Data Recovery company Birmingham Alabama

The only Data Recovery company Birmingham Alabama that we like is Vulcan Data in Hoover.  If you are attempting to recover data from a hard drive that still spins, and does not make any clicking noises, the chances are, 92% of the time, they can recover your files, documents and precious photos for less than $200.  If you are looking for head replacements, controller cards, or other physcial repairs, get out your check book – it will cost you.

Hard Drive replacements are here – Welcome the new SSDs

Faster than expected, the new hard-drives, known as SSDs are here. SSD – or Solid State Drives, are the replacement for the long failing, spinning mechanical versions that have driven the data recovery business for the past 30 years. Affordable now as a replacement, these drive can now be had for a paltry $115 for a 40GB variety

My thumb drive is not recognized

A common situation, you insert your thumb drive into your computer and nothing happens.  You remove it, insert it into another machine, still nothing.  There are 3 possibilities:

1. You have broken the connector on your thumb drive
2. You have lost or corrupted  the boot record on the thumb drive
3. Your board or chipset is dead, and a circuit(s) is broken

The first 2 items can be corrected.  The 3rd is almost impossible, and most repair companies refuse to accept dead boards because consumers refuse to pay for the repair and expenses involved.  If you have a thumb drive with the 1st 2 symptoms, you can have your data recovered for under $90 most of the time.

Intel shipping new flash drives

The all new drives are labeled X25-M.   In fact, Intel decided to not change the model name of these new 34nm drives, which is apt to confuse some of you who go out hunting for the new and improved version.As of today, the channel price quoted for the X-25M 80GB is $225 (down from $595 at introduction one year ago) and the 160GB version is $440 (down from $945) for quantities up to 1,000 units.

Microsoft releases Windows 7 on the public

Microsoft releases Windows 7 on the public

Bill Gates unveiled the new Windows operating system know as Windows 7 on an unsuspecting public at the TED conference.  No software was actually released, just the bugs were let out.  Microsoft is rumored to be developing a viral strain that can be inhaled to wipe out competitors

Flash Drives pushing over 1 GB/s transfer rate

A new configuration from Micron can push data at over 1GB/sec over a PCIe card with 2 SSD flash drives

How to repair a damaged usb flash drive

Flash drives today are ubiquitous, mainly because they have become very affordable, and much more portable than external disk drives.  Unfortunately, the risks associated with flash media can be more than traditional disk drives.  Most folks do not understand tthe procedure to unmount drives before removing them from the port.  This procedure is very important to prevent corruption of the partition and file tables.  Most flash drives employ the use of FAT16 or FAT32 file systems to allow for universal access from all operating systems (Mac, PC, and Linux).  Unfortunately, these file systems are easily corrupted during write operations as the drives are removed.  Most of the time the files are still there, but the file tables and formatting are corrupt, making the drive unreadable, and unusable.  Many times the user mistakenly FORMATS the drive when prompted by the OS- which can be devastaing for your data.

Many times, formatting your drive will make it functional, but most times you will permenantly destroy your data.  So it is always good to know a few techniques to avoid data loss.

Rules:

1. Never write to your flash drive if you cannot see your data – this means, do not format, and do not use anti-corruption tools or “disk repair” tools like SpinRite, or any other S.M.A.R.T based (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) tools that write to your drive
2. If you don’t understand sectors, cylinders, file structure, and do not have a thorough understanding of file systems, do NOT ATTEMPT to use this guide
3. You should always have two copies of your files, and you should NEVER use flash media as primary storage, rather, only to move files from one place to another.  Now ask yourself, why are you reading this if you have another copy of your missing files?

If you are an IT professional, and have experience with CLI, click here for instructions and tools

If you are a Do-it-yourself guy – click here for instructions

Water-proof and fire-proof hard drive promises protection for data

Many business and homeowners have experienced the loss of data to fire, flooding, and natural disasters. Now there is a company who intends to protect us from all these forms of data disaster. ioSafe is looking to be the first company to protect data from both water and fire with their new design, “DataCast endothermic insulation technology, which the manufacturer claims forms a chemical bond with water molecules that, at temperature above 160 degrees Fahrenheit, releases water vapor to limit the internal temperature of the unit.” The story

Why USB drives are not recognized, not visible in the drive list

Many folks are left pondering this question:  Why can’t I see my USB drive or thumb drive?”  The biggest issue we see with faulty flash drives are users removing the drives from the port during a write operation.  Most operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Unix(Mac), and others warn you about removing flash drives before unmounting.  It may not make sense to you why this needs to be done, but if your computer is writing to any device while you unplug it, your run the risk of destroying file tables, formatting, files, and other stuff that you will lose when you “snatch and run”.

