Data Recovery - services, hard drive, raid…

When you have backed up meticulously every day for the last five years, then you find that when you need the backup, you discover the tape wont let you because of a tape error.

So what can you do. There are many software options for backup data recovery, but nearly all of these only work on backup files, so how do you recover data from a tape?

Data Recovery Engineering Software Limited write software mainly for data recovery companies, and one of their titles is a very affordable tape copying tool.

The software reads the tape and creates a file dump to hard disk. Now you are able access the data on the tape and recover it with your backup recovery software.

Another use for the software is when someone has made a backup that you need the data from, but it is password protected (not encrypted) and the user cant remember the password or no longer works for the company. Or a forensics engineer needs to examine the data stored on the tape but does not have access to the software used to make the tape.

Copying Tapes

We would all like to think that we are immune to a system failure and that our trusty computers will just keep on going without a hint of a problem. Sadly regardless of whether you’re are a home or business user, systems are prone to boot up failures and these often result in unexpected data loss of varying degrees.

Knowing how to deal with the potential for data loss is what separates those who have been there from those who are yet to experience it. So what kind of scenarios are we talking about here and what are we looking for?

Computer starts up but never reaches the login window: When this happens there are a number of potential problems that can be to blame, these range from hardware issues relating to the hard disk drive, down to driver incompatibility or the loss of important system files. Sometimes the problem can be resolved by booting up in Safe Mode, however, not always.

Computer starts to become slow: When we first get our new computer there is very little on it when it comes to programs and games for example, and over time the operating system due to the way it is designed becomes cluttered. Registry repair utilities can help operating system problems but data loss is always a risk. In extreme circumstances a total ODS re-install is the best option.

Pc virus, malware and spyware: Pc virus and other, malevolent applications can cause untold data loss and problems if not handled in the correct manner from the outset. Boot sector viruses and others will first start to be noticeable when you Pc starts behaving strangely so be on your guard.

So what are the options here once the problem has arrived, and how can we avoid any form of data loss when in a lot of circumstances the only answer is to wipe our system and start from fresh?

The Key, wherever possible, and where there is no hard disk drive fault requiring professional data recovery services is simple: Backup! Sounds simple enough if the drive is working fine, but not enough people do it.

External hard drives can be purchased in most computer shops now days and a quick search online for online backup will also give you a number of remote back up options

So what options do you have to get your important or vital data back? If things seem really bad and saving the data is crucial, don’t take any risks and contact a data recovery specialist. They will have a whole host of solutions available to save your data and whilst it cannot be guaranteed, they do stand the best chance of success.

You can find more great advice on data recovery and in particular for businesses raid data recovery here.

We all know that computers can malfunction and valuable data can be lost in the blink of an eye. Recovery data center specialists can store your valuable information. Lost data can cost a company valuable time and money.

If the damage that has been done to the computer cannot be repaired and therefore the data cannot be recovered, then most often the information will have to be reproduced. Before this happens, backup services can be implemented that will store the information for you, in case of an emergency.

recovery data center
The time to look for an offsite recovery data center is before valuable data is lost. There are many recovery services available that will offer various storage systems to help you recover data. Asking simple questions can help you discern which one will work best for your company’s needs.

Find out exactly how much help they offer during an emergency. Does the service send someone to your company to restore the data or is it all done online? Find out if the restoration process can be handled by someone in your business by following simple procedures or if they will need to contact the backup service by computer or telephone for help. Find out, how often the system should be backed up.

Does their system store the information automatically or do files need to be uploaded during the day. The more ease of use and self-sufficiency of the product can go a long way when you are looking to quickly restore lost data.

hard drive data recovery
Take the time to find out every aspect of the hard drive data recovery center process that you are thinking of using. You will want to find out exactly how they plan on storing and helping you recover any lost data. No matter what type of data you are storing, the loss of it can most likely put your company out of commission for a while, or at least slow it down.

Research different facilities until you find one that offers what works best for your company. In the end, however, the important thing is that you have a hard drive recovery system in place to protect your data.

Overview
Modern computer system hard drives can contain a massive amount of data. So when a hard drive fails, and there are no recent backups available, data recovery is the only option available.

Introduction
A hard drive consists of a number of component parts. Each of which has its own failure modes.

1. Electronics
2. Mechanics
3. Firmware
4. Logical

Electronics
The circuit board on a hard disk is the ‘brain’ of the hard drive and a single component failure will stop the drive from functioning correctly. Recovering data from drives with electronics failures will require highly skilled electronics engineers who are able to make temporary repairs in order to recover the data.
There are also electronic parts inside the hard drive that are critical for the correct operation of the hard drive and consists of the head pre-amplifier circuit.

