Data Recovery News and Press Releases by Recovery Force Inc.

Doug Coughey: Right to Drive or Privilege?

2010-10-07T16:15:00.000-04:00

Doug Coughey: Right to Drive or Privilege?: "The Ontario Ministry of Transportation revoked driver's license primarily on the report of a neurologist who saw me for one hour. I had fain..."

Recovery Force Appoints New Director of Eastern Ontario

2008-01-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

Guelph, Ontario Canada - January 10, 2007

Mr. Jose Gonzalez, Executive Vice President of Recovery Force Inc. (provider of data recovery services), announced the appointment of Mr. William McDougall as Director of Eastern Ontario and has setup office in Ottawa, Ontario.

Mr. McDougall has over 35 years experience in finance, business management and business consulting. An Ottawa native, Mr. McDougall has been involved locally in industry, retail and the service sectors and has an extensive knowledge of the Ottawa market, including the public sector.

Mr. McDougall can be contacted at his Ottawa office at 866-627-1149

About,
Recovery Force Inc.
Recovery Force Inc. is a pioneer in data recovery and computer forensics, with a decade of experience in recovering critical business and personal data for clients throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

Media Contact:
Recovery Force Inc.
Guelph, Ontario
866-750-3169
public-relations@recoveryforce.com
www.recoveryforce.com

New Year Resolutions

2007-12-31T10:41:00.000-05:00

With the ringing in of the New Year, it might be the perfect time to add a few technology based resolutions to your list.

Backup Routine: With the increased dependency of digital documents, it is wise to implement a solid backup routine that includes regular testing to ensure that your is data actually being backed up. If you don't have a backup routine setup, contact your computer technician and talk to them about helping you implement a routine that works with your schedule and needs. If you don't have a technician or are concerned about the current routine you have, contact Recovery Force for a referral to one of our Authorized Service Partners.

Hardware Diagnostic: Just as you would check the oil or the air pressure in your tires on your car, you should test your computer's hardware from time to time. As most users won't have the necessary programs to test all the computer's hardware, we suggest you have your technician test your hardware once a year. Things that should be tested include the hard drive, RAM, CPU, CD/DVD Drives, Floppy Drive, Power Supply and the System Board.

Anti-Virus: It is a good time to check to verify that your Anti-Virus software is running and up-to-date. You may want to get your technician to scan your drive for viruses and spyware that might have slipped through over the past year. We strongly recommend that you verify that your data is backed up prior to this process.

Security: This is a good time to check for updates for your router to ensure that your network is secure. You may also want to test your wireless security settings, as well as change your passwords to sensitive data.

If you keep up with your backups and system maintenance, you should feel confident that your data will be secure for another year. In the event that your data has been lost, contact Recovery Force customer care at 866-750-3169 for information on how our team can assist you in the retrieval of your data.

Click here to jump directly to the online web form to start the recovery process.

Hard Drives Sold with Pre-Installed Trojans?

2007-11-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

Taipei Time has reported about a series of Maxtor large capacity hard drives that contain a Trojan horse virus right out of the box. The Trojan automatically uploads private data that is contained on the drives without notifying the user.

It is suspected that the Chinese government is to blame and action has been taken by distributors to remove the product from their shelves. Seagate was last said to be looking into the matter.

Click here to read more.

Recovery Force Appoints CFO

2007-10-31T08:40:00.000-04:00

Guelph, Ontario Canada - October 31, 2007

Mr. Doug Coughey the President of Recovery Force Inc. (provider of data recovery services), today announced Mr. Kevin Embree from Embree & Co. LLP will be named CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Mr. Embree is a senior partner in Embree, a leading chartered accounting firm servicing southwestern Ontario.

Mr. Embree graduated from the University of Waterloo in May 1987 (Bachelor of Arts – Honors Chartered Accounting Studies – Cooperative program) and obtained his CA designation in December 1987.

About,
Recovery Force Inc.
Recovery Force Inc. is a pioneer in data recovery and computer forensics, with a decade of experience in recovering critical business and personal data for clients throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

About,
Embree & Co. LLP has offices in Guelph and Cambridge with a total staff of 30 people. The firm assists and works with many clients to achieve their financial, business planning and compliance filing requirements. Between owner/manager and not-for-profit organizations, the firm provides audit, assurance, compilation, tax and business advisory services.

Media Contact:
Recovery Force Inc.
Guelph, Ontario
866-750-3169
Public-relations@recoveryforce.com
www.recoveryforce.com

H. Kevin Embree, C.A.
Embree & Co. LLP
Guelph, Ontario
519-821-1555
www.embreellp.ca

Recovery Force Partners with Waterloo Data Fortress

2007-10-17T19:57:00.000-04:00

Waterloo Data Fortress Inc. & Recovery Force Inc.

