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DATA-RECOVERY - TAKE DATA CENTER DISASTER RECOVERY PLANS TO A NEW LEVEL WITH ONLINE COMPUTER BACKUPS

Recent technology in the field of online computer backups has made data center disaster recovery plans a breeze.

In the old days (think before 2005), data center disaster recovery plans were only marginally effective. Data had to be stored on CD's, in folders, on zip disks (remember those?), and on backup computers. Many businesses didn't bother to backup data to a separate location at all.

The major flaw with backing up to "the backup computer" has always been an issue of security. Most backup computers are connected to a network in the office, which allows for easy data transfer. Certain threats, like system bugs or viruses, to any of the computers on the network then become threats to all the computers on the network. Clearly, this plan does not represent a secure data backup system.

Advances in technology have addressed these issues. Many computer backup systems now feature online computer backups, and businesses are now able to store their data online, keeping their data centers secure and safe from viruses and system bugs.

Online computer backup systems can add additional security to important data with the use of password systems that restrict access to the data. This type of security extends data protection to address hackers and unauthorized personnel.

Online computer backups also save space at the office. Typically, more data can be stored online than in any folder, CD or even backup computer. This translates to increases in work efficiency and production.

Businesses small and large are now better equipped to deal with any disaster, because all the important data is stored remotely, in a central location, which makes for much more efficient data center disaster recovery plans.

No matter what catastrophe hits, online computer backups have these businesses covered. Business owners can be assured that whether a file got corrupted or a full system crash occurred, their data has remained safe.
Realize, however, that when choosing a computer backup system with an online backup system, it is advisable to make sure that it can deliver the goods. If it can, then you have probably found a data center disaster recovery plan that will maximize your disaster coverage.

MOBILE PHONE SIM CARD DATA RECOVERY

Mobiles can hold vast data of information via a device called the Subscriber Identity Module card, popularly known as the SIM card. This tiny card can offer a lot of value as it maintains your data, preferences, and enables portability. This removable SIM card device also helps to keep your data secure.

SIM Cards and Our Mobile Phones

SIM cards play a very important role in managing our data on our mobile phones. This SIM card acts as mobile data memory. It is due to the SIM card that your mobile can hold the valuable phone numbers of your business clients, friends, and family. SMS forms a very important way to communicate these days. You must have sent millions of messages from your mobile phones to connect with your loved ones or for business purposes. The SIM card allows you to store these messages on your mobile phone.

Mobile phones have become much more than just phones. People increasingly use their mobile phones to take pictures or shoot video clips. In addition, people are also downloading music on their mobile phones these days. Modern SIM cards allow users to store large amounts of data without worrying about the lack of storage capacity.

The SIM card also enables transfer of data such as messages and phone book from one mobile phone to another. This can be extremely beneficial when users change their mobile phone sets, which has become a frequent phenomenon these days.

Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

SIM cards, like any other electronic device are prone to damages. Mobile phone crime is on rise and malicious people involved in mobile theft have made SIM cards their partner in crime. SIM cards are delicate electronic devices and can be damaged very easily if they are manhandled.

How Can you Lose Data from Your SIM Card?

There are times when people get SIM card errors while making a call or receiving a call. This may be due to a hardware error because the SIM detection tab under the SIM card becomes faulty. In some cases, the SIM card door becomes loose due to which, the SIM card is not able to function properly and you may not be able to make or receive calls. The electronic circuit space wherein the SIM card gets fitted may also get faulty, due to which the SIM card will not be able to read the data. The SIM card itself may also get faulty. This can be a problem that will be more serious in nature because in such cases you will have to not only get the SIM card replaced but also recover the data from your damaged SIM card.

However, hardware errors are not the only errors that are responsible for loss of data from your SIM card. There are times when an accidental corruption can result in data loss from your SIM card. A virus infection is also one of the major reasons for data loss. In such cases, data will be lost or corrupted and you will have to either buy data recovery software of hire data recovery specialists to retrieve your data.

Are There any DIY Software Packages Available to Recover Data From Mobile Phones?

There are a lot of DIY software packages available in the market that can help you recover your messages as well as phone books. There is software that's read-only software. Therefore, they are completely non-destructive for your lost data because the risk of the data being overwritten by the data recovery software is eliminated. However, if you want to buy this software, make sure that you check whether or not the software will work if your SIM card is locked due to unauthorized PIN code. There is some software that explicitly states that the software will be rendered ineffective if the SIM card is locked.

Will Calling up a Professional Recovery Service be a Good Idea?

