previous products, enabling customers to build low-power systems
- Meets strict RoHS environmental requirements
Leverages best combination of technology (areal density, PMR) and proven components for volume availability
Ships with an industry-best 5-year limited warranty

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Drive—the Eco-Friendly Choice
The Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drive delivers up to 43 percent power savings over the previous desktop generation without sacrificing drive and system performance levels, giving customers the ability to manufacture eco-friendly PC systems and external storage systems that meet energy-savings requirements.

Seagate hard drives have long been produced with the environment in mind, and not just with low power consumption. Like all other Seagate drives, the Barracuda 7200.11 product family complies with the Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS) Directive—a regulation that limits the use of hazardous materials in electronic goods. Seagate also takes great pride in implementing numerous voluntary material restrictions for the good of the environment.

Seagate is committed to minimizing the impact of our products and operations on the environment, and producing energy-efficient, RoHS-compliant hard drives is just one element of that commitment. Our facilities are operated to be energy efficient and minimize our carbon footprint. For example, Seagate has implemented production efficiency measures, such as replacing or renovating less-efficient equipment, resulting in a 20 percent increase in production efficiency on a per-hard-drive basis. In just six months this delivered a savings of 158.93 million kWh, or enough energy to power nearly 15,000 U.S. homes for one year. Seagate also has deployed aggressive waste minimization and recycling programs in facilities worldwide.

Seagate employees are fully engaged in this environmental commitment and participate in many ways, from innovating eco-friendly hard drives, planting trees at company facilities and identifying eco-friendly manufacturing improvements to car-pooling and telecommuting.

With Seagate and the Barracuda 7200.11 drive, our customers can have the best of both worlds—top hard drive performance and the satisfaction of knowing they are using a high-capacity drive with a very small eco-footprint.

Data Recovery

Recovery Process for Encrypt HDD

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago26 mins

Recovering from hard disk drives that are encrypted follows the same handling procedures as all other magnetic media. A strict process of handling and documentation starts right at the shipping door upon drive receipt and ends when the drive is shipped back to the customer. In most cases, when working with a top data recovery provider, all recovery processes are logged. This results in an audit trail of the recovery history and serves as verification that the recovery was conducted in a secure, compliant manner. Specifically, you want to ensure the process consists of the following high-level steps:

1. Triage drive; determine faults without opening drive
2. Clean room escalation for physical or electronic damage
3. Secure original media
4. Sector-by-sector copy of drive data
5. User Key used to decrypt data
6. Produce file listing of user file names
7. Repair file system
8. Prepare data for delivery
9. Encryption options for data delivery

After the first four stages listed above, the recovery engineer will begin to map all key file system structures that point to the user files. However, if the hard disk drive is encrypted, then the drive needs to be decrypted in order to proceed.

Decryption
If this is the case, a user key or decryption password is required. Fortunately, encryption software has come a long way over the years. Instead of using a master password for decryption, most professional encryption software provides a technician level pass-phrase that changes on a daily basis. This protects the user’s password and the organization’s master password.

Many organizations are comfortable providing these one-time use pass-phrases so that the recovery work can continue. However, this is not always the case. For some organizations, providing this information to an outside vendor, such as a data recovery provider, is against their security policy. In these situations, a successful recovery is still possible. There are data recovery vendors that can perform recoveries while leaving the data in its encrypted form throughout the entire process. In this case, the data will be recovered and sent back to the client in its encrypted form; however, the specific results will be unknown until the files are opened by someone with access to the encryption key. Ultimately, this limits the ability for a data recovery provider to communicate the success of the recovery until the recovered data is delivered and opened, thereby placing some burden back on the customer.

As a result, it is clear that significant time and cost savings are associated with allowing your data recovery vendor to access your one-time use pass-phrase codes while attempting to recover your encrypted data. At the same time, it’s critical to ensure that your selected vendor also understands security protocols, is knowledgeable about encryption products and has privacy policies in place.

