12 ways to beat data loss for the Holidays

12 ways tobeat data loss for the Holidays

12 drinks drunk away from the laptop

11 kids kept out of computer room

10 GB’s of videos backed up

9  friends added to Facebook

8 best pics sent to mates

7 parties with BYOTechnology

6  mil is too far to drop an external

5 port surge protector

4 syncs to itunes

3 dvd’s cut of holiday memories

2 copies of original data

1 Happy Computer User

The Ten Tips of Raid Loss Prevention

The Ten Tips of Raid Loss Prevention

1. Schedule regular backups.
2. Perform regular backups.
3. Verify that your backups are functional – we refer to this as a fire drill.
4. Store at least one of the backups somewhere away from the office.
5. Leave your server in an environment free of humidity, dust and smoke.
6. Use power surge protectors.
7. Use anti-virus software and update it frequently to scan and screen all incoming data and emails with attachments.
8. Handle your server with care and protect it from mishandling.
9. Turn off your server if it makes any unusual noises. Do not re-initialise if there is a failure and you are unsure of the nature of that failure.
10. Dissuade both staff and volunteers with good
intentions, but lacking server knowledge, from doing DIY upgrades or trouble shooting - data human error can be unkind to data.

If you have any questions on raid recovery ask - please call in Australia 1800 287 225. ( In Sydney 02 9437 5755 )   ( In Brisbane 07 3283 3303 )

 http://www.sydneydatarecovery.com.au/raid-recovery.htmlhttp://www.sydneydatarecovery.com.au/raid-recovery.html

It's a RAID - Call for rapid RAID recovery response

IT’S A RAID!

When you hear those words, what first pops into your mind?

A sudden assault or attack?

To search without warning?

A redundant array of inexpensive or independent disks?

An insecticidal spray to kill bugs?

Raids occur frequently in the technology sector.   

During the Internet’s infancy, computer users frequently lost data as result of bugs and viruses which quickly spread throughout the net.  

What advice, however, do you offer customers to whom you sold that redundant array of inexpensive or independent disks or who call you when they cannot access their data on their RAID? 

IT’S A RAID! Take command of the situation. Note the following advice:

§                       Do not panic.

§                       If a drive is making unusual mechanical noises, turn it off immediately and get assistance.

§                       Do not replace the failed drive with a drive that was part of a previous RAID system.

§                       Have a valid backup before making hardware or software changes.

§                       Try to restore the backup to secondary system rather than the failed system.

§                       Do not run volume repair utilities on suspected bad drives.

§                       Do not run defrag on suspected bad drives.

§                       Do not attempt to repair the failed device or array.

§                       Label the drives with their position in the RAID array and

§                       Call Sydney Data Recovery  At 1800 287 225

 So next time, you hear “RAID” don’t panic.  Call in Sydney 02 9437 5755 

Sydney technicians are eager and ready for a rapid RAID recovery response.  After all, IT’S A RAID!

Raid 1 + 0 - can fail too

Raid 10

You have a failed Raid 10 : Make Sure all drives are numbered and clearly marked

RAID 10 is implemented as a striped array whose segments are RAID 1 arrays

RAID 10 has the same fault tolerance as RAID level 1

RAID 10 has the same overhead for fault-tolerance as mirroring alone

High I/O rates are achieved by striping RAID 1 segments

Under certain circumstances, RAID 10 array can sustain multiple
simultaneous drive failures

Excellent solution for sites that would have otherwise gone with RAID 1
but need some additional performance boost


But did you know:

All drives must move in parallel to proper track lowering sustained
performance

Very limited scalability at a very high inherent cos




*Questions for the reader:


How many drives have failed? are they logical, electrical or physical
failures. Are the drives a matched set. Do you know if the failure of
the two drives was at the same time or has one drive failed and the
second went out at a later date?

Keep the order of the drives - number them before removing any drives.

Has the Raid been reinitialised? - if not DO NOT allow a reinitialisation

Are you able to supply the Raid controller?

