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.
Tags: Computer Hard Drive Recovery: Tips, data recovery software, Data Rescue, free demos, logical hard drive failure, Tricks and Scams
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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.
Tags: 2011 Data Loss Survey, backup policy, data loss
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February 27th, 2012
Cloud computing and security?
Cloud computing is a hot topic these days. According to some folks, everyone needs to move their personal and business computing to the cloud. Apps hosted online run the gamut from email to office productivity. Computers are being developed that work almost entirely online. For example, the Google Chromebooks connect to the Internet the moment they boot up. Email, documents, spreadsheets and presentations are generated and stored immediately online. If you lose or damage your Chromebook, you simply get another one and keep on computing.
It sounds great, right? But I want you to look at it from another perspective before you get too excited. Here at The Data Rescue Center, we perform emergency data recovery for people and businesses that have failed hard drives or missing data from accidental deletion and other data disasters. They bring in their hard drive. We assess the damage, provide a quote and recover the data. Did you see the first item? They bring in their hard drive.
If you lose your data online, you can’t bring in the hard drive. If the online service has hard drive failures, you can’t bring in the hard drive. If hackers break into the online servers and erase your data, you can’t bring in the hard drive. If your files are lost, damaged or stolen from a cloud server, we can’t help you. Nor can any other data recovery company. A data recovery service requires a physical hard drive.
Please understand that I’m not saying that all online services are unreliable. Many are conscientious and will take good care of your files. However, if something does happen to your data, you must deal with them, on their schedule, along with the hundreds or thousands of other users of the service as well. If your files are mission critical, if they are necessary to keep your business in operation, then you should consider the possible consequences and make sure you have both a local copy of your files as well as a backup somewhere.
Tags: cloud computing, Security, Security Issues with Cloud Computing
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February 24th, 2012
Be weary of lost cost data recovery specials
I have seen an increasing amount of ads and specials for budget sub-$200 data recovery services. In one case ,I handed a Data Rescue Center business card to a neighboring technical establishment that I was visiting and was shocked by their perception of Data Recovery costs. Basically, the feedback was surprising and paralleled the ads on Google I continually see when searching for “Physical Data Recovery services”. The repetitious feedback, is that data recovery scenarios cost around “$199.00”. $199.00 dollars may be more accurate if your data loss is due to deleted files, formatted drive or an unmountable volume or partition. These types are called logical recoveries.
However, if you have a failing hard drive, do not expect to pay $199.00. These types of data recovery scenarios are what is referred to as physical recoveries. A cleanroom is needed to be able to take these drives apart in a dust free environment by trained professionals. If your data is extremely important and irreplaceable, do not trust a flat rate of $199.00. These types of pricing schemes are designed to get you in the door mainly. Physical data recovery pricing is definitely not low-cost, but the process starts by bringing your drive to a legitimate, professional company like The Data Rescue Center.
If you find yourself with a data loss situation, immediately quit all programs you are using and turn off the computer. Further writing to the hard drive may overwrite data you are trying to recover. This includes creating new documents, browsing the Internet, or running disk repair utilities to attempt to fix the drive.
If you need advice, call the Data Rescue Center @ 1-877-501-4949 or visit the website for more information. http://www.thedatarescuecenter.com/
Tags: Be weary of the $199.00 Hard Drive Recovery, special pricing, sub $200
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February 22nd, 2012
Bring Your Own Device to Work?
BYOD is an acronym that stands for Bring Your Own Device. Many workplaces allow employees to bring their own data devices to work and connect to the company’s network. Allegedly, this increases productivity and keeps equipment costs down as well. Unfortunately, unless certain precautions and security measures are employed, BYOD could just as well stand for Bring Your Own Destruction.
Here at The Data Rescue Center, a data recovery lab in Livermore, California, we see damage that is caused by lax BYOD policies. There are several dangers in allowing employees to use their personal devices for work. For example, not every computer user employs adequate antivirus and malware protection. I’ve often worked with folks who didn’t realize that the AV software that came on their new laptop was only a trial version that had to be renewed after three to six months.