Joint Press Release

Waterloo and Guelph, Ontario Canada - October 17, 2007

Waterloo Data Fortress Inc. (provider of co-location, networking and data back up services) and Recovery Force Inc. (provider of data recovery services), announce that they have concluded a Letter of Agreement to co-operatively promote, market and sell their respective services.

Miro Forest, (Waterloo Data Fortress) and Jose Gonzalez, (Recovery Force) are excited about this new relationship and look forward to providing a more complete set of data protection and recovery services to Customers.

Both companies are locally based in the Waterloo Region and understand fully the global reach of many medium and smaller enterprises in the Waterloo Region.

With the ever increasing focus on the protection and recovery of business data, coupled with the increasing size and complexity of this data, customers will be able to rely on the proven track record of both companies to protect and/or recover their critical information.

About,
Waterloo Data Fortress Inc.
www.waterloodatafortress.ca
The Waterloo Data Fortress provides secure, reliable co-location, networking and remote backup services. We operate an enterprise-grade data centre in the Waterloo region equipped with top tier equipment and system protection.
The company started operations in 2003 and has already established a strong base of satisfied Customers.

About,
Recovery Force Inc.
www.recoveryforce.com
Recovery Force Inc. is a pioneer in data recovery and computer forensics, with a decade of experience in recovering critical business and personal data for clients throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

Media Contact:
Recovery Force Inc.
public-relations@recoveryforce.com
866-750-3169
www.recoveryforce.com

Media Contact:
Waterloo Data Fortress Inc.
Miro Forest
519-886-3130
www.waterloodatafortress.ca

Recovery Force Inc. Announces New Executive Management Appointment in Canada

2007-10-15T16:17:00.000-04:00

Guelph, Ontario Canada - October 15, 2007 - Recovery Force Inc. (Private Corporation),

Data Recovery Services company, announces that it has appointed Mr. Jose M. Gonzalez, Executive Vice-President, Mr. Gonzalez’s primarily responsibilities are to re-structure the Company Marketing and Sales to take the company to the next level of services across Canada, USA and other International regions.

Equipped with an Engineering Degree with Masters Degree in Communication, B.Sc. Honors Microwave Telecommunication and Business Administration Mr. Gonzalez has enjoyed a diverse and extensive career in the High Tech Industry. Mr. Gonzalez’s entrepreneur spirit and business acumen brings a fresh approach to marketing and sales and over-all management.

After many years in senior technical, sales and management positions with large, medium and small organizations, he moved to Broadband Learning Corp. as Vice-President of Operations in Canada. There, he helped grow that company's business in Canada from other company’s acquisition to the listing in the Toronto Stock Exchange in December of 2006.

"We look forward to utilizing Jose Gonzalez's unique talent and diverse experience to build our image and increase revenue for our company by providing the finest quality Data Recovery services."

Media Contact:
Recovery Force Inc.
public-relations@recoveryforce.com
866-750-3169
http://www.recoveryforce.com/

Data Recovery Discussion Forums

2007-09-28T09:50:00.000-04:00

We've added data recovery forums to our website to allow for open discussion about data recovery. Feel free to drop by and add your input.

Igility Canada is Recovery Force's Newest Service Partner

2007-08-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

The Recovery Force team is pleased to announce Igility Canada as our newest service partner.

Igility is an IT Services organization specializing in IT Infrastructure Solutions, IT Optimization and Managed Services.

Seagate for Sale?

2007-08-28T08:20:00.000-04:00

I just read an article from the New York Times that implies that Lenovo wants to buy Seagate Technologies. Click here to read the article.

Ways to Minimize Data Loss

2007-07-30T11:51:00.000-04:00

By Doug Coughey, President of Recovery Force
Published in Moving Business Forward Summer 2007 by the Guelph Chamber of Commerce

Are you convinced you won't lose your valuable company or personal data because of the following reasons?

You have a new computer
You have a good backup system in place
You have an excellent IT department
You have an excellent service provider
Everything is saved on the server
You have a disaster response plan in effect

To read the article, click here.
To read the entire magazine, click here.

Magnetic "wobbles" cause disk failure

2007-07-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

New research could lead to more reliable hard disks
From ITPro

Scientists have discovered one of the major causes of hard disk failure.

According to researchers working at the University of California and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, understanding certain types of disk drive failures, called magnetic avalanches, could help disk drive manufacturers produce more reliable storage.

Magnetic avalanches occur when a magnetic head hovers over a patch of disk drive causing the polarity of that part of the drive to change its alignment or spin. The patch's polarity in many magnetic materials changes in a haphazard series of large and small jumps that physicists liken to an avalanche - though the scientist's research showed it often behaves more like an explosion or runaway fire. These avalanches can cause sections of hard drive to lose data.