Static electricity can also be a potential problem with these drive, so it is a good idea to protect the connectors after removal from the machine to prevent current discharges across the circuit board/chips during transport.  Most drives come with a cap to protect the connectors, and some have a slider to move everything inside much like a turtle.

Flash Read Error, Flash Drive not recognized- How to repair USB flash drive

Many times we see flash storage that is not recognized by the Operating System due to formatting problems, read errors, and lost file table information. Many times this is not a disaster, but rather an easily and quickly correctable data recovery issue that can be handled cheaply by a professional recovery shop.

If you feel you are up to the challenge you will need several things:

1. Weller WP25 Soldering iron
2. Weller ST7 Solder Iron Tip-Conical
3. Soldering station with alligator clips. iron holder & magnifying glass
4. putty knife or strong blade to cut into drive case
5. some soldering skill

Please do not attempt this procedure if you cannot afford to lose all your data, leave this procedure to the professionals.

The first step is to 1-gently cut into the case, not touching any of the sensitive components inside (this is really a ONE-SHOT deal) if you screw them up, oh well, you saved money but lost all your data. 2-peel back the case, exposing the board and chipset. 3-identify the broken connectors, this is the trick, and you may need a higher powered dual-scope for this procedure. Resolder the connectors after identifying them. If this procedure does not work, you may need to remove the connector completely, and attach wires to the board that are tied to a new cable connector. (refer to images)

This image will guide you to connector alignment(do not connect to the wrong lead, you WILL damage your data) making sure the alignment is correct. Connect your newly repaired usb connector to the machine….VOILA !!

If you have difficulty in this procedure, please give us a call

Solid State Hard Drives – the future of data storage

And possibly the end of data loss, or at least loss on the scale that has been present for the last 6 years in the age of ever expanding sizes of drives, and the ever increasing density of data packed onto one drive.

The great thing about these drives is there will be no moving parts, jus solid-state chips, the can’t be damaged by mild shocks that will destroy a platter spinning at 7,000 RPMs, or ate least damage the read-heads. You are looking at the future (on the right) of mobile computing in the very near future, and possibly the future of all data storage in the regular future. Make sure you are backing up your data until you own one.

How should I backup my data?

One of the most common questions we hear, unfortunately it is usually “post-disaster”.  After our clients spend $120 retrieving their data, a common question is:

“How do I prevent this data loss from happening again?”

There are 3 rules you MUST FOLLOW to prevent disaster requiring data recovery:

1. Make sure you have 2 copies of all critical files in 2 separate places (different drives)
2. Make sure you AUTOMATE the backup procedure (making the second copy should not require any human intervention other than initial setup) using backup software like Cobian Backup (free download), or Mozy, or Time Machine ( MAC)
3. Check the backup copy occasionally to ensure accuracy (drop additional file into primary folder to check if it winds up in secondary after backup)

These 3 rules cannot be altered or omitted, or you WILL be calling us for  service again.  Hopefully we can help you once more, but why risk it.  If you need help or have questions about setting up your backup strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us.

“Drive not formatted – Format it now” What does this mean?

Many times this message is seen in hard drives, disk drives, flash drives, and external USB thumb drives that have lost their formatting. Most likely (96%) a large portion or all of the files still exist, but the index and/or the formatting and partition information is missing, damaged, or corrupt, preventing your machine from recognizing the files that still exist. The next few steps you take are critical:

1. Do NOT format your drive if you want to retrieve all your files
2. Do NOT ask anyone at Dell, HP, or Gateway tech support how to recover your files, this goes for all other “phone tech-support” organizations. The results will be catastrophic.
3. Do NOT attempt to recover the files yourself if they are important to you, unless you know exactly what you are doing
4. Attempting recovery using software may be more expensive and risky than using a professional and affordable data recovery company

Always consult a data recovery expert before attempting any recoveries yourself. You may be surprised how affordable the process really is. Find out what other steps to take and get a free data recovery quote by contacting the Data Recovery Experts

External Drives you should stay away from

The FreeAgent from Seagate appears to incompatible with Linux, to it’s standby mode and preformatted NTFS condition.  Read the article

The first hard-drive -50 year old IBM RAMAC

SanDisk introduces flash hard drives for laptops

SanDisk on Thursday released a 32GB drive for commercial notebooks that stores information on flash memory chips rather than the magnetic platters that make up a traditional hard drive. The drive is available only to manufacturers, and the company declined to give out pricing or identify any notebook makers that will adopt it, but SanDisk said notebooks sporting the drive could come out in the first half of 2007.

