There is over 95% certainty that an operating drive that was dropped or kicked is seriously damaged, even if it keeps working after you pick it up.  Rarely does it continue to work after the trauma for more than a few hours, most of the time it may work for a couple of minutes with difficulty reading any files.  So if you keep using it you are taking a major gamble if you have valuable information on that drive.

Non-powered drives are much less likely to fail than powered ones.   But the problem is that the risk is still significant enough to be cautious.   The highest likelihood of damage to dropped non-powered drives, is for the READ-WRITE  heads to get deformed from the impact.  Powering a drive with such damage will most definitely cause severe platter media damage.   So what is the best action to take? “Let a qualified recovery lab check the sealed area of the drive”.  If they prove that there is no damage, go ahead and use it, but MAKE-A-BACKUP asap.   If there is damage, you have a choice to make.  The checkup should cost a minimal fee under $50, and some like Cherry Systems will do it for free.

What happens to the media surfaces of a dropped drive?  If you are old enough to remember vinyl music records, you can visualize the needle being forcefully moved across the record surface and making a deep non-concentric groove, which often rendered that record unusable.  For the younger reader, think about a CD or DVD that made contact with a rough surface or is badly scratched and will not play anymore.  Similarly to the playback-head of a record player, the force of a dropped drive will cause the READ/WRITE heads to move across the platters and make several damaging contacts with the media surfaces.  The contact will typically dislodge a sizeable amount of the magnetic material, which will then be dragged along with the moving READ/WRITE heads, causing further damage.  You would be amazed how quickly the disk surfaces will deteriorate to a dusty-mess.  That is why we suggested in our first blog post on this subject to PULL-THE-PLUG!!

Because the damage is mostly to the media, there is absolutely nothing that a non-data-recovery-lab engineer can do.  An inexperienced attempt by anyone else, will only make things worse!

Next posting we will cover, what happens to a dropped drive which was not-powered at the time of the trauma.

The bottom line is that one could do no more harm to a hard drive, than one of the above traumas.  The largest risk factor of permanent data-loss usually begins with this type of an event.  What you do right after this type of event will greatly determine the outcome, or in other words, the success of, a recovery.  The first action is, immediately disconnect the drive!  Don’t wait for a ‘proper’ shutdown, PULL-THE-PLUG!!

Manufacturers and distributors are misleading us by publishing technical drive specs, that drives should be able to withstand 5 to 10G’s of shock.   What they are not saying is that they are only testing this type of resistance to shock, on media which is not powered.   Even then, if you drop it on the wrong corner, you may be in big trouble.

So, if  you are smart, and you read and obey the first recommended action (above), the next step is do not power that drive again, do not even let your IT guy try!!!   This media is now considered “Highly Fragile”, take it directly to a recovery lab like Cherry Systems Inc. and make absolutely sure they understand what happened to your drive. 

You have about a ZERO chance, or very close to it, to get the data out of the drive on-you-own (we will explain more in following postings).   People who neglected this advice almost always end up with a lot-of-ferrite dust inside the drive, and severe, if not complete, data loss.

For more advice and solutions tune-in to your next blog on this subject.

We can’t stress it enough, like in a case of a heart attack, the urgency to get care for a flooded drive is very similar.  For both of these cases, ‘TIME-IS-OF-THE-ESSENSE.’   In the case of flooded drives, ‘time is of the essence’, because oxidation, corrosion and rust doesn’t wait.

For the Tech savvy readers who want to know more:

Unusually high humidity, and even a short period of contact with fluids (like an accidental spill), can create both internal and external damage;

 **External  -  On the outside it will affect the controller board or PCB;  mostly by corrosion but also by creating  a short-circuit.   Commonly,  if  moisture gets underneath small surface mount components, it can short out the device.   It is impossible to see it or to clean it efficiently.   In modern drives (manufactured  in the past 6-8 years) you cannot simply replace the board with a “similar” one, even a very close match will not be good enough.

Please note that the above pertains to solid-state and flash media (Like SSD, or USB drives) also.

**Internal –  Most hard drives have “breathing” holes and access ports in the casing.  If a drive is soaked or submerged for even a short period of time, the fluids will find their way into the sealed portion of the drive, causing, in addition to corrosion, a chemical interaction with the platters and the special lubricants needed for proper operation.  The most damaging result is the breakdown of the thin film of residual lubrication fluid that coats the platters.  All of this has to be thoroughly cleaned,  by professionals, like the expert at Cherry Systems or the damage can be irreversible.

For more advice and solutions tune-in to your next blog

It is not redundant to keep repeating that in this case ‘TIME-IS-OF-THE-ESSENSE’, because oxidation, corrosion and rust does not wait.

One of our senior clean-room lab engineer, Jason, says:

•  Time is of the essence, corrosion can occur in days and even hours depending on the other chemicals and agents in the water.  Freshwater is much better than saltwater, but certain chemical contaminants can be just as detrimental.
• Do not power the drive if moisture or liquid is, or was present.
• Do not attempt to dry-out the drive or equipment yourself, humidity and moisture is likely trapped inside the sealed portion of the drive.

Do not waste time with various software tools or solutions, either the very expensive or the free ones.  The media has to be cleaned and dried completely before applying power.

