The Computer Ate My Homework

As most students prepare to head back to school, many will be packing laptop computers in addition to the usual school supplies. It’s clear that laptop computers are quickly becoming a vital part of the scholastic experience, however with more laptops in use comes more danger for data loss.

“Laptop computers are an excellent way for today’s students to manage their workload, but protecting the data on those computers isn’t as simple as securing a notebook in a locker,” said Jim Reinert, sr. director of Software and Services for Ontrack Data Recovery. “Students need to be careful with their laptops to avoid both physical damage and other problems that could affect the integrity of their data. If problems do occur, it’s also important they know that data recovery is always an option.”

To help students protect against laptop data disasters, Ontrack Data Recovery offers several tips:

• Laptops are not as rugged as many like to think. When laptops are being docked, moved or transported, the greatest of care should be taken to prevent unnecessary shock or impact. Set up your computer in a dry, cool, controlled environment that is clean and dust-free. Placing your computer in a low-traffic area will protect your system and storage media from harmful jarring or bumping.
• Use a sturdy, well padded laptop bag – Using just a back-pack or brief-case may not provide the protection a laptop needs during transportation. Make sure your laptop has plenty of built-in padding for protection.
• Backup your data regularly - Creating regular backups is one of the most effective ways to protect you from losing data. Back up data at least once a week on a reliable medium (CD, DVD, USB flash drives or Internet backup), always verifying that the correct data is backed up.
• Run a virus scan and update it regularly - Computer viruses are one of the worst enemies to your computer. Good anti-virus software tests your system for sequences of code unique to each known computer virus and eliminates the infecting invader. Also beware of spyware, a common problem brought about by Web surfing and downloads that can cause complications with your computer’s efficiency. There are several programs available on the internet that can assist with the removal of most spyware programs.
• Be aware of strange noises – If you hear a strange noise or grinding sound, turn off your computer immediately and call an expert. Further operation may damage your hard drive beyond repair.
• Do not use file recovery software if you suspect an electrical or mechanical failure – Using file recovery software on a faulty hard drive may destroy what was otherwise recoverable data or worsen the physical failure.
• Use Auto-Save features – Most software applications have Auto-Save features that will save the project or document you have open at a preset intervals. For laptop users, a good time interval to use is every 5 minutes.
• Be battery-level aware – If you are going to be using the laptop for long hours, be sure to try and find an electrical outlet to plug into. Some laptops will shut down quickly when a specific low battery level is reached and important documents may be lost.
• If you do experience a data loss,we can help you,just post a comment with your problem

Every IT professional can tell a horror story about an upgrade, roll-out, or migration gone awry. So many factors are involved; hardware, software, compatibility, timing, data, procedures, security protocols, and of course the well-meaning but imperfect human.

Over 2008, IT departments and staff can look forward to a number of upgrade projects for their computer system infrastructure. According to Gartner, Inc., the number of PC shipments during fourth quarter 2007 increased 13.1% over the same period in 2006. Global PC shipments during 2007 increased 13.4% over 2006 – equating to 271.2 million units in 2007.

While a slower economy than in previous years may lower the number of units, the fact that organizations have been investing in new units shows that hardware life-cycle management is still a mainstay of corporate IT’s responsibilities and will continue to be such.

IT professionals realize that scheduled change is a pattern for the industry. Whether this change involves accommodating new users, replacing old servers, or upgrading staff to newer systems, there is always change within the computer organization. Sometimes it is easy to only rely on hardware or software budgets for your roadmap. However, these budgets may be short-sighted and lack proper planning. Using accounting budgets alone to manage hardware may not take into consideration the overall life span of the equipment. (more…)

Disaster recovery planning is a challenging process. During the planning phases, people naturally concentrate on tangible disasters such as fire, break-ins, and natural disasters. Data disasters should also be considered part of your disaster recovery plan. Here are some proactive suggestions for your disaster plan:

Documentation

A review of emergency procedures on a quarterly basis is a proactive approach to disaster recovery. Key personnel should be up to date on all technical articles relating to primary business systems or messaging systems. Detailed documentation should be available in the server room area, describing individual machine configurations and software settings. Administrative documentation should be complete with each machine.

Microsoft Exchange Server Redundancy

For instance, in a business running Microsoft Exchange Message Server, is there a secondary restore server in place to handle the restoration of the server’s Information Store during an outage? All current versions of Exchange Server use Log Files to record message transactions before they are committed to the Information Store database. While ‘Circular Logging’ may assist in saving storage space, during a data disaster a complete set of log files are critical in bringing a restored Information Store up to date and getting your users back to their data.

Archived Data on Tape Media

Disaster recovery planning should have plans for off-site storage of backup tapes and other media. Tape backups bring additional validation testing steps to the plan. It is good practice to test the backups periodically. Tape rotation should be regular and consistent and monitoring the life spans of tapes is an important process to reduce media failures.

RAID Systems

When there are disasters involving RAID storage systems, SAN systems, JBOD systems, and NAS systems, disaster planning takes a different perspective. These storage systems have redundancy architecture to prevent outages and disasters. However, this can provide a false sense of security.

For instance, one client last year had 40TB of storage space spread over 20 servers. These systems had hardware RAID 1+0 configurations. Problems began happening on one server when a drive would go off-line for a moment. The controller card would switch to the mirror copy as part of the redundancy process. At some point, the first drive would come back online. The controller card would switch back to the original drive and there would be inconsistent data from a volume and file system perspective. After a system power-down and restart, the storage system hardware reset. The operating system’s automatic volume repair program started and began making repairs. This became the cause of additional problems to the file system integrity and the critical data was no longer available. The data had to be available immediately and Remote Data Recovery was the option for this client.

This case history is interesting because of the cascade of failures that happened in quick succession. This client was processing large amounts of data from three shifts per day. To archive that amount of changing data every night was not possible. The client had been confident that the storage configuration was ‘bullet-proof’ due to the mirroring.

These configurations can be successful against multiple drive failures. In this case, however, the drive never failed, it just went off-line. When the drive came back online, there were file system inconsistencies. As a result, the data became unavailable when the automatic volume repair tool started making repairs. Engineers worked throughout the night to get the data available. In the end, the recovery was a 100% success.

Data disasters can be single-tiered; a drive fails or data is missing or multi-tiered; data disasters are combinations of small disasters. Ontrack Data Recovery’s understanding of these unique circumstances is what sets us apart from other data recovery companies. With recent issues bringing the importance of business continuity to the forefront it is essential to be prepared. With Ontrack Data Recovery as part of your disaster recovery plan you can feel reassured knowing that when a data disaster strikes, you have the support of our nearly 20 years of experience along with offices, clean rooms, engineers, and employees located around the world.

© 2006 Kroll Ontrack Inc.