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Data Recovery

2007-06-05T12:12:00.001-04:00

The Recovery Force team is pleased to announce that we are now equipped to provide serial attached SCSI data recovery services. We can recover from a single SAS hard drive or from a 10 drive RAID 5 array. This compliments our current hard drive and RAID data recovery services.

If you require serial attached SCSI data recovery services, go to http://www.recoveryforce.com/sas.php or call 866-750-316 and talk to one of our team members.

Digital Investigators Recover Data

2007-05-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

VIK KIRSCH

GUELPH (May 30, 2007)

The basement in Doug Coughey's west-side two-storey brown brick residence looks like a NASA control room.

It sports banks of high-tech gear, as you might expect for a company specializing in digital data recovery and computer forensics.

In fact, founder and president Doug Coughey says his company, Recovery Force, is one of the most advanced data recovery labs around, with some of the best technology and most experienced staff.

Much of that business from companies or private individuals has been word of mouth.

Coughey said that's because the firm gets results.

"You've got to be a solution provider and trouble shooter," Coughey said.

Read More

Article was written by Vik Kirsch for the Guelph Mercury

Recovery Force Inc. Expands Services and Management Team

2007-05-28T13:37:00.000-04:00

Guelph, Canada, May 25, 2007 -- Recovery Force Inc. based in Guelph, ON, Canada, is excited to announce two new additions to the Recovery Force team. Michele Kasza assumes the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing and David Worthen, P.Eng. takes on the position of VP Business Development.

Michele Kasza brings to Recovery Force 18 years of experience in the computer hardware industry and has served for the past 2 years as Vice President of Sales for Connect Tech Inc. Michele’s talent, energy and enthusiasm will greatly boost Recovery Force’s efforts to build and strengthen Partner Programs for computer service providers as well as the development of channel sales.

David Worthen has accumulated 22 years of experience in the computer hardware industry; and, as owner and President of Connect Tech. (www.connecttech.com), his proven track record of building a successful business from the ground up to serving the global market. His business experience, understanding of operations and reputation for high ethics will be of much value to Recovery Force.

“We are thrilled to have David and Michele on board,” says Doug Coughey, President and founder of Recovery Force Inc. “Their addition extends our current product offerings allowing us to bring electronic repair into our existing portfolio. The business and marketing experience that they bring to the table will help us to grow our business while keeping customer service and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.”

With the new additions to the management team, Recovery Force will continue to expand their reach across Canada and throughout North America and will soon be introducing new products and services to benefit a wider variety of customers.

About Recovery Force Inc.

Founded 1997. Based in Guelph, Ontario.

Recovery Force Inc. is a pioneer in data recovery and computer forensics, with a decade of experience in recovering critical business and personal data for clients throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

For more information, visit the Recovery Force web site at www.recoveryforce.com.

Contact:

Recovery Force Inc
Michele Kasza
1-866-750-3169
mkasza@recoveryforce.com
www.recoveryforce.com

Orbex Technology Showcase

2007-04-25T19:50:00.000-04:00

The Recovery Force team had the honour to have a booth at Orbex's Technology Showcase, held at the Best Western in London, Ontario. We would like to thank Dwayne Mott of Orbex and his team for allowing us to attend and to all who stopped by to say hi and hear us explain how Recovery Force can handle their data recovery needs.

Is bigger better?

2007-04-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

With the recent announcement of a 1TB (1000GB) hard drive, the question has to be asked, “Is bigger better?” It is definitely a concern when users are storing so much data on a single point of failure. The ability to backup becomes a burden and usually does not happen.

For multimedia companies who deal with very large graphics, audio and video files, the large drives are welcomed with open arms; yet, they struggle with adequate measures for data loss prevention. The time needed to backup a 1TB hard drive is not a two to four hour nightly task, which forces the need for RAIDs.

The challenge for a RAID setup is that the very basic RAID 1 (Mirror) requires a second hard drive of equal or larger size. In the event that the user would like to add more space and use RAID 5, it will require three or more drives. However, RAIDs are not bullet proof and may sustain a crash, which may require restoration from backups. Again, we fall back to the dilemma of how to backup 1TB or more on a regular basis.

We seem to be caught in a catch 22; as the need for storage increases, the challenge to safely backup the data increases. The way I see it, the safest measure is to have two 1TB drives setup in a mirror and have it mirrored across a network to another two 1TB drives setup in a mirror at another location. The cost is huge when bandwidth and hardware is taken into account. This only solves the problem of a physical hard drive crash, but does not take into account file deletion or corruption, which would require another offline backup solution, as well.

So, it would appear that at the end of the day, as technology advances, the need for data recovery services is increasing. Recovery Force strongly encourages that backup solutions be implemented before data is lost. If you are searching for a service company that shares your concern for you precious data, call us at 866-750-3169 to find out whom we recommend.

