Introduction 

Data recovery is the process of retrieving lost, deleted, or inaccessible data from a storage device. It can be a complex and delicate process, and there are certain dos and don’ts that you should follow to maximize your chances of successful data recovery. In this article, we’ll discuss the best practices for data recovery and the common mistakes to avoid.

The Dos of Data Recovery 

When it comes to data recovery, there are several best practices that you should follow. First and foremost, keep a cool head. Panicking can lead to rash decisions that can further damage your data. Take a deep breath and assess the situation before taking any action.

If you’re not sure what to do, seek professional help. Data recovery specialists have the tools and expertise to recover lost data in even the most challenging situations. They can also advise you on the best course of action for your specific situation.

The Don’ts of Data Recovery 

There are also several common mistakes that you should avoid during data recovery. Don’t panic and make rash decisions. This can lead to further data loss or damage.

Don’t use unreliable recovery software. Not all data recovery software is created equal, and using the wrong tool can do more harm than good. Do your research and choose a reputable data recovery program.

Don’t attempt DIY repairs if you’re not sure what you’re doing. Opening up a hard drive or other storage device can cause further damage if you don’t know what you’re doing. Leave it to the professionals.

Data Recovery Tools and Techniques 

There are several tools and techniques used in data recovery. Disk imaging creates a copy of your storage device, allowing data recovery specialists to work on the image rather than the original device. File carving searches for lost files based on their unique characteristics, such as file headers and footers.

Data recovery software can also be used to recover lost data. These programs scan your storage device for lost files and attempt to recover them. However, not all data recovery software is created equal, so be sure to choose a reputable program.

Preventing Data Loss 

The best way to prevent data loss is to back up your data regularly. This creates a copy of your data that can be restored in the event of data loss. Other ways to prevent data loss include using surge protectors to protect your devices from power surges, keeping your computer in a safe location away from potential hazards, and being careful when handling your storage devices.

Conclusion 

Data recovery can be a complex and delicate process, but by following the dos and don’ts outlined in this article, you can maximize your chances of successful data recovery. Remember to keep a cool head, seek professional help if necessary, and avoid common mistakes such as using unreliable recovery software or attempting

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Introduction 

Data backups are an essential part of any data management strategy. They provide a safety net for your valuable information, ensuring that it can be recovered in the event of data loss. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of regular data backups and how they can save you time and money in the long run.

The Risks of Not Backing Up Your Data 

Not backing up your data can have serious consequences. Hardware failure, accidental deletion, and cyber attacks are just a few of the ways that data can be lost. Without a backup, recovering lost data can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. In some cases, it may not even be possible to recover the lost information.

How Regular Backups Can Save You Time and Money 

Regular backups can save you time and money by preventing data loss and minimizing downtime. By having a recent backup of your data, you can quickly restore lost information and get back to work with minimal disruption. This can save you the time and expense of trying to recover lost data or recreate it from scratch.

Types of Data Backups 

There are several types of data backups to choose from, including full, incremental, and differential backups. Full backups create a complete copy of your data, while incremental and differential backups only save changes made since the last backup. Each type of backup has its advantages and disadvantages, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs.

Choosing the Right Backup Solution for Your Needs 

When choosing a backup solution, there are several factors to consider. Storage capacity, security, and ease of use are all important considerations. You’ll also want to think about how often you need to back up your data and how quickly you need to be able to restore it in the event of data loss.

Conclusion 

Regular data backups are an essential part of any data management strategy. They provide a safety net for your valuable information and can save you time and money in the long run. By choosing the right backup solution for your needs and implementing a regular backup schedule, you can protect your data and ensure that it can be recovered in the event of data loss.

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No One Understands the Cloud

In the comedy movie “Sex Tape” with Jason Segal and Cameron Diaz, there is a scene where they fight over the fact that some salacious act that they recorded on their iPad was accidentally uploaded into the “cloud” and was shared and seen by all of their friends and family.  In this scene, Jason Segal’s character pointlessly argues with his wife and screams in vain, “Nobody understands the cloud!”  Truer words have never been spoken. That was 2014.  Five years later, I still think that to be true. In this article, we are going to attempt to uncover the details of what the “cloud” is really all about… Read along if you want to learn more…

What Exactly is the Cloud?

The “cloud” is a network of computers that provide a specific type of digital service to any user that has an internet connected device like a computer, cellphone, or tablet.

These network of computers and servers are located in multiple locations and are managed and owned by major IT cloud providers like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, or Google, who provide “cloud services” to anyone uses them or any business who needs them.

Much like the concept of the “internet”, the “cloud” is ubiquitous.  We interact with them in different ways every day and while they are closely related to each other and have overlapping functions, one main differentiator of the “cloud” concept is that the user must be able to “upload” and subsequently “download” their data from the “cloud”.  So to oversimplify things, when you read the news from CNN on your laptop, you are accessing the “internet”, but when you add your photos on your Facebook account, you are uploading it to the “cloud” servers of Facebook.

Still confused?  Much like the chicken and the egg, we don’t want to conflate these two concepts, as we would be in an endless cycle as to which one came first and which one bore the other.  Instead, the “cloud” is a model for allowing users on-demand access to shared resources like storage, software, computing platform, and ultimately data.

As there are many different iterations and overlapping functions of the term “cloud services”, this article will focus on the most basic function which is cloud storage.  Other cloud-based services like cloud computing require an entirely separate discussion as they are too broad to discuss in one article.

Cloud Storage

Ten years ago, when we needed to store some personal data, we would save them on our computer hard drive, on a USB flash drive, an external drive, or even a CD or DVD disk. A lot of people still do up to this day and may continue to do so in many years to come.  But as most of our day to day lives have involved digitized information, we continue to store more data, and we continue to attempt to live efficient and flexible lifestyles and would want access to that stored information on an on-demand basis.  This is where the concept of cloud storage comes in.

Instead of having a physical storage device, like a hard drive, for us to transfer the data that we want to save, we now have an alternative “cloud storage” solution where we would normally pay, based on a monthly subscription model, for “storage space”.  The user does not have to physically own a hard drive, but rather, the user just rents out the storage space, much like renting out some real estate space, but in virtual internet space, if you may. 