Do not loose time taking it to your favorite computer/IT store.  Instead find the closest data recovery lab with a qualified “clean-room” on-site like the one we have at Cherry Systems and either drive it or ship it over-night.  

 For more advice and solutions tune-in to your next blog

Timely advice for flood victims, how to treat wet, soaked or submerged data storage media, like hard drives , SSD, FlashDrives, digital music players and SmartPhones.

We apologize by stating the common-sense advice first;  “The faster you get the wet media into the hands of a professional, like Cherry Systems  who is trained in dealing with this type of event, the more likely it is that you will get your data back”

Warning!!!

There is a lot of miss-information about what to do and how to do it DIY.  Most are best described as a form of Russian Roulette, where you are most likely to shoot yourself or your data.  The primary reason is Oxidation.

If you know a little about hard drive and storage media they are constructed using materials which get very easily and quickly OXiDiZED.  Exposure to moisture/water is not the primary problem, except that it accelerates the bonding with the Oxygen in the water and around it. 

The best way to slow down the process is a bit counter intuitive:  Isolate it from free oxygen molecules.  The quickest and cheapest way to achieve it is to:

Insert the storage media into a zip lock bag squeeze out the air as best you can and seal it with the water in which it was submerged inside.

For more advice and solutions tune-in to your next blog #2

In our previous post, we listed the 3 primary options for data backup:

In this post, we will tackle the much more difficult issue of selecting the right method for your situation.

If you have limited technical experience, I recommend you engage a data protection professional (an IT professional with advanced knowledge in data protection you can learn more in a coming post on this subject) Who can assess your needs, recommend a solution, and possibly help with implementation.  An hour or two to complete this work is money well spent.

Questions you should ask when evaluating backup solutions:  If we skip the cost for a moment, please consider the following;

1. How much UNIQUE data do you have? Is it under 1Tb or more?
2. Do you know how to take an “inventory of your UNIQUE data”?
3. Is all your data in one location?
   1. Is it one centralized storage (like a server)
   2. Is it distributed on several networked devices in one building?
4. Your comfort zone with file storage structures, and network storage.

• If your comfort zone is minimal, you are better off using as simple a solution as possible like the “clickfree” external backup device like http://tinyurl.com/yaywrr9

Note:  you should have more than one unit to use alternately.

• If you are ready to deal with network and remote locations,  a whole new set of option are available.

1. How often does your UNIQUE data change?  You are going to have to backup often enough so as not to loose too much newer data between backups should a crash occur before your next scheduled backup.

 Look for our next post, part 3 on this very important subject.

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.

In a recent article in eWeek.com the headline read:

 ”Data Storage, Data Backup, and Storage Virtualization: 10 Important Enterprise Disaster Recovery Tips for IT Managers”

The article goes on to explain how Sepaton, www.sepaton.com a data backup provider from Marlboro MA, can backup very large data volumes using VIRTUAL TAPE LIBRARIES at a high rate of 34Tb per hour.   Clearly, this is  an important development for IT departments with large amounts of data to protect.  The article continues with 10 tips for Enterprise IT managers to address in their disaster recovery planning.  All 10 tips are valid and essential.  However, I would like to suggest an 11^th tip which is commonly missing from most such recommendations:

Tip # 11.    Evaluate a Data Recovery lab or two and establish ongoing relations.  We at Cherry Systems have daily proof that is indisputable: systems and processes designed by humans will fail.   Murphy’s Law clarifies it by saying that it will happen at the worst time!  Therefore if our experience is a good indicator and Murphy’s law concurs then the 11^th tip should be included and executed.

By saying executed, what does it mean?   It means that IT management should establish communication and form relations with a P.D.R (Professional Data Recovery) http://www.cherrysystems.com/blog/data-recovery-recognizing-a-professional-part-2 provider, who can consistently recover lost data.   

IT managers:  Don’t wait until that awful day lands in your lap.  Safeguard your disaster recovery plan with a proven data recovery  provider.

We at Cherry Systems, are asked daily by individual, small business and mid-size clients, “What should I do in the future so this will not happen again?”  The simple and easy one word answer is BACKUP.   It could be equated to another recurring question people ask, “What is the healthiest diet?” A one word answer to this one is VITAMINS. To continue the analogy of backup-vitamin, both require variety and frequency.

 The three primary backup methods to consider:

1. Personal backup device (external drive, Thumbdrive, One-Click-Backup-device)
2. On-premise network storage media (shared drive on one of the systems, or a NAS device on the local area network)
3. Remote backup service:
   1. Remote shared drive like Jungle disk ,
   2. Remote backup unmanaged like Mozy ,Carbonite,
   3. Remote managed backup like Barracuda Networks 

 The costs:

1. At least $10-20 per month if you just have pictures and music and some odds-and-ends.

2. At least $35-55 per month if you have a small business.

Be careful with relying primarily on cost to make your decision.  As with other things in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Either solution you pick you will have to; 

1. Make sure you know how to do a partial restore.
2. Test it at least once a year, and when you make a significant configuration change to your computing environment.
3. Reassess for data growth, don’t hesitate to find a proper replacement, see all the notes which apply to your new computing environment above.
4. Perform a data inventory as frequent as you can, but no less then quarterly.  Compare it to the previous one.  Than ask yourself why is there a difference, can you explain what could have caused the increase or decline.

Review our next post on selecting the right backup method for your situation.