How To Preserve Data Integrity and Prevent Further Damage In a Data Loss

Scenario

SERT Data Recovery

www.sertdatarecovery.com1750 N Florida Mango Rd

#406WPB, FL 33409

SERT Data Recovery was formed to offer affordable, reliable, and transparent data recovery services.

Specialize in RAID, NAS, Mechanical and Firmware Hard Drive Repair, Broken Flash Drives, NAND Recovery

Development Team With Over 25 Years ExperienceCLASS 100 ISO 5 Certified Clean Work Bench

HIPAA Certified and Compliant

Local and National Services

Computer Repair: General PractitionerIT Company: Orthopedist/Neurologist

Data Recovery Company: Brain Surgeon

Computer Repair, IT, or Data Recovery Company?

SERVICE AREA

Data Recovery Principle

 If you don’t know why the data is not accessible: if you don’t

have the experience or technology to accurately diagnose and repair the

problem… don’t try to recover the data.

When the data is worth $400+

What is Your Success Rate?

Previously Worked On: 80% Catastrophic Head Crash: 20%

What are FAILURES due to:

We have a 100% success rate on “recoverable” cases.

Data Recovery Process Do Your Due Diligence – Ask The Right Questions(What happened to the drive, did it fall, was it bumped or banged, making any noises, what has been done to it so far, is it spinning, does it get power)

1. Identify the Symptoms (Tell me what happened)2. Determine the Cause 3. Develop/Implement a Plan 4. Recover the Data

I Don’t Want My Drive Repaired…

I Just Want My Data Back

1. Hard Drive Repair

2. Data Recovery

The process of bringing a failed or failing drive to a fully functional condition temporarily in order to image the drive. (Firmware or Hardware Failures)

This is where the files are actually recovered from the drive to a stable and safe environment to be delivered back to the client. (Advanced Recovery Utilities)

Common Disaster Areas• Recovery Software• Dropped Drives• Bad Sectors• Opening a Hard Drive• Head Swaps • Platter Swaps• Clicking Drives• Overwritten Data• Monolithic Flash Drives • RAID 0 & 5 Issues• NAS Devices (Drobo,LaCie, Synology)

Recovery Software

2. Failing Drives – Do Not Run Check Disk

1. Deleted DataThe safest time to use recovery software is when you know the data has been deleted. Most users install it on the same drive they are recovering from. HFS+ is the least forgiving in recovering data that has been deleted.

If you don’t know why the drive is failing, or if it has bad sectors, using software to recover the data is like playing Russian roulette. Dependingon why it is failing, it will cause the drive to fail quickerand potentially damage the drive to the point it is notrepairable or recoverable.

Dropped DrivesThe First Thing Everyone Does Is The Worst Thing

When a drive experiences any shock, there is at least a 50% chance the read/write head assembly has come out of alignment or even worse, come out of its parking place. If the drive is spinning and this happens, the chance of damage rises drastically.

Dropped Drives

1. What is the first thing everyone does?2. Internal damage?

Bad Sectors1. Causes file system and file corruption2. Software will get stuck in most cases 3. Drive must be imaged using special

hardware to avoid killing the drive4. Do not run check disk5. Cannot be repaired

Opening a Hard Drive1. Do you know what your looking for?2. Do you know how to fix it when you find

it?3. Are you in a safe environment?4. Alignment Issues5. Last resort for professionals6. Don’t do it!

Head Swaps

1. Needs to be done in a certified clean room.2. Finding a donor requires almost finding an

exact match.3. Donor vendors know what the drives are

being used for. 4. Platter damage will ruin the donor heads.

Platter SwapsCan’t you just take the platters out and suck

the data off?Can’t you just take the platters out and put

them in another drive?The only time a recovery warrants a platter swap is when the motor/spindle is seized. Very few companies in the US can do this procedure.

Clicking DrivesUsually a drive will click because the heads cannot read the service area on the platter and does not know where to go next. Some times this is due to corruption to the modules located in service area.

1. Clicking drives do not automatically need a clean room, or head swap.

2. Many firmware related issues cause clicking

3. Platter damage will cause a drive to click4. Bad Heads also will cause a drive to click

Overwritten DataPlain and simple. GAME OVER….

Monolithic Flash Drives 1. No printed circuit board2. All components inside the memory chip

itself3. Requires knowing the pinout4. Very difficult to reverse engineer

RAID 0 & 5 Issues

1. Power down immediately2. Do not force back online3. Do not reinitialize4. 1 & 2 drives down5. Need to know why the failure

occurred6. Basically don’t do anything you

would not bet your life on

NAS Devices (Drobo, LaCie, Synology, Etc)

1. Tech support is NOT your friend2. Do not run disk utility or check

disk3. Do not reinitialize4. Do NOT use the default/proprietary

array configurations BeyondRAID (Drobo), SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID)

5. Always set RAID to custom RAID 5 or 6

6. Need the box for recovery 90% of the time

Drobo SupportOn May 19 at 10:13 AM the disk in the 3rd slot from the top with serial number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX was power cycled because it had become unresponsive and when it was redetected it was assigned a new logical disk number.At that point the array is down one drive so the Drobo started data protection.While trying to complete, the disk with serial number YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY started misbehaving causing the Drobo to reboot because now this disk was critical to the operation of the array.If you can get a good clone of the disk we should be able to get the array stabilized.

Kind Regards,XXXX X.Technical Support Agent

Free Evaluation on drives without previous attempts to recover data (includes software)

24 – 48hr Diagnostics

If we don’t recover the data – You don’t pay the recovery fee

SERT Data Recovery

www.sertdatarecovery.com1750 N Florida Mango Rd

#406WPB, FL 33409