Archive for the ‘data recovery’ Category

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Computer Spring Cleaning Part One – Maintenance Chores

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Spring Cleaning for your Computer

Spring Cleaning for your Computer

I just love the smells, sights and sounds of spring. The fresh aroma of pine-scented cleaning solvent, the rustling of dusters on the shelves, and the dog playfully chasing after the vacuum cleaner all make me smile. Yes, it’s time for our annual spring cleaning!
It’s a good time to perform your computer’s spring cleaning as well. There are several maintenance chores that should be done at least annually. Performing these could make a difference on whether you might need to bring your hard drive to us for data recovery. The Data Rescue Center is here to help if you need Windows® disk file recovery or Mac data recovery. However, here are three tips to keep problems to a minimum.
1. One of the major enemies of computer components is heat. Shut off your desktop computer and remove the side panel. Using a can of compressed air for electronics, careful blow out the dust and debris that has collected. Don’t forget the vents on the side panels and the dust that has collected on CPU, power supply and graphics card fans.
2. You might want to reseat all of the cables and connections from the motherboard to various components. Static electricity can damage electronic parts, so be sure to wear a grounding strap.
3. Clean up your hard drive as well. Take a good inventory of the programs that are installed. Some may need updating while others just need trashed. You’ve probably amassed a wide array of programs, many of which you no longer use. Old programs can often become corrupted and are a common source of logical drive failure and data loss.

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20% of Small and Medium Sized Businesses Face Data Loss

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Business should have a disaster plan in place to protect their data.

Business should have a disaster plan in place to protect their data.

Disasters are interesting things. We never want to be involved in one, however, we seem to be drawn to depictions or actual descriptions of them. For example, the sci fi channel seems to run a disaster movie marathon at least once a month. News flashes on television immediately draw our attention if they are about some natural or man-made disaster. As interesting as they might be, it is important that we do assess our own situations and plan for any disasters that could happen to us. For a small to medium sized business, this includes the protection of vital business data.

The two basic parts of a disaster plan should include the actions to take during the disaster and the actions necessary to recover from the disaster. For example, planning the actions to take during a natural disaster would include determining evacuation routes, safe shelter locations and emergency communications. Disaster recovery plans should include provision for food, water and shelter.

Some disasters are not really earth-shaking; however, their impact on an individual business can be devastating. Data loss disasters can drive a small or medium sized business into extinction. According to recent surveys taken in the United States, Britain and France, 20 percent of businesses in this category have experienced data loss.

Part of any business’s data disaster recovery plan should include researching companies that can perform hard drive recovery. As more of our data is stored on personal computers and servers, finding a trustworthy hard drive recovery engineer or laboratory should be a priority. Furthermore, the prevalence of smartphones in business environments necessitates that an effective flash drive recovery source is found as well.

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What Data is Still On that Secondhand or Donated Hard Drive?

Friday, May 4th, 2012
Protect your data when you donate your old hard drive

Protect your data when you donate your old hard drive

In past posts, we looked at taking inventory of the files on your computer. It is important that you know what is there and take steps to protect it from loss. We discovered that backing up your data regularly is the only sure method of data protection. Even though our data recovery services employ current technology and techniques, some files may not be recoverable in certain cases.

Knowing what your hard drive contains is also important for another reason. Many folks will sell or donate their old computers when they buy a new one. Most of these users will delete their files and personal data from the hard drive before they let it go. Even so, you will recall that files that are merely deleted are still resident on the drive. This is why our recovery engineers are able to retrieve your lost data in the first place.

According to a recent study in the United Kingdom, 65 percent of the people surveyed sold or gave away their personal devices. This includes smartphones and PDAs as well as computers. The study also found that one in 10 of the hard drives sold or donated were not effectively wiped of all data. The original owners actually left personally identifiable information on the drives that could be easily recovered.

You already associate our business with flash media and SSD recovery as well as standard hard drive data recovery services. However, we also provide secure hard drive recycling. More information can be found on our website at http://www.harddriverecycle.com/. We will securely wipe your drive using Department of Defense standards so that your personal data can never be retrieved and used. There is no cost to you for this service, and your hard drive parts are recycled in the recovery business, once your data has been wiped from the drive.

