|
|
|
Coping with a Serious Data
Loss from your Computer Hard Drive
by Darryl Peddle
Data loss is an expensive reality. It's a hard fact that it happens more
often then users like to admit. A recent study by the accounting firm
McGladrey and Pullen estimates that one out of every 500 data centers will
experience a severe computer disaster this year. As a result, almost half of
those companies will go out of business. At the very least, a data loss
disaster can mean lost income and missed business opportunities.
The other side of data loss is the psychological and emotional turmoil it
can cause to IT managers and business owners. Despair, panic, and the
knowledge that the whole organization might be at risk are involved. In a
sense, that's only fair, since human error is one of the two largest
contributing factors in data loss. Together with mechanical failure, it
accounts for almost 75 per cent of all incidents. (Software corruption,
computer viruses and physical disasters such as fire and water damage make
up the rest.)
|
|
| |
Disk drives today are typically reliable. Human beings, it turns out,
are not. A Strategic Research Corp. study done in 2000 found that
approximately 15 per cent of all unplanned downtime occurred due to
human error. A significant proportion of that happened because users
failed to implement adequate backup procedures, either having trouble
with their backups, or having no backup at all.
How does it happen that skilled, high-level users put their systems -
and their businesses - at such risk?
In many cases, the problem starts long before the precipitating system
error is made, that is, when users place their faith in out-of-box
solutions that may not, in fact, fit their organization's needs. Instead
of assessing their business and technology requirements, then going to
an appropriate engineered solution, even experienced IT professionals at
large corporations will often simply buy what they're sold. In this
case, faith in technology can be an vice instead of a virtue.
But human intervention itself can sometimes be the straw that breaks the
technology's back. When the office of a Venezuelan civil engineering
firm was devastated by floods, its owners sent 17 soaked, mud-coated
disks from three RAID arrays to us in plastic bags. A tough enough
salvage job was made even more complex by the fact that someone had
frozen the drives before shipping them. As the disks thawed, yet more
damage was done. (After eight weeks of painstaking
directory-by-directory recovery, all the data from the remaining fifteen
disks was retrieved.)
Sometimes, the underlying cause of a data loss event is simply shoddy
housekeeping. The more arduous the required backup routine, the less
likely it will be done on a regular basis. A state ambulance monitoring
system suffered a serious disk failure, only to discover that its
automated backup hadn't run for fourteen months. A tape had jammed in
the drive, but no-one had noticed.
When disaster strikes, the normal human reaction is panic. Because the
loss of data signifies critical consequences, even the most competent IT
staff can jump to conclusions, and take inappropriate action. A blank
screen at a critical time can lead to a series of naive decisions, each
one compounding the preceding error. Wrong buttons get pushed, and the
disaster only gets worse. Sometimes the pressure to correct the system
failure speedily can result in an attempt to reconfigure an entire RAID
array. IT specialists are typically not equipped to deal with crisis
modes or data recovery techniques. Just as a good physician is trained
to prolong life, the skilled IT specialist is trained to keep the system
running. When a patient dies, the physician turns to others, such as
nurses or counselors to manage the situation. When significant data loss
occurs, the IT specialist turns to the data recovery professional.
Data recovery specialists are innovative problem solvers. Often, the
application of basic common sense, when no-one else is in any condition
to apply it, is the beginning of the journey towards data recovery. The
data recovery specialist draws on a wealth of experience, married to a
"never say die" attitude, and a comprehensive tool kit of
problem-solving procedures. Successful recovery outcomes hinge on a
combination of innovative logistics, applied problem-solving, and
"technology triage," the process of stabilizing an affected system
quickly, analyzing and treating its wounds, and preparing it for
surgery. The triage process sets priorities, such as targeting which
files are needed first or which are absolutely vital to the functioning
of the business, and establishes whether files might be recovered in
less structured formats (such as text-only), which may be desirable when
time is crucial.
The art and science of professional data recovery can spell the
difference between a business' success or its failure. Before that level
of intervention is required, though, users can take steps to ensure that
the probability of a data loss disaster is minimized.
Basic to any business technology plan is a regular fire-drill procedure.
Back-up routines may be in place, staff may assigned to specific roles,
hardware and software may be configured - but, if the user isn't
completely sure that everything works the way it should, a data loss
event is inevitable. Having adequate, tested, and current backups in
place is critical. A hardware breakdown should not be compounded by
human error - if the malfunctioning drive is critical, the task of
dealing with it should go to a data recovery professional.
Just as data loss disasters are rooted in a combination of mechanical
failure and human error, so, too, the data recovery solution lies in a
creative marriage of the technological and the human. The underlying
philosophy of successful data recovery is that technology is something
to be used by human beings, not something that uses us.
Name: Darryl Peddle
Company: CBL Technologies, Canada
Author description: Darryl Peddle is an Internet Marketing Specialist
with CBL Technologies, one of the largest data recovery specialists in
the world.
Website: http://www.cbltech.com
|
|