Most major providers actually offer some free storage space when you sign up.  It can go from as little as 2GB from Dropbox to as high as 15GB from Google when you create a Gmail Account.  If you want additional space, you can rent out for as little as $0.99 a month for 50GB (from Apple iCloud ) and up to 30TB from Google Drive for $299.00 a month.  Ability to add multiple users on a single account is a standard option for sharing and collaboration purposes. 

Users can “upload” their data into this rented storage space, by connecting to the internet and accessing their account.  Subsequently, anytime a user wants to access or download the saved data, they may also do so by the same process.  Anytime a user runs out of storage space and wants to increase ( or decrease) their rented space, they may do so by just changing their account settings.  With this model, there is on-demand scalability and there is zero maintenance involved.  The cloud providers are responsible for the safeguard and accessibility of your data as they deploy redundant measures in case you need to recover your data. 

Sync vs Backup

Knowing that the cloud is a virtual hard drive that you can access anytime may not be entirely enough to fully grasp the whole idea.  That answers the “what” and the “why” but “how” it is backed up is another thing that can add to the confusion.  This can be summarized in two methods.  Cloud Sync and Cloud Backup.  The end result is the same but one is running on manual and the other on auto mode.

Cloud Backup runs in the background automatically. You set and forget.  Once the initial setup is done, the user does not need to take any additional actions.  Typically the user must set a specific and time and date for when the backup service gets activated, and once it does, it will automatically backup the entire system.  In case there is a system crash or data loss, all backed up data can be restored, including the operating system for mac or windows.  Companies like Carbonite, Backblaze, and SpiderOak are the frontrunners in this market.

In Cloud Sync, the user must identify specific folders and source drives that must be backed up. They must be manually added to the main folder that the service provider has designated as the source folder that will be backed up. After the initial setup, only those source folders and directories that were defined will be saved on the cloud.  These type of cloud services are the most commonly used in the market and amongst the most popular ones are Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox.

Private vs Public Cloud

Companies that provide cloud services with a pay as you go pricing model can be considered as a part of the public cloud.  But you can also create your own private cloud.  This will mean that you will have to buy a network attached storage (NAS) hard drive. These are hard drives that connect to your local network rather than to your PC.  You can access the NAS drive from any device, and from anywhere in the world,  for as long as it is connected to the internet.  The best NAS devices are can also be accessed from any platform or operating systems. Unlike the typical hard drive which must be formatted for either Mac or Windows based usage.  Western Digital My Cloud, Seagate Cloud, Synology, and Buffalo are amongst the most common manufacturers of NAS drives.  The initial cost may be high, but at some point, this option will actually end up being more economical since you are not perpetually paying for a monthly fee for storage space compared to public cloud services like the ones previously mentioned.

Still cloudy?

Hopefully, we have been able to shed some light on this topic of cloud storage.  As people store more and more data each year, the idea of where and how often it should be saved rarely comes to mind until a disaster has struck.  There is no real solution to the potential risk of losing one’s data, except to have multiple data backups.  Typically we suggest having two local backups and one off-site cloud service backup.  Only with this type of backup strategy can you truly lessen the need for data recovery solutions.

But should it still happen, keep in mind that there are companies that provide data recovery services that have high success rates and affordable prices.  One of the most trusted data recovery companies in Los Angeles is BYOD Computer Services.  They have hundreds of five-star reviews from Yelp, Google, and Facebook and have committed to providing their customers with the best services and best prices in Los Angeles.  With more than 10 years of experience in the computer industry, BYOD is the place to go for a professional and trustworthy data recovery service in Los Angeles!

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Lost Data?

Have you ever been in a situation where you experienced data loss due to accidentally deleting some files from your computer?  If so, then your first instinct would probably be to ask your techie friend or maybe go to Google and do a quick search for “data loss” or “data recovery near me“… Whether you chose the former or the latter, chances are that you may come across some free version of software supposedly designed to recover your data. 

While it may be tempting to download one or a couple of those so-called free data recovery software, you have to be wary of some of the pitfalls in doing so.  There are hidden consequences in using free versions especially if you do not know how to properly use them. It can cause some further complications which can sometimes lead to a more permanent data loss situation.  In the next few sections, we will go through the common disadvantages of using free data recovery software found online.

Malware/Spyware

You’ve all heard of the expression “There’s no such thing as a free lunch?”… Internet folklore has it that in the early 1930’s bars and saloons use the “free lunch” marketing tactic to entice customers to come in and as they get their “free lunch,” which consisted of really salty and spicy food, the customers would then have to actually spend more money to buy beer to water it down.  The “free lunch theory” has been a widely used literature in economics to describe opportunity cost and is considered to be at the very core of advertising and marketing strategies which are still employed to this day.

So you really do wonder why is it that there are computer programs out there that are designed to do certain functions but are given away for free.  Some have simple functionalities and some have very intricate code that can carry out sophisticated processes.  Yes, there are times when a really talented programmer got so bored that he or she decided to fix a common problem and just gave out the solution for free.  But a good number of those free programs have also been known to carry viruses, malware, or spyware that an unsuspecting person can easily fall prey into.  So be very careful when downloading and installing free programs as they can sometimes do certain processes in the background without the user ever knowing it.  This especially becomes doubly important when you are attempting to recover data that is sensitive in nature.

Bait and Switch

There are also some software out there that are advertised as free and allow you to download, install, and run the program on your computer.  It would then tell you that they actually recovered the files that you lost or have been deleted.  That’s great right! Not so fast…  They would then show a file structure of the files or folders that were supposedly recovered but you actually cannot view the contents unless you pay for the full version!  You then get too excited and then you decide to actually buy the software so you can download the contents of those folders that were recovered.  In some instances, they do work.  But for a good number of them, we have discovered the hard way that upon downloading the folders that they showed us, the files were either not complete or they were corrupted.  You end up complaining and requesting for a refund but they make the whole process so annoyingly difficult that most people give up and just write it off.

