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Author ddauadmin Categories FAQ Series Posted on

Data Recovery FAQ Series – #1

We get asked to recover data in many unique situations and cases, and we’ve decided to share our answers to some common questions. Stay tuned for our FAQ series. Here is post #1.

For the rest of the posts in this series, see the FAQ Series category. For more the most common FAQ’s, see our FAQ page.

 

Question:

My Samsung Galaxy S3 Micro SD card was damaged.

1.) Can I recover lost photos & videos? If so, what is the best way forward?

2.) If I can’t recover my media, can you recommend a solution for backing up regularly?

Answer:

Yes we can, using specialised tools and utilities. It’s best to get it to us for recovery.

In future make sure you have duplicate copies of your non replaceable data. You can either purchase an external hard drive, or use a cloud based system. There are many of these, and two common ones that allow you a certain amount of free space are Dropbox and Google Drive.

 

Question:

My Transcend USB, when plugged in, demands that it be formatted before I can use it, of course that means I will lose my data. I haven’t formatted it and I don’t wish to lose anything, and I don’t know how to proceed further. Please recommend methods or software that can solve my problem?

Answer:

It is best to stop immediately, as software recoveries may not help. If the data is important then it’s best to get to us for a free evaluation and quotation.

 

Question:

16GB Sony USB drive only appears as 4GB, and I’m also missing files. What happened, can I get my files back, what should I do next?

Answer:

This appears to be a hardware problem and if the data is of value and is irreplaceable then consider sending it to us to look at.

 

Question:

My iPhone 4 has a broken screen and is currently blank but the phone still powers up. Is there any way I can recover my information using iTunes or another application?

Answer:

It’s best to stop and allow an experienced data recovery company recover your information rather than to risk causing further damage by trying to retrieve the data yourself.

 

Please ask us for a free evaluation of your drive or device – contact your nearest branch.

For the rest of the posts in this series, see the FAQ Series category. For more the most common FAQ’s, see our FAQ page.

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Author ddauadmin Categories Cloud Storage Posted on

DOES CLOUD COMPUTING THREATEN BRICKS AND MORTAR DATA CENTRES?

Where do you store all your business data? Probably on a server and an external hard drive or two. But what if you’ve got loads of data? Servers and external drives may serve as storage facilities but they don’t really facilitate data management or make data easy to access. Data centres offer convenient storage and management solutions that are flexible enough to meet your needs. They use the latest hardware, offer excellent security, and guarantee minimal downtime.

Security at data centres operates on two levels:

  • Physical security: This entails security guards, alarm systems, and CCTV, cooling systems, and fire protection, etc.
  • Data security: This entails things like firewalls, virus and malware protection, and encryption and generators that will keep power up and running in the event of a power failure.

According to Wikipedia, the IT industry is advancing so quickly that bricks and mortar data centres are struggling to keep up with evolving technology and data needs. Gartner, apparently, says that data centres that are more than seven years old are already obsolete. Unfortunately, the International Data Corporation says that the average age of data centres around the world is nine years old.

In addition to the problem of rapidly evolving hardware and software, obsolescence can be attributed to limited storage capacity. Even vast data centres have limited physical storage capacity. But the cloud – the cloud offers virtually limitless storage.

 

Does the cloud eliminate the need for data centres?

No, it doesn’t. This is the opinion of VMware, which calls itself a ‘next-generation data centre’ as it is ‘optimised for the cloud era’. It offers the best of software-defined data centres and virtual data centres. It entails managing increasing amounts of virtual data across all platforms and applications and enhancing data security and support in a standardised, holistic and resilient manner.

Wikipedia also suggests that data centres will remain relevant, provided they embrace the cloud computing revolution. The authors call the process ‘data centre transformation’, which is descriptive enough. It involves:

  • Standardisation/consolidation: During the step data centres receive hardware and software upgrades and the tools and networks used are standardised.
  • Virtualisation: Much of the standard data centre equipment will be replaced by virtualisation technology, which will reduce operational expenses and increase energy efficiency.
  • Automation: This will apply to things like configuration, release management, compliance and patches.
  • Security: According to Wikipedia, the security systems for modern data centres are pretty much the same for more traditional centres, as they include physical, network, data and user security.