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Symptoms of Impending Drive Failure

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Warning signs of impending hard drive failure

Signs of an impending hard drive failure

My wife and I were reminiscing about our early years the other day. We’ve always had a soft spot for action-thriller and science-fiction movies. In fact, one anniversary we went to see the romantic comedy “Alien versus Predator.” We talked about some of the movies we saw before the kids were born and one that still brings tears to my eyes was “Jaws.” I think I still have bruises from where she gripped my arm. One of the things I remember most was the ominous music that played whenever the shark was about to attack. You knew something was going to happen that was fierce and dreadful.

So, what does that have to do with computers? Just like in the movies, there are certain sounds that warn us of impending disaster. A clicking or grinding noise emanating from the hard drive may not signal a shark attack, however it should warn the computer owner that the drive is about to fail. It is highly recommended to immediately stop using the drive.

Additionally, there are other warning signs of impending drive failure. If programs take extremely long to start or you get a lot of error messages, it could be signaling that the system files are corrupted or that there are many bad sectors on the drive.

We specialize in data recovery here at The Data Rescue Center. Our recovery engineers are highly trained in the process of disk file recovery. Whether it is Windows or Mac data recovery, retrieving missing files for our clients is our main business.

Before you hear the sounds of impending doom, get your data backed up. But, if you lose your files you can count on us to help in an emergency.

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Should You Repair, Reuse or Recyle Old Equipment?

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Repair or recycle your old computer equipment?

Computer prices have dropped significantly. This might put you in a quandary when you have computer issues. Should you repair, reuse or recycle old or damaged computer equipment? The answer depends on the age of the equipment and the extent of the damage.

For example, I have several computers that are five to 10 years old. Obviously, they can’t handle many of the new operating systems. Being the packrat that I am, I hate to throw anything out. I have disassembled a few for parts; however, I installed Ubuntu on a few and they still run well.

On the other hand, hard drives are a different story. If the drive controller goes out, the drive might possibly be repaired. If the drive is suffering from physical failure, making grinding or clicking noises, the best option would be to shut it down, have a data recovery services laboratory retrieve your files and get a new drive. Here at The Data Rescue Center, we have hard drive data recovery services for standard platter drives and can perform SSD recovery as well.

While we’re on the subject of SSDs, solid state drives are still rather expensive. Recoveries on SSD drives can often times be more expensive than a traditional hard drive recovery due to the amount of time and extra work involved in an SSD recovery.

Finally, it may be better to scrap old equipment. However, don’t just throw it in the trash. Many parts can be recycled locally. The Data Rescue Center offers free hard drive wiping for any hard drive donated for eWaste.

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Finding a data recovery service with excellent customer service

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

The Data Rescue Center offers excellent customer service

I’m going to make a profound statement: Data recovery is not the same as, say, lawn mower servicing. Hard drive recovery is obviously more involved and is an extremely technical task. A hard drive recovery engineer cannot just get a repair manual and attempt recovery. Recovery engineers go through extensive training so that they perform safe, effective retrievals.

Horror stories of botched or improper drive recovery abound. A news story earlier this year recounted one such incident. A woman took her high-end computer back to the electronics retail store because she was having issues. She fully expected the computer to remain in-house for repair. It didn’t.

When she hadn’t heard back about her computer for some time, she called the store to check the progress. She was then told that it had been shipped out to a regional repair facility, obviously without her consent, and that they would check on it. To make an extremely long story short, she finally got a replacement computer after several months of waiting. However, all of her personal computer data was lost forever. Her digital pictures, music collection, videos, work and home documents, everything.

Customer service is extremely important when dealing with a client’s critical data. Unfortunately, this woman’s story is not untypical. Critical files have been lost, damaged and stolen because care was not used. Poor customer service causes distrust and unnecessary anxiety.

We understand that the client is an important part of the process, whether it be business server repair or flash drive recovery from a personal digital camera. Always make sure your equipment is being handled properly and securely. You should be consulted at every step of the process as well.

