Data Recovery Blog

USB flash drives are convenient, easy-to-use and – thanks to continuously developing technology – can even offer up to 2TBs of storage. For all of the positives these mobile and reliable pieces of storage media offer, however, their diminutiveness and fragility are significant problems that are regularly behind physical damage that leads to data loss. So delicate are these devices that it’s by no means uncommon for them to bend or even break in two, leading owners to conclude that their files are lost forever; an understandable but incorrect assumption.Whilst HDDs store data by writing it onto the surface of a magnetic material, flash drives write data onto NAND chips. Just as a damaged platter will significantly and negatively impact the prospects of recovering data from a damaged hard drive, a broken or damaged NAND chip or chips will make the of recovering the data stored on them harder. Generally speaking, though, when a USB stick suffers damage, it is rare that these chips that have been affected.The common fault with flash drivesAs they’re the weakest point in all flash drives, damaged USB plugs (the part of the drive that you physically insert into a computer or other device) are beyond a shadow of a doubt the most common physical problem afflicting USB sticks. Generally, this can be resolved by soldering the cap back onto the drive but this is extremely delicate work – particularly as drive’s NAND chips tend to be located near the USB plug – and, sometimes, this makes it too risky to attempt such a repair. When this is the case, the data can be retrieved via one of two methods.How do you recover data from damaged flash drives?Chip-off recoveryAs the name suggests the chip-off data recovery technique involves removing the NAND chips from the afflicted device’s circuit board. This, as you can imagine, is a task that requires time, a steady hand and delicacy.Once the chip has been removed, we use specialist equipment in order to read the data held on the chip, identify a bespoke recovery plan and, following this, attempt to retrieve the data that’s present.JTAGUnlike the chip-off technique, JTAG can be used to recover data without needing to remove the NAND chip thus significantly reducing the likelihood of it being damaged. Whilst this would suggest that JTAG is superior to chip-off techniques, though, it is a far more time-consuming process.What’s next?Once we’ve extracted the raw data from the chips, our engineers begin the process of piecing it back together in order to generate readable, working files. Previously, recovering data from failed and damaged USB sticks was often an impossible task but, thanks to developing technologies, it is now significantly more feasible. Furthermore, with technology also continuing to improve on a frequent basis, recovering data from damaged and failed USB drives is becoming more and more practicable every day. 

We’ve all been there and, whilst accidentally deleting files you wanted is certain to leave you feeling a little, well… underconfident, human error is still the most common cause of data loss. To put it another way, if you’ve deleted something you needed, don’t feel too bad: you aren’t the first and you certainly won’t be the last. What’s more, you can not only soothe your bruised ego with the knowledge that countless others have made the same mistake, but also – and more importantly – with the fact that your data can probably be recovered.Deleted data can nearly always be recovered… if you act fastOne of the most common misconceptions about deleted data is that it ceases to exist post-deletion. Even if you’ve emptied your recycle bin/trash folder the files are still there, its location is simply removed from what is called the File Allocation Table, which is basically a map containing the locations of all files.When you choose to save a file to a HDD, each byte that forms it is written onto what is called a platter. As this is achieved by either magnetising or demagnetising each sector of a platter in order to record a one or a zero, the file itself is effectively comprised of information stored in multiple locations across these. In order for you to open these files at a later data, the location of each byte is saved to the File Association Table each time something is written to the drive. When a file is deleted, any reference to its location is removed from the table and the drive is therefore able to write over it. The data itself therefore remains until new data is written to the same location. As the data will be lost if literally one single byte is overwritten, however, a successful recovery is heavily dependent on swift action; the longer you continue to use the drive, the greater the chance of you losing your data permanently.How do you recover deleted data?Provided that action has been taken, the likelihood of a full and successful recovery is good. Generally, the best way of achieving this is to restore your machine to a point in history where the data still existed. If you’re using a Windows machine and have enabled Restore Point - or Time Machine if you’re using a Mac – the process will be extremely straightforward: simply select a time when the data you want to restore existed and follow on-screen prompts to return your device to its state at this time. Before doing this, it’s advisable that you consider whether or not you’ve created any files after the restoration date you intend to select and whether or not you want to keep them. If you do, move them onto an external device such as a USB stick before undertaking the restoration process.If this is unsuccessful, then you may be tempted to download and utilise software in order to attempt a DIY recovery. This, though, is not something Fields Data Recovery would recommend for two reasons: such software can be difficult to use if you lack the necessary expertise, and this will also involve saving new data which could potentially write over the file/s you’ve accidentally deleted. One other major issue is that the act of deleting files can result in the data being corrupted which would render recovery via software virtually impossible. Instead, if your data is truly valuable, you should utilise the services of data recovery experts like Fields Data Recovery. Want to find out how much data recovery costs? Click on the link and enter a few details to see how three similar recoveries cost. 