Capacity of the drives (how many GB for each drive)
What type of drives (IDE ,SCSI, SATA)

Block Size used? (offset of starting block)
Details - additional RAID information

5 Essential Tips For Your RAID5

5 Essential Tips For Your RAID5

As the cost of drives become cheaper, and capacity is expanded, it is not surprising to find the popularity of RAID5 systems increasing.

However, like any other computer component, they are subject to failure.

Follow these essential tips to ensure you keep your RAID running smoothly, and your data intact.

1 - Backup Regularly

RAID5 is not a substitute for regular proven backups.

RAID5 cannot prevent problems occurring from deleted or overwritten files, formatted partitions, file structure damage, virus activity or user error.

RAID5 is designed to be hardware fault tolerant, not software fault tolerant.

Restoring from your backups is sometimes the only method of recovering from logical data problems.

Also, do not backup from your RAID5 to another file, directory or partition on your RAID5 - if your entire RAID5 fails over, so does your entire data set.


2 - Maintain Drive Comfort

Multiple drives all spinning concurrently can generate a lot of heat.

Be liberal with your cooling methods, a single fan is the absolute minimum, better to have a fan blowing through the spacing between the drives, and a second fan helping to exhaust the warm air.

Also be diligent in dusting out your enclosure as computer fans have a nasty habit of bringing any outside dust inside the case where it can settle on components, raise temperatures and cause electrical damage.


3 - Monitor RAID Status

Most major software RAID programs and hardware RAID card manufacturers can create logs detailing all sorts of useful information on your RAID.

Ranging from performance values to outright failure notification, it is wise to use these logs to your advantage

For example, they can inform you that a drive has been dropped from the array perhaps through a bad data cable and is no longer detecting.

Without any warning you may not notice this failure since your RAID will simply continue running in degraded mode until the problem is repaired.

Extra tip: Setup a periodic, automatic email of the log files to your email account to ensure that you are on top of any problems that may arise during the day to day running of the system.


4 - Keep A Spare Identical Drive

It is only a matter of time before a drive in your RAID5 starts to degenerate with read errors, or fails entirely due to motor failure or the click of death.

Thanks to RAID5 reliability you can counter this by replacing the failed drive without too much effort.

Before, you simply power down and replace the drive (or hotswap) ensure your backups are in working order, because Murphy is currently eyeing your RAID which now has zero tolerancy for failure.

Replacing the drive with the exact same model will ensure the same performance from your RAID as before the failure occurred.

Secondly, if your RAID does happen to sustain a multiple drive failure from which you cannot recover, a power surge comes immediately to mind, having a spare drive readily available for parts for a specialist data recovery laboratory may save you time and money.


5 - Label Your Drives

When it does come time to replace a drive in your array, it pays to know the exact one you should be replacing.

More often than not further problems are caused by accidently replacing an incorrect drive, which can 'confuse' many controllers - even after drive order is returned.

Do yourself a favour and label the drives as they are marked in the controller card or software configuration you use.

http://www.sydneydatarecovery.com.au/raid-recovery.html

Raid 0 – failed? needing answers!

Raid 0 – failed needing answers call or online

http://australiadatarecovery.com.au/raid-0-data-recovery/


You have a failed Raid 0 :

You set it up for speed- RAID 0 implements a striped disk array, the data is broken down into blocks and each block is written to a separate disk drive,

Raid 0 - I/O performance is greatly improved by spreading the I/O load across many channels and drives

Raid 0 -Best performance is achieved when data is striped across multiple controllers with only one drive per controller

Raid 0 -Very simple design and was easy to implement

all this you may know but did you read the Small print for your Raid 0 -:

* The failure of just one drive will result in all data in an array being lost*

* Should never be used in mission critical environments


*Questions for you:

If there is 1 failed drive is it a logical failure or a physical failure. Any unsual noises remove the power immediately and completely.

Are the 2 hard drives a matched set - this can sometimes help in the speed of turn around as parts can be utilized from the good drive to bring the failed drive up to spec.

Or at the very least in a state that data can be mirrored.