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What to be wary of for hard drive recovery services:

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

Watch out for companies offering a "Low-Cost Guarantee"

Low-Cost / Maximum Cost Guarantees:  Any company that promises you a “Guaranteed” cost of $399 or $499 without ever seeing your drive. That will not get you physical recovery. When they claim that, they are hoping you send the hard drive in without trying a software solution yourself. If they get the job and the software solution works, they can charge you that amount. If the recovery does indeed require physical recovery work, they can try to re-quote you or send it back and say they weren’t able to recover it. You may want to check to see what their return shipping costs are, to make sure they aren’t trying to make money off of that as well. They might also contact you and say that “they” can’t get the data back for you (at that guaranteed low cost), but they can pass the drive onto a partner who can (no guaranteed cost). It’s the old bait-and-switch technique to be careful of.

Cleanroom or Kindacleanroom: Make sure the company has a cleanroom—Sure, they may say they do on their website, but we all know the web really isn’t policed. If they have a cleanroom, they would be proud of it and show it off with a picture or two on their website. If someone opens your hard drive in a non-cleanroom environment, your drive will likely suffer damage that will either make the data unrecoverable (due to scoring caused by particles) or will make it more difficult and more expensive for the eventual recovery. Do not trust that they have a cleanroom just because they say they do, require some proof.
Virtual Recovery Shops: Make sure the company actually exists and does the work themselves. Many people are setting up websites with great stock photos, industry keywords and a phone number or email address. They get you to send the drive to them but in reality they don’t do any of the work themselves. What they will do is send your drive to a few shops, seeking out the best price. Then they contact you back and give you an inflated price. If the shop can do it for $1000, they might contact you and say it’s $3000… You might say you can’t afford that, but you then negotiate down to $2000, thinking you’re getting a great deal. In reality, you just paid double what it would’ve cost you if you contacted the legit place by yourself.

Trustworthy/Background Checks: The last thing you want to do is send your computer hard drive to someone you can’t trust. Personal photos, banking information and other personal data should be entrusted only to a professional company. You don’t want your personal pictures posted online or your financial information rifled through. Make sure all their employees undergo a background check and make sure the company itself has a good standing with a service like the Better Business Bureau or similar consumer protection agency.

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Physical Hard Drive Failure

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Class 100 Cleanroom

Physical hard drive failure occurs when one of the mechanisms inside of your hard drive breaks or fails. Realizing that your hard drive is spinning around inside at speeds of up to 10,000 rotations per minute (even faster in some top-speed drives), you can imagine that something might go wrong at some point in time, especially when they are trying to cut costs for producing these hard drives.  Once you’ve determined that your hard drive is suffering from a physical issue, you need to take time to find a computer recovery service that you can trust with your data. Employee background checks, secure storage of your hard drive, a certified cleanroom and technical expertise are all needed to protect you from harm and provide the best chance at recovering the data

A physical hard drive recovery service is expensive. Think of them as brain surgeons for your computer. Yes, if you scratch your arm, you mom can easily clean you up and throw on a band-aid, but if you need brain surgery, you can’t trust your mom to do the job. The same is true for physical hard drive recovery. You can’t go to an all-around computer store to get this done. Likewise, you can’t trust your IT uncle or Geek friend to do it either. Physical computer recovery requires specific tools, costing $15,000 and up, as well as a cleanroom and years of daily recovery experience. Your IT uncle or geek friend just doesn’t have the tools, facilities or technical experience to perform this type of work. In fact, if you let them try, they will almost surely cause more damage to the drive, making the professional’s job even harder (as in more expensive for you). You wouldn’t trust your mom to perform brain surgery on you so don’t trust non-professionals to check out your hard drive.

www.TheDataRescueCenter.com does background checks on all employees, makes use of a Class 2 Vault for customer hard drive storage and employs only the finest data recovery engineers and advisors. The new facility in Livermore, California also employs Pentafluoroethane Gas Fire Suppression (ECARO-25 FIke) System as well as above and below grid motion sensors and RGB cameras to provide best in class protection of customer hard drives.

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Computer Hard Drive Recovery: Tips, Tricks and Scams

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Data Rescue Award-Winning Data Recovery Software

Introduction: Your computer contains very important files on it. Work files, personal documents, tax receipts and other files that would be hard to recreate. You probably also have thousands of digital pictures spanning the past 10 years or so, as society has moved away from film and towards all digital content. Losing all the pictures of your children or family events from the past years can be devastating to even think of.

