Data Recovery Services & Tips

New RAID Recovery Techniques

2011-09-30T17:17:00.001-04:00

The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have modernized the recovery techniques for RAID Recovery making the recoery process quicker and more reliable.

Our RAID Data Recovery Engineers can recover RAID Arrays from any type of server or system. It also doesn't matter what type of operating system the array has or how many drives are included.

You can trust ReWave Data Recovery to recovery your lost RAID.

Affordable RAID Data Recovery

2011-08-31T16:09:00.002-04:00

When your server fails, it is critical to get the data from your failed array as quickly as possible. The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have been affordably been recovering RAID arrays for many years.

Our success rate is extremely high on RAID recovery. You can trust the Engineers at ReWave RAID Data Recovery to recover your critical data.

SCSI Medium Error

2011-05-25T15:29:00.002-04:00

The SCSI Medium Error can be a very problematic issue on SCSI drives especially if they are included in a RAID array. Medium Error recovery can only be performed by a qualified data recovery engineer.

The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have many years of experience in recovering SCSI Medium Errors. Contact us today for a free quote.

Network Storage Recovery

2011-04-12T14:59:00.001-04:00

Network Storage Recovery can be frustrating if you are the person dealing with the loss of data. Luckily our Engineers have 17 years of experience recovering data from network storage devices.

Trust your network storage recovery to the experts at ReWave Data Recovery.

Thecus NAS RAID

2011-01-16T21:25:00.003-05:00

The Thecus NAS boxes are great for storing lots of files. They have great options for setting up multiple RAID configurations.

The Thecus NAS is just like all other forms of data in the fact that they need to be backed up. If you have difficulty with your Thecus NAS, please contact us as we have experience recovery data from Thecus NAS devices.

Partition Recovery

2010-11-20T10:26:00.004-05:00

We get hundreds of clients per year that are in need of partition recovery. There are many reasons a partition disappeared. For example, viruses can wipe out an entire partition on a computer causing no access to the data. In other cases, users can accidentally wipe out their partition by reinstalling the operating system. The old data might still exist, but finding it can be a challenge. In these cases, it is best if you do not continue to use the hard drive as you may inadvertently overwrite data.

ReWave Data Recovery provides a free evaluation for partition recovery and a no data-no fee policy. If you have missing files and need data retrieval, please contact us at 866-739-2835 as soon as possible.

Recovery of Data

2010-11-17T15:44:00.005-05:00

ReWave specializes in the recovery of data from any type of storage media including desktop, laptop, and external hard drives, servers, NAS and SAN units, picture cards, USB devices, and more. The recovery of data requires a company that is highly skilled in hard disk technology. ReWave has over 18 years of experience recovering data ranging in difficulty from simple cases of deleted files to flood and fire damaged hard drives and servers.

If you have experienced a loss of data, contact us today for a free evaluation at 866-739-2835.

We offer data recovery to any location worldwide.

Data Recovery From RAID

2010-10-25T11:00:00.004-04:00

One area of data recovery that we specialize in is data recovery from RAID. ReWave has over 18 years of experience recovering data from arrays of all levels including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50, and more.

ReWave has strict guidelines that we follow for all RAID recoveries. For example, we clone each RAID disk and perform our work using the clones (and not the original disks). Our RAID engineers work around the clock to ensure we restore lost files quickly and efficiently. To prove we have recovered all essential data, we provide our customers with a detailed file and folder list. If you need RAID data recovery, please call us toll-free at 866-739-2835.

RAID Data Recovery Mexico

2010-09-29T23:51:00.003-04:00

ReWave RAID Data Recovery Services announces that they have expanded their RAID recovery service in more depth for Mexico.

ReWave can recover Spanish language and foreign characters from all levels of RAID.

SAS RAID Recovery

2010-08-25T15:37:00.001-04:00

ReWave has been recovering RAID arrays on SAS hard drives for a number of years now. We have just expanded our services to offer faster, more efficient recovery of RAID arrays based on SAS drives.

All About RAID 10

2010-05-18T23:31:00.003-04:00

RAID 10 arrays use at least 4 hard disks (and additional disks must be added in pairs). RAID 10 works by first placing the disks into mirrored pairs at the lower level. Next, the controller selects a member from each mirrored pair and stripes the data into a new logical volume.

