What have we been up to recently?

Here are some of our more challenging jobs that we have received together
with details of how we have overcome any data recovery complications!

Handling electronic evidence

Posted on 23rd December 2013 by Shaun Weston
ACPO publish strict guidelines for data to be used as evidence. It is important that these are strictly adhered to when investigating computers. In summary, no action taken by law enforcement agencies, persons employed within those agencies or their agents should change data which may subsequently be relied upon in court. In circumstances where a person finds it necessary to access original data, that person must be competent to do so and be able to give evidence explaining the relevance and the implications of their actions.

An audit trail or other record of all processes applied to digital evidence should be created and preserved. An independent third party should be able to examine those processes and achieve the same result. The person in charge of the investigation has overall responsibility for ensuring that the law and these principles are adhered to.

What is logical failure?

Posted on 15th January 2015 by Aran Pitter
A client's server was not responding and attempts to re-boot failed. The client's IT support disassembled the virtual machine to prepare for launching a new server; however after one of the virtual storage volumes was forcibly detached and re-connected, Windows found the volume to be corrupt. Given the timescales to rebuild the environment, the clients asked us to intervene. After a one hour diagnosis, our engineers were able to rebuild the virtual server in less than 36 hours.

Flood damaged hard drive

Posted on 10th December 2013 by Tony Johnson
In the most extreme cases logical failure can include a hard drive that spins up fine, but is subsequently not recognized by the computer’s BIOS. In a logical failure the hard drive's electronic components and mechanical components are all working properly. Logical failures occur as a result of defective media (platter degradation) or data corruption from another source (destroyed file table, etc).

Almost all logical failures can be recovered without the need to open the hard drive. While there are a number of logical data recovery software programs on the market, its important to know why your drive has experienced a logical failure before you attempt to recover your data. If you misdiagnose a logical failure, you can cause irreparable damage to the drive in your recovery attempt.

Recovering CT scans

Posted on 15th October 2013 by Aran Pitter
The radiography department of a leading NHS Trust hospital approached us to recover the health records when their server failed. The LINUX server had suffered a common firmware fault on a RAID system, which we had to rebuild. We were able to recover the patient records and scan images within two working days. This timely recovery saved the time, expense and discomfort of re-scanning the patients and may well have saved people's lives.

Digital manipulation of photographs

Posted on 7th October 2013 by Aran Pitter
Image error level analysis is a technique that can help to identify manipulations to compressed (JPEG) images by detecting the distribution of error introduced after resaving the image at a specific compression rate. JPEG images use a lossy compression system. Each re-encoding (resave) of the image adds more quality loss to the image. Specifically, the JPEG algorithm operates on an 8x8 pixel grid. Each 8x8 square is compressed independently. If the image is completely unmodified, then all 8x8 squares should have similar error potentials. If the image is unmodified and resaved, then every square should degrade at approximately the same rate. If it is modified then each square will not degrade at the same rate!

Firmware updates

Posted on 20th September 2013 by Aran Pitter
Having the latest firmware can improve performance and or reliability of your hard drive. Like any software, firmware is improved over time and problems are also fixed. Many drive families have a couple of firmware releases during the life of the product. Until recently, firmware updates for typical desktop and laptop computers were difficult and somewhat risky. This situation, in part, was based on a lack of friendly firmware download tools and operating system limitations.

Pulling memory sticks out without shutting down

Posted on 13th September 2013 by Aran Pitter
When removing your memory stick from your computer, it is imperative to disconnect the device safely. Otherwise removing the power while the memory stick is reading or writing data means you are taking the chance that the device can shut itself down into a safe state within milliseconds. This is a tall order and to expect it to work every time without fail is hoping the controller designers got their sums right.

Are you introducing risk into your Virtual Environment?

Posted on 23rd August 2013 by Geraint Jones
Snapshots are stored by default in the same location as the VHD file, so the snapshot files can build up and choke the storage of a disk with limited available space. Your first inclination may be to delete those snapshot files if you don't need them using the Hyper-V Manager. This won't actually get rid of those snapshot files; it will merely mark them for a merge into your main VHD. The next time you shut down the virtual machine the merge will occur, so if you have many snapshots this can take a bit of time. Thus, there aren't any quick ways to relieve disk space issues with snapshots without a complete shutdown of a virtual machine, so be sure to plan your snapshots appropriately and make time for maintenance to avoid future issues.

Hard drives in the freezer?

Posted on 8th August 2013 by Aran Pitter
A hard drive has a breather hole in the chassis. This is to allow pressures to equalise both inside and out when the drive is spinning. Although this breather hole is only tiny and does have a filter, moisture can easily penetrate! Whilst it is true that if you can keep a failing hard drive cool, you may be able to run it for a longer period enabling you to retrieve valuable information before it crashes - once the drive has already failed, there is little that can be done by cooling the mechanics. Indeed putting your hard drive in the freezer, risks moisture ingress. Similarly, a sudden cooling may also cause any minute water particles inside the drive to condensate. My suggestion would be to leave the freezer well alone! Better to use a desktop fan on the drive whilst it is spinning!

LTO-5 drives overwriting data

Posted on 22nd July 2013 by Aran Pitter
A LTO-5 was sent to us for data recovery. The client reported that the tape was not even mounting. There should have been 1.2TB of data on the tape and that during the copy operation the drive had reset and rewound then continued writing. At about 1.15TB something went wrong, the drive rewound the tape but the LTFS software/drive that was transferring the data to the tape did not get an error from the drive and so kept merrily transferring data. This data was then written from the start of the data partition and overwriting what had been written earlier!

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Free Data Recovery Evaluation

"Our free hard drive data recovery evaluation service will tell you whether your data can be recovered, exactly how much it will cost and how long the data recovery will take. Simply phone or email us for a job number and send your data recovery to us. Your hard drive or media will be photographed, catalogued and bar-coded and the data recovery evaluation will start within an hour of receipt."