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Drives. This setup is used by companies – and sometimes individuals – for two reasons: to improve the performance (i.e. the read/write speeds) of their storage media or to improve reliability by creating an automated backup plan that provides an effective and prompt form of retrieving data from a failed RAID should it be necessary. It is even possible for RAIDs to improve both performance and reliability if certain setups are utilised, though these tend to be more expensive than frameworks designed to serve just one of these purposes.All in all, this means that choosing the right RAID setup for your business will differ depending on your requirements and budget. With this in mind, we thought we’d discuss several of the most common RAIDs – along with their various pros and cons – to help you make the best decision for your business.RAID 0A RAID 0 setup is often simply referred to as a ‘striped array’ and is designed to offer pure speed. It features several drives and any data written to it is split across each of these. The result is exceptional performance – but this comes at a price.As the individual bytes that form any file are split across several drives when stored in this type of array, all of the data stored on here will be lost if just one of these fails. Should one drive fail, a percentage of the data that forms the file is lost and – just as a jigsaw with missing pieces cannot be completed – the file cannot be reconstructed.Whilst RAID 0s offer impressive read/write speeds, they are rarely used alone due to the risk of data loss.RAID 1RAID 1 is setup in such a way that all data is stored to two separate drives. Essentially, each drive used within such arrays all contain a clone of one another i.e. if a RAID 1 contains just two HDDs, these drives will hold identical sets of data.In the event that one drive fails, this setup is able to immediately read the data from the relevant backup drive and continue working as usual. This means that RAID 1 is a fantastic way to store your company’s most important data, particularly as it also offers impressive read/write speeds (even if they do pale in comparison to RAID 0).Sadly, RAID 1 is in no way a cost-effective option as it halves the potential storage capacity of an array. Say, for example, the array could hold eight separate drives, if eight 10TB HDDs were used, the total capacity would still be just 40TBs.RAID 5Like RAID 0, RAID 5 uses striping in order to improve performance. Unlike RAID 0, however, it also offers some protection against data loss.RAID 5 not only copies all files that are saved to it to at least two separate drives but also has a parity drive present in each block of drives. Should one of the drives fail, the parity drive/s can be used to rebuild the relevant data and restore the failed drive.Whilst this is a sensible means of achieving superior performance and simultaneously create a backup plan, it should be noted that rebuilding a drive’s data can take more than 24 hours and that should another drive present within the array fail during the recovery process, all of the data contained in the array will be lost.RAID 6With RAID 6 setups, the number of parity drives used in each block of drives is doubled to two. This means that two drives can fail in such an array, resulting in added security. There is a price to pay, however, as this setup does adversely affect write speeds.RAID 10A RAID 10 setup is, to put it simply, a combination of a RAID 1 and a RAID 0. Basically, data is split across several drives but each also has their own mirror drive. As a result, this setup provides both excellent performance and a reduced risk of redundancy.But please don’t forget to backup Whilst RAIDs are often a fantastic way of reducing the risk of data loss, they do not offer a comprehensive disaster data recovery plan so please, please, make sure you use a backup plan as well as RAIDs. 

