Data recovery

A client has handed me a laptop that looks as if it was attacked with a cricket bat, A/C power cable end has the motherboard socket attached, broken from the M/B... battery dead, screen detached and cracked to inoperability. Removed the drive and put into a BlackX external USB unit. Micro$oft O/S machine tells me the drive is "corrupted" and no info is readable. Boot sector and drive ROM are useless. Winblows can't see beyond the drive's firmware.

The data on the drive has valuable info, client didn't back it up!

I've now got it in the BlackX connected to a Linux machine, all the *.doc, *.jpg, *.gif, etc. are being ferreted to a "Passport" external 2TB drive.

BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA!!!

14 hours to pull the files off the damaged drive onto the Passport, but it'll be like a plate of spaghetti finding the "important" data. Not my issue.

Other outfits charge from hundreds to thousands to do this, but the client will be offered three options: take the drive to another Data Recovery company and pay their fee; pay me the $90 to keep the Passport with the data; or copy the spaghetti to another hard drive and hand back the external device and $45... wonder which they'll choose. :smirk:

AGAIN: BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA!!!

*sheesh*

If I were a thief, I'd be someplace on a sailboat in the Caribbean by now! :wink:

DrEntropy said:

*.gif, etc. are being ferreted to a "Passport" external 2TB drive.

BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA!!!

14 hours to pull the files off the damaged drive onto the Passport, but it'll be like a plate of spaghetti finding the "important" data. Not my issue.

Click to expand...

Amen, brother!

I probably (ok, definitely) go overboard on backups! My entire main machine and a other external drives that have iTunes library, pictures, etc. are all backed up on a 8TB dual-drive RAID, PLUS really important files (Mostly important documents and pictures) are stored on an iOSafe fire proof/ water proof hard drive (Thing is as big as a toaster).

But wait, there's more! I also subscribe to www.backblaze.com where pretty much everything I have on my computer and external drives is backed up to their cloud! (Just in case my home was broken into and all my (encrypted) computers and external drives were stolen). Overkill? Yeah, but better to much backup than not enough.

I like the Code42 backup folks.

...just for the Douglas Adams homage.

Eleven hours and fifteen minutes to go. Can I justify babysitting this operation at $125/hr?!?

BANTHA POODOO!!

I'll just go get a bowl of vanilla ice-cream now and stay on th' forum.

DrEntropy said:

Eleven hours and fifteen minutes to go. Can I justify babysitting this operation at $125/hr?!?

BANTHA POODOO!!

I'll just go get a bowl of vanilla ice-cream now and stay on th' forum.

Click to expand...

Rocky Road!

naaah... French Vanilla with Hershey's Chocolate syrup! :grin:


...and this.

I'm all for making backups (*lots* of backups) for important stuff.

But does anyone still do full disk backup? including the o/s? Ghost and Disk Image come to mind.

When the HD (or whatever) fails, you have the important stuff backed up. But you can't use it unless you've got a bootable system and the appropriate apps (Word, Audacity, photo editing apps, etc. and all their updates).

So the end user has to install a new HD, then add all the o/s and app files, then run the gazillion system updates. All before using that backed up data.

eek

NutmegCT said:

I'm all for making backups (*lots* of backups) for important stuff.

But does anyone still do full disk backup? including the o/s? Ghost and Disk Image come to mind.

When the HD (or whatever) fails, you have the important stuff backed up. But you can't use it unless you've got a bootable system and the appropriate apps (Word, Audacity, photo editing apps, etc. and all their updates).

So the end user has to install a new HD, then add all the o/s and app files, then run the gazillion system updates. All before using that backed up data.

eek

Click to expand...

With a IMac it is much easier. You make a bootable Thumb drive that allows you to reboot with a new HD and recover the full OS over the internet. No need to apply “updates”. Very easy.

Basil said:

With a IMac it is much easier. You make a bootable Thumb drive that allows you to reboot with a new HD and recover the full OS over the internet. No need to apply “updates”. Very easy.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I didn't realize Mac o/s and Windows o/s were similar in restore process.

How 'bout for the apps that were installed on the pre-disaster HD? Wouldn't each one of those need individual restore and update?

TM

NutmegCT said:

Thanks. I didn't realize Mac o/s and Windows o/s were similar in restore process.

How 'bout for the apps that were installed on the pre-disaster HD? Wouldn't each one of those need individual restore and update?

TM

Click to expand...

Having moved from PC to Mac, in my humble opinion, the process is much easier than on a PC. As for Apps, many apps are standard and part of the OS install, but other Apps are purchased through the App Store. In those case, you simply open the "App Store" App and click install on any Apps you want to re-install. (See picture). If you bought an Application ouside the Apple App Store, you can just backup the "install package" that you would have downloaded from the web site where you purchased the app.

I have an external HD that I back up all my files to once a month. I don't worry about the OS or programs because I can just reinstall that stuff if there is a critical failure.

One of the things I like about www.backblaze.com (and I'm sure other back up services are similar) is that it runs in the background and keeps all files up to date continuously.

I back up to a little thumbdrive. Files, not programs. How do you back up a program - and would you even bother (assuming your files will run with updated programs).

pdplot said:

I back up to a little thumbdrive. Files, not programs. How do you back up a program - and would you even bother (assuming your files will run with updated programs).

Click to expand...

I do not back up programs (Called "Apps" on an iMac). Se my post above re: downloading and re-installing Apps on an iMac. Easy.

DrEntropy said:

I like the Code42 backup folks.

...just for the Douglas Adams homage.

Click to expand...

I have mixed feelings about Code42. They've installed it on our laptops at work and it tends to drag performance down at random intervals to the point where for several seconds even the mouse pointer won't move.

NutmegCT said:

I'm all for making backups (*lots* of backups) for important stuff.

But does anyone still do full disk backup? including the o/s? Ghost and Disk Image come to mind.

When the HD (or whatever) fails, you have the important stuff backed up. But you can't use it unless you've got a bootable system and the appropriate apps (Word, Audacity, photo editing apps, etc. and all their updates).

So the end user has to install a new HD, then add all the o/s and app files, then run the gazillion system updates. All before using that backed up data.

eek

Click to expand...

Macrium Reflect. Free version. 2.1TB EHD, two units full backed up including OS.

Basil said:

With a IMac it is much easier. You make a bootable Thumb drive that allows you to reboot with a new HD and recover the full OS over the internet. No need to apply “updates”. Very easy.

Click to expand...

The only drawback to this is, you may not get the SAME VERSION of the OS that you had before the crash. I have a lot of programs that are pretty much tailor-fit to work on my machine as it stands right now. If I tried to recover to a newly installed probably newer revision OS theres a ton of things that won't work anymore. I keep DMG/ISO files of running machines, and keep copies of the installers for older versions of the OS's AND programs themselves so that if a recovery is needed, I can either replicate what was lost or get mighty close at least. Things like musics and photos (the main things I really care about keeping) also get stored on multiple different machines and external HD's, some of which aren't at the house. Plus recovering over the internet means taking the whole mess to someplace that HAS internet and won't mind you setting it up for however long it takes (can just see walking into a starbucks or mcdonalds with a rack of equipment...they probably would be less than amused).