Read not Write

The process of recovering your data from your hard drive using data recovery software, whether it’s free or not, normally involves scanning each sector of the drive and locating those “lost” or “deleted” files.  A good, well-designed software will do this ideally in a non-destructive and non-invasive manner. This means that it should only “read” information off of the drive and not “write” into the drive.  Doing the latter could result in your lost data becoming totally unrecoverable since it will permanently delete the previously allocated space.  We have seen some shady “free” software do this really poor practice due to either poor software design, or worse, the software was designed on purpose to delete certain partitions in your hard drive.

Hard drive crash

Another consequence of a poorly designed free software is when the scanning process does not allow to skip so-called “bad sectors”.   What this means is that there are instances when the files in your hard drive get corrupted and when this happens, the composition of the file type is deemed to have some bad sectors.  For example, a jpeg photo that has one bad pixel can be considered as a file with a bad sector but to an average person, it is still considered a perfectly good photo.

When a data recovery software scans the hard drive it should be able to skip those files.  In some cases, if it is not designed to disregard bad files, then it will keep on forcing the issue and produce unnecessary stress on the hard drive which can lead the drive to completely crash. Once it crashes, then your chances of recovery have gone down drastically.

DIY gone bad

In this age of information overload, where people can become experts on any subject matter in about a span of one weekend, it is quite tempting to attempt to “DIY” a hard drive that has either gone bad or has lost some data.  This is fine if you are dealing with data that is not so important and sensitive that if the project goes bad, then it would not be a total loss to you.  But if it something crucial to you, whether it’s personal photos, business documents, school projects, or any critical information, you may only have a small window of opportunity, and a small tolerance for error, in order to preserve and recover your data.  Miss this chance and you can end up permanently losing all those precious data.

Keep in mind that there are companies that provide data recovery services that have high success rates and affordable prices.  One of the most trusted data recovery companies in Los Angeles is BYOD Computer Services.  They have hundreds of five-star reviews from Yelp, Google, and Facebook and have committed to providing their customers with the best services and best prices in Los Angeles.  With more than 10 years of experience in the computer industry, BYOD is the place to go for a professional and trustworthy data recovery service in Los Angeles!

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Spring Break is here!

It’s April and spring break is just around the corner.  That one or two week respite is all we need to go on that family vacation or for some college kids, that rite of passage of a fun-filled spring break in Coachella.  In these span of two weeks, hundreds of thousands of photos will be taken from cellphones, DSLRs and point and shoot cameras, and memories will be forever embedded in flash cards, memory cards, and cellphones. 

It is also in this time of the year that we are busiest and a tad bit carefree.  Phones get dropped, cameras get wet, and things get thrown around with reckless abandon. Those precious photos of your kids frolicking on the beach or of your sun-drenched pictures of you and your friends singing along with your favorite band could be at risk if you don’t do these three things!

Make a Backup!

As we have always mentioned here in this blog, always make a backup. Storage drives can fail for no reason so making multiple backups is the only way to protect your data.  If you are going on a long vacation, then bring an external drive with you so you can do it while you are in your vacation and not wait until you get back home.  Better yet, get some kind of cloud service that automatically makes backups from your phone.  Some newer cameras make backups on your laptop thru wifi so you don’t have to find those annoying cables and going thru the motions of doing backup copies of your daily shoots.  These are extra conveniences that can make your process seamless and automatic.

Use reliable memory cards!

There are a lot of knock-off brands online and it may seem that you are getting a bargain until it’s not.  Memory cards, sd cards, USB flash drives nowadays are quite inexpensive so don’t skimp on those things as they are just as important as the camera that you are using.  They store all the photos and videos and if they go bad due to poor quality then all the hard work of making sure you get the right photos will have been all for naught should they go bad.

Check and double check before deleting originals!

Now storage space can get really full really fast.  When we’re taking several hundred pictures a day, your phone memory or camera memory can get crowded and we tend to delete pictures to make some space.  Before you attempt to delete stuff, make sure you have backed up the originals before deleting them from your phone or memory card.  This may seem like common sense, but trust me it’s not.  I have seen people accidentally tick all the boxes in the camera viewfinder and delete everything when they only intended to delete a few photos.  Needless to say, the results were catastrophic.

Back to normal!

As we look forward to one of the more popular vacation events of the year, we must make sure that we have the right tools to immortalize these memories. Our electronic gear must be fully charged and ready to go at a moments notice.  And as we take all of these photos and videos, we must make sure that we follow these three simple steps to make sure that we get to enjoy them when we go back to our normal boring lives. 

And if after going through all the motions of trying to safeguard your data, and you still wind up needing some type of data recovery service, then there’s always BYOD.  BYOD  Computer Services provide affordable data recovery solutions for hard drives, memory cards, flash drives, and more.  We are the highest rated and most trusted data recovery company in Los Angeles.  With hundreds of five-star reviews from Yelp, Google, and Facebook,  we are committed to provide our customers with the best services and best prices in town!

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Just Google it…

Has your hard drive ever failed on you and you decided to see if there are any quick fixes to getting your precious data off of it?  If you had, and you happened to do a quick Google or You Tube search for “DIY data recovery,” then you must’ve come across a few suggestions as to how to save your data from some so-called DIY experts.

In this golden age of the internet, where there are a plethora of free digital information, it is so easy to fall prey and jump on the DIY bandwagon, and attempt a process called data recovery on a failing hard drive.  If your hard drive has shown symptoms of failing, these DIY life hacks or “myths” can present irreversible damage to your hard drive which can ultimately cause permanent data loss.  My advice:  “Don’t do it!”

Hard Drive Data Recovery DIY: Don’t do it!

Myth No.1 :  Just open it!

As of this writing, there is a You Tube video with tons of views from a so-called DIY channel, giving instructions on how to crack open a hard drive, and by simply tinkering with its internal components, you are supposedly going to magically recovery all of your data from a failing/clicking hard drive.  He was doing this procedure in the comfort of his home and not in the required ideal environment of a “Clean Room” laboratory.

