Work or home, it's all important data

Losing important data comes down to 2 things: can you replace it and how much you are willing to pay to recover it. For writer losing drafts of a novel due next week can be extremely distressing. Getting the words in just the right order is never the same despite many attempts to duplicate the context and sentiment. If you're a writer you know what I'm talking about. We're not talking about trivial tidbits on Twitter. So as you can imagine, re-doing a few chapters may not be possible.

For the contractor redoing quotations may be time consuming but definitely not worth the cost of having professional data recovery performed. Losing data just depends on the type of data and the work you do. That once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe? Irreplaceable.

For businesses it can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars a day. However most have infrastructure in place to prevent such data loss issues, most. Servers, RAIDS, nightly tape backups constantly churning to backup business deals, emails, and financial documents. Even off site back up services are employed by those who've encountered at least one data emergency. Lesson learned.

First thing people will do is search the Internet for a solution. It's gotta be a simple problem right? Someone else out there has probably encountered the same problem as me. There has to be a do-it-yourself solution to this seemingly simple problem. Unfortunately there is not. Prevention is the key and then seeking a professional data recovery company. If you make it that far, then comes the hard part. Putting a price on your data. Do you "want" the data back or do you absolutely "need" the data.

So what's your data worth to you? Perhaps a better question would be: what are you doing to protect that data?

Crap, Samsung HD died

So one of my hard drives died. My 500GB Samsung SATA hard drive finally bit the dust AND I just happen to need some critical data from it. Yeah, yeah, I know, "backup your data", 20/20 hindsight is great isn't it? My backup schedule is usually the end of the month and wouldn't you know it, it's gotta fail the night before the backup.

So I do a Google search and find Samsung data recovery. There are plenty of other shady search results but this place seems legit and has a bunch of international locations. Hopefully it won't hit me too hard in the pocket book.

Data Loss Hits Big Corps Too

It would seem nobody is immune from data loss. Sidekick users in the U.S. found out the hard way. User data (contacts, appointments, photos, etc) stored on Microsoft servers were lost after a server crash. This is significant considering a corporation as big as Microsoft already institute data loss preventative measures. In order for a crash of this magnitude several backups would have had to fail as well. T-Mobile has halted the sales of the Sidekick in the meantime.

The investigation continues however all sign point to a disgruntled employee who placed a time bomb on the server. Sabotage? Possibly, it would explain a number of curious events of this suspicious data disaster. It's not hard to believe there wouldn't be at least a few unhappy employees.

There is some hope for Sidekick users. Microsoft is slaving away, attempting to recover what data they can so at least you might get some of your data back, but not all. As well you'll get $100 as a "sorry, we fucked up" apology hush money. How do you feel about cloud data storage now?

Don't Pick These Guys

Many complaints have been lodged against Data Recovery Corp so don't pick them for your next data recovery project. They make up technical terms to scam you out of money. Don't become a victim.

Don't Mess With Your Data

One of the biggest mistakes novice users make is messing with their data. It is too easy to format your drive, delete the partition, or even re-initialize your system. The best advice I can offer is: don't fix it if it ain't broken. The risk is too great and your data is too important.

Re-sizing or changing your partition cannot be reversed. Overwriting system settings or structure with important information about your disk, files and data. All too often your first instinct is to click the YES button without reading the warning message. Then a second later you instantly regret it knowing what you have done. Big mistake.

The next common problem is hardware failure. Unfortunately not much you can do here. Prevention is the mainstay rather than a reactive approach. Otherwise prepare yourself and your hard drive to a visit to a data recovery lab.

Corporate data is a whole other story. IT teams are supposed to be in place to constantly protect and backup data however still data loss occurs and people get yelled at. Can data be recovered? Depending on the extent of the problem only a magic 8 ball can predict your future.

Electronic or firmware problems are a subset of hardware failure. Bad sectors are just a result of regular drive use. They simply develop over time. Electrical surges can affect various components within a server and it can be hard to diagnose faulty components. Recovery specialists should be called in before you attempt anything.

Specialists raking in the $$

Own a Mac? Apple laptop perhaps? Persuaded by your ipod or iphone? Did you switch to the darkside? Apple computers have been making appearances in homes at an increasing rate and odds are you're thinking of buying one. As the market share continues to grow so does the potential revenue for service specialists, especially when it comes to Apple products.

Probably the most common theme when it comes to Macs is the software. Itunes, ilife, iphoto all of which contain precious user data. Although Time machine comes standard, very few actually go to the trouble to figure out how it works. Remember the type of user we're dealing with here. Hence the need for data recovery specialists often when it comes to defective Seagate hard drives.

"Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack has launched a global data recovery portal for Apple customers that allows Apple service providers to easily register data recovery jobs in real-time as well as immediate access to data recovery specialists and engineers." (link)

*cha-ching! Not only do you have a consumer who spent $1000 on their laptop ($2000 if they have a Macbook Pro) but as well you've got someone with a ton of priceless personal data. Mac repair specialists are popping all over to get a piece of the action. Even if it's an accidental deletion of an all important file, only a handful of Mac software exists, and more importantly, actually works.

The complexities of the OS makes programming a reliable software package difficult. The ability to work in an HFS environment in case a partition has been deleted or formatted. The last resort would be have a well trained code monkey perform logical repairs ... manually. As you can imagine the cost is quite expensive. If you can find Mac data recovery software, try it first.

Regardless of what platform you decide to stick with, specialists, even in the technology field, are raking in the money. For Mac specialists it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Go ahead and get that Mac repair certification, it will be well worth it in a year.

RAID: tips for recovery

Hard drives are cheap and nobody can resist the cost per gigabyte value. More is better and nowadays setting up a RAID array on your home system has never been easier. However one thing to remember is that RAIDs can fail, as well, data recovery from such scenarios can be quite costly. Avoiding the situation is the best advice anyone can give you.

So the first tip is: back up your data. But you're running a RAID 5 with drive redundancy? That does not protect you from data loss. The biggest problem is that people believe that being able to survive a single drive failure is their out. However many who have this set up have no process to regularly check drive integrity. Hence when there is a drive failure, many do not know that it has even happened and continue to operate believing all the drives are stable when this is not the case. Then when a second drive fails, they think it is the first drive to fail and attempt a rebuild with 2 bad drives and of course that is an utter failure.

Second tip: do not attempt a rebuild until you have confirmed all the drives are working. Never, NEVER re-initialize the RAID. You might as well drop kick the hard drives off of a building.

Failure on 2 fronts. 1. Failure to regularly check the overall health of the hard drives within the array. 2. Attempting a rebuild with 2 bad hard drives.

This is when knowing exactly how a RAID array works comes into play. While, yes, it is easy to set one up. It is quite another to fix one. Just be sure you know what you're getting into if you decide to invite a setup into your home.