This article will give you information of what to do in case you have a computer emergency as well as details on some of the scams and dirty tricks that are out there in the wild. For the sake of this article, I will concentrate on two distinct, common computer problems: Logical and Physical hard drive failures.

Logical Hard Drive Failure occurs when your hard drive becomes corrupted by the operating system (over time) or by a virus. The directory on the hard drive is corrupted to the point where it locks up and you get a blue screen / grey screen upon start up or in the case of an external drive, it won’t mount or show up on the desktop. Physically the drive is still fine, but the drive directory is preventing you access to the data on the drive. In this case, recovery software can get beyond the directory issues and allow you to recover any and possibly all files over to a second hard drive. It is never recommended to perform a “software repair” to the hard drive in question as that may cause additional damage to the drive data and overwrite important files during the repair attempt.
If your main hard drive is corrupted, you will need a recovery software tool that can boot up your computer (look for software that includes a bootable CD or DVD). These types of products save you from the need to remove the hard drive or hook the computer up to another computer for the recovery process. www.prosofteng.com offers free demos to try-before-you-buy to ensure that the software is able to see the hard drive, allows a full scan and shows you all the files that are recoverable.

If the corrupted hard drive is an external drive, you can simply run recovery software on your computer to scan that bad hard drive. Most well-known recovery software will allow you to demo the software to make sure it can “see” the bad hard drive. If one piece of software cannot see the drive, don’t give up hope, try another product… One good way to qualify a company is to check out their “About Us” page on their website. A good company will give you details of who they are, including their street address and phone numbers. By giving that info out, the company is automatically connected to their customers in a closer relationship, so they have to work hard to make the product top-quality. For other companies that only give you an email address or support form to fill out, they are more insulated from the customers and may use that to avoid issues and problems should they arise for their customers. Remember, it only take a few dollars to make a website and charge your credit card. Make sure the company behind the website is indeed a legitimate company. Many new “companies” come onto the marketplace with great looking websites and tons of award logos and reviews from the top magazines. Upon further investigation, these award logos and reviews are all fake, taken and added to a company’s website to fool the public. The companies are based in countries where a lawsuit (from the magazines) would never take place, and therefore the magazines are helpless in trying to get the companies to remove the fake reviews and stolen award logos. Even if a company claims they have a Satisfaction Guarantee or Money-Back guarantee, that too might be a lie, only found out after you purchase and try to get your money back. The key is to do some research and make sure the company is legitimate. Also realize that there are many brand new “review” websites created each day online, many of which are paid-affiliates, getting a cut of the purchase after you read their “reviews”. Knowing this, you may be able to picture how certain bad products have lots of glowing reviews online (the reviewers are many times part of an elaborate team of affiliates or employees, all with the same goal of promoting a product they may be making a commission on).
If your hard drive is still not seen by software, a good trick to try is putting into a different enclosure. It might cost you $20-$50 for a new enclosure, but by trying that first, you can save yourself from an expensive physical recovery if it’s not necessary.

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2011 Data Loss Survey

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Impact of data loss for businesses

We perform all kinds of computer hard drive data recovery at The Data Rescue Center. This includes internal hard drive recovery as well as external hard drive recovery. I’m always looking for news on the business trends in data protection and a report on a recent 2011 survey caught my attention. Of the companies surveyed, which included businesses anywhere from one employee to over 10,000 employees, 50% stated that they had experienced data loss in the last 12 months prior to the survey. Additionally, 27% of the companies surveyed said that it would take at least 24 hours to recovery their lost data. Even more sobering was that 10% of them stated that they would have no chance at all to recover their business files.

Just how valuable is your business data and how much would it cost to recover it? The effects of data loss can be staggering. Financial loss affects your company’s fiscal health. Noncompliance with government regulations concerning data retention will cause legal issues. Even if your data can be recovered, the loss of your company’s productivity will have a major impact on revenue.

It’s amazing that 11% of those companies surveyed had no data backup plan at all. Should data loss occur because of hardware failure, their only solution may be hard drive crash recovery. While they might get all their files back, the cost of recovery could be expensive.

When choosing a backup policy and plan, it is important to remember that people can’t always be trusted to implement the plan themselves. In fact, 34% of the companies in the survey stated that user participation was the biggest challenge; even so, 47% were still using backup policies that relied on end-user implementation.

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