It depends on how important the lost data is to you. If the data on your SIM card is extremely important and can result in huge financial losses or emotional discomfort, then it would be a good idea to call up a professional data recovery service. Hiring the services of a data recovery specialist significantly increases your chances of successful data recovery. While most DIY software promises data recovery, the question remains as to how successful this recovery will be.

THE DAY MY COMPUTER HARD DISK CRASHED

My computer to me is a very important machine. It is at the centre of my work-life. My very important data resides on it, the type of data which I just cannot do without. This includes my family pictures, photos of my travel to different countries, the accounting files of my small publishing business and, most of all, the only copy of the latest book I am writing. It had started off as ordinary day and there was nothing unusual about it. I prepared to start my day early morning, with a steaming mug of hot coffee in hand. I was quite excited as I was almost going to finish the last chapter of a travelogue I was writing about my travels to an exotic country. The publisher's deadline was dangerously close. I had to deliver the entire finished manuscript in a few days. As I plonked myself in my comfortable chair, I switched the computer on. I expected to see the screen come alive with the reassuring and welcoming Windows boot-up screen. However, nothing of the sort happened and the monitor screen remained dark and dead. I could hear an ominous screeching sound coming from the CPU. What was it? What happened to the computer I loved and trusted so much? I tried switching it on and off many times, but with the same result.

After mulling over my predicament for a few minutes - with the publisher's deadline looming ahead - I called up a friend who knew a bit about computers. He came over, had a look at the problem and pronounced: "The hard disk has crashed. It is a serious situation." My entire data was lost. I had no idea what to do. If I couldn't get the hard disk working again, I was in real trouble. That is when it dawned on me how important it was always to keep important files on one's hard drive backed up on other storage media such as DVDs, CDs, tape drives or portable hard disks. So what was the solution? My friend told me that little could be done at home. We had to take professional help and call a data-recovery company. But how to go about finding one? I went to my friend's home and Googled around for a data recovery outfit in my area. I discovered that there were about a dozen prominent ones.

Now the problem arose - which one to choose? My data was very precious, and I just couldn't give the custody of my damaged hard drive to anyone. What if they were incompetent and the problem became worse? Choosing a company involved going through the website of each, reading the customer testimonials, the charges that would be incurred and the facilities offered to customers such as "no recovery, no charges." What was also very important to me was that a recovery company should give a free diagnosis and estimate as to how much it would cost me to get my important files recovered. The service should also be quick, as my deadline was nearing and I did not want to wait till eternity to get my data back.

After much deliberation, I chose a prominent Data Recovery company. I couriered the hard drive to them. Their engineers took the drive to a clean room, opened it and diagnosed the problem. The read / write head had come off its hinge and crashed on the platter surface. It had scratched the surface, but fortunately not where my important files were located. The company said this is a routine situation they face with many such cases coming to them every week, and they had developed procedures and specialised software to recover data from such hard drives. The estimate they gave for recovering my files was reasonable, considering what other companies were charging. My manuscript was worth its weight in gold for me, and I gave the go-ahead. Within three days, I got all my data back neatly copied on a new hard disk. I was thus saved from a terrible disaster. Now I make it a point to never blindly trust my computer or continue working on the assumption that nothing will ever go wrong. I have also invested some money in buying a portable hard disk. It is a wonderful device that stays attached to my computer and keeps taking data backups at regular intervals. Now, whenever my hard disk crashes on me, I have an option. I will just recopy data from my portable hard disk to a new one and it will be business as usual.

WHY COMPANY PREFER TAPE DRIVES AS DATA BACKUP MEDIA ?

It has been observed that many companies prefer it even today (about 80% of the digital data even today is stored on tapes.) even when many new devices such as flash drives, portable hard drives or even CDs and DVDs have come up as data backup media. Let us have a look at the reasons for the same by considering the advantages that tape drives offer.

Advantages of Tape Drives

In tape drives, it is not possible to access any data randomly but it can be accessed only sequentially. But even with this apparent disadvantage, high data transfer speeds (up to 80 MB per second) can be achieved on them. The randomness in access of data is also not required generally as most of the data backup is carried out just to comply with the laws of disaster management and these data are rarely accessed in reality except when a disaster strikes.

Another significant advantage of tape drives is the amount of storage space that they offer. It ranges from a few Megabytes to about 800 GB that too without compression. With such a large amount of space available, a single tape drive could prove to be sufficient for all the data that you may need to backup.

To add to the above mentioned capacity, tape drives offer you a high compression ratio, which means that the data that is to be stored on the drive can be compressed to even half its original size.

Also, with the technological advancements in the form of new storage media, the tape drives also have not been left behind. They have shown a vast amount of improvement over the years since 1951 when the tape drive was first introduced.