If you regularly peruse this blog you’ll know that we regularly discuss society’s looming data storage crisis and the fact that a multitude of organisations are seeking a solution.Currently, a number of potential solutions are being developed and we’ve discussed several of – such as DNA data storage, improved HDD densities, superior writing techniques etc. – on this blog. Now, there’s another alternative data storage form on the block: powder.Yes, researchers – including experts in chemistry, biochemistry and computer science – at the University of Ghent in Belgium have developed a chemical process that has allowed them to store small amounts of data in powder form, with the process closely linked to that which is currently used to store data in DNA.Once stored, the data can be retrieved thanks to a biochemical process, though this can only currently be achieved by linking the data to a website or app. Researchers have stated that they hope to further develop the technology so that it can be used to replace flash drives and HDDs in the hope of not just providing devices that offer larger storage capacities, but that also provides a viable alternative to media that damages the environment due to a manufacturing process that requires an extremely large amount of metals such as iron and cobalt. One member of the research team, Steven Martens, recently told the Telegraph: “I never imagined becoming part of an interdisciplinary research project for which I’d have to store sentences and QR codes on molecules, nor did I suspect I’d be working together with the biochemistry and informatics departments.“The possibility of using DNA has been explored by scientists as an alternative for storing data, but practical limitations have popped up in the process. To counter these disadvantages, chemists have been trying in recent years to store data on synthetic sequence-defined macromolecules.” We would, of course, welcome any form of data storage that positively impacts our environment but it is telling that no reports have indicated the kind of storage densities powder is capable of achieving. The level of environmental damage that is caused by the production of storage media is not insignificant but, as the total amount of data stored worldwide is currently growing at a rate of 100% every two years, our immediate concern should be the creation of devices and techniques that allow us to store more data in less space. 

On May of this year, General Data Protection Regulation (more commonly known as GDPR) came into effect. With the vast majority of businesses large and small utilising peoples’ data in some way, shape or form, there are few that won’t be affected, yet an alarmingly high number are unaware of how GDPR will alter their day-to-day practices or what they must do in order to ensure they’re compliant. Considering that the maximum fine for breaching this legislation can now potentially run into multi-million-pound territory, we here at Fields Data Recovery want to help – that’s why we’ve written about the most important things all businesses need to know about GDPR:People have a right to access their dataGranted, people had a right to request you send them any data you may have about them previously, but you could request that they cover the costs you’d accrue compiling and sending it to them. Now, following the introduction of GDPR, you’ll need to provide this information to anyone that requests it and will need to do so without charging them.You need to be transparent and ensure you have consentA few months ago, your personal inbox was probably full of messages from various companies informing you of the latest changes to their privacy policies and requesting that you consent to them. Perhaps you, like many, assumed that these were being sent as part of a marketing campaign; they were actually in preparation for GDPR.In accordance with this new piece of legislation, companies must now have people’s express permission to retain and use their data for marketing purpose. Additionally, they also need to ensure that their privacy policies are as transparent as possible and that people consent to them in order for them to maintain contact with the customer.It’s time to encrypt your dataIt’s always been best practice but, following the introduction of GDPR, data encryption is now mandatory for companies of all sizes. Failing to do it won’t automatically result in you falling foul of the legislation and landing a fine but, as accompanies attempts to protect customers’ data will directly influence the cost of any fine they’re issued with should they suffer a data breach. As a result, companies that encrypt their data are proactively reducing any potential fine they may be issued from the get go.Conclusion Whilst we at Fields Data Recovery believe that the three points discussed above are vital, GDPR has brought a series of changes which no company can ignore. If you’ve not yet acted and made changes in accordance with this new policy, it’s of the utmost importance that you identify what you need to do in order to ensure compliance and take action post haste.  