There are several advantages of using RAID 10 - the most important of these is the fact that it is more fault tolerant than other levels of RAID because of the mirroring of data at the lower level. The array can sustain multiple disk failures as long as an entire mirror is not lost. The biggest disadvantage is reduced capacity. For example, if you have four 500GB disks in a RAID 0 array, the total capacity would be 2TB. In a RAID 10, the total capacity would be 50% or 1TB.

As with any RAID level, problems can occur with the hard disks or controller that can cause RAID failure. The data can become lost due to a degraded RAID, rebuild failure, RAID controller failure, power failure, damage to the array configuration, hardware or software problems, or array volumes that will not mount for various reasons.

If you are experiencing RAID failure, it is important that the array remain intact. The very first thing you should do is power off the RAID server immediately to ensure no additional writes are performed. Any events describing the problem should be noted. If the member disk drives are removed, it would be helpful they are labeled in the correct order removed (but not required). More information can be found by visiting our RAID 10 recovery page. ReWave Data Recovery offers a free evaluation for RAID recovery and a no data-no fee policy. We have over 17 years of experience recovering data from all types of media including RAID.

ReWave Data Recovery launches new domain at DataRecovery.org

2010-04-26T23:01:00.002-04:00

ReWave Data Recovery has moved their domain from www.ReWave.com to www.DataRecovery.org. This new domain has been chosen to increase the web traffic and further expand the rapidly growing laptop data recovery, desktop data recovery and RAID data recovery services offered.

This blog has moved

2010-04-25T12:36:00.001-04:00

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RAID History and Information

2010-04-13T12:39:00.003-04:00

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) was first created many years ago at the University of California at Berkeley. Storage reliability and scalability are two of the main reasons why companies introduce a RAID level architecture to their storage needs.

Unfortunately when two or more drives report a problem, even RAID servers and storage devices can fail. RAID Data Recovery is something the Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have been doing for many years.

Before doing anything to the array, call ReWave to find out what steps you can try before risking losing all of your data.

RAID 1+0 Recovery

2010-02-02T15:22:00.003-05:00

When RAID was introduced many years ago there were only a couple of levels. RAID 1+0 has been around for a while but has really only gotten popular in the last few years. If your RAID 1+0 fails and you need recovery its important to not re-power the serve, remove any of the drives or run chkdsk.

Our Engineers have the experience necessary to recover RAID 1+0 regardless of how many hard drives are involved in the array.

ReWave Data Recovery moves to new location

2010-01-20T00:02:00.003-05:00

ReWave Data Recovery is moving to a new larger office effective January 25, 2010. Please visit our website for the new address.

WD ShareSpace NAS

2009-12-16T22:37:00.001-05:00

If you have a WD ShareSpace NAS of any capacity be aware that the filesystem is Linus. If you have a drive failure and can't access your important data a data recovery company may be needed.

The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have experience recovering data from the this NAS device.

Data Recovery of Flash Drives

2009-12-01T13:16:00.002-05:00

Most people are unaware that flash drives and SD Cards from digital cameras are recoverable. Flash media is expanding in the marketplace and ReWave has the technology and knowledge to recover all brands and sizes of flash media.

RAID Levels defined

2009-07-31T18:32:00.002-04:00

RAID can be found on almost all servers these days. RAID is even being sold on many pre-installed systems by OEM's. Lots of people don't even realize that they are using equipment that has multiple drive acting as one logical drive.

If you want to get all of the information on RAID Levels please visit our website at:
http://www.rewave.com/raid-data-recovery.htm

RAID recovery is possible from almost all RAID failures.

Windows Server 2008 Recovery

2009-05-28T16:10:00.003-04:00

The new Windows Server 2008 operating system builds on the strength of its predecessors and is a very robust and stable server operating system. Irregardless of the OS however, many servers with or without RAID fail because of other factors such as power surge, overheating, etc.

If your Windows Server 2008 has crashed and needs to be recovered, let the server recovery experts at ReWave Data Recovery handle it. They have quick turnaround times and free evaluations.