Unlike traditional hard drives, flash memory drives do not contain moving parts. As a result, flash devices are less prone to breaking down–flash cards can survive drops from great heights–and consume less energy. SanDisk’s flash drive can increase battery life by about 10 percent, said Doreet Oren, director of product marketing for SanDisk.  More

Formatting – What is it?

Low level formatting
Formatting is the first step in making the drive ready for data storage and retrieval. At this stage, the drive is being physically divided into tracks and sectors. Low-level formatting stays unchanged for the entire life of the drive unless the drive is re-formatted.

Partitioning
Partitioning divides the drive into logical drives (C:, D:, E:, etc.). Every drive has at leas one “primary partition” (C:) and may have many extended partitions. The primary partition contains drive booting information in the Master Boot Record (MBR) and also keeps a record of all other partitions. A partition is usually made using the FDISK.exe program.

High-level formatting
High-level formatting prepares drive partitions for the operating system by creating a root directory, from which all other subdirectories could be created, and creating a File Allocation Table (FAT), which keeps track of all information on the disks and all the relationships between different pieces of information. A loss of the FAT translates into loss of data, since the system will not be able to attribute data to specific files even if the data themselves are intact. This operation is usually done using the FORMAT.exe program.

Fujitsu planning on shipping 1.2TB laptop hard drives in 2010

Fujitsu keeps pumping out the hard drive innovation — this time the company is planning to ship a 1.2TB 2.5-inch hard drive by 2010.

Storing data on external drives- BIG MISTAKE

In our opinion, this is a big mistake. The reason is many people mistakenly use external drives as primary storage. And this is where the problems begin:

1. External drives should be used as secondary storage (a second ‘copy’) or to transport files between machines, locations, etc.
2. Most users do not backup or keep secondary copies of their files, they assume when they store the only copy on an external drive, it is “backed up” – BIG MISTAKE
3. When backing up to an external drive, this should be an automated copying procedure, rather than an occasional, random event.
4. Users consistently drop, man-handle, accidentally abuse, and unplug external drive while they are spinning, making them unreliable storage devices at best.

So please use external storage devices wisely. Use them as transporters of data, and ‘backups’, secondary storage media, not primary storage.

You will thank me for it.

Next time – Automated backup solutions for free

Long lasting drive promised by Fujitsu

The MHY2 BS is Fujitsu’s latest drive destined for professional use, it can resist intensive writing/reading treatments for long periods of time…this SATA HDD (@5400rpm) features 8MB cache and the disk capacities go from 40 to 200GB. Original Story

Read errors in flash memory – SD cards, Compact Flash and Memory sticks

In a previous article I spoke about flash drives as being drives too. This is true in that they store information. The beauty is they have NO MOVING PARTS, which makes them so much more durable, and easier to repair. If nothing is physically broken, there are no mechanical parts to repair(the most expensive process in any recovery operation). So at this point, you are only looking to discover why the card will not read, which at times is no easy task. Read errors represent the Mt. Everest of flash recovery, and can take as long as a typical hard drive recovery.

When inserted into a device, and  may only show no files present, or read: ‘error reading drive’, or ‘Insert card or media’ and possibly ‘Card is not formatted’. All of these errors point to read errors, most likely the result of a failing card, or poor device that has written to the card, or simple corruption of the file system to the point where it cannot be read by the usual methods.

Time to call in the data recovery hero, someone with the training and experience to recognize the possible problems, and correct the problems without destroying more data in the process. Nine years in the business and I continue to see and learn new things almost everyday. Just this week we spent 7 hours, and used 8 combinations of processes and tools to recover less than 50 photos off brand new SD card. 6 hours of read errors, with 7 different combinations, then finally one that worked to allow a good pass across the flash drive, reconstructing bad sectors along the way to reveal 48 uncorrupted photos. The client was “beaming”. Glad to help, and glad everything turned out OK in this circumstance. I told her we had almost given up 3 times. The key in data recovery is never give up as long as you can read something. Just figure it out, and take a break by reading the new stuff.

Free Data Recovery Software

I have seen many clients searching for “free data recovery software” on the web, hoping to find a cheap answer to the question, Why can’t I see my hard-drive? The bottom line is, there are several products on the market that may help you recover your data, but almost all of the quality products cost money, so don’t plan on being cheap. There is no magic bullet. I will add that most of the products are full of danger for the untrained user.