We recently wrote about the need for storage media with greater storage capacities – focusing on Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) techniques and how this results in HDDs that are capable of storing more data within standard formats. Today, we discuss another means of achieving this: Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR).Like Shingled Magnetic Recording, HAMR increases a hard drive’s storage density by increasing the amount of data each of its platters can hold. Whilst Shingled Magnetic Recording achieves this by allowing data tracks to overlap with one another, though, HAMR does it by decreasing the physical space needed to store each individual byte, thus increasing the amount of data the platter can store. Best of all, it does this by using lasers (we’re geeks at Fields Data Recovery and geeks love all things laser-related.When the HAMR technique is utilised, a laser heats the surface of the drive’s platter whilst data is being written to it. This makes the material more receptive to magnetism meaning that less space is needed to store each byte. What’s particularly impressive is that the heating, cooling and writing process is completed is less than a nanosecond – and it was achieving this within such a small timeframe that was always the biggest problem engineers developing this writing technique faced. It was so significant a challenge, in fact, that a solution has been more than 50 years in the making.HAMR isn’t exactly newA patent outlining the basic process of using heat and magnetic fields in order to store data was filed in 1954. A now obsolete form of storage media known as the magneto-optical drive used a rudimentary form of HAMR in the 1980s. You may even remember Sony’s MiniDiscs; they were designed to replace cassette tapes and, just like the aforementioned magneto-optical drive, are now an obsolete piece of technology that made use of the HAMR writing technique. All in all, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if researchers had given up on it altogether. Indeed, at the time of writing, you cannot actually buy a HDD that uses HAMR technology for residential or commercial use – but that could soon change.Reasons to be excited about HAMRSeagate have, following more than a decade of research and development, begun manufacturing HAMR drives and began trialling them with selected companies in the latter half of 2017. The company have also stated that they have already built in excess of 40,000 HAMR drives as well as a significant number of HAMR read/write heads. Most importantly, they have also claimed that they will begin shipping HAMR drives with capacities of greater than 20TBs in 2019. The hard drive manufacturers have further estimated that they will be offering HAMR drives offering 40TB capacities in just five year’s time and that 100TB capacities will be available by 2030. With the exception of DNA data storage – which still has a number of technical hurdles before it can be considered even a practicable cold storage solution – this represents that biggest potential improvement in storage densities currently in development. 

Last week, we wrote about Western Digital’s latest HDD and the fact that, by utilising a unique way of writing data known as Shingled Magnetic Recording, it boasts the greatest storage capacity of any HDD in history – but how does this new writing technique work and, more importantly, why does it result in superior storage densities.All HDDs write data onto discs coated in magnetic materials, commonly referred to as platters. All data is comprised of individual bytes which represent either a one or a zero. This means that, when you choose to store data on a HDD, it is translated into a series of ones and zeroes and written onto the platter with each one or zero taking up one bytes worth of space. These ones and zeroes are written onto platters in a continuous circular pattern, known as tracks, wherever possible. When Shingled Magnetic Recording is used, new tracks slightly overlap with older tracks which, in turn, means that more tracks can be stored on each platter, increasing the drives overall storage density. These tracks are said to resemble the overlapping shingles commonly seen on the roofs of residential properties, providing this technique with its name.Why Shingled Magnetic Recording mattersWith the vast majority of new devices sold with flash-based storage such as SSDs already installed, you may be wondering why manufacturers are developing new technology for HDDs, but the answer is relatively straightforward: we’re running out of storage space for data.The simple fact is that we’re creating data at a truly exponential rate. So much so that experts predict that that total amount of data stored worldwide grows by 100% every two years. Worse yet, they suspect that demand will be outstripping supply within less than a decade. In short, we need storage media that can store more data within existing forms, hence the reason why higher-capacity HDDs are so important.Granted, we’ve alluded to the fact that they’re unlikely to be used on off-the-shelf PCs, laptops etc. but by simply improving their largest HDD’s capacity by 1TB, Western Digital have provided data centres with a device that they can use to significantly ramp up their capacities. Still, advancing and bettering the capacity of HDDs is unlikely to prove to be a long-term solution (DNA data storage is seen as the most likely answer to this conundrum) but, for the moment, short-term solutions are what’s needed and Shingled Magnetic Recording is a technique that, for the time-being, provides us with what we need. 