If you have already experienced data loss and are looking for a solution to get your data back, call Recovery Force at 866-750-3169 for more information of go directly to our online data recovery job submission to start the evaluation process.

Data Recovery Programs

2007-02-22T14:39:00.001-05:00

There are lots of programs that claim to be the answer to all your data recovery needs. I suggest that they be used with lots of caution.

One program suggests that it is able to recover your data while working directly on your defective drive. It seeks out any bad sectors, digs any information it can out of those bad sectors and remaps the data to other sectors. Ironically enough, when I read through the user manual, it suggests backing up your data before running the program. A task that isn’t very easy to do when you can’t access the data in the first place.

Many programs are written and sold by data recovery labs who want your business. Their tools work great to recover data when a file is deleted or lost, but when the program detects signs of physical problems with your drive, the program suggests that you send the drive into the lab.

If you are experiencing data loss and would like to know how Recovery Force can help get your critical data back at a price you can afford, please call us at 866-750-3169.

To start an online data recovery job submission, click here.

Windows Vista Data Recovery Services

2007-01-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

With the release of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, Recovery Force is please to announce that we now provide data recovery services for systems that contain Vista or are connected to a Vista computer.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing data loss, Recovery Force is here to help. Call 866-750-3169 for immediate assistance.

To start a Windows Vista data recovery service, click here.

Leading Canadian Data Loss and Recovery Firms Sign Pact

2007-01-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

RECOVERY FORCE AND NORTEK PURSUE GROWING MARKET

Guelph, ON - A new strategic alliance between Nortek Computers Ltd. of North Bay and Recovery Force Inc. of Guelph will deliver enhanced data recovery and storage service and devices to their customers worldwide.

“Nortek has four world-class clean rooms, and will become our exclusive provider of high-end, clean room data recovery services,” says Doug Coughey, Recovery Force president.

Clean rooms are contaminant free spaces that allow Nortek to perform physical repairs to storage media.

Under the terms of the agreement, the firms will jointly market the repair, refurbishment and remanufacture of high-end storage devices, password recovery services, data sanitization and innovative and cost-effective solutions for any data loss situation.

“There is a natural fit between the two companies,” says Nortek President Bob Everest. “There are tremendous growth opportunities in data recovery and storage products. This agreement opens a new channel for marketing our advanced data solutions to a growing customer base.”

Companies are storing more and more data digitally. As the volume of digital information grows, so does the complexity of managing this ever-expanding library as well as the importance of safeguarding the vital business information it contains.

“This alliance is the next logical step for both Nortek and Recovery Force to meet the future needs of our customers and the market,” says Everest.

“It has been stated that: ‘34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% have found tape backup failures.’ Coughey asks the question: ‘Why is there such a need for our services if backups are working properly?”

-30-

About Nortek Computers Ltd.

Founded 1981. Based in North Bay, Ontario.

Nortek is a world leader in the repair, remanufacture and resale of high-end storage devices. Nortek’s innovative, quality solutions range from enterprise class storage devices to laptops. The company has an enviable success rate in general data recovery and a world leader in password recovery services. Nortek also supplies custom electronic engineering services to corporate clients.

Nortek employs 30 people in the North Bay area. For more information, visit the Nortek website at www.nortek.on.ca.

About Recovery Force Inc.

Founded 1997. Based in Guelph, Ontario.

Recovery Force Inc. is a pioneer in data recovery and computer forensics, with a decade of experience in recovering critical business and personal data for clients throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

For more information, visit the Recovery Force web site at www.recoveryforce.com.

Contacts:

Nortek
Bob Everest, President
1 877 474-2058
www.nortek.on.ca

Recovery Force
Doug Coughey, President
1 866 750-3169
www.recoveryforce.com

Best Data Recovery Tool, the Freezer?

2006-11-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

There seems to be a lot of people who support the concept of using the freezer as a tool to recover the data off their crashed hard drive. I'm sure there are times when this method "appears" to work, as I've talked to many who attest to the fact that it did. However, I'm not convinced that it is a method that should be used on valuable data. In most cases, it was pure coincidence that the drive worked after being in the freezer...we frequently see drives that work 1 in 100 times.

Here, at Recovery Force Inc, the most common data loss issues are because of bad sectors, deleted or overwritten files, blown chips on the PCB, corrupt firmware, head crashes and seized motors. In all of the above situations, the only situation that might allow the freezer "trick" to work, in theory, is the seized motor. Though, in that situation, extreme direct heat to the motor, might also help. The down side is that the freezer or applied heat could also compound the situation, if not destroy all chances of recovery.

When confronted with a crashed hard drive, it is always best to determine the value of the data on the drive. If the value is not worth having a professional data recovery service look at it, then, by all means, go ahead and give the freezer a try. On the other hand, if the value of the data is $300 or more, it would be worth having your drive diagnosed by professionals. In most cases, the assessment is free and there is no cost if data is not recovered.