Cloud computing may seem like it’s at odds with the data storage and management methods used by traditional data centres, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. It will take some adapting but there is no reason why data centres can’t incorporate all the benefits of the cloud in their service offerings.

 

ssd data recovery
Author ddauadmin Categories Hard Drives Posted on

HARD DISK DRIVES VERSUS SOLID STATE DRIVES

Hard drives aren’t going anywhere

Though hard drives have grown smaller in size, larger in capacity, cheaper in price and faster in speed, the technology behind them has remained fundamentally the same for around fifty years. The manner of transmitting data between the hard drive and motherboard has evolved, but whether it’s Serial or SATA cables, there’s still a motherboard on one end and a system of spinning disk platters on the other.

Those disks just carry on spinning, and are likely to do so for a while, even as the data storage requirements of the world increases and people speak of new data storage technologies on the horizon. Cloud storage is often mentioned as a successor to hard drive technology, but, believe it or not, all that data going to the cloud still has to be stored somewhere. It’s not just floating around in the sky.

Then there are mobile devices, with flash memory being the storage medium of choice. The storage capacity of mobile devices is limited and every piece of data stored in the memory of a mobile device is likely to be backed up multiple times on hard disks at home or in the cloud.

 

What about solid state drives?

Touted as a potential usurper of the hard disk drive, solid state drives store data electronically rather than magnetically, using flash memory chips rather than spinning disk platters. With read and write times that can reach as high as 550MBps versus the 200MB of your fastest hard disk drives,solid state drives boast superior speeds that enable them to boot Windows 7 about 30 seconds faster than hard drives.

They make a lot less noise, too. Solid state drives contain no moving parts, which means that there are no parts to break in the event of physical trauma.

If they’re so fast and durable, surely it’s time they replaced the 50-year-old technology of the hard disk drive? Well, solid state drives have been around for about 30 years, yet hard disk drives remain the data storage medium of choice for most consumers.

One reason is that being faster and more durable doesn’t make them immune to drive failure. In fact, drive failure is included on the list of things to which solid state drives are more vulnerable than hard disk drives. The latter will usually give some warnings signs first.

The major factor is expense, with solid state drives costing about $0.70 to $1 per gigabyte of data versus a few cents per gigabyte for hard disk drives. In 2011, consumers purchased about 350 billion gigabytes worth of hard drive capacity, providing the industry with $33 billion worth in revenue. The same amount of gigabytes in solid state drive capacity would have come to $250 billion.

The first gigabyte hard drive in the 80s cost between $81,000 and $142,400, surely the price of solid state drives will also drop over time?

Solid state drive prices have indeed dropped over time and may drop further, but the price drops are volatile, and dependent on the availability of the lithography used to manufacture them. Either way, they’re not likely to drop at a faster rate than hard disk drives, so the price gap will remain wide.

Who knows what the future will bring, but for now, hard disk drives look likely to remain the most prevalent data storage medium for a while yet.

Author ddauadmin Categories Data Protection Posted on

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF BIG DATA

Everyone’s talking about big data and how important it is for businesses if they want to succeed in a world that is increasingly competitive. However, while big data is relatively easy to collect, it’s not that easy to make any sense of. And if businesses can’t make sense of it, well, what’s the point?

Here are some tips to help you make the most of the data that you collect.

1) Ensure you have people who are capable of insightful data analysis.

It sounds rather obvious, doesn’t it? But many businesses simply assume that the task can be managed by anyone in the marketing department. According to Olly Downs, analysing big data requires a special data management skillset (zdnet.com). Fortunately, Downs says that some universities are developing programmes that will address the current skills vacuum.

2) Collect data with a purpose.

When people hear the words big data, they assume that it means they have to collect all the data they possibly can. They don’t have a specific goal in mind or have any idea of what they want to glean from the data. The whole point of big data is to extract truly meaningful information from it; the kind of information that will make a tangible different to your bottom line.

