Data Recovery, recovering Hard Drive data, RAID data recovery

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MELTED DATA

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Almost every month someone in Canada sends a hard drive that has been involved in a house fire. They often resemble burnt bricks like the picture below of a drive we recently received from a client in London, Ontario. None of our techs were in a hurry to get their hands dirty, but as terrible as these situations look, there is often an easy recovery lurking just under the mess!

Plastic melts easily and this external hard drive is in-cased in plastic like a pair of jeans on a teenager in the 80’s.

 

But with a little invasive surgery we are able to free the hard drive from its prison.

But will the prisoner be able to talk?

As we have discussed various times in this blog, it is the condition of the disks that will ultimately decide if we can make this hard drive talk again. So let’s open the bonnet and have a peak under the hood …

 

 

WOW! It looks pristine. Notice the lack of any contamination due to the fire or the liquids used to douse it. We proceeded to perform a full recovery on this case by replacing only the PCB

 

 

 

 

Below is another fire victim from a client in Montreal, Quebec which was not in such great shape when we opened the lid. In fact, it may not be recoverable … but we’ll never know for sure as the client declined our quote.

As a general rule for data recovery purposes, fire damaged drives are not typically unrecoverable due to the heat and smoke of the fire, BUT more often, it is the excessive use of firefighting liquids that do the damage, especially if they are allowed to dry out. The drying out leaves mineral and other debris deposits on the disks which are tough to overcome.

 

 

 

And here is a look of what happens when someone applies power to a fire damaged hard drive that has had the sealed assembly breached. You can see the deep ring on the inside of the disk where the heads are. This disk drive will NOT be recoverable.

 

 

 

So if you have a sad looking case of melted data don’t give up hope, data recovery may be as easy as a PCB replacement.

 

CryptoLocker holding your Data hostage?

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If you haven’t heard of the CryptoLocker virus then you really should read on. This rather nasty virus is usually acquired by opening an email attachment which then embeds it’s secret code deep inside your computer. It then starts to silently encrypt ALL your data files including but not limitied to pictures, word documents, spreadsheets, pdf, emails etc. The virus encrypts your files using a virtually unbreakable RSA encryption algorithm and then demands a ransom of $100 to $500 USD in exchange for decrypting your files. Furthermore, if you don’t pay by a strict time limit, they permanently throw away the decryption key.

After the initial data encryption on your system hard drive, the virus searches out and encrypts data files on ANY online storage device, whether that is a powered on external hard drive, a USB stick, a NAS or network attached storage device, or heaven forbidden every shared folder on a network.

The first indication you are infected, is when you are greeted with a popup ransom note similar to the one displayed below. To do the most damage, the ransom note doesn’t appear until the encryption has completed, which can be anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on how much data the virus has access to.

cryptolocker

 

This particular virus has been around for a few years and appears to becoming even more rampant, to the point that copycat viruses are now popping up. We have received numerous enquiries for assistance in recovering the data, but I’m sorry to say we can’t help other than to offer advice.

The good news is that the virus can be kept at bay by any user who is very vigilant about not opening any email attachments unless they are known to be 100% safe and from a trusted source. The best advice we can give is to suggest everyone keep a backup of your data on an offline or powered off external hard drive. That way nothing can touch it.

The bad news is that once you are infected, there is NO way to decrypt the data without the decryption key. Even with present computing speeds, brute force methods would take over 1000 years to crack it.

Unfortunately, and against any moral compass, we would recommend that you pay the ransom and hope the kidnappers will be honorable enough to decrypt your data. We have heard and read stories on the web of people paying the ransom and getting their data decrypted successfully. But unfortunately, we have also heard stories of people paying the ransom and getting nothing.

If you have had any experience with this virus, please comment and share your knowledge with all our readers.

Toronto Data Recovery

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As the morning sun peeks through the skyscrapers of downtown Toronto and the warmth of its rays tickle your face, your world seems so safe, so tranquil, so at peace. You press the power on your laptop computer and are mildly surprised when the familiar beeps fail to materialize. Looking at your screen you see nothing but a flashing cursor. So with minimal concern you reset the power, gaze out over a waking Toronto and diligently wait for the familiar beeps before heading for your coffee. But unbeknownst to you, today will be a little different than the last 934 days. Today your computer won’t boot! Today you lost your data! Today you need data recovery!

Panic sets in as your brain begins to assess the gravity of the situation. You remember the 37 page proposal you’ve been working on non-stop for 3 weeks. Usually you would have copies of your data stashed on your desktop at work or even on your computer at home. But again, this time is different, there is no backup! GULP! The most important client you’ve had in years is expecting it tomorrow. If you get the contract, your worries will evaporate for months to come, maybe even years. If you don’t, well things could get really tough around here. ..

data recovery Toronto
Toronto Data Recovery

Every day in thousands of businesses and homes across the Toronto GTA, across Canada and across the world, a similar scenario is unfolding. Data is being lost!