To start an online job submission with Recovery Force Inc, click on the link below:

Data Recovery Job Submission

Novell Data Recovery Services

2006-09-29T11:10:00.000-04:00

Recovery Force is pleased to announce the added ability to recovery data from Novell's NWFS and NSS formated drives. Should you be experiencing data loss from your Novell system, call Recovery Force at 866.750.3169 to find out how we can get your data back.

Novell Data Recovery Request Form

Data Recovery Doesn't Have To Be Painstaking

2006-08-31T08:52:00.000-04:00

Here is a good article to reinforce the idea of backing up your data before your data is lost.

http://cbs4boston.com/consumer/local_story_242161024.html

Recovery Force is a strong supporter of preventative measures. Backup is only one of the ways we suggest. We also recommend having a technician regularly test your backup, as well as your system. When checking your system, they should not only be checking to see if your Anti-Virus definitions are up-to-date, but they should also be checking to see if your CPU fan is plugged, test your memory, system board and hard drive with a high quality diagnostic tool.

What we have found is that a simple thing like a defective CDRom or a plugged CPU fan can cause data corruption or unnecessary system crashes, which may result with lost data. Of course, even with a good system diagnostic and a backup, it is still possible to lose important data.

If you have lost data or are concerned about the safety of your data, contact Recovery Force or go directly to our online job submission at www.recoveryforce.com/startrequest.htm

For a list of our recommended service partners, go to www.recoveryforce.com/partners.htm

For a list of recommended backup options, go to www.recoveryforce.com/backup.htm

To contact Recovery Force, call 866-750-3169 or go to www.recoveryforce.com/contact.htm for more options.

Problems Printing from Acrobat Reader to a Brother Printer

2006-08-30T11:07:00.000-04:00

Having problems printing that PDF to your Brother printer? One of our network users was until I found a solution on the Brother website. If you try to print a PDF and get the error message, "The Document could not be printed," and you have a Brother printer, I suggest going here. Good luck!

Playing Russian Roulette With Your Business Data

2006-08-23T09:23:00.000-04:00

I found an article in the "Computer Technology Review" website and thought it was worth posting here. You can access it at the following url:

http://www.wwpi.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1306&Itemid=44

The Blue Screen of Death may be worse than you think

2006-07-20T10:15:00.000-04:00

Use Windows long enough and you will likely experience the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). The BSoD is the screen that tells you Windows has just had a fatal error and will now restart. If the BSoD appears when you are booting you could find it impossible to start your computer. At this point you might call in some technical help. Please be careful when you get outside help if this happens.
In this situation, it is not uncommon for a service technician to assume that the BSoD is caused by one of several things: a virus, corrupted windows or bad memory. Instead of attempting to backup the data on drive first, the technician might start with running a memory test or scanning the hard drive for viruses. They might even go as far as trying to run a repair install of Windows. Once the technician has exhausted all their options or the drive completely dies, they tell the client that there is nothing they can do. At this point the client's data is lost and they need a new hard drive.

The first step you or someone working for you should do when there is a drive problem is back the drive up at the bit level. To do this requires special skills and tools that not all technicians possess. We helped a client just the other day that experienced the situation described above. It turned out the drive had some bad sectors which prevented the proper restart of the computer. With the back up already completed we were able to restore ALL the data to a second drive that had a clean install of windows. By contacting us first the client was able to save time, data and money.

Recovery Force recommends that technicians always verify that all data on the suspect drive is backed up and that the backup is readable. If no backup exists, the technician should attempt to make a ghost image of the drive before going further with any diagnostics or attempts to repair the corrupted Windows. In the event that there is a problem or error reported during the backup of the drive, we recommend contacting a data recovery specialist immediately before more damage occurs.

Virus Related Data Recovery

2006-07-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

If I was asked a ten years ago how often I recovered data that was lost because of a virus, I would have to say weekly, if not daily. When asked the same question today, I have to be honest and say that it has been at least three years since a virus related recovery has come through our doors. This being said, there have been a few occasions when a system has been infected with a virus and during the process of trying to get the system cleaned up, the data has been accidentally deleted. In these cases, the cause for data loss is not the virus, but user error, which is the second most common reason for data loss.

Should you ever be so lucky as to have a virus pass through your anti-virus protection (I am assuming that you have it installed and up to date.), make sure that a complete backup of your hard drive has been created and verified.

In the event that you are unsure of what to do, contact Recovery Force at 866.750.3169 and we will recommend a computer service technician who will help you remove the unwanted virus without removing or damaging your critical files and photos.