Back in the day, computer viruses were often transmitted from machine to machine via a floppy disk. While the floppies are gone, the risk is still prevalent. The old floppy has been replaced by the USB key or flash drive. Their capacity makes it very easy for a complex virus or keylogger program to hide in email attachments saved to the drive.
Smartphones, tablet PCs and media devices are not immune from infection. Allowing a device to connect to a business network without proper security measures is asking for trouble. If a computer or server is infected, HDD data recovery might be necessary to retrieve lost or inaccessible files. This could disrupt business operations, even to the point of financial loss. Add to that the data recovery prices that will need to be paid. You may find that allowing these devices on your system may not worth the perceived benefits.
Tags: BYOD to Work, personal devices
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February 15th, 2012
Data Breach
A recent post on the Experian Data Breach Resolution blog identified five of the top trends in security breach threats. They listed five classes of threats that appear to be the most troublesome:
· Targeted attacks are attacks that usually focus on gaining access to sensitive information from a particular company. These are often perpetrated by sending email links and attachments that appear to be from legitimate sources.
· Information compromise of social networks and social engineering sites is accomplished by posing as friends, thereby gaining access to personal information.
· Zero-day rootkits and vulnerabilities are often called hide-and-seek attacks. Hackers insert their malware into a company’s system, attempting to hide them from detection until a security vulnerability is discovered.
· The sophistication of mobile device operating systems make mobile threats a growing concern. Trojans and other malware are often secreted in seemingly legitimate phone apps, waiting to glean sensitive information.
· Probably the most insidious threat, in my opinion, is the availability of kits that allow the creation of malware without any expertise. In 2011 alone, the creation of over 268 million variants was made possible through DIY malware kits. This statistic comes from Symantec, a leader in security technology.
I believe that these malware kits present a particular danger to computer users’ data. An expert hacker will normally try to not leave any trace of infiltration, leaving the door open to future attacks. However, a would-be attacker, with little or no expertise, might create an attack weapon that trashes the drive on the victim’s computer, damaging valuable data files.
Our recovery engineers at The Data Rescue Center are expertly trained in HDD data recovery. If your data has become inaccessible, our data recovery lab is fully equipped to handle any type of damage that has occurred. Call us today to see what options are available and to check our data recovery prices. Becoming informed before disaster strikes will keep panic to a minimum and ensure expedient recovery.
Tags: data breach, experian, security breach, Top Trends in Security Threats
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February 13th, 2012
State-of-the-art Facility
Storage devices like hard drives, external drives, SSD drives and other flash media have become an integral part of our daily routines and lives. We rely on these drives to store our computer data for our family and work without hesitation. What happens when one of these devices fail and professional services are needed ? You can use applications like Data Rescue 3 an award-winning recovery software that does a great job for logical and minor physical issues with hard drives. However, when your hard drive completely fails and is not recognized by your Mac or PC, who will you trust your data with?
Hitachi, a world leader in storage technology, has named The Data Rescue Center as one of only two data recovery companies listed on their website for physical recoveries. Hitachi provides a wide range of products that includes advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives and innovative external storage solutions and services that store, preserve and manage the world’s most valued data.
When one of the top 3 hard drive manufactures (Hitiachi) trusts The Data Rescue Center, it speaks volumes about our personnel expertise and what our facility has to offer. If your hard drive fails and are in the need of a quality data recovery service with industry accredited facility and professionals, contact us for a quote today. We have a technical and friendly staff that will walk you through the process from start to finish. You can read about what our customers are saying about us and get an idea how we deliver everyday of the week.
Tags: a company you can trust, The Data Rescue Center
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February 6th, 2012
Megaupload and Megavideo shut down by the Feds
Cloud computing services, such as online file sharing, file storage and backup, have become very popular over the last few years. These online services give the home computer user the ability to quickly and easily share personal photos and home videos. The business computer user also benefits from the ability to access their files from any computer in the world, enhancing business mobility.
