Data Recovery Blog

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 depe...

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...

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 ac...

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...

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 on...

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 cou...

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....

Hard drives crash, and it can happen any time from day one to several years down the line. It’s actually more convenient if it happens on day one because then it’s almost definitely a factory or manufacturing issue and it’s likely that you’ll only have a small amount of your precious data stored on it. Within a few months, though, it’ll be stuffed full of your personal photos and documents. Waking up to discover that it packed in and given up the ghost overnight would be a nightmare. It was all so tragically sudden – or was it? You might have been sitting on a ticking time bomb just waiting to crash that had been trying to send you hints for weeks.Though you might not be able to pinp...

If you’re anything like me, the moment you purchase a piece of technology of any kind you immediately regress to the point where you are, to all extents and purpose, ten-years-old again. Literally everything has to wait until I’ve got everything setup and running. When the new item in question is a new PC, that includes transferring all of the data stored on my old device over to my shiny new one.Recently, my parents replaced their PC of several years, with my mother – who, unlike my father, is not a complete luddite – taking charge of the task of transferring over their data to their new one machine. Having not done this before, however, she turned it into a drawn-out process: ident...

For those of us who grew up when mobile phones were beginning to go mainstream, terrestrial television began airing a fifth channel and the discman was the most technologically advanced mobile media player available, today’s technology – such as smartphones, streaming services and superfast broadband – can seem nothing short of miraculous.The Cloud – perhaps due to its ubiquitous nature – is a great example of such advancements. It’s almost like our data is being stored in – and retrieved from – the atmosphere; quite literally like magic. The explanation, though, is far more straightforward.This service is delivered by multiple computers, servers and data centres located in various p...