Vantage Data Recovery

In Anatomy of a Hard Drive, we looked at how a hard drive works, and the mechanics of writing bits of data by magnetically encoding it onto rapidly spinning disks.  Consider this: Eight bits make a byte.  One million bytes makes a megabyte.  One thousand megabytes, or one billion bits, makes a gigabyte.  That 300 GB drive in your system?  Three hundred billion bytes, or 2.4 billion bits!  So how does the drive keep track of them all?  Through a system which provides for an operating system format, layered over a low-level or physical format. Continue reading ‘Cylinders, Heads and Sectors, Oh My!’ »

People are always asking us for advice regarding data storage and security issues, usually in an attempt to avoid future problems after a major data loss catastrophe that has required our data recovery services.  Questions about anti-virus software, spyware detection, and backup methods are fairly common, and we do our best to provide answers (or at least, to point people in the right direction).  But, by far, one of the most common questions we get is “who makes the best hard drive?” Continue reading ‘What Hard Drive Would You Recommend?’ »

I was introduced to someone the other day, and after the usual small talk, she asked what I did.  Following a very brief explanation of what I meant by data recovery, there was a pause.  I cringed waiting for the inevitable question – “How do you do that?” Continue reading ‘Data Recovery? How Do You Do That?’ »

You have made the decision.  Your data is important and you need it back.  You are going to use a professional data recovery company.  So what can you do to help assure a successful recovery?

Choose wisely…

Don’t pick a company just because it’s the closest, the cheapest or has the coolest name.  While cost is often a driving factor, capabilities and experience should be your first concern. Continue reading ‘Getting the Most From Your Data Recovery Company’ »

Data gets lost.  It’s a fact of modern life.

We all store lots of data.  Photos, financials, our latest novel, customer accounts, emails, new product development ideas, genealogy records, engineering specs, tax returns, term papers, spreadsheets, programming code, business plans, music.  You name it, we save it, both for personal and for business use. Continue reading ‘What’s Your Data Worth?’ »

Hard drive: noun – a mechanical device used in computers for storing and retrieving data, generally consisting of a spindle, motor, one or more disks, a corresponding number of read-write heads attached to an actuator, inside a case, with a circuit board attached.

Hard drive technology has evolved rapidly since the introduction of the Winchester drive in the 1960’s.  With ever-increasing size and speed has come new interfaces, magnetic coatings, data recording methods, etc., but the general mechanics have remained the same. Continue reading ‘Anatomy of a Hard Drive’ »

Data recovery is not meant to be a foolproof alternative to backing up.  Any professional data recovery company that has been in business for a while has experienced situations where data could not be recovered, or not recovered in its entirety.  If your hard drive suffers a head crash and scrapes all of the magnetic coating off your disks, no one can put it back.  If your data is erased, then physically overwritten, it’s gone.  Continue reading ‘The 99% Data Recovery Rate Myth’ »

We get a lot of calls from people with damaged flash drives a.k.a. “thumb” drives.  Many people use them to backup important data from their laptop or desktop system, which is fine in the short run, but their very nature makes them somewhat unreliable in the long run.  The things that make them so attractive to us – they are small, lightweight and portable – make them vulnerable from a data loss standpoint. Continue reading ‘Data Loss – Gone in a Flash!’ »

If someone steals your laptop, there isn’t a data recovery company in the world who can help you.  While it may hurt to have to replace the laptop (there are companies who will insure them), what about the data?  What if someone else had access to it?  Think about what’s on your laptop.  Continue reading ‘Preventing Laptop Data Loss – Literally’ »

Digital photography is everywhere.  From professional studio portraits to casual vacation snapshots, digital media is getting a workout.  But digital photos, like all other data, are subject to loss.  There is nothing as gut-wrenching as that “format card Y/N” message when you are attempting to off load your photos.  While no system is completely foolproof, there are some steps you can take to keep your photos safe. Continue reading ‘Safeguarding Your Digital Photo Media’ »