Hard disk drives have platters which store the data, and these platters spin anywhere from 5400 to 7200 rpm.  The magnetic heads, which reads and writes data into the platters, traverse a path in order to access the data.  The tolerances in space between the magnetic heads and the spinning platters are so slim, such that a fingerprint in the platters can potentially cause the heads to scratch and damage the disk.  Once the disks are scratched, the data cannot be recovered.  If you want to know more about how hard drives work, click here!

Opening the hard drive in an open air environment can be very risky if air-borne particles can come in contact with the exposed platters.  Not to mention the risks involved in moving and tinkering with the magnetic heads without the proper precision tools and training required in such an intricate undertaking.

While data recovery services are still an unregulated industry, the common practice is to open the hard drives in a “Clean Room” environment where the ambient air passes through HEPA filters to comply with ISO standards for particle counts per cubic meter of air.  Click here for common ISO standards for Clean Room facilities.  This ensures that no unwanted particles can come in contact with the platters spinning at high rpm’s.  This also simulates the environment when the hard drive was actually manufactured and assembled.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Clean Room Facility

But don’t get me wrong.  If you have a hard drive that started to fail, and it’s contents are not that critical, or if you are not willing to spend several hundred dollars to recover the data ( yes, it can cost that much! ), then it might be worth your while to give it a shot.  But only if you have non-critical data and only if you have given up on recovering the data somehow.  This should be a last resort option, because there is a huge probability that you will permanently damage it.

So why does this particular You Tuber have thousands of views on this “mythical” DIY hard drive hack?  Who knows?  Maybe he has good SEO techniques. Or maybe people just have way too much time watching videos nowadays.  After all, the top 5 popular cat videos alone, has more than 1 billion views and counting.

Cat videos rule !

Myth No. 2:  Just tap it !

Another silly myth that’s been around for years is called the “tapping myth.”  This involves intentionally tapping, hitting, or slapping the hard drive with the purpose of releasing “stuck” magnetic heads on the platters.  This occurrence, often called “stiction,” has been common in the older model hard drives and has occasionally been fixed by the “tapping myth.”  This however, will probably further damage it, and is also no longer applicable with the newer, more modern hard drive designs.  The purpose of getting the heads “unstuck” also means that it can get dragged accross the platters during the process, rendering the data stored in those platters technically impossible to recover.  Unless you are willing to take enormous risks of losing your data, this stupid DIY myth no.2 should never be used on your hard drive!

Myth No.3:  Just Freeze It !

If there is ever any one DIY myth that has floated the internet, this could very well be the dumbest!  The “Freezer Trick” method.  The idea behind this method is to place the failing hard drive in the freezer (yup, the freezer!), for several minutes and then upon removing it from the freezer, the hard drive is supposed to magically just go back to its original working condition.  This trick supposedly allows the internal components to temporarily contract, due to the “freezing” action, and by powering up the hard drive in its contracted state, then any components that have gotten stuck, whether it’s the spindle motor, or the magnetic heads that read and write data into the platters, will get “unstuck” and hence rendering the drive useful once more.

This assumption could not be any further from the truth.  The freezing and eventual thawing of the internal components can cause condensation inside the hard drive and we all know what happens when electricity and water go together!  Not a pretty sight!  There is an absolute certainty that you will make matters worse when you try this method and can make data recovery impossible to achieve by anyone.  So don’t even think about doing this if you care about what’s inside of your hard drive.

Freeze the Drive! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

DIY Generation

In this age of the DIY generation, it is easy to understand what makes it so alluring to attempt to fix what seems like a simple, inexpensive, and non-complex gadget such as your hard drive.  What many people don’t realize is that it is not the cost of the $50.00 hard drive which is at stake.  But it is the contents of that hard drive, which when handled the wrong way, can sometimes cause permanent data loss.  And if you’re of the many who do not have multiple back ups, then that loss becomes irreplaceable.

In the unlikely event that this happens to you, all is not lost though.  There are companies that provide Data Recovery Services to professionally extract the data from failed and broken hard drives.  It’s one of those things that nobody talks about until it actually happens.  Just like getting a root canal, you’ve heard about it, know it’s something dreadful, but you never really prepared for it, until it actually happens to you!  By the time someone goes through the ordeal of explaining their situation to a Data Recovery technician, most people do not expect the monetary cost it takes to fix a broken hard drive to a point where the data can be extracted.  They experience sticker shock ! In some cases, they get quotes that run into several hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.  But because there are many types of failures that a hard drive can have, in some of those extreme cases, the stiff cost is warranted.  But there are also a great majority of cases where it will not require expensive equipment to do the job.

That is why it is important to find a Data Recovery company that you can trust to handle the procedure and at the same time do it without breaking the bank.  BYOD Computer Services is one such company that specializes in affordable data recovery services in Los Angeles.  As LA’s most trusted and highest rated Data Recovery company, BYOD has served thousands of customers since 2014.  From college students, creative professionals, small businesses,  local schools and universities, BYOD has been there to save the day!  Here at BYOD we say, “If we can’t save your data, and save money, then we don’t deserve your business!”

Affordable Data Recovery starting at $149.00 !!

The post Top 3 Stupid Myths on Data Recovery ( Don’t do it! ) appeared first on BYOD Computer Services.

“Bill Gates said what?”

Rumor has it that billionaire-philanthropist and Microsoft-founder once said that “640K is more memory than anybody would ever need.”  This was supposedly uttered by Mr. Gates during the early years of the PC revolution.

Rumored quote from Bill Gates in the 80’s!

Now there has never really been a clear citation for this outrageous slander but this rumor has floated on the internet since its inception.  Nobody really knows whether he meant Random Access Memory (RAM) or Storage Space Memory, because as some resourceful journalism would unravel, the man never actually said it.  Nonetheless, this quote has been circling the internet for quite some time, and it has been used to make a point of the way the computing industry has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of the amount of raw computing power and the amount of data and information that us normal humans have processed in the last four decades.