What would you do? Where would you seek help? Are you located in the Toronto area or close by in the golden horseshoe, perhaps Hamilton, Oakville, Kitchener, Waterloo, or even Markham?

If you’re like our Toronto friend above, Thomas McAllister, you called your IT manager for help. Once the IT manager determined that the hard drive had an operational problem, he recommended Memofix Data Recovery Services, Toronto’s oldest data recovery service provider.

Thomas called us just after 9 am Toronto time and the severity of his situation was not hidden in his voice. It was apparent he needed his data recovered by tomorrow’s sunrise or he would need to start working on his resume. To Thomas the situation was that critical. After discussing his case with him, we were able to assure him we had the parts in stock at our Toronto facility and we’re ready to attempt his data recovery within the hour of it being received.

By 11am we received his Toshiba laptop for hard drive data recovery. A quick analysis determined that one of the 4 heads was no longer functional. Within an hour we had replaced the complete defective head assembly and had the hard drive imaging, albeit with some read errors. Thankfully the disk drive was only 160GB and by 3pm our imaging of the used areas was complete. Although the data recovery had some damaged files as a result of the read errors, the most critical file was in pristine shape and was tested with no errors. Due to the small size of the file we were able to email it to Thomas at his office in downtown Toronto. By 3:30pm, Thomas was breathing a little easier and our mission was complete.

Now, not all our data recovery cases can be completed this fast, but if you’re in the Toronto area, be aware that our data recovery service lab, located in Vaughan, has the most extensive inventory of hard disk drive parts in Canada. While other Toronto data recovery service providers must wait days for parts and likely even charge more, we are often able to complete a data recovery in the same day. If time is not your friend … call on Toronto’s Memofix Data Recovery Services.

and the Winner is ….

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Memofix Data Recovery Services recently ran a data recovery survey on our corporate web site. In appreciation for completing the survey we entered all participants (except my Mom) in a draw for a free 2TB External USB drive.

Yesterday the draw was held and we are pleased to announce the winner is;

Alexandre Lemoine of ALTech Info located in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec

Congratulations Alexandre!

We would also like to thank all participants for completing the survey. Your input was both valuable and greatly appreciated.

Data Recovery pricing and why we’re NOT the cheapest

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are constantly reminded by our clients of just how expensive data recovery can be. No matter how much we attempt to prepare clients, many are still outright shocked at the cost. I can sympathize with many of our clients as I’ve experienced the same sensation at least a few times over the last year; like when I brought my car in for a simple brake job and the bill surged to almost a $1000; or when my furnace started making knocking noises and I was quoted over $1200 for a new blower motor. So what makes data recovery so expensive ….. or is it?

Just as your local auto service would not charge you the same price for an oil change as they would for a new exhaust system, Data Recovery pricing varies greatly. Some recoveries may take 20 minutes to resolve, while others can be on-going for a week or longer. Some problems can be handled by a junior data recovery technician, while others may require our resident genius to step in. Data loss may be the result of the accidental deletion of a few files, the dropping of a laptop or the failure of multiple hard drives from a 12 drive RAID array. Obviously the skill set and resources required to bring a crashed hard drive back to life or to reconstruct a damaged RAID array are much greater than the expertise required recovering a few deleted files.

Data Recovery is a service business with no guarantees. Sometime the data is just not recoverable no matter how much effort and parts we throw at it. And of course nobody likes to pay you for NOT recovering their data. So most reputable data recovery companies have adopted a somewhat unique service guarantee, where if we cannot recover the data you need, you will not be charged a dime. Consequently when data recovery jobs are quoted, the odds of us being able to recover the data successfully are built into the equation. In other words if we estimate the odds of a successful recovery are only 10%, then the recovery case will be quoted quite high. Looking at it slightly differently, if we attempt 10 such cases, we will be successful and get paid for just one of them. On the other hand, if our experience determines a recovery case is recoverable in 99% of the time, than the cost may be quite reasonable as there will be no risk factor built in.

What is you data worth? The most expensive data recovery I’ve been involved in was from a large world class hospital in one of the southern U.S. states. The hospital had been downloading all of its medical images, from ultrasounds to MRIs, to one server that was supposedly being backed up every night. When the server’s RAID array crashed one rainy night, they quickly learned their backup tapes were useless. The cost to re-book and recreate the over 200,000 images would have been in the millions of dollars, and many of them could never be replicated as the patients condition had changed. The job took us 3 months with a team of 4 techs and we ended up charging somewhere just over a $100K. And imagine this: we actually LOST money on it!