Resuming Recovery
Following the recovery, preparation for delivering the data begins. Since the original hard disk drive was encrypted, safely securing the recovered data is highly important. The recovered data is backed up to the media choice of the user and is re-encrypted. The new decryption key is communicated verbally to the user; email should not be used, as this could be a security risk. Some leading edge data recovery companies are able to deliver recovered data back to the customer in an encrypted format on external USB/Firewire hard disk drives. From the start of the recovery to the final delivery, data should be secure throughout the entire process.

Data Recovery

Data Recovery and Encryption

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago03 mins

Business continuity and disaster planning are critical for businesses regardless of their size. Most archive and backup software have key features to restore user files, database stores and point in time snap-shots of users’ files. Software is becoming more automated so users don’t have to manually backup their files. Some computer manufacturers have built-in backup systems that include dedicated hard disk drives for archive storage. Most external USB hard disk drives have some sort of third party software that provides data archiving during a trial time period. Such solutions, while solving the data backup need, create questions regarding how effective the systems are with respect to user data. What are your options when a user’s computer has a data disaster and the hard disk drive is fully encrypted?

Most IT security policies require a multi-pronged approach to data security. For example, when setting up a new computer for a user, the IT department will require a BIOS (Basic Input/output System) password for the system before the computer will start. BIOS password security varies in functionality. Some are computer system specific, meaning that the computer will not start without the proper password. Other BIOS passwords are hard disk drive specific, meaning that the hard drive will not be accessible without the proper password. Some computer BIOS employ one password for access control to the system and the hard disk drive. To add a second level of protection, new IT security policies require full hard disk drive encryption. The most common of full hard disk encryption software operates as a memory resident program. When the computer starts up, the encryption software is loaded before the operating system starts and a pass-phrase or password prompt is required. After a successful login from the user, the software decrypts the hard disk drive sectors in memory, as they are needed. The process is reversed when writing to the hard disk drive. This leaves the hard disk drive in a constant state of encryption. The operating system and program applications function normally, without having to be aware of any encryption software.

Data Recovery

Data Security & Data Loss

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago03 mins

Encryption continues to be the topic on every CIO and IT person’s lips nowadays. No one wants to end up in the news as the next victim of a privacy breach or the next company that didn’t protect its customers’ information. If you conduct a news search using the words “personal data breach,” you’ll be alarmed at the number of instances where personal information such as social security and credit-card numbers have been exposed to possible theft. In a recent breach, a state government site allowed access to hundreds of thousands of records, including names, addresses, social security numbers and documents with signatures.

Whether it’s government agencies, research facilities, banking institutions, credit card processing companies, hospitals–or your company’s computers – the risk of compromising private information is very high. At the recent “CEO-CIO Symposium,” speaker Erik Phelps from the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich described the relationship business has with technology. In his presentation, he stated that since “business relies so heavily on technology today, business risk becomes technology dependent.” The possibility of litigation is part of business. It has always been a risk of doing business, but because technology and today’s business are so intertwined, business risk has a higher threat level. This has prompted many to encrypt workstations and mobile computers in order to protect critical business data.

If you have rolled out encryption, how do you maintain your IT service quality when the hard disk drive fails? How do you plan and prepare for a data loss when the user’s computer is encrypted? These are all issues that should be considered when putting together a data disaster plan. In addition, data recovery, one of the more common missing elements of a disaster recovery plan, should also be factored in because it can serve as the “Hail Mary” attempt when all other options have been exhausted

Data Recovery

Top 5 Reasons Of Digital Photo Disasters

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago4 years ago03 mins

1. OverwritingA common mistake is the accidental overwriting of images held on camera memory cards with new photos. It’s easily done. So check, check and check again that you’ve successfully transferred your images onto your PC, laptop, CD or DVD before taking new pictures.

2. ReformattingUsers often forget that reformatting a memory card will remove all the files stored on it including protected pictures and print orders.

3. Cracked and damaged mediaPacking memory cards into overstuffed suitcases can result in them becoming bent or damaged on the journey home, making them unreadable. Wrapping cards in clothes and placing them in the middle of your case offers some degree of protection in transit and helps ensure the safety of your pictures during your return trip.

4. Holiday injuries For those of you that opt for a tropical vacation instead of a snowy week with the in-laws, digital cameras often get dropped in the sand or splashed with water around the pool, damaging smart media to the extent that photos can’t be viewed..