Mechanical
The critical mechanical parts of a hard drive comprise of, the actuator arm, the motor and the platters. (There are other Mechanical parts, vibro-acoustic components, filters, VCM Magnets, etc, but these are less critical).

The majority of mechanical malfunctions involve the Head pre-amplifier. Whilst this is not exactly a mechanical failure, the method that the head pre-amp is fixed to the head stack means that when it fails it involves the replacement of the entire head stack assembly.

The next biggest cause of failure is motor failure. This is probably the most serious problem and requires specialist equipment so that platter alignment is not lost when removing and replacing the motor. Main problems with motors are burnt out coils and seized bearings.

Firmware
The firmware zone or System Area (SA) is a section on the hard drive where the manufacturer’s proprietary information such as

• Primary Defect Maps
• Translator Tables
• Operational code
• ATA Password Information
• ROM overlays.
• Self test logs
• SMART Logs
• Head maps

and many others

For a hard drive to work properly it is vital that the Firmware Zone is error free. Working on the Firmware on a hard drive is a highly skilled job and requires specialist equipment. Making a mistake when modifying the information in the Firmware of a hard disk can render a drive useless.

Logical
Logical problems are where there is no physical problem with the hard drive and it is fully functional. Logical problems are where data has become inaccessible for some reason, for example, the user has deleted the files, the computer has come under virus attack. The skill set of the engineer requires an understanding of how the operating system that the files were stored on works. Also, knowledge of the file format for different file types so that quality of files can be determined on a bulk and individual basis.

Data Recovery from Hard Drives
MjM Data Recovery Ltd

How to identify data recovery software for your needs.

Data recovery software can be used to recover data that has been lost or files that have been deleted from your computer’s hard disk or a CD or DVD. Since there are several data recovery programs available in the market, you need to select the one that suits you most. This will ofcourse depending on your computer system, whether it is just a personal computer or a large network systems. There are different data recovery softwares in the market that caters to your exact needs. It makes sense to make the right choice as you maybe buying something that you don’t really need.

You find the most suitable data recovery software by using the following guidelines:

One, you should look for a data recovery program that is easy to install. Most users have limited knowledge of computers and may not be able to use a program that requires a complex installation procedure.

Two, the software should be compatible with a range of platforms such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 98 and Windows NT. This will allow you to use the program across a number of operating systems.

Three, the data recovery program should come with clear instructions and should be easy to use. Some programs have options that are not easy to find and users waste a lot of time looking for them.

Four, you should ideally look for a program that allows you to recover data across storage media, like hard disks, CDs, DVDs, or thumb drives. The data recovery program should be capable of recovering all of the data or a part of it and you should be able to use it to recover one file or many files, with ease.

Five, the software should support multiple file systems like FAT, FAT32, and NTFS, because different file systems are used by different operating systems.

Six, some data recovery programs are capable of working as background agents that backup critical data selected by users for protection.

Seven, look for data recovery software that offers a high level of support by means of helpdesk, e-mail or phone. Vendors should provide all relevant information about the software on their website.

Eight, there may be a large number of files that can be recovered and it may take a lot of time to search for a particular file manually. A good data recovery program will have search capabilities and will help you to find files you want to recover easily.

Finally, you may find that some data recovery software are able to locate the files that you are looking for, but are not able to restore them to their original file directory. Look for software that will help you do this.

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Retrieving Data from a Broken RAID 5 Array
RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives. Data is stored in stripes of a specified block size. In some ways it is similar in configuration to RAID 0 however The biggest difference is that RAID5 has redundancy built-in. Redundancy means that if a single drive fails, then the data can be recovered from the working hard disks in the array. The redundancy is in the form of a parity block, using a three drive array as an example, redundancy for the first stripe would be calculated by taking each byte from each block from the first two hard disks, then XORing these values to give. It is this value that is stored in the parity block for the current stripe. So, if a drive fails, the missing value can be regenerated or rebuilt by XOR-ing the remaining two values. This does increase write times slightly as the parity needs to be rebuilt.

Rebuilding a RAID 5 Array After Failure
The difficult part for data recovery technician is working out the original drive order, block size and parity rotation algorithm.

There are many permutations and these are compounded by the number of drives in the array. For example if you have a RAID array with 5 drives there are 120 permutations of drive order alone. Then there is the block size to take into account. These are not as complex to calculate, but can be any size from 2048 bytes upwards. However, the most common sizes are 32kb 64kb, 128kb and 256kb.

