SalvageData Blog

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.”

- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), noted pacifist and Indian freedom fighter.

Gandhi was not a management guru, but his advice on the importance of the customer is something that all managers should heed. When customers do not deal with a business by physically visiting its premises but do so online by visiting its website, then the business website becomes equivalent to physical premises, and the customer must be given due importance. Keeping this in mind, we have completely redesigned our website to offer the maximum value to any seeker of data recovery services.

The first thing that distinguishes our new website is ease of navigation. Instead of overloading it with heavy graphics and animation that take ages to load and irritate the busy customer without adding any value, our website is simple yet easy on the eye. All necessary information regarding hard drive recovery, RAID recover and server data recovery are arranged in neat groups and accessible at a single mouse-click. We believe that the design of our website truly differentiates us from competing providers of data recovery services.

We believe we can learn a lot by listening to our customers. That is why our website has a discussion forum where customers can interact with each other as well as company staff. Our blog also enables us to reach out to customers on a regular basis, offering advice and keeping them updated of the latest developments in the field of data recovery.

In spite of the wealth of data available on the website, we believe that there’s no substitute for human interaction. With that in mind, we have included live chat functionality where visitors can chat with our experts 24x7 on anything related to data recovery.

Finally, our website is not a static asset. It’s a highly dynamic medium that is constantly being evaluated, updated and improved. We invite you to explore our website and provide us your valuable feedback. After all, it’s your feedback that will drive changes on the website and help us serve you better.

"Trust, but verify."

 - Ronald Reagan, US President during the Cold War.

Choosing a provider of data recovery services is a monumental decision. And like any monumental decision, it should be made only after careful consideration. Like President Reagan who refused to take everything the Soviets said regarding their nuclear arms at face value, one should verify claims made by professional data recovery service providers.

So, what are the things that a firm should look for in a data recovery provider before signing on the dotted line? Here are the more important things to be considered:

1. GSA approved – The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. It formulates standards for different services. Consequently, a GSA-approved provider can be considered to be of sufficiently high quality.

2. ISO certified – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international body that sets standards and consists of representatives from various national standards organizations. As with GSA approval, ISO certification ensures that a provider meets quality standards.

3. BBB accreditation – The Better Business Bureau (BBB) gathers and archives information it receives about businesses from multiple sources to filter members who apply to be accredited. BBB accreditation ensures that a provider of data recovery services has no significant complaints registered against it by customers.

4. Cleanroom certification – Data recovery is a specialized activity that requires a sanitized environment, in other words, a cleanroom. A cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size. Third-party certification ensures those specified standards are met for effective hard drive data recovery.

5. Client reviews – Ultimately, the best evaluator of a data recovery provider is its past and existing clientele. While client reviews are definitely important in assessing a provider, one must verify the accuracy of these reviews.

6. Years of service – The number of years a data recovery provider has been in business is an effective indicator of its reliability. If it’s not reliable, it would soon be out of business. On the contrary, a longer history means that it has been profitable for long and has earned the confidence of clients.

Before there were automobiles, there were no car mechanics. Before there were televisions, there were no TV repairmen. Similarly, before there were hard disks, there was no demand for hard disk recovery services. Extending that logic, greater the number of hard drives operational, greater the demand for data recovery services. As to how much in demand, perhaps the following figures will give you an idea: ABI Research recently published a report estimating that spending on data recovery in America will jump from $24.3 billion in 2009 to over $39 billion by 2015.

As is obvious, data recovery services will be greatly in demand because businesses will see real value through investing in such services. In other words, any investment in data recovery will yield positive returns for years to come, returns that will greatly surpass the initial investment.

This is because there has been a veritable data explosion in recent years. IBM says, “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.” (See: Bringing big data to the enterprise http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/). And all this data is backed up on a regular basis for further analysis.

However, like every field of human endeavor, data backups are not error-free. That is where server data recovery enters the picture. Data loss is costly and that is why enterprises are willing to put big money into recovering lost data. With human civilization becoming more and more driven by data, data recovery will always be in demand.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

- Sherlock Holmes, legendary fictional detective.

The detective’s quest for data is driven by the legal system’s need for irrefutable evidence before pronouncing judgment. While we have come a long way from 19^th century London where the greatest fictional detective plied his trade, the legal system’s requirement for data is as strong as ever. And as before, data recovery is a must to get to that precious information.