5. Burnt media Leaving memory cards in an elevated temperature environment – close to a heat source such as a radiator or oven – will increase the chances of failure. Heat is unlikely to cause damage to the digital photos on the memory card but may stop the card from being recognized in a card reader.

Recent research – found that almost 90%of consumers now own a digital camera but around one-third don’t back up their photographs. The danger is that they could lose once-in-a-lifetime memories if anything happens to the memory cards that store their images.

Data Recovery

Data Loss–From PCs to Suit Pockets

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago02 mins

Data is everywhere. No longer confined to desktop computers, data is always with us – at the gym in the form of an iPod®, in the car via your cell phone, and of course surrounding you at work – notebooks, desktops, servers, etc. With the increased portability of data comes the increased risk for data to be lost, misplaced, damaged or destroyed.

How to protect mobile devices from data loss, here are some simple preventative steps that will help create good habits for the use of USB sticks and hopefully prevent any data disasters.

Minimize misplacement – Try to prevent ‘wandering’ USB sticks. The device is easily lost when you don’t exactly know where it is kept. A dedicated USB spot prevents loss of data from a portable storage device.
Carry with care – Make sure your USB is stored safely when traveling to minimize the risk of losing data.
No backups, please – A USB stick is too vulnerable to store precious information. These sticks should therefore never be used as a backup device.

Put a lid on it – if not in use ensure that the connector of your USB is protected. By using the protective cap, provided with any USB stick, a possible data disaster can be averted.

Unplug before you leave – Before you embark on a journey that requires a laptop and a USB stick, make sure the devices are separated. This way, both the laptop and the USB stick will run less risk of damage.

Data Recovery

Students how to protect against laptop data disasters?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM16 years ago12 years ago05 mins

Many students will be packing laptop computers in addition to the usual school supplies. It’s clear that laptop computers are quickly becoming a vital part of the scholastic experience, however with more laptops in use comes more danger for data loss.

Laptop computers are an excellent way for today’s students to manage their workload, but protecting the data on those computers isn’t as simple as securing a notebook in a locker. Students need to be careful with their laptops to avoid both physical damage and other problems that could affect the integrity of their data. If problems do occur, it’s also important they know that data recovery is always an option.

To help students protect against laptop data disasters, there are some tips:

Laptops are not as rugged as many like to think. When laptops are being docked, moved or transported, the greatest of care should be taken to prevent unnecessary shock or impact. Set up your computer in a dry, cool, controlled environment that is clean and dust-free. Placing your computer in a low-traffic area will protect your system and storage media from harmful jarring or bumping.

Use a sturdy, well padded laptop bag – Using just a back-pack or brief-case may not provide the protection a laptop needs during transportation. Make sure your laptop has plenty of built-in padding for protection.

Backup your data regularly – Creating regular backups is one of the most effective ways to protect you from losing data. Back up data at least once a week on a reliable medium (CD, DVD, USB flash drives or Internet backup), always verifying that the correct data is backed up.

Run a virus scan and update it regularly – Computer viruses are one of the worst enemies to your computer. Good anti-virus software tests your system for sequences of code unique to each known computer virus and eliminates the infecting invader. Also beware of spyware, a common problem brought about by Web surfing and downloads that can cause complications with your computer’s efficiency. There are several programs available on the internet that can assist with the removal of most spyware programs.

Be aware of strange noises – If you hear a strange noise or grinding sound, turn off your computer immediately and call an expert. Further operation may damage your hard drive beyond repair.

Do not use file recovery software if you suspect an electrical or mechanical failure – Using file recovery software on a faulty hard drive may destroy what was otherwise recoverable data or worsen the physical failure.

Use Auto-Save features – Most software applications have Auto-Save features that will save the project or document you have open at a preset intervals. For laptop users, a good time interval to use is every 5 minutes.

Be battery-level aware – If you are going to be using the laptop for long hours, be sure to try and find an electrical outlet to plug into. Some laptops will shut down quickly when a specific low battery level is reached and important documents may be lost.