Things move quickly in the world of technology and data storage; only last month we wrote about how Seagate had released the world’s first 14TB HDDs but Western Digital have gone one better having just unveiled their Ultrastar 15TB drive. In order to achieve this unprecedented capacity, Western Digital have utilised Shingled Magnetic Recording, a technique that increases storage density by allowing data tracks to overlap with one another which allows more data to be stored on a drive’s platters. Unlike Seagate, who released several variations of their 14TB drive, Western Digital have opted to release just one version of the Ultrastar but claim that the extra 1TB of storage could yield an additional 60TB of storage per server. As a data centre’s profitability is directly linked to the amount of storage it can offer within its limited space, Western Digital claim that data centres that switch to their latest drive will see a significant return on investment. A spokesperson for the hard drive manufacturer added "With data continuing to grow at unprecedented rates, many hyperscale and cloud storage customers know that their workloads trend toward data that is written sequentially. In these instances, customers are optimizing their infrastructures with the lowest TCO and the maximum capacity. By capitalizing on our highest-capacity SMR storage solutions, our customers’ investment can not only be fully leveraged today, but for subsequent generations of SMR areal density improvements for continued infrastructure optimization." Why high-capacity HDDs still matter The demand for HDDs amongst home users may be falling because of the rise of flash-based storage such as SSDs, but the commercial world – who are reliant upon high capacity, high density drives – still prefer HDDs due to their superior capacities and lower costs. Our growing need for data storage also fuels the need for higher capacity media of all kinds. The amount of data we’re creating is growing at an exponential rate for a number of reasons and, whilst a number of innovative solutions such as DNA data storage have been proposed, none are currently regarded as practicable and are plagued with problems such as excessively high costs or prohibitively poor read and write speeds. All in all, this means that, for the time being at least, improving the storage capacities of HDDs is the most attainable means of providing the short-term solution needed until other high-capacity forms of data storage are perfected. 

Data storage media is so often the unsung hero of the business world. Nigh-on all companies and organisations rely on it in some way shape or form. For many, it plays an invaluable role in vital departments such as sales, marketing and customer care – and this is becoming more apparent at more and more institutions each day least of all because we’ve seen just how urgent data recovery services can be needed first-hand.In spite of this, a surprisingly large number of senior stakeholders are – whilst not unaware of the importance of their data – unprepared for the possibility of their storage media failing. This, I am in no doubt, is attributable to the fact that hard drives, SSDs etc. are extremely reliable. Earlier this week, though, GitHub – a large tech firm who really should have known better – went down for several hours because of, you guessed it, failed storage media.Yes, on Monday GitHub was unable to provide its customers with a service for several hours. What’s more, even after it appeared that normal service had resumed, users continued to report problems relating to matters such as logging in and site speed.Several hours is, in the era of social media, enough to cause significant damage to a company’s reputation. Numerous users took to Twitter, Facebook et al. to lambast GitHub for their failure. The damage this will cause them remains to be seen, but we think it’s safe to say that this isn’t an event that is simply going to blow over.A timely reminder for businessesOn the plus side, we hope this event serves to remind all other companies of how important it is to have a disaster recovery plan in place. Data is key to modern business practices – losing it can therefore cause your customers serious problems. Worse yet, it can prevent you from fulfilling services or generating new sales and negatively impact your bottom line.Thanks to significant technological improvements, backing up data is both easier – and cheaper – than ever. In their defence, most decision makers have recognised this (a recent survey revealed that most would be investing in the Cloud in 2019) but it’s astounding how many still consider backups to be superfluous and an unproductive way to spend time. This, when just a few hours spent setting up automated backups will transform this task into something that requires minimal effort and return maximum security. Perhaps most important of all is the fact that it’ll save thousands of pounds in data recovery fees. Businesses, don’t neglect your data – back it up and formulate an effective disaster recovery plan; it’ll provide maximum security for minimum effort.