Hard Drive Failure

2006-07-04T08:41:00.000-04:00

Even though human error does play a huge role in data loss, most of the data recovery jobs we do are on drives that have experienced physical damage of some sort. Should you find yourself in the situation where you cannot access the files on your hard drive and you have no backup or explanation as to why, it is probable that your hard drive has either crashed or is about to. For peace of mind, contact Recovery Force toll free at 866.750.3169 and one of our team members will be happy to assist you in developing a game plan to protect your valuable files.

RAID 5 Data Recovery

2006-06-15T15:19:00.000-04:00

Twice in the past week we have had to declare a RAID 5 job unrecovable because the technicians who responded to the service call overwrote the client’s data. Instead of taking proper measures to ensure that there was adequate backup from which to recover, the technicians rebuilt the RAIDs, reinstalled the OS and attempted to restore from backup. When they discovered that the backup data was was either corrupted or non existant, we were contacted. In both cases, the data was overwritten. In both cases, even though the initial crash was not the technician’s fault, the final result of the data being non-recoverable was the technician’s fault.

For more information about how the Recovery Force team can assist your technical team in recovering your business’s critical data, without making the situation worse, please call 866.750.3169.

New Authorized Service Partner

2006-06-13T11:05:00.000-04:00

Recovery Force Inc would like to announce that Garden Isle located in Prince Edward Island is the newest member of our authorized service partner team.

Garden Isle carries a complete line of computer peripherals, accessories and supplies needed for home or business, and can order a wide variety of software to suit your individual needs.

They also sell several brand name products such as Acer Laptops and Desktops, AOpen, AMD, Pentium, HP, Lexmark, Logitech, Edifier, etc. We stock a complete line of peripherals, accessories and supplies and we are able service all makes and models of computers. We are also happy to provide islanders with computer and accessory rentals on a daily, weekly or monthly term, as well as convenient leasing options.

Garden Isle always puts their client and client’s data first. This is why we are happy to recommend www.gardenisle.pe.ca to anyone in the Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island areas who may be unsure whether or not they need data recovery services.

New Authorized Service Partner

2006-06-09T16:45:00.000-04:00

Recovery Force Inc would like to announce that IMS, Island MicroSystems Ltd. is the newest member of our authorized service partner team.

IMS, has been providing Point-of-Sale Solutions, computer systems, networks, hardware and software maintenance and support to personal and business customers since 1980. Centrally located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada; IMS provides hardware and software service and support to clients from Nanaimo to Port Hardy and coastal sections of the mainland. With personnel in Campbell River, Courtenay, and Oyster Bay, IMS can respond quickly with professional service, support, analysis and recommendations.

IMS always puts their client and client's data first. This is why we are happy to recommend www.IslandMicro.com to anyone in the Vancouver Island and British Columbia areas who may be unsure whether or not they need data recovery services.

Lightning Storms

2006-06-09T16:13:00.000-04:00

As the summer months approach, the number of power surges and power outages will increase. Because of this, systems that don't have proper surge protection or a surge protector that fails will die. If this happens to you, I suggest that a backup of your drive be made right away. This will help you in two ways: the first being that if your drive is about to fail, you won't need data recvoery, and the second being that if your hard drive has failed or is in the process of failing, the problem will be detected early and the drive can be passed to someone who can ensure that you data is saved before further damage is done.

Unorthodox Data Recovery Methods

2006-06-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I have heard many technicians tell me how they have successfully recovered their client's data simply by putting the defective drive in the freezer. I have to admit that the process must work on some occasions, as there are many technicians who boast that this process has worked for them when they recovered data for their clients. However, this process is limited to issues that involve heat or friction. Personally, I have tested this method with several drives that were not recoverable by proper and safe recovery methods and that were deemed unrecoverable. In each case, the freezer has not helped.

When looking at the concept in more detail, it stands to reason that it will not work most of the time. Most clients that come to us experience data loss for any of the following reasons: deleted files, formatted hard drive, overwritten hard drive, blown circuit board, failed firmware, crashed heads, dead servo, platter damage, etc. None of these situations will be corrected by cooling down the hard drive. In fact, the process of cooling the drive down might result in increasing the damage to the drive and possibly causing the data to be unrecoverable or driving the recovery costs up.

If you are experiencing data loss and plan to have your local computer technician attempt to recover your data, be careful. That technician may compound the situation. A bad sign is if they do not ask the value of the data to you and/or your business. Quite often, we have clients come to us with a seriously damaged drive as a result of the technician’s negligence. They assume the data to of a minimum value and take a few stabs at retrieving the data. Once they have exhausted all their resources or the drive totally gives in, they tell the client that the data is unrecoverable. In many instances, we are still able to recover the client's data at a price much higher than the original situation would have needed. In other instances, we have to inform the client that it is too late and that we would have had a better chance of recovery if we would have received the drive when the problem first occurred.