RAID Recovery with Fast Turnaround

2009-04-30T22:23:00.002-04:00

ReWave offers the fastest turnaround time in the industry. ReWave can recover your critical data from any level of RAID array the same day the drives are received in our lab.

Many companies that recover failed RAID servers take way to long. The Engineers at ReWave understand your need to get your data back as quickly as possible.

If you have a RAID Server failure, call ReWave to find out about same day shipping or our courier service and our same day turnaround.

External RAID Recovery

2009-03-30T14:03:00.002-04:00

Many of the high capacity external hard drives that are sold now have RAID built into them. Most people are completely unaware that there are multiple drives inside their external units.

By utilizing RAID in external hard drives, manufacturers are able to increase the capacity of the units. Our data recovery service is capable of recovering from all types of RAID failure including RAID 1, RAID 0, RAID 5, etc.

The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery are experts on all types of RAID data recovery.

RAID Drive Order Unknown

2009-01-11T22:37:00.003-05:00

If the drive order on your RAID array has become mixed up it cam make it impossible for you to recover your data. The Engineers at ReWave Hard Drive Recovery have experience recovering data even if the drive order is not known.

Our RAID Engineers can recover data regardless of the number of drives in the array or the Server Operating System. Trust the RAID data recovery specialists at ReWave for all of your Server Data Recovery needs.

Backup Holiday Video and Photos

2009-01-07T09:26:00.002-05:00

Almost everyone has a digital camera these days and many more have camcorder's. Many of these devices use hard drives, CD's or DVD's and/or SD/memory cards.

After taking important video (i.e. from Christmas and other Holidays) its critical that this data be backed up. The Engineers at ReWave Hard Drive Recovery have experience in recovering data from SD Cards, Memory Cards, USB Flash Drives, CD's, DVD's and of course Laptop, Desktop and RAID Server hard drives.

Trust the experience of ReWave Data Recovery if you loose your important holiday video or photos.

Server Failed

2008-08-26T13:16:00.003-04:00

If your server has failed ReWave can help. The Engineers at ReWave have over 17 years of experience performing data recovery on servers.

Regardless of the RAID level, the operating system or the number of drives, ReWave can get your data back to you in a fast and efficient manner.

ReWave Data Recovery can assist with server data recovery from any brand of server.

SQL Database File Repair

2008-07-16T10:55:00.002-04:00

If your 2002 or 2005 SQL Database is corrupt we can help. The data recovery lab at ReWave not only handles desktop, laptop and RAID/Server data recovery we also can repair damaged and corrupt files.

You can upload or mail the corrupt mdf and/or ldf to ReWave for a free evaluation. We can email screenshots of your critical tables from the SQL database after repair.

RAID 0 Failure- The Dangers of Using RAID 0

2008-06-05T08:34:00.003-04:00

RAID 0 is a very popular RAID level that is not only used in servers, but also found in external devices including network attached storage units (NAS). Manufacturers of these external units use RAID 0 to increase the storage capacity of their units to consumers. While RAID 0 has its benefits, it is not fault tolerant. The loss of one disk can cause the loss of all data stored across the array because RAID 0 stripes without parity. Striping writes data in chunks of the same size across each member disk in the array. All members of the array must be functioning in order to retrieve the data in its proper format. If only one RAID 0 disk fails, the data cannot be properly retrieved.

If you are using RAID 0 in a server, or if you are using a large capacity external storage device- please make sure you perform regular backups of your data to prevent data loss from RAID 0 failure.

eSATA Data Recovery

2008-04-29T09:33:00.002-04:00

External hard drives fail as often as internal drives. The portable nature of external drives also makes them more prone to falls and accidental AC adapter swaps. The new eSATA interface for external drives will soon become the defacto standard for external drives.

Our eSATA data recovery service will allow your new eSATA drive to be recovered. The data can then be placed on DVD's, an internal drive or another external drive for data return.

The Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery can recover all makes and models of eSATA drives.

Server Crash

2008-03-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

Has your companies Server Crashed? We specialize in recovering all makes and models of servers. Whether they have one hard drive or thirty, we can recover your data.

A server crash does not have to mean the end of your data. Our data recovery engineers recover data from crashed servers on a daily basis.