Although the need for data is constant, data itself, or rather how it is stored, has undergone a sea-change. No longer is data stored on notebooks and diaries; we live in an electronic world where data largely resides on hard disks. This has given rise to a whole new area of operations called e-discovery.

E-discovery (the “e” stands for electronic) pertains to discovery in civil litigation which deals with the retrieval of information in electronic format (often referred to as electronically stored information or ESI). Thus, in simple terms, e-discovery involves information stored in e-mails, instant messaging chats, documents, accounting databases, CAD/CAM files, Web sites, etc. from multiple sources like computers, tablets, USB drives, etc. It also includes metadata (data about data, such as file locations) and raw data (data in binary form).

In many cases, relevant data may have been deleted, corrupted or intentionally hidden. However, professional data recovery services can often retrieve such data when retrieval by normal means is not possible. With their extensive knowledge of data recovery, these professionals can extract relevant information accurately without affecting the normal flow of business. Whether it’s hard drive recovery from individual computers or server data recovery from server farms, they can do it all. Thus, if you are looking to strengthen your case before the courts, you should contact such an expert.

Even as the world grows increasingly connected with copious amounts of data being exchanged every second, the need for e-discovery, and consequently data recovery, is expected to increase substantially.

“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As history shows us, this is definitely true. The better version of even the simplest things always gets a market. That’s why Facebook became the No.1 social networking site even though MySpace, Orkut and Friendster appeared before it. However, for every Facebook, there are thousands of failed attempts that we don’t hear about. Getting something done right requires enormous amounts of luck, effort and talent.

Data recovery is one such field. With the proper effort, talent and luck, some businesses may be able to get it right. However, most will fail, and with disastrous consequences.

We are a nation of do-it-yourselfers. That would explain the popularity of stores like Home Depot that enables every homeowner to make his own repairs. However, recovering data requires significantly more skill than patching up a window or sealing a leaking pipe. And you know how a plumbing repair gone wrong can flood your basement, ruin your furniture and leave you with hundreds of dollars in plumbing bills. Believe me, the costs of a botched data recovery operation are significantly more.

Therefore, the reasons for engaging certified data recovery specialists are:

•  Most businesses lack the proper tools, equipment, knowledge and personnel for data recovery services
•  Modern data drives with latest technologies require the latest hard drive recovery solutions
•  Expertise required for this task requires years of training and experience, only available with specialists
•  Amateurs risk further damaging a precarious situation where data integrity has been threatened

Therefore, in order to ensure peace of mind, a business's choice is clear with regard to data recovery – get a specialist!

Two facts of life underline the need for professional data recovery services: The importance of protecting your data and the impact of potential data loss.

Today, we live in a world driven by data. From businesses to personal behaviors, everything is influenced by data and how it is used. As for the quantum of data being generated nowadays, here’s what IBM has to say: “Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.” 

So, why is data so important? Data is important to business because it provides competitive advantage. If you as a business owner have more information about your potential customer than does your competitor, you are better placed to win that customer. And as you know, data is the source of information. That is why all businesses collect data, and lots of it. So what happens when you don’t have a hard drive recovery plan in place?

The impact of potential data loss is catastrophic, and there have been multiple studies attesting to this fact. A study conducted in 2008 by the Ponemon Institute among 43 American companies across 17 industries found that data losses ranged from 4,200 records to 113,000 records, and each data record lost cost $202, resulting in total losses between $848,400 and $22,826,000.

Some other sources report worse consequences for the absence of data recovery. According to the University of Texas, 94% of companies suffering from a catastrophic data loss do not survive – 43% never reopen and 51% close within two years.  Home Office Computing Magazine found that 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year and 70% fail within five years. Gartner, one of the most respected names in IT research, reported that 25% of all PC users suffer from data loss each year.

As these findings show, data failures are often and have significant impact on business. Consequently, firms should invest in professional data recovery solutions before it’s too late.

Your hard drive is the device inside your machine responsible for permanently storing data. There are a variety of flavors available in the market today with a wide array of specs and prices. Maybe you’re building a new computer, maybe you’re upgrading your current model or perhaps the disk inside your current machine has failed. Let’s take a look at few different drive specifications and distinguish why these numbers are actually relevant to you.

