Ontrack reveals RAID data recovery secrets

Kroll Ontrack, purveyors of data recovery, give a glimmer of hope to those with wrecked RAIDs in Tom's Hardware Guide's 7-page explanation detailing their step-by-step process, including preventative measures, proper handling tips, different types and levels of damage, and an overview of various Ontrack recovery methods.They stress the obvious solution to make a habit of defragging and backing up your data, however if it weren't for the irresponsible / lazy demographic, Ontrack would be counting their food stamps. They also encourage potential data-loss victims to stay calm, as freak-out sessions oftentimes yield impulsive and regretful decisions for data that might be recoverable. "In 2005, Kroll Ontrack processed 50,000 recovery cases. Ontrack was able to complete 40% of incoming orders successfully right away. The remaining 60% had to be taken to the clean room, where 75% of data recoveries were successful." The stats sound promising if you're in need of a serious data resurrection, and as long as you're willing to cough up a good chunk of your savings.

[Via Slashdot]

[MR @ Feb 28th 2007 12:58AM]

I haven't really relied on RAID ever since both my RAID1 drives died on me at the same time. If you want your data to be safe, make multiple copies to multiple locations regularly instead.

[evo @ Feb 28th 2007 3:35AM]

MR--

Of course you should back up your data regularly, RAID or not, but just how does your experience qualify as a justification for not relying on RAID? I suppose you would've been better off if you only had one disk and it failed? C'mon, quit making up reasons to gripe.

[Kyrra @ Feb 28th 2007 2:09AM]

One thing hard-drive manufacturers are very careful about is how they open the drives in a clean-room. If there was a head-crash in the disk drive, opening it up will let a bunch of particles from the crash loose into the air. When the manufacturers put the drives through Failure Analysis, the clean-room is one of the last stops, and they try to only do that if it's really necessary.

[Brennan @ Feb 28th 2007 3:23AM]

i should backup my 80GB HDD, my did with his laptop almost everynight, sounds like a good plan, but ill do that later.

what kind of electronic product do i need to make a backup of my HDD? External HDD?

[MR @ Feb 28th 2007 3:52AM]

No one is griping so please don't open your mouth before thinking. I was just pointing out the obvious with my experience.

[Matt @ Feb 28th 2007 9:19AM]

Poor Hard Drive :(

[Yayaja @ Feb 28th 2007 9:33AM]

this is why I'm really looking forward for blu-ray to become more economically viable. I think backing data up on optical media is the best bet. In my experience, hard drives can be a bit finicky, and its not a good idea to have all your date on them. Back them up on DVDs or Blu-ray if you've got the green (I don't think they sell HD DVD burners yet) and keep them in a safe, room temperature place. It's the most time consuming, but I think its the best way to go.

[Tom @ Feb 28th 2007 12:00PM]

In my experience optical media can be even more finicky... scratches on either surface of the disc can prove fatal, and even if your discs are well taken care of, they can be decimated by disc rot. Even if they are in a temperature/humidity controlled environment, inconsistencies in disc laminating give way to disc rot, which will destroy all of your data. I guess we should all just keep DVD backups, RAID1 arrays, external HDD backups in a locked safe, and invest in remote server storage in Switzerland for backup purposes. Cover all grounds.

[Richard @ Feb 28th 2007 11:56AM]

I continue to be amazed at how these guys are able to get stuff off of trashed drives... in my office, our company photographer's G5 took a dump and he thought he lost a lot of data that wasn't backed up.

Our Art Director (who claimed to be the Guru of all things Mac) called his "guy" who, after hearing the symptoms and trying a couple of things, declared the HDD dead and the data irretrievable.

I scoffed.

Sent it to a recovery outfit I heard of in Manhattan, and about $1200 later, all 80 gigs arrived safe and sound on DVD-R's.

He ate plenty of crow that day.

[Nobody important @ Feb 28th 2007 12:26PM]

Optical media? Are you high? Optical media is not durable enough to be a viable backup media. There is a reason people still use tapes, and tapes continue to be developed (an LTO3 tape can hold 400 GB uncompressed.)

That said, I used DriveSavers a year and a half ago to recover a few drives that had been underwater for about 2 weeks in New Orleans thanks to Katrina. They got most of the data off the drive (they got all of the data I needed) which was shocking, considering the machines were on when the water hit them. There really is something to drive recovery; it's not just hocus-pocus.

[Rat Bastard @ Feb 28th 2007 12:32PM]

I've used Stellar's Phoenix recovery software and it's excellent. OnTrack's software solution is pretty robust as well. I work in a University setting, and most of the important data is backed up server level; however, you occaisionally get a professor that has her entire book on her laptop hard drive when it craps out. I didn't charge her $1200, but I did get dinner and a nice bottle of Tequila out of it :)

[ksmith @ Feb 28th 2007 2:14PM]

For those of you keeping score at home, that's an over-all recovery rate of 85%. Not too shabby.

0.40 + (0.60 * 0.75) = 0.85

[imajoebob @ Feb 28th 2007 9:04PM]

If you can afford to spring for a RAID, you can spend a few extra bucks on a backup tape.

As for Ontrack, they're great. Way back in about 2000 I was having big problems with my brand new "giant" 18GB (or so) drive from Dell. After explaining I hadn't done a backup of the data yet, they told me to put in some low-level code to fix it. It fixed it real good. After a month of calls to Dell - and finally talking to someone in Mikie's office, they asked me to get some estimates on restoring the drive.

Everybody wanted about $4,500 for the work, plus shipping on the drive. The nice folks at Ontrack asked if I had a modem, had me dial in, and then said they could do it for $400, and it would take about 20 minutes on the modem. When Dell heard how much (little) they even arranged to do a direct payment instead of having me submit the bill!

They're my heroes. And I added my desktop to the network tape scheme that afternoon.

[Kagnie @ Feb 28th 2007 11:47PM]

I haven't seen actual recovery rates posted on data recovery websites (that would be interesting to compare), but here's Ontrack's website: http://www.ontrackrecovery.com and more information on RAID recovery. http://www.ontrack.com/special/0703partnerRAID.aspx

[Jake @ May 9th 2007 7:47PM]

At this site you can compare data recovery quotes, I haven't seen any other sites that does that, was very valuable in my case.

http://www.datarecoverycompare.com

[Howard Steinberg @ Sep 20th 2007 2:19PM]

o, cool, i also used datarecoverycompare.com, to anyone who does not know the process and money involved in data recovery i recommend to use datarecoverycompare site. i filled out 1 request form and 5 different companies contacted me, so i was able to save few $$. Some crazy dude wanted $2,000 to recover my data, but i got it from ontrack for $299. wow how crazy $2,000 and $299.