It doesn’t happen very often that we have the opportunity to experience the reward and impact of what we do and preach every day.  Here is a personal data recovery story from Mr. Recovery at CHERRY SYSTEMS.

My daughter got married recently having a beautiful, joyous, once in a life time celebration all recorded (or so we expected) on video by a professional photographer. 

A few days after the wedding the photographer called with trembling voice and informed my daughter that most of the video is gone…! It is simply not to be found on the media he pulled out of the camera.  After the initial shock of the bad news was absorbed and processed,  my daughter remembered that we are in the business of saving lives, by that I mean digital lives, recovering among others mundane business data also personal mementoes like child birth, wedding, rare vacations and family pictures.   I see the ashen faces daily, and I often offer words of encouragement and hope, not fully realizing that it can happen to anyone.  She suggested to the photographer to bring the media to our lab.  He was reluctant and very pessimistic about the likelihood of finding anything, after he had tried several ideas, and frankly based on his report I was too.

After several tries and many tense hours by the recovery station terminal the clouds slowly started to move away, the news was encouraging.  We were able to recover about 95% of the video. 

I love happy endings and that is what makes the data recovery business such a great one to have, I get to experience many such stories daily.

As with all highly skilled professionals services, like doctors, dentists, CPA’s etc, the level of professionalism is achieved combining extensive higher education, years of training in the field, specialized industry specific tools and facilities.

Cherry Systems Inc. is an example of a P.D.R (Professional Data Recovery) provider. Our recovery process is based on the 3D Data Recovery worldwide standard.   As such some of our specialized software and tools are designed and marketed by DeepSpar  a company who adopted and adhere to that same standard.  On their web-site DeepSpar refers to the 3D standard as;

          Phase 1: Drive restoration

          Phase 2: Disk imaging

          Phase 3: Data retrieval

 For more information please go to http://www.deepspar.com/pdr-system.html and read the section “Know your terrain”

A P.D.R engineer knows the terrain;

The first D starts with properly diagnosing the media to determine the most efficient  process to recover the data.   There are two primary outcomes;

            1.  Drive performs electro mechanically well.

            2.  Drive has failed or failing.

                  A.  If drive is failing it must be restored to working condition,  which should allow the engineer enough time to make an image.

The second D is for obtaining a good image of the failing drive as QUICKLY as possible, since you never sure how long is the failing drive will cooperate.  A tool like DDI, developed by DeepSpar as well as other similar tools by other vendors, were developed to facilitate and automate storage media specific code to optimize the cloning processes.  Do not confuse a tool like DDI with a tool like Ghost by Norton. While they seem to do the same at a first glance, Ghost should only is be used if the drive is performing well. 

<*>Warning, a P.D.R tool like the DDI typically does a great job imaging a failing drive but it is no substitute for the skill and knowledge of the P.D.R engineer to monitor, manage, and tweak the process to a successful completion. 

The third D is the the one in which the file system is rebuilt utilizing the clone drive (see  the 2nd D) and recovered files extracted to a safe repository site, for delivery to an anxious customer.

When evaluating potential providers, you should ask if they are following the 3D standard. A provider that does not utilize proven specialized tools or bypasses the 3D standard, should not be considered a P.D.R provider.  If your data is valuable, don’t take chances – choose a professional.

What do you get when you combine ”easy to use” inexpensive recovery software and a downturn in the economy?   In many cases, its a recipie for an amature to practice with your one-of-a-kind data which in many cases create recovery disasters.

Along with the development of off-the-shelf recovery software, we are seeing more and more new comers into the data recovery field.   And, in an effort to boost sagging bottomlines, we see more computer service & repair shops that profess to offer data recovery services.   Some are partnering with professional providers in an effort to provide a wider range of services to their clients.  But how do you tell the professionals from the pretenders?   There are a few requirements you’d be well advised to check upfront – before handing over your fragile and failing digital life.

1. Facilities – A Class 100 Clean Room is essential for recovery from  physical hard drive failures.   While some recovery jobs are purely logical, requiring  software tooling only, what does the provider do should your recovery require clean room work?  Do they work with another provider?  Does that provider meet the DR professional test?
2. Experienced Staff - Software is only as good as its user and a clean room is only as good as the engineers that run it.   The higher the level of education and experience, the higher likelihood of successful recovery of your data.
3. Established Business – Just as you would check out any vendor, you need to know the reputation of the provider.  How long has the provider been in business?  What is their record with the Better Business Bureau?   As in any business, problems can arise.  You need to know the company will stand behind their service.

Often, you have only one shot to recover your most valued data.  Don’t take chances with a novice provider.  A little additinal research work can save you a lot of grief (and money) in the long run.

Glimpse into Cherry Systems parts inventory

Due to the well documented economic woes in 2009, we experienced an increase in the number of abandoned drives.  Let me explain; an abandoned drive is one that Cherry Systems has made repeated attempts to contact the customer to either proceed with the recovery or retrieve the drive, to no avail, often up to 90 days after the evaluation is completed.   At that point we consider the media abandoned and move it into our long term storage, adjacent to our 9000+ parts inventory . In is not unusual for customers to return a year (or two!) later hoping to find an abandoned drive.  In all cases with the help of our advance job-tracking-systems we located the drive in our storage in a matter of hours and either returned it or completed the recovery to the surprise and delight of the client. 

Although I do not recommend this strategy for a client, this scenario tests and reaffirms how our systems and processes helps us keep our commitment to our  customers;

1. We do not sell or reuse abandoned drives (except the use of non-data containing components)
2. We take as good care (or better) of our customer’s media than they do themselves.

 It  is particularly significant at these times when many shoppers are so price sensitive, to realize the value of good, dependable and reliable service.

State-of-the-art equipment doesn’t operate itself.  A data recovery lab technician is a fusion of a watch maker/repair person (i.e. can work on very delicate, minute mechanical devices) and a heart surgeon (i.e. a highly specialized job that requires interpreting many, many indicates and messages, where a mistake or a slight wrong move of the hand can turn out to be fatal to one’s data).