In the event that you do lose your data and it is important to you, contact Recovery Force. Our technical team will provide you with the best level of service with the best price possible, without jeopardizing the chance of recovering your data. The assessment and quote process are free and there is no charge if we are not successful. For more information, call 866.750.3169 or go to www.recoveryforce.com.

iPod Data Recovery

2006-05-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

Our team has developed and tested procedures that allow us to recover data from iPods. If you are experiencing problems that are preventing you from accessing your music library or data files that are contained on your iPod, call our support team for assistance at 866-750-3169.

A clear covered hard drive?

2006-01-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

Western Digital has announced a hard drive with a clear cover. This should help data recovery labs with troubleshooting drive issues.

Storage expert warns of short life span for burned CDs

2006-01-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

STORAGE EXPERT WARNS OF SHORT LIFE SPAN FOR BURNED CDS

IBM experts are urging consumers -- and companies -- to consider magnetic tape storage devices if they want to preserve their digital content long term.
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,107607,00.html

Click on the link or copy and paste it into your browser
to view the story forwarded to you from Computerworld.com.

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Seagate to purchase Maxtor?

2006-01-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas, Seagate announced their intentions to acquire Maxtor. I have always been a big Seagate fan and am curious to see what this brings to the market. Here is a link to press release, http://www.seagatemaxtor.com/.

Test your backup hardware

2005-11-18T08:23:00.000-05:00

Quite often, when we return data to our clients, we use CD's or DVD's. Recently, we started to get word that our clients could read the disks, but couldn't actually open or copy the data off of them. Initially, we suspected a bad batch of DVD's. Yesterday, we ran a special hardware diagnostic on our DVD burners to find that one of them is defective. Fortunately for us, we were able to reburn the client's data again, using a different burner.

For those of you who use CD's or DVD's to backup your data, I strongly recommend that you test your disks on another system on a regular basis. Just because you can see the files on the disk, doesn't mean that they are any good, should you need to restore from them. Have a technician test your hardware on a regular basis...once or twice a year, at the very least.

If it is too late, and you find yourself with a crashed hard drive and defective backups, call Recovery Force Inc. at 866-750-3169.

If you lose your data, you could lose your business

2005-11-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

Special to the Globe & Mail - October 5, 2005
BY GEORGE BUTTERS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005
POSTED AT 8:21 AM EDT
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

What's your database of customer information worth?

That's a question Barry L. Dennis, president of Dennis Financial Inc. in Fredericton, has given a lot of
thought to since a computer virus corrupted his database of more than 10,000 business contacts developed
over a dozen years as a financial adviser.

"The bottom line is that you are at a standstill," he says. "Your focus changes from being in business to
getting back into business."

Mr. Dennis was able to restore his data from backups. He now has the information mirrored to a second
server and is more vigilant about antivirus protection, but insists that his staff have access to the database,
despite the likelihood that the virus gained entry to the central file server from an office workstation. "If I
wasn't sharing it," he says, "they wouldn't be empowered."

Was it a scary experience? "Yes," he says. "Yes, it was."

Yvonne Morrison-Miller knows how he feels, adding: "I never want to go through that again."

Her video production company -- Little Red Hen Productions in Hamilton -- creates motion graphics and
special effects for such clients as Universal Studios and the Outdoor Broadcast Network.

"My whole hard drive failed," she says. "Two months of work was on that computer. I didn't have a backup
of my most recent project. A lot of work was done and delivered to the client, but the movie project hadn't
been delivered yet. That was the scariest part."

But surely everyone who works on a computer has at least heard the dictum from the computer gurus: Back
up everything because at some point -- not if but when -- your data will be destroyed.

"When you're really into a project, you're not thinking about backups," Ms. Morrison-Miller says. "You're
thinking about the project."

Computer Associates International, Inc. released a study in late June confirming suspicions that small and
medium businesses are generally highly vulnerable to a range of cyberthreats.

The study found that even a quarter of the larger SMBs still used non-expert staff to maintain their IT
systems. That number doubled for smaller businesses and small office-home office, or SOHO, operations.
The study also confirmed that many SMBs have surprisingly complex computer systems, yet employ
manual security processes. Only 25 per cent used automated backup software while 20 per cent have no
backup system at all. As well, about a third of those who backup their data haven't checked the validity of
those backups in more than a year.

"That's quite accurate," says Chris Jones, director of business development at Recovery Force Inc. in
Guelph, Ont., who helped recover Ms. Morrison-Miller's files.

But he notes an even scarier statistic from a report issued by the National Archives and Records
Administration in Washington: "Nearly half of businesses that experience catastrophic data loss fail
immediately." That report also said 93 per cent of those businesses that suffered a data loss of 10 days or
more went bankrupt within a year after the incident.