1 selfie = $50,000.00

Consider this.  Sixty-five years ago, when the first hard drive was created by IBM engineers, the cost to manufacture it was a whopping $10,000.00 per megabyte (mb).  Fast track to year 2018, a low resolution selfie taken on the ubiquitous iPhone, takes up around 5 mb.  That would have cost you $50,000.00 back in the day !  Pet photography could never have been a thing in the 70’s !

1 Selfie would cost $50,000 in 1954.

1 iPhone = 150,000 photos

But nowadays, we take all of these for granted.  An average iPhone user will have hundreds, if not thousands of pictures taken every year.  When the very first iPhone came out in 2007, it had a capacity of 8GB.  In the fall of 2018, the iPhone XS came out with a 512GB storage capacity.  That’s enough to hold approximately 150,000 photos.  Where does it end ?

iPhone XS with 512GB capacity can hold at least 150,000 photos !

In order for us to truly understand and appreciate the concept of data storage and its preservation, we need to go back in time and study its history.  Why and how it was made, its evolution, and where it’s heading for the generations to come.  It might be a little boring, but hey… “the more you know!”

“Father” of the Hard Disk Drive

International Business Machines (IBM), nicknamed “Big Blue”, was the company that invented the very first hard disk drive back in 1954.  The IBM team that was credited with this invention was led by an American inventor and computer pioneer named Reynold B. Johnson.  A life-long IBM employee, he is said to be the “Father” of the Hard Disk Drive.  Mr. Johnson was hired by IBM in the early 1930’s and in 1952, he was assigned to lead the research team to develop the Disk Data Storage Technology.  Two years later, the RAMAC 305 was born.

Reynold B. Johnson is said to be the “Father” of the Hard Disk Drive. Shown here with the RAMAC 305, the world’s first hard drive by IBM.

RAMAC which stands for “Random Access Method for Accounting and Control,” was the first commercial hard disk drive-based computer.  This first iteration of magnetic storage technology is still the basis for the technology used in today’s modern hard disk drive.  It hallmarks a moving magnetic head to store and extract data from a magnetic medium more commonly called disks or platters.

By modern standards, the RAMAC 305 was a very crude invention since the machine, which was the size of two refrigerators, weighed over a ton, took the space of an entire room, and could only store 3.75 mb of data into 50 disks of 24-inch diameters each.  Its original purpose was for real-time accounting and computing industries, but because it costs an arm and a leg to manufacture, only the US Military and other blue-chip corporations could afford to test the machine in its first production run.

The RAMAC 305 filled an entire room and weighed over a ton.

In the succeeding years, IBM had drastically improved storage density, improved access times, reduced mainframe sizes, and ultimately reduced sticker prices for the majority of their customers, which by then, had included Universities and other big businesses.  Up until the late 1970’s, IBM’s most advanced hard drive could only store up to 1GB of storage, but was still not very consumer-friendly, as it still weighed 500 pounds and costs $44,000 a pop.

Hungry for more….

By mid-70’s, the PC revolution had really started to ramp up, and businesses and consumers alike were clamoring for more storage capacity, affordability, and portability.

And in 1980, a brilliant start-up company called Shugart Technology (named after co-founder Al Shugart), which was later renamed to Seagate Technology, developed the very first consumer-grade hard disk drive.  It was the ST-506.  This was the company’s first product, and it would store 5mb of data at a cost of $1,500.00.  While this was a drastic reduction in cost, what would make this the de facto standard for storage drives for PC’s at that time was its size.  At a 5.25-inch diameter disk size, this “mini-floppy” drive form factor would drive Seagate into the Silicon Valley goliath that it has become up to this day.  In its first year, Seagate delivered $10 million worth of hard drives to its customers, mostly to IBM, and it hasn’t stopped since.  As of this writing, it has a market cap of over 12 billion USD, and has no signs of slowing down.

Seagate Technology’s ST-506

Some milestones…

In 1983, a little-known company, called Rodime PLC, based in Scotland, launched the world’s first 3.5-inch hard drive.  The company failed to capitalize on this technological breakthrough and it went out of business soon after.  This 3.5-inch hard drive size would however, become a standard form-factor for many years to come, even to this day, especially for desktop computers.  One could say that this company suffered, what we in the industry would call, a major “hard drive crash!”

2.5″ vs 3.5″ hard drives from Seagate.

In 1985, Western Digital, in collaboration with Compaq and Control Data, developed the 40-pin IDE interface ( IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics ), which would set the industry standard for the majority of hard drive interfaces. IDE is oftentimes called PATA which stands for Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment.

In 1988, when the laptop market was started by Compaq, another start-up called Prairie Tek, based in Colorado, developed the very first 2.5-inch hard drive.  Again, up to this day, and probably for many more years to come, this would stand up to the test of time, as the prevailing form factor for affordable and reliable hard disk drives.

In 1992, Seagate once again leads the way in introducing the first 7200 revolutions per minute (rpm) hard drive with its flagship product, the Seagate Barracuda series.

In 2002, Seagate produces the first SATA-connected drive with its Barracuda ATA V series. SATA stands for Serial AT Attachment. A huge improvement from the previous PATA interface, the SATA connections would soon replace the traditional PATA for 99% of all desktop and laptop hard drives even up to now.

SATA drives vs PATA drives

In 2003, IBM ends its hard disk drive business and sells that division to Hitachi Corp.  Two years later, IBM also sold the entirety of its PC hardware business to Chinese hardware manufacturer Lenovo.  Lenovo would soon become the world’s No.1 PC manufacturer behind the strength of its Thinkpad line of laptops.

In 2007, the SSD revolution had started to get noticed.  SSD stands for Solid-State Drives.  This type of storage device uses flash memory and has no moving and mechanical components that are found in traditional hard disk drives.  SSD’s have faster access times, lower defect rates, but are quite expensive to produce.  While the first SSD’s were introduced back in 1991 by Sandisk, it was only in 2007 where its full functionality and economic market viability were truly realized.

HDD vs SSD Comparison

In 2013, laptops shipped by Apple’s flagship Macbook line all shipped with Solid-State Drives.  Some desktops still had the traditional hard drives coupled with an SSD to combine both speed and storage space requirements.