Rebuild RAID

2008-02-27T09:47:00.004-05:00

Do you need help rebuilding your RAID? Whenever a drive or drives fail in an array, the sequence of steps taken can be very important. It is very important to not rebuild more than one hard drive in any small period of time (i.e. 24-48 hours) unless a full backup of the data has been made and verified.

If you are having difficulty getting your raid array back online after a hard drive rebuild, call and ask for a raid engineer at ReWave for free expert advice.

RAID Controller Battery Failed

2008-02-25T09:22:00.003-05:00

If the RAID Controller Battery has failed on your RAID card it is possible that you will loose all of the information regarding the parameters of the array. Fortunately this does not affect the data that still exists on the drives.

It is important that you speak with a RAID Data Recovery company before making any changes or attempting any repairs in attempting to recover the data.

RAID data recovery from failed batteries on raid controllers is something we have lots of experience with. Call a RAID Expert at ReWave today.

Enterprise Storage Data Recovery

2008-01-28T23:15:00.000-05:00

If your company has lost access to its enterprise storage device(s) we can help. Our engineers have over 16 years of experience with Enterprise Storage Data Recovery.

Whether the loss is from a traditional file server, RAID server, NAS or SAS device. The expert data recovery techniques utilized at ReWave Data Recovery offer your company the ability to have data back quickly.

We never charge for weekend or after hours service. Trust the engineers at ReWave Data Recovery with all of your Enterprise Storage data recovery needs.

Affordable Data Recovery

2007-12-21T08:01:00.000-05:00

Affordable Data Recovery is easy to find if you know a little about the recovery process. It is important to distinguish between Logical Data Recovery and Physical Data Recovery.

Logical data recovery is almost always more affordable than physical data recovery. With logical recovery, parts may or may not be needed. Hard drives that need physical recovery will most definitely need parts.

NAS Recovery

2007-12-19T10:48:00.001-05:00

NAS or Network Attached Storage is an extremely popular way to add lots of space to your computer or network. The popularity in NAS devices has prompted ReWave to offer NAS Data Recovery for our customers.

NAS recovery can be broken down into many different categories including RAID NAS devices and non-RAID. Many companies also have proprietary operating systems built into the device.

No matter who the manufacturer of your NAS device is or whether is is RAID or not, rest assured that the Engineers a ReWave Data Recovery have the ability to recover all of your data.

Recover Data

2007-12-18T11:25:00.000-05:00

Our ability to recover data can depend partly on you. Treating hard drives with care is extremely important to the recoverablility rate. Hard drives need to be kept in anti-static bags (ziploc bags will suffice if you don't have the anti-static) to keep ESD from causing problems.

Other things that you can do to assist us with a higher percentage of recovery is not to shake or push on the top of the drive. Heat can also be a factor with hard drives. Hard drives need to stay cool and out of direct sunlight.

Managing your defective hard drive properly upon removal from the computer until the time it reaches our data recovery center will allow the best chance for recovery.

RAID 5 Failed

2007-12-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

If your RAID 5 failed and you can't get access to your or your important data, call the experts at ReWave RAID Data Recovery. There are not many things you can do to recover from a failed RAID 5. Unfortunately we have seen many cases where IT professionals attempt to repair or recover a RAID5 and accidentally make the data completely unrecoverable.

RAID 5 Data Recovery is a specialty that our RAID Engineers have been trained to work with. We can manually destripe an array if necessary and extract all of the data.

RAID 5 Errors

2007-12-13T15:05:00.001-05:00

There are many different RAID 5 Errors that can come up when an array is down. Having a broken raid or an array that won't boot can be extremely frustrating.

Having errors on a RAID 5 that won't boot could mean the data needs to be recovered by a data recovery company that specializes in RAID Data Recovery.

RAID Array Error

2007-12-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

The RAID Array Error is a message that can come up when there are problems with your server. This is a very common error and can mean several different things.

One of the most common problems when trying to figure out RAID issues is trying to do to much and ruining the data.

If you have swapped the controller and still can't get it up and going the best solution is to contact a RAID data recovery company.

Data Recovery Company

2007-12-11T12:53:00.000-05:00

A Data Recovery Company or Data Recovery Service Company is a company who specializes in recovering data from all models and manufacturers of media.