Cost is always an area of prime importance when data backup is concerned. Tape drives are quite cost efficient as well and are cheaper than most other forms of data storage when the ratio of cost per amount of data that is stored is taken into account. This makes the tape drives affordable especially for small businesses which do need to backup the data but cannot afford to invest a large sum of money for the same purpose.

Another possible advantage of tape drives is the tape library system which helps you keep your data organised and this particular process is automated as well. The software that is used for the same has also shown a lot of development over the years.

The reliability of storage of data on tape drives has been in question many times. But nowadays even that is not a thing to worry about since the tapes keep your data quite safe for a long period of time though not as long a time as offered by hard disks. But this is amply compensated by the cost difference between the two.
Corruption of data that has been backed up is a problem that has been faced by many companies so far and the only solution for the same is making multiple copies of the same data. Practicing the same by using disks proves to be very expensive and hence a backup copy on a tape is generally preferred.

Where security is the concern, tape drives also have not been left behind and the newer versions offer options such as WORM (Write Once Read Many) which allow data to be written on the disks only once and it can be accessed many times. Other features such as encryption are also available. They also limit access to the data to a particular geographical location so that the data cannot be stolen over the internet.

The Last Word

The tape drives are also expected to hold a large share in the market in the years to come as tapes which can store up to 2 TB (Terabytes) of data are expected to be developed within 5 years from now. Given all these advantages, it is no wonder that tape drives remain the preferred backup media even today!

DATA RECOVERY DO's AND DON'ts

Data loss can occur in any number of ways. From fire to human error, customers and clients turn to you to for guidance. You would like to advise your clients as to how they can minimize data loss and lead them down the road to recovery. The following scenarios outline incidents that cause data loss and tips to help avoid additional damage.

Physical Damage:

Physical damage to hard drives can manifest itself in many forms including clicking, grinding, spinning or other strange noises. If you suspect physical damage has occurred these tips can help reduce further damage:
Be aware of strange noises or grinding

Do not shake, disassemble or attempt to clean any hard drive or server that has been damaged - improper handling can make recovery operations more difficult and can lead to valuable information being lost
Never attempt to operate any visibly damaged devices

Turn off computer immediately - further operation may damage data beyond repair

Fire Damage:

Many people are unaware that data recovery could restore data from computers damaged in a fire. Important tips to share with customers suffering from this specific damage include:

Do not attempt to clean fire damaged media

Do not place in refrigerator or freezer to cool media

Do not try to remove hard drive - ship entire computer for recovery

Physical damage, no matter what the cause, requires clean room attention.

Water Damage:

Do not attempt to clean or dry water-logged drives or other media

Never attempt to dry water-damaged media by opening it or exposing it to heat - such as that from a hairdryer

Before storing or shipping wet media, place in a container that will keep it damp and protect shipping material from getting wet

Do not attempt to operate visibly damaged devices

Perhaps the most important tip to share with your customers/clients is to never assume that data is unrecoverable, no matter what it has been through.

Non-physical Damage:

Users may see messages such as "No OS found", "Corrupt Volume" or may simply be missing files and folders
Shut the computer down immediately. The longer a damaged hard drive is left running, the more data that can be irretrievably lost

Do not run "CHKDSK" or "VRepair"

Ontack Data Recovery specialised in data recovery services and software in the United Kingdom.

DATA PROTECTION

The basis of data protection is simply backing up your data. All areas on your disk should be backed up regularly. A complete backup program consists of the follows steps:

- Backing up the drive type (if you are using an older system or hard drive i.e (the MBR including the FAT daily), system files and the user data (regularly), making an "emergency" boot floppy for each system and taking precautions to minimise the probability of an accidental format and it is also very important that you
- regularly defragment the data to ease any data recovery tasks, take advantage of verification features of the operating system and applications if applicable. Keep at the back of your mind the threat posed by computer viruses and knowledge of how to protect your computer and data. The safest way to avoid computer viruses is to use an excellent antivirus and update it regularly.

- Also of great important is the CMOS information of your hard drive type. Document specifications for the drive (heads, sector and you will always be able to enter the data into your new system and get the drive to work.

Backing up system files cannot be overemphasised. Your operating system' s default systems files, includes configuration files that directs the operating system on how to work and how your applications should work with it. If you loose these files you may come to a dead end. If you are concerned about data integrity, backup regularly and quickly too.

I wonder how many of you have backed up your hard disk in the last seven days or one month. There are two kinds of hard disk users: the ones who have had a disk failure and lost data that wasn't backed up and the ones who are going to loose data. You should endeavour not to be among any of the users because it would be a disaster to loose vital information.