Once drive order is determined the next thing is to calculate the parity rotation. What this means is, that for each complete stripe, the parity block moves to the next drive in the sequence. As an Example, if you take 3 drives and number them 0,1 and 2 below is a diagram indicating where the data blocks are (shown as numerics) and the Parity block (P).

Drive 0: 1 3 P 7
Drive 1: 2 P 5 8
Drive 2: P 4 6 P

You can see that the first parity block is on drive 2. The next one is on drive 1 and final one is on drive 0. Then the sequence repeats itself until the end of the array.

Initially this looks fairly straightforward, and in fact the above is the simplest RAID 5 there is.

here is another type of parity (Backward with continuous data)

Drive 0: 1 4 P 7 10
Drive 1: 2 P 5 8 P
Drive 2: P 3 6 P 9

Did you notice the difference? Blocks 3 and 4 (and 9 and 10)are inverted. This is because once the first stripe is complete. The first data block of each stripe must go immediately after the parity block so the drive reads the data as 0,1,2,0,1,2… So in this case block 3 is placed after the parity block on the second stripe. This balances out reads so that the same hard disk is not read twice successively. A mistake in determining the block[spin/] rotation will result with corrupt data.

Data Recovery Services
When fully understand the technologies employed in RAID of any level. Comprehensive understanding of how data is stored on disk is essential if the data is to be recovered correctly. MjM Data Recovery Ltd have developed proprietary software that they use for RAID data recovery and have engineers that are able to recover from the most difficult of jobs. If another data recovery company has already announced that the data is unrecoverable, it is always worth sending it to another company for a second opinion. Most will not charge for a diagnosis or it will be a relatively small charge if the value of the data warrants the cost.

When choosing a data recovery company to recover your valuable data it is very important that you make the right choice. Making the wrong choice can be the difference between recovering useful data or potentially ending up with nothing.

The company you choose need to have a fully focused team of professionals 100% committed to your data requirements, often some lessor recovery companies will simply have access to some software that they occasionally use if a job comes up.

Data Recovery being as important as it is should certainly not be something they do as a background activity, so don’t be afraid to ask some very pointed questions to make sure your getting the service you think you are an will most definately need.

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 data recovery capabilities.

Most professional data recovery will have proper labs facilities not just a back office with a bench. The data recovery lab is often the heart and sole of the operation.

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.

In summary your data has a huge value both on a personal and business basis so don’t rush in and make sure you ask the right questions to give you the best chance of getting your data back.

The HP SCSI hard drives are reliable & robust because they are tested under severe and extreme conditions. These hard disks models are available in both non pluggable & pluggable. The HP hard drives revolution per minute (rpm) is 15,000 while the other standard hard drives have revolution per minute up to 10,000. Therefore, performance of HP hard disks is about 26% more than the other hard drives. The HP drives are passed through a series of rigorous tests to check their reliability and performance both in the workstation and in ProLiant server. The HP disk drives are given the HP unique firmware before the final certification and shipment. The firmware enhances the compatibility and the insight manager. HP introduced the “Hot pluggable universal drive carrier” and in the year 1999, Hewlett-Packard was awarded the “Gold Idea Award”.
This drive carrier has many additional features of compact design. The cooling process is also enhanced. The vibration in the HP drives is also reduced because the mounting drive is more secured. The models of the HP SCSI drives are the HP 300GB 5K Universal Hard Disk Drive (411089-B22), HP 146GB U320 15K Universal Disk drive (347708-B22) and HP 72GB U320 15K Universal Hard drive (286778-B22).
Nowadays the enterprises are facing the increasing demand of complex applications, processing of transactions and movement of critical data to server.
The Storage defines the performance & reliability of the system and is one of the most important components of Information System. HP hard drives do not have problems related to data integrity, failure or corruption because they are tested to overcome such problems. The HP drives are highly compatible & functional. The hard drives give high performance and best optimum output in the Hewlett-Packard systems and equipment. The HP hard disks are highly reliable in the HP systems and provide best results in ProLiant server and storage systems.

The HP Ultra 320 has SCSI bus transfer speed of 320 Megabytes/second, while the transfer speeds of Ultra 2 & Ultra 3 hard drives are 80 and 160MB/sec. Therefore, this fast speed of HP drives increases the performance level of SCSI devices. All the three HP drives Ultra- 2, Ultra-320, and Ultra3 have new and advanced plug drive carriers and they can also be used in either of their capable systems. The maximum transfer speed of 320MB/sec can be achieved in the HP Ultra 320 drive when both the array controller and the hard disk are capable with the Ultra-320.