The capacity of the drive is usually the most referenced spec of the hard drive. The capacity is measured in bytes. Today the capacity of such things is usually grouped by the billions, with most drives being measured by gigabytes (Gb). The terabyte (Tb) drive is becoming more common (and affordable) and has been appearing in retail locations and online stores alike over the past few years.  You will even find these high capacity drives installed in new computer units available for purchase off the shelf. The amount of space you need is subjective to the manner in which you use your computer. If your hobby or career has you editing photos and videos, then you should already know that you are creating large files so the larger the capacity of the drive, the better. On the other hand, if the primary usage for your computer is to surf the internet then capacity isn’t too important.

The actual disk that is referenced in regards to a hard drive is the actual component within the unit where electromagnetic fluctuations are ‘remembered’ so that your data can be retrieved at a later time. Hard drives have speed specifications rated in RPMs, like the transmission in your vehicle. It has a maximum number of revolutions it can complete in a minute without exceeding its mechanical capacity. So the higher this number, the faster the drive - your information read and written at higher speeds. A typical hard drive will range from the lower end of 3600 RPMs up to 10000 RPMs for high performance models. Though drives rated at the higher end of the speed spectrum have been engineered to run faster, it is always a good practice to not use a high performance drive unless the nature of your work specifically requires it. Most users will not see much of a benefit utilizing a high performance drive for simple tasks (i.e. creating a Microsoft Word document) as file sizes are quite small and the Word application itself does not require a large amount of computer resources to run smoothly.

The hard drive cache is a part of the hard drive where it stores data that it needs to access quickly. It is similar to cache on a computer processor – data that is pertinent (usually, data is in constant) is stored on the cache where the hard drive can access it much quicker than if it were to need to access it from the physical disc. This component is like your RAM: it is a microcontroller that holds a small amount of data. A hard drive today may boast anywhere from 8 Mb up to as many as 64 Mb. Essentially, the larger the cache, the quicker the data can write and retrieve data. Choosing a hard drive with a larger cache can be more beneficial in terms of speed than choosing a hard drive with a high rotation speed.

Our world today seems to revolve around the technology that has seeded itself into our society. Most of the devices we use today are a lot more complicated than we care to think about. If you are an average computer user, you depress the power button to your computer with the expectation of seeing the desktop background and all your familiar icons after a short time. It is sad to say, but many will experience a time where this process never completes. The computer powers on but it only boots as far as a blank screen. You may restart the computer or perhaps it has taken to rebooting (or “boot-looping”) on its own.  After a few questions and a little research, you discover that it’s a hard drive failure. You don’t abuse your computer, so why did this happen?

You hard drive is the physical device responsible for storing information related to the applications that run on your machine as well as the data you create and download from other sources. Some of the time, there are operational irregularities that foreshadow an impending failure. An otherwise healthy computer could be taking an excruciatingly long time to boot up or launch applications. If you can rule out software problems, these symptoms are usually tell-tale signs of hard drive failure. Other times, a failure may happen out of the blue - like when you’re running late for work and the car refuses to start. Many times, software errors and failing hard drive symptoms seem to overlap. Differentiating these two scenarios is important to the repair process. Hard drives are certainly not infallible. Though knowing what causes a failure won’t fix a broken drive, it may alleviate some of the frustration and prevent future occurrences.

Hard drive failures may occur for any number of reasons but it can be generalized under three major accounts:

1. Physical shock - Laptop hard drive failures are far more common in this area as it is a portable device. Dropping a laptop, especially when it’s powered on, can easily cause a failure. There are parts housed inside the hard drive engineered to run at tolerances of less than a micrometer. Even a small drop, as in inches from a hard surface, could compromise the mechanical integrity of the drive.
2. Electrical shock - Other failures may result from electrical problems. Generally speaking, power surges are usually the culprit. Not having adequate surge protection can leave an entire machine vulnerable to a short from too much electrical current passing over a component; the electrical components onboard the hard drive are no exception.
3. Heat - Heat is quite possibly the greatest threat to any electrical component. Most components contained inside a computer produce varying amount of heat. Layers of dust, failing cooling devices or a combination of the two will result in the heat build-up inside the case where it is ultimately conducted by other components. Thermal dynamic principals come into play, slightly expanding components and thus causing the device to operate outside of its mechanical tolerances.