Now Trending…

Dating back to the very first hard drive ever produced, there have been over 200 companies that have manufactured hard drives in the past.  And whether it was through strategic mergers and acquisitions, or bankruptcies due to mismanagement or poor product design, most of them have vanished.  Only three major companies now exist.  Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba (which is also currently undergoing a management crisis).  Survival of the fittest, or in this case, the fastest, was and will continue to be the driving force in capturing a bigger piece of the hard drive market.  All this jostling for position in the market has benefited the consumer as hard drive companies have strived to produce faster, smaller, and more reliable storage drives as we continue to amass huge amounts of data, that of which about 99% have been produced only in the last 5-10 years.

In a recent study sponsored by Seagate called Data Age 2025, it foresees that the world will be producing data at a rate of 163 Zettabytes per year by 2025.  A tenfold increase compared to 2016 data.  It would be like watching the entire Netflix catalog 400 million times.  I have honestly never heard of zettabytes up until I started writing this article but it apparently is equivalent to 1 trillion gigabytes (1 zb = 1 trillion gb).  Your standard calculator would run out of zeroes trying to convert these units.

1 Zettabyte = 1 trillion Gigabytes !

Final Thoughts…

The world is awash with data and will continue to grow exponentially in the next few years.  As long as You Tubers continue to churn out daily blogs to get those subs, there is no end in sight.  Luckily, innovation and development of hard drives are continuing at a staggering pace, so there is no consternation of it becoming irrelevant.  Seagate’s CFO has predicted that hard drives will continue to be around for another 15-20 years and it will be better, faster, and have bigger capacities.

I personally predict, that in a few years, there will be an iPhone with a 10 Terabyte  (TB) capacity.  You laugh now!  But didn’t we all, when we first read that article with that infamous Bill Gates quote.  See you in a few years and we’ll see who get’s the last laugh!

Future prediction = 10TB iPhone

Finally, as people store more and more data, never has there been  a time and a need to have a safe way to store your digital archives.  Yes you can have your photos printed similar to the Polaroid photos that your Grandma once took, but you can only have so many shoe boxes to store them into.  Storing them into hard disk drives are the best way to go, but they can also fail at some point.  It is in these unfortunate instances that a data recovery company with a good reputation, high success rates, and pricing that will not break the bank, comes in handy.  BYOD Computer Services is one such company.  BYOD Computer Services has hundreds of five-star reviews from Yelp, Google, Facebook, Angie’s List, and other popular social media sites, which is a testament to their dedication and commitment to provide their customers with top-notch service at affordable rates.  They specialize in data recovery services for hard drives, RAID Drives, SD and Memory Cards, USB Flash Drives, and iPhone data recovery.

Data loss can happen to anyone.  The only way to prevent this is to have multiple backups.  Do it now.  Sometimes later becomes never.  But should it happen, BYOD will be here to help!

Affordable Data Recovery starting at $149.00 !

The post A History of Hard Drives { Brief } appeared first on BYOD Computer Services.

Do you suddenly hear some strange clicking sounds on your laptop?

Has your computer started to suddenly run so painstakingly slow?

Do you notice some of your files started to look like a bunch of garbled characters?

If you did, then your computer hard drive, that piece of hardware that holds all of your data, might be in the midst of crashing or completely failing, bringing with it all of your precious data like documents, videos, family albums, music, work documents, and the list goes on.  Knowing the early signs of failure can save you from totally losing all of your data. If you want to know what the early symptoms of hard drive failure are, then read along…

Is your computer running slow?

Do Hard Drives Fail?

Here’s the real story….

Hard drives fail.  It’s not a matter of will they fail, it’s a matter of when. Hard drives can fail for many reasons and amongst the most common reasons are caused by simple errors.  Read this ARTICLE to find out the most common causes of hard drive failures.

But how do you know when your storage drives would eventually fail?

What are the warning signs that indicate that a hard drive is about to kick the bucket?

It may not be completely possible to predict when a hard drive will fail since they sometimes just completely crash without any warnings, but these 3 simple signs will tell you that it’s time to go buy that extra back up hard drive and start copying your files before it’s too late.

Back up your data !

What do I look out for?

Symptom # 1:  Strange Noise ( a.k.a. “Click of Death” )

Hard disk drives have spinning disks called platters which store the data.  Typically, they run at either 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute (rpm).  As the platters spin, the magnetic heads read or write data to and from the platters.  If you want to learn more about how hard drives work, then read this ARTICLE.

Parts of a Hard Disk Drive

While the hard disk drive is a pure electronic marvel, they also have a lot of mechanical moving parts.  As these drives log in thousands of hours of work, the mechanical components eventually fail.  More often than not, hard drives will gradually degrade and provide some signs like intermittent grinding or clicking sounds.  Once you start noticing unusual noises, you must already start thinking of backing up those important files.  Once it completely fails, wherein you hear a constant clicking sound or even completely halt to a stop, there’s not much you can do but to look for a reliable data recovery company which can sometimes be a costly endeavor.

The Click of Death !

SYMPTOM #2:   FREEZE + CRASH:  BSOD VS BBOD

What do all these acronyms mean?  Read along….

BSOD stands for “Blue Screen of Death”…

For Windows PC enthusiasts, this is the dreaded scenario that has plagued one too many PC users.  It is a Windows Operating System error screen that displays error messages which then translates to specific causes and symptoms of failure.  It can either be software-related or hardware-related.  Read this ARTICLE to know more about the phenomenon called BSOD.

When your hard drive starts to exhibit either software or hardware related failures, it has a built-in feedback system that sends signals to the Operating System to let you know that it is starting to go bad.  This is when your BSOD error screens would then get triggered.  It is also worth noting that not all BSOD errors are attributed to your hard drive failing.  The error codes would normally indicate what is wrong with your machine, and if you Google Search those codes, then you will probably have some idea of what real problem is.

BSOD = Blue Screen of Death

BBOD stans for “Beach Ball of Death” ( aka Spinning Wheel of Death )

This is the figurative Mac OS equivalent of BSOD.