The HP Ultra 320 universal hard drives are compatible between the Ultra 3, Ultra 2 and Ultra 320 Proliant storage systems, modular array and servers. The plug drives come in different capacities and have multiple spindle speeds. The HP drives have edge over other, because it has low complexity of storage and the cost of ownership is also low. Therefore, as a result the spare inventory of the drives also reduces. The data transfer speed of the Ultra320 drive (320 MB/sec), twice that of the systems of Ultra 3. The HP hard drives have an edge because they are compatible through hot plug between the three platforms of HP SCSI drives (ultra 320, ultra 2 & ultra 3). Before the HP drives are shipped, it is made sure that they fulfill all the requirements related to the performance and reliability.
These drives give the best results and enhanced performance. The HP drives have the latest technology and the capability to handle the increasing demand of data recording and also competes in the data critical environment in the enterprises. If the user wants to immediately install the drives on the Proliant storage or the server system, then it can be done by configuring the “option universal kits” and then per mounting the suitable “hot plug tray”.

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Shawn Paul (Marketing Manager)
Tape4backup.com
34972 Newark Blvd, # 501, Newark CA 94560
Tel : 888-491-4949
Fax : 888-449-5050
Email: sales@tape4backup.com

The worst thing that can occur to someone who works only on the computer is a hard drive crash. This is a disaster especially if data backup hasn’t been made. Luckily, nowadays the data can be recovered, that’s the good part, and the bad part is that it costs a lot of money. That’s why a lot of companies are out there, which offer data recovering services. Many of them use tricks to attract costumers. They ask a low fee at the beginning and after the evaluation the fee suddenly increases. Many customers prefer to pay than have it sent back and look for another company.

There exist two important causes which can lead to a hard drive crash. One of them is logical and the other one is physical. You can find out yourself if it’s physical or logical; it’s not a sure test but it is usually right on the money. If your BIOS recognizes the hard drive, it’s logical. If not, the problem is physical. Anyway, it is best that if you suspect a hard drive crash and you didn’t do a backup of your data to turn off the computer and let a professional examine your hard disk.

If you are sure that your hard drive has crashed, the best you can hope for is that the problem is logical and not physical. Not only that it could take also ten days to recover the data, but in some cases they won’t be able to recover it, in case of a physical problem. If it is logical they will try to restore the file system and if they are successful, the hard disk will work as it did earlier. If not, a thorough scan will be done and every file found will be copied. The cause of a logical problem is usually a virus, but it can also happen if you, by accident, delete some important files.

Having a physical problem means that it will be hard work to recover the data. The parts that were damaged will need to be replaced. Sometimes, this won’t even work if it isn’t done properly. That’s why these things should be done only by professionals. If your hard drive crashed, I hope that you will be able to recover your data, because sometimes no one will be able to recover it. However, the percentage of success is pretty high, since almost 85% of the recovery processes are successful.

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When a hard drive crash happens, it can get really nasty. Find out more about hard drive crash data recovery and laptop hard drive recovery.

Back in the day when the humble Pc came about there was pretty much only one type of storage device that you really needed to know about and that was your hard drive. Sure there were a few others to be fair but they were so hellishly expensive that only massive companies could afford them.

Of course we also had ram memory wish is a type of storage medium but it cost so much and you got so little that it never really figured, but boy oh boy how times have changed, and if you have not kept up to date with whats available – sit down and buckle up as we go on a storage ride.

NAS, SAN, Snap Devices, kind of sounds like a breakfast cereal doesn’t it? Well here’s the explanation.

NAS, SAN, SNAP Devices are Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN) and, System Network Attached Protocol (SNAP).

Essentially in laymans terms these tend to be large storage drives that are external to a particular server but provide a centralised data store area for companies data.

It s often cheaper to have large amounts of data external to a server or they could be for back up purposes but if these fail you will need to call out the data recovery company.

External Drives

External Drives are essentially hard drives that sit outside of your computer and attach to it by a usb cable. These are great if you want extra storage on your Pc or want to back up your own data just in case.

SSD

Solid State Drive (SSD) is the newest form of data storage device and SSD devices are gradually increasing in size. They are very fast and because they have no moving parts are potentially more reliable.

They are still very expensive but are tipped to eventually replace the hard drive.

Flash Memory Sticks and Memory Cards

These are essentially small portable storage devices with no moving parts just like an SSD. These devices are getting very large in their capacity and have become the prefeerd method of easily moving data around or for use in cameras and digital video recorders.

And of course you now have ever increasing amounts of storage in your phone and in your MP3 and MP4 player as well principally due to the fact that memory is now a whole lot cheaper than it used to be.

So thats a whistle stop tour of current technology and if you want to get more information about technology visit technology explained for useful and informative help.