ReWave is a data recovery company that specializes in returning your important data to you. Data recovery is our only business and we strive to reunite you and your important data.

IDE Hard Drive Failure

2007-12-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

Hard drives come with many different types of different connectors. One of the older style connectors is called IDE. IDE hard drive failure is very common as these drives have been around for some time.

Even though SATA is becoming more mainstream on consumer desktops and even laptops, most of the computers in homes and businesses today have IDE type connectors.

IDE hard drive data recovery is performed by our Engineers and we have many years of experience with this technology.

Failed HD Member

2007-12-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

Typically when you get a Failed HD Member or Failed Hard Drive Member error message one of the drives in your RAID array has failed. If only one of the members (hard drives) has failed an you dealing with a RAID5 the solution is simple - replace the drive.

If, however, you have more than one member defective in a RAID5 or you have a RAID0 things get more difficult. This is the time when a data recovery company and more importantly a RAID Data Recovery company is necessary.

What our Engineers can do is to manually destripe the array and rebuild it so that your important data doesn't become lost.

Disk of RAID 5 Failed

2007-12-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

Having a disk of a RAID 5 that has failed can cause havoc with any array. Luckily RAID5 had that redundancy automatically built in with parity written to each drive.

Problems can occur, however, when two or more drives fail or when one drive fails but another drive has too many bad sectors but still shows as "Ready".

If you have a Disk of RAID 5 Failed, its important not to "Initialize" and disks or Rebuild more than one drive otherwise the data could be lost.

Controller Failure

2007-12-04T14:03:00.001-05:00

When a controller fails whether it be for a single hard drive or a RAID controller, the attached hard drive(s) can have damage that will make getting to your important data difficult.

RAID controller failure or a single drive in your desktop can have logical or physical problems associated with the issue.

Luckily the Engineers at ReWave Data Recovery have many years of experience with recovering data from drives that have problems due to controller failure.

Formatted Hard Drive

2007-11-30T13:24:00.001-05:00

Oops - I accidentally formatted my hard drive. We hear this quite often. It can be very easy to accidentally format your drive or the wrong drive.

Luckily the Engineers at ReWave are experts at performing formatted hard drive data recovery. It is important after formatting the drive that you not re-install the operating system or put any files on the drive.

In most cases, 99% of data can be recovered. Having a formatted hard drive doesn't have to mean that your data is lost.

Access is Denied error

2007-11-29T15:45:00.000-05:00

The access is denied error message typically means that data is password protected with the EFS "Encrypted File System". This can cause important data to become inaccessible if a password is forgotten or an employee is no longer with the company.

The data recovery engineers at ReWave Data Recovery can recover data from files, folders and hard drives that have the access is denied error message.

Corrupt Partition

2007-11-28T16:50:00.000-05:00

A Corrupt Partition or Corrupt Partition Table can occur because of different logical problems with a hard drive. Unfortunately its a very common occurrence but almost always the data beyond the partition is okay.

A Corrupt Partition Data Recovery expert such as one of our Engineers can quickly (usually within a day) decipher the exact cause of the problem and repair it or at a minimum recover the corrupted data.

Hard Drive Motor Failed

2007-11-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

Every hard drive has a motor. This motor can fail because of several different reasons. The hard drive motor can spin too fast, too slow or not at all. It could also spin up and then attempt to operate at the necessary speed but be unable to maintain the speed necessary for the read/write arm to navigate across the sectors of the platter(s).

Just because your hard drive motor failed, this does not mean that your data is lost. Our Engineers can repair or replace the motor or its parts if necessary. Having a hard drive with a failed motor and no backup means you will definitely need the services of a data recovery company.

MFT file outside of bounds

2007-11-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

MFT (Master File Table) files are found on NTFS partitions and assist Windows by having multiple copies if one becomes corrupt. The MFT contains attributes about the actual files saved in that area of the hard drive.

For many reasons MFT files can become corrupt. There is one error in particular, "MFT file outside of bounds" that can make it difficult to get your data.

Our team has proprietary software and hardware systems designed to recover data after repairing the MFT's or circumventing them altogether. MFT data recovery is not easy but for a data recovery Engineer it is very common.

