Buy OnlineData Recovery Newsletters - November 2004
View NewslettersComputer Forensics - The Legal Side of Data Recovery
Most people that work with Ontrack Data Recovery™ know we are the industry leader in data recovery, but many aren’t aware of the other side of the company that can help with data issues for legal proceedings. Kroll Ontrack offers a variety of Legal Technology services including a service called Computer Forensics. Computer Forensics utilizes data recovery techniques, but includes different elements that make it unique.
This month’s feature article explains what Computer Forensics is all about and exactly when you or your company should consider working with our other division - Kroll Ontrack. To read the complete article here.
The Ever Growing Challenge of Data Storage
Electronic data storage needs continue to grow. As organizations produce more information in electronic format, storage space is becoming increasingly important. Managing data storage for performance, integrity, and scalability is the next summit in Information Technology management and planning.
Learn more about the hurdles associated with data volumes larger than 2 terabytes (TB), file system considerations for data storage, and Ontrack’s recovery capabilities with large data volumes in this month’s technical article. Read the full story
Common Storage Mistakes - Advice from Ontrack
The September edition of Processor Magazine features an article about some of the common storage mistakes that can plague even experienced data center managers. Ontrack Data Recovery’s Senior Director of Software and Services, Jim Reinert, provides a couple pieces of valuable advice:
- Not Testing Backup Systems
“It’s a classic pitfall,” says Jim Reinert, director of the data recovery group at Ontrack. “Companies that do backup tend to be pretty good at doing it, but most are poor at testing them.”
What usually happens is that companies find out how reliable, or how terrible, their backups are at the worst possible time.
Reinert says, “Everything goes down, and you reach for your backup.
That’s when you find out that it’s corrupted or that backup wasn’t done right.” He notes that a simple way to prevent the problem is to establish a regular testing schedule. Rather than putting testing on a “to do” list and seeing it bumped by support issues, storage testing should be done often, such as once per month, to ensure that tapes are still intact and backups are being done properly.
- Not Recognizing The Human Factor
People get tired, rushed, or sometimes even lazy. When a company has a small IT department that does everything, stress and fatigue can seep into the backup process. Reinert suggests that companies recognize that preventable errors occur because of operator failure and figure out ways to reduce the problem.
Reinert notes that his company was recently called in when two different administrators from separate locations accessed a SAN. One was trying to reconfigure a database, and the other decided to reinitialize the system. Problems such as this can be avoided with frequent in-person check-ins, says Reinert, as well as limiting when backup systems get touched and by whom.
“If you’re going to try something new, do it on a copy of the data,” he says. “That sounds simple, but a lot of people don’t do it. They experiment right on their system. Then that gets backed up, instead of what’s supposed to.”
Prepare for the Worst with the Ontrack Data Disaster Scale
Although natural disasters have recently wreaked havoc on valuable data stored by businesses nationwide, it is everyday occurrences such as human error or software problems that most frequently cause data loss. According to Ontrack’s findings, most organizations are unsure of what constitutes a“data disaster,” and do not know when, or how, to implement an appropriate crisis plan.
To help them minimize business disruptions, Ontrack has created a Data Disaster Scale that grades the severity of IT calamities and defines appropriate crisis management steps to support business continuity.
Ontrack® PowerControls 3.0 is Here!
Ontrack Data Recovery™ recently announced the availability of Ontrack® PowerControls™ 3.0 software, the newest version of its widely used mailbox recovery tool. This upgraded version helps Microsoft Exchange administrators save time and deliver better recovery performance with expanded email system support for IBM® Tivoli® users and new automation from the command line.
“As companies are faced with more demands placed on their email systems, creative and efficient solutions are needed to help them work with old email records contained on backup for the purposes of message-level recovery, regulatory compliance, internal investigations, or disaster recovery procedures,” said Jim Reinert. “PowerControls 3.0 helps solve many of these issues by offering a faster, easier method for locating and recovering old mail items from disk or tape backups.”
Additional features/benefits include:
- Enables users to open multiple sources and targets simultaneously
- Open Microsoft PST files as a source
- Allows Management to control permissions for sensitive information
- Improved reporting options
- Improved GUI, as well as view tasks, calendar and contacts – similar to Outlook
Computer After-Life – Ensuring That All Confidential Data is Erased
Most companies will sell, donate, recycle or even throw away their old IT equipment. However, a recent survey found that they rarely check that the data has been securely eradicated before disposing of old
equipment. Every year, we hear stories of highly sensitive information being found on second-hand computers. In most cases, reformatting a hard drive is not sufficient to properly wipe out all information, as data recovery services or software can recover the data.