Providing a thorough and world class recovery service demands an investment in high end people and expensive equipment. Yes we could do data recovery cheaper like many on the web that scoop off the easiest cases and declare the rest unrecoverable (a real crime and disservice to everyone). Or we could charge ridiculous pricing like the big boys of the industry. But, doing just the easy cases so we are super profitable, or quoting everything super high so that when we do get an approval we make big money, is NOT our philosophy. We want to provide every client with the best chance of getting their data back and at a reasonable cost. Reasonable must mean we are able to be profitable enough to stay in the business and profitable enough to continue to invest in our people, our equipment and our processes. We have consciously set our pricing to be somewhere between these two extremes. A Guide to Data Recovery Pricing

So, if you find yourself in need of a data recovery service, please take the time to consider the value of your data. If it’s not worth much, go ahead and take a chance on a cheap fly by night recovery service or call you geeky brother-in-law Stan. But if you or your company can’t live without your data, don’t waste the first and best chance of a successful recovery with anyone but a professional recovery service like Memofix. … David Foster

Tips for keeping your data safe

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If you’ve spent any time on the various data recovery websites you’ve no doubt come across lots of advice on what to do once you have a data loss situation. Our website also has a page on it https://www.memofixdatarecovery.com/protect-your-data. But I’ve always felt the best advice would be to avoid such an unpleasant experience in the 1st place. So after some interesting discussions with our data recovery technicians, we have created a list of useful tips and suggestions that may keep you from losing your data in the first place.

1. Start by choosing the safest storage device you can. Here are some specific recommendations that may help …

  • Don’t buy the latest and greatest hard drive. Stick with a true and tested hard drive model that has been around a while. Not only will the bad models have been discontinued, but any bugs or known issues on seasoned models, will have been addressed. Search the web to discover problems other users may be having with a specific drive model. For example, don’t buy the first helium filled hard drives until time has tested them 1st.
  • Don’t use an old hard drive. If your drive is older than 5 years consider replacing it. And no matter how old your drive is, if it starts acting up in any way, whether making a strange noise once in a while or whether read errors keep popping up, make a copy of your data and get rid of it, before it fails.
  • Buy the lightest hard drive you can! Huh? Preferably one with a single disk. Sounds strange you say? Less mass requires less power = less heat & less stress combined with less parts = less crashes. When a hard drive requires 4 disks to keep up with the maximum capacity being offered by the competition, you know they’re likely stretching the design limitations.
  • Consider using a laptop drive in your desktop. Laptop drives by design are meant to take more physical abuse and are designed to be light in weight, low in power needs and quiet in operation.
  • If you’re using an SSD or Solid State Drive, ensure you regularly backup. SSD drives use extremely complicated and always proprietary methods of distributing the data across multiple memory chips. The point is, if your SSD becomes damaged, recovering your data may be very very very expensive … if it is even possible. I also wonder how an SSD will stand up to a power surge. If a hard drive gets a power surge the electronics get fried but the physically stored data remains intact. In an SSD, fried electronics could very well be your critical data disappearing into the cosmos.
  • Use USB Flash Sticks only for transferring data from one computer to another. Do not use them as temporary or permanent storage devices. They are very susceptible to both physical damage and ESD damage. Every few months a student walks in the door with the sole copy of their thesis on an inaccessible USB flash drive.

2. Then maintain and protect your storage device or hard drive with these suggestions

  • Connect your computer to a UPS or surge suppressor. This simple device can prevent electrical surge damage to your drive as well as preventing damage to any open files or the file system itself should your power source be interrupted.
  • Ensure your system has adequate ventilation. One of the most common causes of drive failure is overheating, so make sure your computer’s fans work or even consider adding an additional one.
  • Use an antivirus program and keep updated with the latest virus definitions.
  • Be gentle! A hard drive is a delicate device. Be sure it has a chance to stop spinning before attempting to move your desktop or laptop computer. And be extremely careful not to knock over any external hard drives you may have attached. Every week we see damaged external drives where the external case was merely tipped over while it was running.

 

3. And finally protect your data just in case bad things happen!

  • Backup the important stuff! Yeah, yeah … we all know this and yet few of us do it, me included. If it’s important to you, prove it and back it up.
  • Backup to the Cloud. While it may still be slow and cost a few bucks, a cloud backup service of at least your most critical stuff is an excellent idea. And most of us need not worry about the prying eyes of the United States NSA.
  • Don’t Backup Archival Data to USB Flash Sticks! The data is stored electronically and unless the device is re-charged periodically by plugging it into a powered computer, the data will start to leak away over time. If you put your data on a USB stick and throw it in a drawer for a year or two, odds are your data will be gone or seriously corrupted. Some authorities on the subject claim your data could be in jeopardy in as soon as 3 months if not re-charged.
  • Defrag often! If the data is contiguous (all stored sequentially together) there are ways to rip off data files even if the drive’s file system or “index of file locations” is totally missing. Be sure to use you computers defragmentation utility on a regular basis.
  • Don’t encrypt your data, unless absolutely necessary. Even if you never forget the password, a failing hard drive combined with encryption means the odds of getting your data back are slim. If you must use encryption, use it only on individual files that must be guarded at no cost.

While it’s virtually impossible to be 100% diligent in safeguarding our data at all times, hopefully a few of these tips will lower the chances of you losing your data. But if all else fails and you find yourself in a data loss predicament, please give us a call.

(this blog post while slightly modified, was originally published on January 25th, 2010)