Outlook repair

2007-11-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Outlook files can become extremely large and that can create corruption in the file because of its size and how it is spread out over the hard drive. Most large files don't take up continuous blocks on a hard drive but instead are spread out over many (fragmented).

Outlook data recovery or Outlook file repair can be performed by our Engineers. Its always a good idea to archive less important emails after cleaning up and deleting all unnecessary emails (especially those with attachments).

If you are having difficulty opening your Outlook file because of corruption or and error message, its a good idea to talk with a data recovery Engineer.

Digital Picture Card Recovery

2007-11-16T10:05:00.001-05:00

Digital Picture Cards are one of the generic terms used for cards that hold pictures and video in digital cameras and camcorders. Most of these cards do not have moving parts inside but are flash based units.

In addition to physical damage and accidental formatting, these cards can become defective because of many reasons. Digital Picture Card Recovery can be performed to recover pictures and/or video that was lost due to many reasons.

The most important thing to remember is to immediately stop using the camera/card as soon as you realize there is a problem.

Broken RAID

2007-11-15T18:17:00.000-05:00

A broken RAID is simply a RAID that will not boot. It is possible that several things have happened. There could be a physically defective RAID controller, logically or physically damaged RAID drives or other problems.

A broken RAID 5 does not mean that your important data is lost. One of the most important things to consider when your broken array won't boot is to be careful what steps you perform. We do not recommend running chkdsk or any other type of disk repair program on either a single drive or the entire array.

With that said, a broken RAID can generate some downtime but doesn't have to mean you won't get your data back. Our Engineers perform RAID data recovery every day.

What is RAID 10?

2007-11-13T09:47:00.000-05:00

RAID 10 is getting a lot more exposure these days. RAID 10 is basically a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 (drives are first mirrored and then striped). RAID 10 is frequently used because it is a highly reliable RAID level. Since there are multiple sets of mirrors, a RAID 10 can actually survive the failure of more than one disk as long as these disks do not belong to the same mirrored set.

RAID 10 data recovery is more advanced, but our Engineers have recovered many broken RAID 10 arrays. Our expertise is not only with RAID levels 0, 1, and 5 but also nested levels such as 10 and 0+1.

What is eSATA?

2007-11-12T17:24:00.000-05:00

The new eSATA standard is for connecting devices externally that contain SATA technology. These new eSATA devices have many advantages most notably their speed. eSATA hard drives are faster than USB 2.0 and FireWare 400 hard drives.

The only real drawback to these new eSATA devices is that they must have a separate cable for power. Most people don't really care about that unless they are heavy travelers and don't want to lug around one more cable.

Our eSATA data recovery can recover these new devices. eSATA disk recovery is only different in that the connectors have changed. The "L" shaped SATA plug is replaced with a straight plug.

Destripe a RAID

2007-11-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

Even though RAID servers have built in fault tolerance, RAID systems do fail. As always, having a recent backup that has been verified is the best way to be confident that your companies critical data won't be lost.

When RAID systems do fail and a backup was not made or was corrupt, it is necessary for the data to be destriped from the drives by a data recovery company that has experience with all RAID levels.

It's imperative that all of the parameters of the array be known such as: number of drives in the RAID (array), order of the drives and stripe size.

Amber Light on RAID Server

2007-11-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

Has your RAID server crashed? If your RAID won't mount and you have more than one hard drive with an amber light, serious and permanent data loss can occur. Our RAID Data Recovery team recovers several RAID servers every week with this issue.

An amber light or orange light (some people say error light or red light) on a hard drive can mean several different things. There could be sector corruption, head damage, of errors in the parity (if RAID5).

Data Recovery for SAS Hard Drives

2007-11-01T18:23:00.000-04:00

Our data recovery lab has recently seen an increase in the number of SAS hard drives coming in for recovery. For those who are unfamiliar with this technology, SAS is "Serial Attached SCSI". SAS drives are becoming increasingly popular for their high speed data transfers. We primarily see SAS drives being used in commercial servers for critical applications. For example, SAS is currently being used in the Dell PowerEdge and Dell PowerVault lines. If you have experienced data loss or a failed SAS drive, it's important to find a data recovery company that can handle the job of recovery. ReWave specializes in data recovery for serial attached SCSI (SAS) drives.

