Data Recovery Newsletters - July 2004

Disk Doctors - All About CD ROM/DVD Recoveries

CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs seem so permanent, yet if you have ever made CD-ROMs you know that sometimes you can mistakenly make a whole set of drink coasters without knowing why. Today most computers have a CD-Burner as standard equipment. Being able to store 600+MB worth of data on CDROMs, or storing 5+GB of data on DVD-ROM is becoming the norm for many users.

Learn more about how these disks work, different types of recoveries, common data loss scenarios, and what Ontrack does to ensure quality recoveries in this month's technical article

Bringing Baby Back - A DVD Recovery Story

Jeff Moss and his wife recently experienced the birth of their first child. While at the hospital, Moss took several videos of the birth using their new Sony DVD Handycam. Unfortunately, when he was trying to edit the videos, he mistakenly erased all the files. "This was an unhappy night at our household," said
Moss. He called Sony for suggestions on how they could get the video back and they recommended he contact DriveSavers, a company that also recovers lost data on hard drives, CDs, and DVDs. After quickly sending them his DVD, Jeff crossed his fingers and eagerly awaited the results.

Unfortunately, DriveSavers was unable to recover any of the lost files. Saddened, he asked them if there was another company who does what they do - hoping a second opinion would bring different results. DriveSavers referred Ontrack Data Recovery, but said their company has the same capabilities as Ontrack and there was not a good chance of recovery. Moss decided he would try Ontrack anyway because the information at stake was so valuable. When Ontrack informed him they had recovered all the still shots and video files he had lost, his entire family was ecstatic. "Way to go Ontrack," commented Moss. "You truly are the end of the line with data recovery - we can't thank you enough!"

The Road to Two Billion Drives

The hard magnetic digital disk drive, as we know it today, is used in all computer applications - in home appliances and PVR/DVRs, in automobiles, cameras, and medical applications. It is now pervasive in all segments of our society. The technology got its start in IBM's San Jose laboratories in 1952, with
Innovators such as Rey Johnson, Dr. Al Hoagland, Al Shugart and Bobby Smith, among others. The disk drive is unique in its history for overall cost reductions, while at the same time fostering rapid technology growth and reaping amazing production ramps. As a result of these accomplishments, the
industry has grown from a volume of several thousand disk drives per year in the 1950s to over 260 million drives per year in 2003.

Read the complete article (50 Years of Progress and Technology Innovation - The Road to Two Billion Drives), as it appeared in the April 2004 edition of Computer Technology Review

Protect Your Data from Summer Storms
It's summer, which means hot, humid weather, lazy days trying to stay cool and plenty of sunshine. Unfortunately, summer also means thunderstorms with heavy rain and lightning (at least 100,000 strikes/year across the US, according to expert meteorologist Walter Denman) that can seriously damage your computer or entire network. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that computer damage and data loss from lightning strikes cost the US nearly $2 billion/year, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute. This means data loss that can affect emails, pictures, financial statements, invoices and other critical information and documents. To help computer users protect themselves against these weather-related disasters, Ontrack offers several tips that can keep your data out of
harm's way:

• Install a surge protector between the power socket and the computer's power cable - and spend the extra $20-$30 to get an actual surge protector, not just a power strip. Some brands offer guaranteed lightning protection, even on their lower-priced models.
• Small businesses with networks should get surge protectors that offer protection from surges through network cables.
• Check protection devices regularly: At least once a year you should inspect your power protection devices to make sure that they are functioning properly. Most good ones will have a signaling light to tell you when they are protecting your equipment properly.
• Use dedicated circuits, if possible: Putting the computer on its own power circuit, so it isn't sharing the power with your air conditioner, space heater, and vacuum cleaner, greatly improves the power quality and insulates the PC from power sags when these devices are turned on.
• Turn off and disconnect the power cord during an electrical storm: This is a simple precaution that protects your system from possible problems during a thunderstorm.
• Turn off power during a blackout: If you lose power, when the power comes back on the signal can initially be inconsistent, which can make things more difficult for your power supply.
• High voltages can enter your computer through the phone line connected to the modem. To protect your computer during electrical storms, unplug the telephone line from the modem jack or use a telephone line surge suppressor.
• Businesses with network servers should invest in some form of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which uses batteries to keep servers running during power outages.
• Summer heat can also be a significant problem. Keep your computer in a cool, dry area to prevent overheating.

New Version of Disk Manager® 5.0 Helps Manage Growing Data Storage Needs

Ontrack recently announced the availability of Ontrack Disk Manager® 5.0, an upgraded version of our popular hard drive installation software. Responding to the fact that today's PC users fill up their hard drives more quickly with larger files including Internet, video, audio and multimedia files, this version now offers support for drives over 137GB in size - overcoming the current ATA 137GB BIOS limitation. This provides PC enthusiasts with more freedom to install drives and configure their system for maximum performance.

With the disk drive industry set to reach a historical cumulative shipment level of two billion drives during the third quarter of 2004, according to Computer Technology Review, Ontrack's software upgrade makes installation of these drives easier than ever. Disk Manager software, with its beginning in 1985, is already responsible for more than 150 million installations, or nearly 1/10 of total drives ever made. Learn more.

Spotlight on PowerControls 2.1 - Export Feature

PowerControls 2.10 introduced a powerful new export feature that allows emails to be restored as individual disk files. Messages can be exported as Microsoft Outlook files (.msg) or plain text files (.txt). This feature can assist customers who want to copy old email backups into an alternate or non-email system. You can also export at all levels: an entire EDB file, a mailbox, a folder, or individual messages. Learn more about PowerControls