In the Mac Operating System, when a process is initiated, say for example, launching an application, the CPU executes the process.  If there is a lag in the process, the Mac OS displays a small spinning wheel ( replacing the mouse pointer image ) that resembles your good-ol’ rainbow-colored beach ball.

Depending on how fast the CPU executes the process is somewhat proportional to how long the spinning wheel shows up.  So if the process executes fast, it may not even show up.  But if the process gets executed at a slower pace, this spinning wheel eventually resurfaces and can last for a split-second up to several seconds depending on how processor-intensive the action requires.  Read this ARTICLE to know more about BBOD.

BBOD = Beach Ball of Death

If the BBOD frequently shows up, even for mundane tasks, like browsing files in the Finder, this could be an indication of potential hard drive failure.  The BBOD can also be caused by other issues as well, and is not uniquely attributable to a failing hard drive, it should be noted once more.  BBOD can also be caused by software-related issues like bloatware, malware, and spyware in your system.  Either way, it still is a symptom that you must be aware of and you must take appropriate actions to prevent a catastrophe.

Needless to say, when you experience either BBOD or BSOD, whether you’re a Mac or a PC user, you should start doing preventive measures right away, like backing up your files and documents.  Ignoring these signs can be catastrophic for your stored data should your hard drive gets permanently damaged.

SYMPTOM #3:  DATA CORRUPTION

Hard drive failures are not always a split-second calamity.

Symptoms can often manifest themselves in a number of ways but one clear sign that there is something fishy going on is when you find out that some of your files or file names have looked garbled and visibly altered from its original condition.  Entire files and folders may also disappear and intermittently reappear giving you a sense of false security that everything is fine.  This is a form of data corruption which is sometimes caused by aging or degrading platters or heads, and as a result, the drive is having great difficulty reading them.

Data Corruption

There’s more…

These are not the only symptoms of hard drive failure.  There are many more.  But these are amongst the earliest signs and the easiest to detect. If you want to know more about this topic and prevention, then you can read this ARTICLE to get a full picture.

If this happens, now what?

Prevention is better than cure.

If you suspect that your hard drive is about to die, you must immediately start backing up your files from the most important to the least.  All of them, ideally.  Hard drives are relatively inexpensive nowadays, so buying a backup external drive and saving those files is going to be a lot cheaper than having to deal with a dead hard drive.  The best method of prevention is to have multiple backups and to constantly update them.

You can also avail of storage services from that metaphorical server in the sky that they call the CLOUD.  There are numerous companies that offer these services.  If you want to know which is the right one for you, then read this ARTICLE.

Cloud Storage Services

Death by a Thousand Clicks !

You may notice that we’ve talked a lot about “death” in this article.

But we cannot emphasize it enough.  All hard drives die.

Once your hard drive has shuffled its mortal coil, then your only recourse is to find a reliable Data Recovery Company.  One that has the experience and capabilities to handle both simple and extreme cases.  Data Recovery can be expensive for the most extreme cases.  But it can also be affordable for the cases that don’t require extreme measures.

Choosing the right data recovery company to do the job is critical.

You may end up breaking the bank for something that did not need a complex data recovery procedure.  You may also end up losing all your data if they were not as competent as they advertised.  Choosing one is a balancing act between reliability and affordability.

Here at BYOD Computer Services, quality and affordability is our mantra.  We go the extra mile to assure our customers that they are getting the most affordable and most reliable data recovery services possible.  Prevention is better than cure.  If prevention fails, there’s always BYOD !!

Data Recovery starting at $149.00

The post Top 3 Symptoms of Hard Drive Failure appeared first on BYOD Computer Services.

NO.1  CAUSE OF DATA LOSS FOR HARD DRIVES

DO HARD DRIVES FAIL?

Do you have a hard drive filled with important documents that suddenly became inaccessible when you plug it in to your computer?

You’ve tried plugging it in to different computers but the hard drive still won’t show up. You didn’t know what went wrong but all of a sudden it everything is gone! The sad thing is that you did not have any other back up. This was your back up.  If something like this has happened to you, then read along so you will know how to prevent it from happening again!

So one begs to ask? Do hard drives fail?

The easy answer is this: All hard drives fail. It’s not a matter of will they fail, it’s a matter of when. The question of when it fails can depend on several things which can sometimes be avoided with proper guidance. There are many common causes of failure, whether instantaneous or gradual degradation of hard disk drives. Knowing and avoiding these scenarios can drastically improve both the performance and the life of your hard drives!

But based on our own experience in dealing with thousands of our customers throughout these years, the number one cause of data loss is: Human Errors !!

10 Common Causes of Data Loss

You can also check this ARTICLE which lists the 10 common causes of data loss.

HUMAN ERROR #1:   Accidental Deletion of Files

We have all heard of “drunk dialing” or “drunk texting”, but have you heard of “drunk deleting important files in your computer” ?

Ok maybe it’s not a real thing yet, but make a note that you first read it from this blog. My point is that it is not uncommon for people to make mistakes, sometimes unknowingly, but it sure does happen, intoxicated or otherwise. Why? Because shit just happens sometimes.

Drunk deleting !

These types of human errors outnumber the probability that a hard drive will physically fail when run at optimal conditions. Hard drives are tested for thousands of hours under normal to extreme conditions and if a certain model exceeds the threshold of failure set by the manufacturer, then they either fix the issues or discontinue the drive being tested.

Humans are prone to errors and we sometimes delete stuff knowingly or unknowingly and it is sometimes too late to figure out that we actually needed those files. It is quite unfortunate, but sadly it happens even to the best of us.

“To err is human,” as the saying often goes.

HUMAN ERROR #2:   Accidental Drops While Plugged in

Like your vintage vinyl record player, a hard disk drive works with circular disks called platters, and instead of the needle on a phonograph, it has magnetic heads that read the data from the platters. The hard drive platters also spin several thousand times faster that your Dad’s record player. With increased accuracy and speed, modern technology has allowed us to store data at a much larger amount and access that data at a much quicker speed, and more importantly, at a much smaller form factor.