Even so, recent events should warn us all that we need to be careful with whom we trust our data. The FBI seized and shutdown the servers used by Megaupload and Megavideo, two related online file storage and sharing sites. They were allegedly allowing users to upload illegal, copyrighted files. As a result, many innocent site users lost access to their important files. Furthermore, it appeared as if their files were going to be deleted before they could be retrieved. Fortunately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit legal service, is working to ensure these files can be reclaimed.
Caution should also be exercised when choosing a data recovery company. Emergency data recovery is a complex, exacting process and you need to trust the company that you are contracting for recovery. The Data Rescue Center is a data recovery service in Livermore, California, and we would invite you to check our credentials. We are a BBB accredited business and we take the protection of your data seriously.
We do all recovery in-house, have 24-hour surveillance cameras and protect your equipment in a UL listed Class 2 vault when it is not being repaired. Additionally, the computers used to recover your data are never Internet connected, ensuring that your files are safe from hacker attacks and viruses.
Technorati Code: VV83BXUGTJRU
Tags: Make Sure You Can Trust Who Has Your Data
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January 26th, 2012
Protect your data from natural disasters
Most businesses and many individuals have an emergency action plan in place for natural disasters. The action plan may include emergency exits and evacuation locations. The action plan may also include a trunk or toolbox that contains the tools needed in an emergency, such as flashlights, rope, radios and batteries. Additionally, emergency food rations may also be stored in a safe location.
However, many people do not have an emergency action plan to facilitate data disaster recovery. A data disaster can strike with little or no warning and the consequences can be devastating. While most large companies are prepared for a data disaster, many small businesses and home offices do not have a plan. Loss of data could devastate the business, possibly causing it to close its doors. It is important that these small-business owners develop a plan for disk file recovery.
For example, you should have an effective backup plan for your computer. Back up your data to an external hard drive regularly. You might want to back up your files to an online service as well. As an extra measure of protection, keep the telephone number for The Data Rescue Center by your computer. It’s 1-877-501-4949.
We are a hard disk data recovery service in Livermore, California. The Data Rescue Center should be an important part of your data disaster plan. Our ISO 100 cleanroom and qualified, expert recovery engineers ensure that your data will be recovered efficiently and affordably. Our engineers are trained on both standard platter-style drives and can perform SSD recovery as well.
Tags: disaster recovery plan, Do you have a data disaster recovery plan, emergency plan, loss of data
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January 23rd, 2012
Bamboozled: Unknown error on PC repair
A recent news article about a New Jersey woman’s quest for simple data recovery drives home a simple point. It is imperative that the client’s equipment be handled safely and securely when dealing with data recovery.
The lady had taken her high-end computer to a local electronics retailer so that their computer technicians could try to recover some files that had come up missing. After hearing nothing about her computer for several weeks, the lady finally got a call telling her that the motherboard and fan had fried. Amazingly, the call came from a repair center several states away. She had never been informed that her computer had been shipped out of state for repair. After being shipped back and forth between New Jersey and Kentucky several more times, the computer was deemed irreparably damaged and a replacement computer was eventually given to the customer in January. Of course, this replacement computer had none of her files on there, since it was a brand-new computer. Her entire photo collection, personal documents and more were all gone-
Unfortunately, when clients take their hard drives to a data recovery lab, they could suffer the same fate. Many of these so-called labs are merely collection points and the recovery work is actually done at a remote location. The drive stands the chance of being damaged, lost or stolen any time it is shipped to another facility.
When a drive is placed in The Data Rescue Center’s care, all of the work is done in-house. The drive is secured in a UL listed class 2 security vault when it is not being repaired. The client is informed and consulted with at every step of the recovery process. This includes everything from initial quotes on data recovery prices to the results of the HDD data recovery process.
Tags: Do You Know Where Your Hard Drive is Tonight
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