Now for the joke of the day:

A customer had trouble installing software and rang for support. "I put in the first disk, and that was OK. It said to put in the second disk, and I had some problems with that disk. When it said to put in the third disk - I couldn't even fit it in.." The user hadn't realized that "Insert Disk 2" meant to remove Disk 1 first.

NAS Data Recovery (Network Attached Storage)

2007-10-10T23:48:00.000-04:00

Today's topic is about the use of network attached storage (NAS) units and common problems that require NAS data recovery. Some examples of NAS units include the Buffalo Terastation, Linksys NSLU2, and the Maxtor Shared Storage. I'm sure I don't need to say it- but NAS devices are great. However, they are not exempt from failure. Inside the NAS unit, there is normally more than one hard disk configured in a RAID array of some level. The normal rules when dealing with a RAID apply. You must keep the unit backed up! As we have learned in previous blog entries, there are certain levels of RAID can be risky (think RAID 0). For the most part, NAS problems fall into three categories: 1) disk failure within the unit, 2) user error, and 3) NAS unit failure. Many things can happen to cause disk or unit failure including power surge, system crashes, and viruses. Sometimes users can accidentally cause problems by performing a reformat of the NAS unit or deleting their files. Yes, NAS is great....but just remember to treat it like any other storage medium and back up your data!!!

Now for the joke of the day:

A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical looking parrots on a perch and says: "The parrot on the left costs $500 dollars"."Why, does the parrot cost so much?" asks the man. The owner says, "Well the parrot knows how to use a computer".The man then asks about the next parrot and is told that this one costs $1,000 dollars because it can do everything the first parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system.Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot and is told that it costs $2,000 dollars. Needless to say this begs the question, "What can it do?"To which the owner replies, "To be honest I have never seen it do a thing but the other two call him boss!"

RAID configured External Hard Drives

2007-09-21T16:38:00.000-04:00

Today’s topic is large capacity external hard drives including network attached storage (NAS) units. These type of units have become increasingly popular because of their large capacity. They range from 500 GB to 4 TB and are manufactured by many companies including Lacie,Buffalo Technology, and Maxtor.

Something to remember is that these units have multiple disk drives inside that are configured using RAID technology. This is what enables them to offer such high capacities. Most of them offer users a choice when configuring the unit for the first time. RAID 0 offers high performance, but is very risky. RAID 0 stripes data across all of the disk drives, and if one drive fails the data can be lost forever. ReWave gets tons of these units in every week where the user has lost their data due to NAS failure. In most cases, these units come preconfigured as RAID 0. It is important to consider using a different RAID level unless you are certain you can perform regular backups. Most of the time, one of the disk drives fail and it becomes necessary to repair the drive in the clean room before the data can be recovered.

If you purchase one of these units, you may want to seriously consider changing the RAID level during configuration (don’t try to change it after you have been using it for a while unless you backup first!) Depending on your particular unit, your choices probably include RAID 1 (mirroring), RAID 5 (striping with parity), or JBOD (just a bunch of disks). RAID 1 essentially cuts your disk space in half but provides full security by mirroring your data. Although not as safe as RAID 1, RAID 5 can sustain the failure of one disk and allows you to use most of the capacity of the unit.

The bottom line is- if you must use RAID 0, please remember to perform regular backups!!!

Now for the joke of the day:

There are 2 cowboys in the kitchen. Which one is the real cowboy? The one on the range.

Clicking hard drives

2007-09-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

A clicking hard drive is a dreaded sound that you hopefully won't ever have to hear (and if you do, hopefully you have backed up your data). A failing hard drive can make a variety of sounds and to post them all would take a while. In most cases, a clicking drive will sound something like this.

That clicking sound is indicative of physical hardware failure on the disk. It can happen anytime and can happen to a drive that is brand new or one that is really ancient. It is important that you immediately turn the computer off and stop using the drive. If the problem is a head crash, then continuing to use the drive in this state can cause permanent data loss.

If you have experienced this problem, contact ReWave for free help. We can diagnose your problem with a free evaluation which won't cost you anything. We have over 16 years of experience recovering data from clicking hard drives. We offer both desktop data recovery and laptop data recovery.