Different studies reach different conclusions about the specifics of data loss, but tend to agree on the list of
most-to-least likely causes of data disruption: hardware and software problems, human error, computer
viruses and natural disasters.

There's also general agreement that a primary reason for a data loss turning from inconvenience to
catastrophe is the failure of backup systems to properly restore data after the initial incident.
"Information is the heart and soul of any organization," says Tim Margeson, general manager of CBL Data
Recovery in Markham, Ont. "Unfortunately, most people don't test their backups. They don't check it. They
don't run a fire drill for themselves."

Some backup programs, for instance, ignore software that is open and active at the time of the backups. "If
your e-mail software is open, for example," he says, "it may not be getting backed up."

Many businesses that suffer data loss are too embarrassed to talk about it publicly, but even nameless
stories help illustrate the potential for disaster, such as the fast-food outlet that used someone low on the
totem pole -- working the night-shift on minimum wage -- to perform the nightly backup of the store's
point-of-sale system.

"The backup consisted of a set of four diskettes," Mr. Jones says, but somehow one diskette went astray.

"The person changing them put in disk No. 1 again when it asked for No. 4." When the hard drive crashed,
there was nothing to restore. A month's worth of sales data had to be manually re-entered into the system.
Mr. Margeson says that even when backups are made and tested, they're often degraded by poor storage
practices.

"Backups need to be stored in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight. Not under your desk next to a
heat vent, or sitting on a window sill," he says.

"Ultimately, you want to have a full archival backup offsite."

But he acknowledges that many SMBs will have to peer into the abyss before properly protecting their vital
data: "It will take a disaster, unfortunately. That's what it will take."

To stripe or not to stripe

2005-10-27T09:21:00.000-04:00

With the coming of SATA technology, it seems most system board makers have included an on-board RAID controller, allowing users to mirror or stripe their data across multiple drives. In the documentation, they suggest that RAID 0 (striping) will increase your drive capacity to the combined size of the multiple drives, while increasing the read/write speed. They also suggest that RAID 1 (mirror) is intended for data integrity, as it is a live backup of your data to another drive. The question is, “is either method a good option for you?”

This is a tough question to answer, as each situation really needs to be assessed on its own. However, I will do my best to address a few issues that may be worth considering before you make the decision to use this new technology.

First off, let’s look at the concept of the mirror. It seems rather simple and safe to use this technology, as it is a live backup of everything that is written to the hard drive. When working, this is a great way to eliminate down time, should a hard drive fail, and eliminate data loss. But, what I have noticed with several of my clients who have come to me to recover their data from such a setup is that the mirror can stop working without notifying the user. So, when the working drive fails, the data on the other drive is out dated and no longer useful to the user.
Now, with respect to the stripe; yes, it is fast and allows for a lot of storage space. The problem with the stripe is that if any drive in the array fails, none of the data stored on the array will be accessible without the help of a data recovery lab. And, when a data recovery lab works on a stripe set, they typically charge according to the number of hard drives in the array. Even if 2 out of 3 drives are in good working order, you may find yourself paying for 3 hard drive data recoveries.

In conclusion, I do believe that each of these methods do have a purpose and a place to be used. If the data you have to be stored on your computer is important to you, seek professional advice on the best method of backup is right for you. Should you be thinking of buying a large external hard drive, such as LaCie’s 500GB Big Disk, please note that these devices actually contain two 250GB hard drives setup in a stripe set. My suggestion is to make sure that the data on this device be backed up to another location.

Maxtor Expands Portfolio To Include 500gb Hard Drives For Enterprise, Consumer And Desktop Markets

2005-10-25T16:59:00.000-04:00

Storage Networking World - ORLANDO, FL, October 24, 2005 – Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO), a worldwide leader in hard disk drives and consumer storage products, announced today that the company is shipping its next-generation SATA II and ATA/133 MaXLine^® (enterprise applications), QuickView^® (consumer electronics – DVRs and PVRs) and DiamondMax^® (desktop) brand hard drives with a capacity point up to 500GB this quarter. Each brand leverages a core platform, advanced technologies and design and is optimized with value-added feature sets for its specific market environments.

Click here to see the whole article.

Second Opinions

2005-10-24T15:33:00.000-04:00

Very frequently, I get phone calls from people who have sent their hard drives into data recovery labs that boast having a class 100 clean room and a high success rate. After sending their job in for a free evaluation, they are either quoted a price that is far beyond their budget will allow or they are told that their data is unrecoverable. In many cases, the high price is necessary to cover the company’s high overhead and the data is unrecoverable because the technician determines that the amount of work involved to recover the data costs more than the amount that could be quoted.

If you find yourself in a situation where the quoted price is far beyond that which you can afford or you are told that your data is unrecoverable, seek a second opinion. Most reputable data recovery service companies offer a free evaluation and quote. It only makes sense to explore all your options before giving up on your lost data files.