Bear in mind, however, that because big data drills down into information much more than traditional data analysis, you might get surprising results, which could make you reassess your goals.

3) Structure your data properly.

Shira Ovide (Wall Street Journal) says that one of the biggest mistakes companies make with their big data is that they don’t organise it properly. Data may be duplicated across several databases, or data that should be kept together may be separated unnecessarily. Data that is all over the place is more difficult to analyse; it’s more difficult to see relationships and patterns. This makes it more difficult to use the data effectively.

4) Ensure you have the proper tools.

You’ll need the right software to help you structure data and to help you extrapolate insights that are meaningful to your business. Some business intelligence software is able to help in this regard, but it’s a good idea to talk to software providers to ensure that the product does meet your business’s data needs.

5) Back up all your data.

Imagine how awful it would be if you went to the trouble of defining goals, collecting the appropriate information and structuring it in an easy-to-analyse way, and then it just disappeared without a trace. Your server could crash, your system could be infected with a virus, or a lighting strike could fry all your circuits.

Always, always, but always have backups, and backups of your backups but if you do not have a backup it would be best to take it in to see what data can be recovered.

Big data can certainly help your business operate more efficiently and help you restructure your marketing plans to improve ROI. But you need to approach it in a logical, systematic and well-thought-out manner.

Author ddauadmin Categories Cloud Storage Posted on

HOW GREEN IS YOUR DATA CENTRE?

Data centres were not built on a reputation for energy efficiency. They did not start earning green credentials until a few years’ ago. Now that everyone knows about carbon footprints and the need for more environmental responsibility, however, data centres are falling over themselves to show how green they are.

The market is booming

In September 2012, Heather Clancy wrote an article which appeared on ZDNet.com, in which she looked at the burgeoning green data centre market. She cites projections from Pike Research, which estimate the money spent on greening data centres will grow from $17.1 billion in 2012 to $45 billion in 2016.

The green trend is not just being driven by conscience, however. It makes financial sense to migrate to energy efficient systems that also reduce operating costs and simplify all manner of business processes. In fact, the quest to reduce carbon footprints has led to some technological innovations that have improved functioning over all.

Everyone is getting in on it

Google was one of the first major IT players to start incorporating green operations in its data centres. At least, it was one of the first major IT players to make a big song and dance about its plans. Since then, a lot of companies have leapt on the green bandwagon. In fact, Microsoft recently announced its plans to invest $348 million in a green data centre in Mecklenburg County, VA. Hardly coincidentally, the data centre will also enable Microsoft to extend its cloud computing capacity.

Microsoft is aiming to create a carbon neutral cloud-based system, which it will achieve with renewable energy credits (eWeek.com).

Zero is where it’s all happening

However, according to an article that was published onBusinessInsider.com in November 2012, Iceland has beaten Microsoft to the punch. What’s more, it’s done it without having to ‘fake it’ with renewable energy credits.

Verne Global owns Iceland’s current largest zero-carbon-footprint data centre which is powered by 100% renewable energy. Granted, Iceland is aided by the fact that temperatures in its data centres don’t reach the highs of those in warmer climes, which makes them easier – and more efficient – to cool, but still, it’s no mean feat.

The article doesn’t mention whether the data centre meets all of the requirements set out by SearchDataCenter. According to SearchDataCenter it takes more than renewable energy to make a data centre properly green (or carbon neutral). For example:

  • The building should be built according to green construction principles – and that means with sustainability in mind and with eco-friendly materials that are sourced in eco-friendly ways.
  • It means that the landscaping has to be sustainable.
  • Pretty much everything used on site must be recyclable – no polystyrene cups for coffee or water, and no bottled water, for that matter.
  • Company vehicles should be electric or hybrid, employees should have public transport options and should be encouraged to cycle to work, and international meetings should be held via VoIP conferencing.

There is no doubt about it, data centres are adopting more sustainable and environmentally-friendly technologies – and that is good news. But there is also no doubt that saving the planet isn’t the primary motivating factor – and that is also ok. That’s because, in the end, consumers benefit from a cleaner planet, as well as reduced costs – and that is more than good, it’s brilliant.

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