Unfortunately, there are only a couple of free pieces of software out there, and the one we use is extremely powerful. In it’s power come many dangers. It has relatively few safeguards, and certainly an extremely destructive potential. In the wrong, untrained hands, this is dynamite. In untrained hands, it also becomes useless.

My words of caution are always the same, yet many folks fail to heed the warnings and continue to the point where I cannot help them anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Do-It-Yourself people, but you have to weigh the risk to the reward. That is the reason I don’t have my airplane serviced by Bubba in his backyard, there is too much risk.

If you are still curious, or you are an IT professional, familiar with command-line linux tools, I will be glad to give you more information, just contact me directly for the information.

How Can I Protect Myself from a Data Disaster?

1. Make sure you have 2 copies, in 2 different places (not on the same drive)
2. Use automated back-up software (you will not remember to do t)
3. Use battery back-up (not surge protection) to condition your power
4. Make sure your PC case is clear of lint, and able to ventilate heat out
5. DO NOT USE EXTERNAL DRIVES AS PRIMARY STORAGE (only backups)
6. Do not trust floppies, ZIP disks, or CD-ROMs as primary backup, they are easily damaged, scratched, or de-magnetized.
7. Backup your laptop everyday (automated)
8. Spend money now, to prevent spending it later (8% x year x drive x 3 years)

I can’t see my drive – Why you can’t see your hard drive

One of the more common complaints that we hear daily.

Others include:

“There is no drive letter, or I cannot see the C:\ “

“Windows does not recognize the drive”

“No operating system found”

“My drive is not formatted”

“Hard Drive not found”

“Device not found”

Many times these complaints are easily resolved with special tools of the data recovery technician. Partitions, boot records, and bad sectors are very common in all these situations, and are almost always unrepairable by untrained users. Many times after a few hours of diagnostics, the drive can actually be repaired, or repaired enough to retrieve the valuable data from the drive. Never reuse a drive that has been repaired, it has shown that there is an instability and you should not trust this device anymore.  Find out more about lost partitions

Disaster Recovery

In this article from Tech Soup, Bob Xavier outlines a few good points to consider to keep from losing out during disasters.

Read More

Flash Drives are drives too – and you can recover data from them

Many people assume that their data is lost when you press “ERASE” on your camera, that all the data is gone…..wrong. Your data is probably still there unless you continued taking pictures (many pictures) enough to write over your erased pictures. I guess it would be worth a check sometime? The biggest misconception, and most costly, is the other assumption, the flash memory in your Palm, Treo, Axim or other Palm Top device is EXACTLY the Same. Don’t assume anything, call a pro and get some advice

Disaster Checklist – Steps to a quick recovery

There are many very critical errors users typically make when disaster strikes their technology. The most important consideration are:

What NOT to do in a disaster:

1. Do not re-install or repair Windows you will LOSE DATA !!
2. Do not leave your machine running
3. Do not leave the drive in the machine
4. Do not take your drive to the local repair shop (Geek Squad, CompUSA) if you want your data back

What you MUST do:

1. Turn your machine off, every extra minute may cost an extra GB of file loss
2. Remove the drive from the machine (Philips-head screwdriver)
3. Find competent, professional help for recovery (someone that specializes in data recovery, not a guy with a “recovery disk”)
4. Purchase a NEW drive from local store (drives are extremely cheap compared to the costs of mistakes made in re-install/OS recovery and using unqualified technicians)
5. Re-install Windows(or other OS) on new drive to get back to business

Free virus cleaner tool – more free stuff from Avast

Avast has come out with a new tool to clean and disinfect your machine from viruses and trojans.

If your machine is acting funny, maybe you should pick up a copy and try it out. If you find an infection, perhaps you should pick up a copy of Avast Anti Virus, it’s free too for the home user. Make sure you register with your email address so you can get regular updates. Remember, the #1 cause of data loss is malware infection, so be cautious and protect your PC from invasion.

Get the download

The Truth about Data Recovery

An article about the realities of data loss, and the techniques used to recover it. Very revealing comments on on the process of recovery, and the cost of services, and the industry itself.
Read the Article

News from Google Labs – Your hard drive is gonna fail soon

The breaking news from Google Labs is: Your hard drive has a 2-in-25 (8%) chance of dying this year, and every year for the next 3 years.

So what are you going to do about it?

• a. Panic, and run screaming into the hills
• b. Smash all your technology before it becomes “self-aware”
• c. Back up to second disk, or remote back-up service

Do something, because the end is near.

Read the report