PARTS OF A HARD DISK DRIVE

The most common external or portable hard drives are called 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch hard drives and in 2018, can hold as much as 10TB of data for a single drive. 5-10 years from now, these specifications will be deemed obsolete. But for the last 10 years or so, the 2.5” and 3.5” form factors have been the most common drives for many users.

One of the most common causes of drive failures is when people accidentally drop or mildly bump the hard drive while the drive is connected to a computer, and while the disks are spinning at full speed. The tolerances in the construction of the modern hard drive are so slim that a slight bump or physical jarring of the hard drive, while the drive is spinning, and while the magnetic heads are engaged, will cause the heads to potentially get misaligned and cause it to scratch the platters and thus damaging the stored data.

It can also cause the heads to get stuck either in the rest position or in an engaged position. Either cases will cause the drive to completely stop working or will have symptoms commonly called the “Click of Death” or “clicking or grinding” sounds. This can sometimes be instantaneous or can accumulate damage through time. Either way it is not good for the overall health of the hard drive.

There is no cure or prevention for this scenario except for proper handling and extreme care when dealing with hard drives. It should be noted though that when a hard drive is not running, the magnetic heads are in a “parked” setup, and it is rested and not engaged to the platters. So when a hard drive is not connected, the chances of damaging it, when it gets dropped or suffered a minor impact, is less than when it is running. It may still break, but the chances are less, or shall we say that the chances increase dramatically when the drive is running.

Your data, your memories, your life is stored in these hard drives so treat them well and it should last for quite some time until they invent the next storage solution that will chronicle our lives.

HUMAN ERROR #3:   Unsafely Ejecting the Hard Drive

You’ve plugged in your external hard drive through the USB port of your laptop and copied some files into it.   After the transfer of files are done, you immediately unplugged the USB cable from your laptop without “safely” ejecting the hard drive from the taskbar ( for windows PCs ) or from the Finder ( for macs ).   BAM! You suddenly see a warning sign that says something like “Disk not ejected properly!”

Disk not ejected properly ( Mac OS)

Problem ejecting USB Storage Device ( Windows OS )

This is one of the most common causes of hard drive failure. One must always “safely” eject any storage drive from its host machine, whether it’s a hard disk drive, USB flash drive, memory card on cameras or mobile phones,. Especially when it is in the middle of transferring data to or from the host device. And by “safely”, we don’t mean “physically” safe but “logically” safe. Which means that the storage drive must first be ejected by a software eject process. On either a Mac or PC shows a pop up notification that the storage drive has been “Safely Ejected” , only then can the storage drive be physically ejected or otherwise unplugged from the host machine.

On Windows PC’s, when a hard drive is plugged in, an icon will show up in the bottom right corner of the task bar. By clicking this icon, a pop up window will show all the external hard drives that are connected to the windows machine and by clicking the connected hard drive, you will prompted if you want to safely eject the hard drive.

How to properly eject a hard drive on Windows OS

Once you click that option, wait a few seconds, and another pop up window will show up telling you that the hard drive can now be ejected. Only after this pop up notification shows up should you physically unplug the device. Doing so without that notification, will potentially cause your hard drive to fail.

Hard drive safely ejected on Windows OS

On Macs, it’s a little different. One must first check “Finder” preferences whether it is set to show connected external disks to the Finder sidebar. Once it is set to show external drives on the Finder sidebar, anytime you connect an external storage device to the Mac, it will show up in the Finder. It may also show up in the Desktop but the safest way is to eject it from the Finder.

Connected hard drive on a Mac OS

By using the secondary click option on the drive (there are different ways to do this) for Macs, a pop up window will show up and there will be an option to eject the hard drive. Another way to eject the hard drive is to click the bar and arrow icon beside the hard drive with your mouse or track pad. And lastly, by selecting the hard drive, you can also physically press the eject key on your physical keyboard ( if you have one ). Once you have done either of the three, the hard drive will disappear from the sidebar or from your desktop.  Check out this ARTICLE for other ways to eject an external hard drive on a Mac.

How to eject a hard drive on Mac OS

Having said all these, one might wonder, why it is that you have been just yanking out those USB cables all these years and you never had an instance when your hard drive failed on you. This article must be some kind of click bait article. While it is true that pulling out your hard drive without “Safely” ejecting it from the computer may or may not instantaneously damage your hard drive, causing people to develop some kind of false positives, doing so will limit the chances of it happening to you.

The option to safely eject a hard drive from Macs, Windows, or even Linux machines is there for a reason. And that reason is to prevent file system corruption in a scenario where data transfer is occurring knowingly or unknowingly and an accidental interruption occurs during the transfer process. So as the saying goes, “Better safe, than sorry”. So take that extra step all time… Safely eject that drive. It will save you a whole lot of headaches for just a few extra clicks of the mouse !

LOSS PREVENTION

Data loss from hard drive failure is an unfortunate event that can happen to anyone. Human errors are a leading cause of this occurrence. The good news is that it can be prevented. Being proactive with handling your data can mean having a physical hard drive back up, and sometimes, for extra precaution, having an extra back up. One can also avail of CLOUD storage solutions. There are a myriad of choices from major companies with varying degrees of redundancy and varying costs of monthly fees.

CONCLUSION

I can’t say this enough.

Hard drives fail.

It’s not a matter of will it fail, it’s a matter of when.

Having redundant back ups is the only real solution to preventing data loss from storage devices. But, even if all the precautions were taken, and your hard drive still failed, all is not completely lost.

There are companies that specialize in providing services that will recover the data from failed storage devices. The services come in varying degrees and levels of expertise.   Choosing the right one is critical since the task is to recover important data from the only piece of hardware where that data exists.

There is also a misconception that data recovery services are expensive. It may be true for the most complicated cases, but for many cases as well, it should not cost an arm and a leg. That is why choosing the right company to handle job, which balances the skill level and affordability is the most important decision one must make, when attempting to recover data from a failed storage device.

Striking a balance between high success rates and affordability is a company vision that we continue to strive for here at BYOD Computer Services. We go the extra mile ensure that our customers get the most affordable rates while providing the best possible data recovery services available. So as Murphy’s Law states, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” For everything else, there’s BYOD!

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