The lab will require both hard drives sent in and can do a lab evaluation and quote same day of its arrival.

The quote will let you know the firm quote and time required to get your data back to you.

Channeling the right service partner

Channeling the right service partner

The data recovery market and what resellers need to know about this market – responses to CRN’s questions from Vicky Brauner, Managing Director, CBL Data Recovery

What is the best approach for resellers taking on data recovery for the first time?

First of all, let me say that data loss is pretty much inevitable. Regardless of whether it’s a stolen laptop containing vital emails, or the faulty backup that means data is gone when disaster strikes, chances are that data loss will affect most of your customers in their working lives.

Reselling a data recovery service gives you the opportunity to swoop in and save the day. It’s a brilliant way to cement loyalty – if you are sure the service you’re offering is truly the best in its class and will, in most cases, restore some or all of their data. So in my view, the best approach for resellers is to jump into the market with both feet, having first made sure that you’re working with a quality provider.

What types of data recovery organisations do resellers need to look out for?

There are a number of questions you can ask to work out a service provider’s capabilities – the first of which is to ask their success rate.

At CBL, we stake our life on our success rate, by offering a “no recovery – no charge” service which means we only get paid when we succeed in recovering data.

We’ve been operating this way since CBL’s Canadian parents opened 14 years ago, so it’s testament to our capabilities that CBL now supports two Australian facilities and has a presence in 10 of the world’s largest markets.

We recommend resellers also check on a provider’s expertise. For instance, I would always ask “do you work on my original drive?” and be prepared to back away quickly if the answer is “yes”.

Working on original drives is a huge mistake because, if things go wrong – and let’s not forget here that we’re piecing together bits and bytes – the damage is irreversible.

Additionally, many smaller data recovery companies may also only really be capable of dealing with PC hard drives, and very few providers have actual experience with complex enterprise storage devices such as RAID arrays.

Another issue that’s important to resellers is geographic reach. One of CBL’s resellers,

Scott Jones, General Manager of IT Leaders which provides IT products and services to over 500 clients in NSW and QLD, says having a local Australian supplier on board gives clients peace of mind that their hard drives are not being shipped overseas and also makes it easier for them to deliver their affected media within 24 hours.

A final differentiator between data recovery services providers is their commitment to customer service.

Resellers, of course, know that customer service is a life or death issue, and so we weren’t surprised when a company of the calibre of IT Leaders was hesitant to let us speak directly to customers in the early days of our relationship.

However, I’m happy to say that, having established CBL’s commitment to service, Scott is now happy to let us deal direct with his customers – keeping him in the loop - so as to save time during the recovery process.

What kind of rewards and incentives work well for resellers in today’s marketplace?

Different providers vary in their commissions back to resellers – CBL provides a flat 20 percent – while some providers lure resellers by focusing on rewards programs with significant cash and overseas holidays. The decision for resellers, of course, is weighing the reward or commission against the ease of dealing with the data recovery services provider as well as how likely their customer is to value the outcome of the project.

Most importantly, what types of resellers suit the data recovery market?

Data recovery is a service that fits naturally with any reseller operation involving hardware with storage media – from digital cameras through to 2TB Raid servers.

The most important thing to remember is that, when carried out by a quality provider, data recovery services can provide you an additional source of revenue and, if it helps you alleviate their pain when data gets lost, can cement their loyalty to you. If that’s the type of business offering you’d like, then data recovery is a service you just might be fond of.

About CBL Data Recovery Technologies Pty Ltd.

Since its establishment of operations in Australia in 2003, CBL Data Recovery Technologies Pty Ltd (CBL) has experienced a fast growing demand for its data recovery services and expertise. From coast-to-coast, individuals, corporations and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depend on CBL to recover lost data as a result of hardware failure, natural disaster, software malfunction, virus contamination, or human error. Headquartered in Brisbane, CBL also has facilities in Sydney and can be found on the web at www.cbltech.com.au. Resellers interested in becoming a CBL partner can call 1800 287 225, email partners@cbltech.com.au, or register online at www.cblpartners.com.au.