File Listing Of Recoverable Files

"Once in the laboratory, your media will undergo a comprehensive data recovery evaluation to determine the extent of the data loss. We aim to complete this process within 24 hours depending on the complexity of work involved. The engineers will provide a no obligation recovery prognosis, with a guaranteed list of recoverable files and an estimated timescale. You can then decide whether to proceed with the recovery. Should you choose not to proceed, we will return your media by secure data courier."

Completing the Data Recovery

"Should you choose to proceed, the data recovery process will be completed and the data will be safely stored on our servers. We will then copy out the data to your preferred choice of output media - either 64Gb memory stick or HDD (for purchase or loan). Your data will be dispatched on our secure, next day courier service. Once you have received your data any copies of your data will be permanently and securely erased from our servers after 7 days."

Established and Trusted

"40 years experience in the data recovery industry chairing ISO and BSI standards, we have developed a reputation for excellence at a price that is affordable. With extensive data recovery research and development capabilities, our success rates are second to none - without compromising on our prices! This is why over 36,000 companies and individuals come to us every year."

Safeguarding Your Data

"Your data is important to us, which is why all our data recovery procedures comply with the Association of Chief Police Officers Guidelines and Civil Procedure Rules for handling electronic evidence. Great care is taken when recovering and handling your data to ensure that its integrity is maintained and that there is a clear audit trail through the entire data recovery process."

Industry Leading Diagnostics

"Our data recovery laboratory completes over 120 successful recoveries every day from clients including the BBC, NHS and Ministry of Defence. With ISO 27000 (Information Security) and ISO 9001 (Quality Management) accreditation - we are a data recovery company you can rely upon! Class 100 clean rooms, specialised platter removal jigs and software applications allow us to provide the most comprehensive service in the industry."

"I would definitely recommend them to all"

"I had an employee who kept two years worth of his work, on his local drive rather than his network drive. When the drive died the user was in a panic! I send the drive to Data Recovery Specialists, who were able to recover all the users data, promptly and at a good price too! I would recommend them to all - 5 Stars!" - Gary Mulvihill

"You guys saved my company"

"Laptop died with everything for my business on, all invoices, contacts, emails, resources and financials. One data recovery 'expert' just said "your hard drive is dead", but everything was recovered by DRS... Also, provided an extremely fast turn around for reasonable price, where other companies were asking for a significantly higher fee just to look at the computer. Literally, you guys saved my company. I can not thank you enough!!!" - Andrew Laundy

"Professional and friendly throughout"

"I am so pleased as data recovery specialists managed to recover all of my thousands of photographs which I stupidly didn't back up. Service was great and fast. The service wasn't cheap, but they kept in touch with me the entire time, and were professional and friendly throughout. And they recovered my data too!" - Claire Whalley

"I would definitely recommend them for hard drive recovery"

"What do you do when faced with a data recovery situation - I just wanted to cry. After an internet search and phoning around several companies, Data Recovery Specialists seemed to be the best solution. Even though it was a Saturday, they dealt with my enquiry and assured me they could help. I sent my hard drive to them and within a day of receipt they had already determined what was recoverable. They quote was reasonable and I am so thankful to Data Recovery Specialists. I would definitely recommend them for hard drive recovery!" - Shaun Weston

"I would definitely use them again"

"Our RAID-5 failed after two hard drives went down with mechanical issues. Data Recovery Specialists were recommended and they immediately responded to our enquiry. On reciept of the RAID hard drives they expedited the data recovery process and 24 hours later we received all the RAID data. We were expecting considerable downtime, so to be up and running again so quickly was definitely a bonus. I would definately use them again, but I am hoping we don't have any more data recovery issues!" Willmott Dixon

"Surprised how quick the data recovery was!"

"Thank you for processing our data and copying it to hard drive. We were pleasantly surprised how quick the data recovery was and you kept us informed throughout the process. Data Recovery always raises trepidation, but we found the whole experience quite reassuring. I would not hesitate to recommend Data Recovery Specialists in future." Ministry of Defence

"Fast, effective and professional data recovery"

"I thought we would never get our scans recovered and imported back onto our PACS system, but you came to our rescue. Your RAID data recovery service was fast, effective and professional and the consultants we dealt with were very knowledgeable and helpful. Brilliant data recovery service - thank you!" NHS

"Data Recovery Specialists are a real life saver"

"Thank you so much for all your help - Data Recovery Specialists are a real life saver! I do not know what I would have done without the data you recovered from our external hard drive. We would have probably had to re-record all the location shots, which would have been time consuming and very expensive." BBC Wales

"Your hard drive data recovery service really was second-to-none"

"Thank you for solving our stiction issues so promptly from our reel to reel tapes. We were expecting to lose some of the data, so we were extremely happy when you recovered the full survey. Your hard drive data recovery service really was second-to-none! The data you recovered has proved invaluable." Regal Petroleum

"They really eased my mind"

"I was so worried when I dropped my laptop. It contained all my work and stupidly, I had not backed up the hard drive! I had heard the hard drive data recovery was expensive but had no option. From my first discussion with Data Recovery Specialists, they really eased my mind and I felt confident they could do the job. And to my surprise, the quote for data recovery was not nearly as much as I had budgeted. Thanks for all your help guys! " Victoria Hall

"They really are life-savers!"

"From the moment I called Data Recovery Specialists to receiving the data, I cannot fault the service. They recovered absolutely everything from my hard drive and at a price I was comfortable with. Data Recovery Specialists really are life-savers! Whilst I hope it doesn't happen to me again, I would certainly call their data recovery team if I need to." Shenda Falvey

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