Now for the joke of the day:

A duck walks into a drugstore and asks for a tube of ChapStick. The cashier says to the duck, “That’ll be $1.49.” The duck replies, “Put it on my bill!”

Fire Damaged Hard Drives

2007-09-16T09:38:00.000-04:00

I would like to take a moment to mention a few things about fire damage to hard drives. We received an interesting job over the weekend which was a Dell Poweredge server that had been in a fire. Amazingly, the server was in pretty good shape (this will not always be the case!). There were 4 hard drives in the server configured in a RAID 5 array. The hard drives were burnt somewhat and smelled of soot. We were able to repair the disks, get images of all 4 disks, destripe the RAID, and recover the data by Monday evening. This is probably as lucky as you will get working with fire damaged hard drives. This is why it is so important to perform regular backups of your data and store it offsite. The fate of the company was pretty much riding on the condition of these 4 little hard drives.

Now for some humor. Going forward, for each blog entry I will include a joke of the day. Sounds kind of corny-but if it makes readers laugh and lighten up, then it has served its purpose:

One day two drinking buddies, Jim and Dave, were working on aircraft at JFK airport in NYC. They got fogged in and finished up their work early and were sitting around bored. Jim spoke up, “Man I really need a drink!”“You know I heard a rumor you could drink jet fuel and get drunk.” Dave said.“Really?” said Jim.“That’s what I heard. Wanna try it?”“Sure, hell I’ll try anything once!” So with that they poured themselves a couple of glasses and began drinking the jet fuel. They sipped a little bit to find it actually tasted quiet good. So they drank more and more and sure enough they got stoned drunk. The next morning Jim awoke feeling like a million bucks he jumped up wet to the bathroom feeling great like he was floating on air he hadn’t felt this good in years. “Wow!” He said. About that time Jim’s telephone rang… “Hello?”“Hello Jim, this is Dave. How are you feeling this morning?”“Man I feel great, no hang over, no sick, I feel like a million bucks. How about you?”“Me too, but I have one question for you.”“Sure, what is it”“Have you farted yet?”“Ummmmm No. Why?”“DON’T. I’m in Phoenix!”

Hurricanes- (The Weather Phenomenon, not the Hockey Team) and Hard Drives

2007-09-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

Wow- where do I begin? The Hurricane Season is just getting warmed up, so I wanted to take a moment to discuss what these monsters can do to hard drives. Most people who must leave their home or business as part of a hurricane evacuation are in such a hurry they totally forget about their computer systems. Laptops are easy- just chunk 'em in the car with you and everything will be ok....but it's not that easy with desktops and servers.

Really- you should be regularly backing up your data and storing the backup offsite or online. But according to a survey by Symantec & Harris Interactive of over 2400 users, only 57% actually backup their data. But we'll save that for another day.............

So what should you do with your computer if you're in the path of a Hurricane? The first choice would be to take the entire system with you. Of course if you are in the danger zone and fear for your safety, you must evacuate immediately and forget about your computer. That's what data recovery companies are for.....but if you have some time to prepare, try to take it with you if you can. If you cannot lift the equipment, then you could open the computer and take the hard drive(s) out. Place the drive in an antistatic bag or ziplock bag. If you have to leave your computer behind, you should try to cover any vents/open areas on your computer with tape and also the entire computer in plastic bags to keep water from seeping inside.

So what does a flooded hard drive look like? (not pretty)

Flooded drives suffer from major corrosion due to the dirt and debris that settles after the floodwater recedes. But no matter how bad things look- even if your hard drive is dripping water- ReWave can help.

ReWave has an area dedicated specifically to flood damaged hard drives. Our hurricane procedures start with teaching you how to package a drive damaged by flooding. Once flooded hard drives arrive at our lab, our team of engineers can begin the process of recovering data. About 80% of the water damaged hard drives we get in are recoverable.

Contact ReWave toll-free at 866-739-2835 or 704-262-7779. We offer free 24 hour data recovery service.

Welcome to the ReWave Hard Drive Recovery Blog

2007-09-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hello to all our new and existing customers!

ReWave Hard Drive Recovery is excited to launch our first blog. This blog will serve many purposes including providing information on our services, data recovery tips, and fun stuff. We hope you will enjoy visiting our blog on a regular basis.