Posts Tagged ‘Data Recovery’
How Platespin Server Consolidation Works
It is no secret that servers can take up a lot of floor space, and power. As a result, they can sometimes seem inconvenient. One way to save space and power is to consolidate servers. Server consolidation is very important in order to ease some of the frustrations of overdue consolidation processes. Server consolidation projects can also be accelerated via automation and virtualization. Platespin server consolidation helps to accelerate consolidation projects, and reduce errors. This is done without actually having to have contact with the physical machines.
Platespin allows managers to measure and evaluate resource utilization in order to speed up capacity planning for consolidation projects. This is accomplished by remotely gathering information about the server. This information can be the server operating system, memory, CPU speed, the network, and memory. Platespin server consolidation works on Windows NT, 2000, and 2003 systems. The system works without the help of agents. Therefore, the need to manually deploy software is eliminated. The risk of missing certain agent dependencies is also eliminated in this case. Platespin is also very simple and lightweight, so it can start to collect data in almost one minute.
Hard Disk Failures Cause Bankruptcy – Is Your Home Office Computer Protected?
Computers are wonderful inventions, until they go wrong. Every company stores data on its computers, instead of in filing cabinets. That data includes invoices payable, customer details, debts, etc. If something goes wrong with the computer hard drive the data could be lost. Every day, companies go out of business because of catastrophic data loss caused by computer crashes.
Large companies do back up their data, but what about the one-man company where the paperwork is done on a Sunday morning? More and more people are working from home on personal computers that have zero protection against data loss caused by hard disk failure or power surges.
Every company, large or small should back up their data, preferably to an alternative location, yet most one-man businesses fail to follow this basic survival strategy because of the time it takes to back up the data each day.
Even these companies need to develop the habit of backing up all customer information to a removable hard disk, pen-drive or similar, or to a CD/DVD. Another alternative is to buy a RAID hard drive for your PC. These drives save your data to more than one hard disk, and check for inconsistencies between the two or more data sets. If there are differences then this can be a sign that one of the hard disks will fail soon, enabling you to avoid losing the data in the first place.
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When Do You Need to Use a Professional Data Recovery Service?
There are a number of data recovery software programs intended to help you when an emergency calls for data recovery, however it is important to determine when you can do the job by yourself, and when you need to use a professional data recovery service.
Data recovery is a time consuming process that most of the time requires some level of technical knowledge in order to keep the integrity of the destroyed data destroyed no matter what the cause. Hard drive data recovery, when performed the wrong way, can lead to permanent data loss and even damage the surface.
Therefore, when it comes to deciding on data recovery software or professional data recovery service, stop for a while and think about it twice. How much do you know about the recovery processes? Are your computer skills enough to perform the operation by yourself? Is the software comprehensible and easy to use? Are there any warranties of full data recovery?
To all those questions, add the most important:
How critical is it for you or your business to recover the data that was lost?
Keep in mind that a professional service can recover all types of files, because they have the full versions of the most advanced data recovery software. Furthermore, they can also preview the files before recovering them so you will be provided with a data recovery from where you can choose which selected files to be retrieved or ask for all of them back.
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What do you do if your RAID server fails?
RAID server failure is one of the dreaded work hazards you may have to face sometimes at your workplace. You tend to become incapable and powerless when you are unable to access data with a click.
Data on a RAID array or volume can becomes inaccessible due to any of the following reasons:
• A faulty RAID controller
• Multiple hard drive crash
• Malfunctioning upgrade or faulty striping
• Defects with the MFT mount points.
• RAID controller failure or configuration changed
• Adding incompatible hard drives
• Hardware conflicts
• Software corruption
• Virus infection, software and operating system upgrades
In these above conditions, the following steps should be taken immediately to increase chances of getting critical files back:
• Shutdown the server and turn off the system. Do not try to reboot again. This may cause serious damage to your hard drive.
• Do not attempt to recover data by yourself, friends or PC repair shops. This may result in permanent loss.
• Do not continue to attempt a forced rebuild if you have already replaced a failed drive and tried to rebuild the array, but still can’t access your data. This may wipe out your data. RAID data recovery utilities and software are not designed to restore data or rebuild RAID arrays from failing hard drives. This requires specialized equipment and professional training.
• Swapping hard drives or re-ordering drives in a multiple drive RAID array may cause overwriting the striping and parity. This makes it nearly difficult to reconstruct your RAID array and salvage your company’s vital data.
• Seeking professional help from professionally trained data recovery engineers is the sanest solution. Most data can be recovered from crashed hard drives and malfunctioning RAID servers by these experts only.
What do Professional data recovery engineers do?
Professional data recovery engineers have specialized equipment, a thorough knowledge of hex, drive structures, MFT mount points and offsets.
The Professional engineers’ initial diagnosis determines whether each media device is accessible to their lab equipment. From all the data accessible to them from each media, they make a raw image onto a new media to help them analyse and assess the data loss. If some of the media is difficult to get hold of, they will test the components and closely check its internal condition to assess the level of physical damage sustained. The damaged components include electronics, read/write heads, magnets, drive motors and head assemblies.
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