Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Firmware Failures:

You may note problems with your Seagate Barracuda  7200.11 hard drive  family model hard drive. The reported problem has shown specific Seagate hard drive  failures reporting a  0 GB size or not show up in BIOS during a post. This means your data stored on your failed Seagate hard drive will not be accessible until the Seagate hard drive failure is “repaired”.

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 firmware failure is typically a result of critical firmware modules that have become damaged. The table below shows the affected Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 model that may be affected.

 Table: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Firmware Failures.

If your Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive is physically failing, then the critical firmware region of the hard drive may not be accessible because the sectors where the firmware is stored has developed damaged sectors. When this happens, the hard drive may not be accessed since the firmware zones are corrupted or damaged.

The end result, the Seagate hard drive will not be recognized in BIOS and your computer will not recognize your failed Seagate hard drive in any type of Device Manager or  utility.

There are several references describing how to access a failed Seagate 7200.11 hard drive. One method suggests updating the corrupted Seagate firmware.  Another method suggests manually repairing the corrupted Seagate hard drives via HyperTerminal.

Attempting to repair the corrupted Seagate firmware modules via HyperTerminal when the Seagate hard drives have significant damaged sectors in the firmware zone will NOT work.

The scope of this type of repair is well beyond the ability of most individuals attempting to do their own Seagate data recovery: This is because the complexity of this type of  Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 failure involves a special technique whereby the corrupted firmware must be bypassed.

If your data is critical, then writing to your failed hard drive can be risky and can result in corrupted data and or permanent data loss. So take all necessary precautions before you experiment with your failed Seagate Hard Drive.

In several cases, some suggested repairs do work, and your data is recoverable, but there are always risks to consider before you attempt your own Seagate data recovery.

Before you attempt your own Seagate data recovery:

1 – Find out if your hard drive model and firmware are affected.

2 – Determine if your hard drive has physical damage to the sectors where the firmware is being stored.

3- Determine if your hard drive is clicking.

4- Establish if your hard drive motor is spinning.

5- Determine the value of your data and ascertain if you are willing to Risk your  data by attempting solutions that you are not familiar with if you are not a data recovery expert.

If your hard drive is clicking, or your hard drive motor does not spin up, or you have bad sectors in critical hard drive areas, then you need to consider using a data recovery professional. If you data is critical and you need help, you can always contact us via email or phone.

We welcome your feedback and posts. If you have other interesting topics to discuss, please let us know.

Buffalo Terastation – NAS & RAID Recovery

Buffalo Technology, a manufacturer of RAID, NAS, and other storage devices, are now available at affordable prices. As a result, you may find a Buffalo RAID or NAS devices in your office or attached to your home computer.

Using a Buffalo Technology RAID or NAS device is putting your data one step closer to having your critical business and or personal information protected.

Don’t get too comfortable just yet, as a hard drive failure, power surge, or a user error can result in you needing to contact a data recovery company and request information on a Buffalo NAS or Buffalo RAID data recovery service.

Depending on the Buffalo RAID or NAS failure, your files and data stored on your NAS or RAID storage device, may become inaccessible. These type of RAID or NAS data recovery’s tend to be quite time intensive, complicated and expensive.

The RAID 0, RAID JBOD or RAID 5 failure is challenging because your failed RAID data is scattered over 2 or more hard drives that were configured with RAID using your Buffalo RAID or Buffalo NAS device. In these cases, your data is stored as 0’s and 1’s on your hard drive, not as files and folders as you may expect. Therefore, for the RAID recovery or NAS recovery to be successful, you must be able to recombine almost all the 0’s and 1’s (bytes) just as they were before your Buffalo RAID or Buffalo NAS device failed.

With a good maintenance and backup plan, most RAID and NAS failures typically only require you to rebuild your failed Buffalo RAID or Buffalo NAS device by installing new hard drives. This is assuming no other electrical components failed and your Buffalo Terastation has not been damaged.

Overview – How to Perform a Buffalo Data Recovery:

How to Perform a Buffalo NAS Data Recovery – Guideline.

1-  Repair any physically damaged Buffalo RAID hard drives. *

2-  Make two sets of forensic images (bit by bit) of all the Buffalo RAID drives onto low level formatted hard drives.

3-  Store one set of imaged hard drives in a secure location.

4- Using the second set of hard drive images, calculate the Strip Size and Parity of the RAID array.

5- Once the strip size is calculated,  “Destrip” the second set of forensic images onto a RAID server or a large

capacity hard drive.

Stay tuned, we will post more details on Parity and Strip size ASAP.

6-  Now you can use your data recovery utilities to recombine the 0’s and 1’s into files and save them on your server.

7- Test the files for functionality to ensure they are working. If they are not working properly, then you will need to manually edit the data files and test them again.

8- When you are done with your Buffalo NAS Recovery, backup your recovered data onto a second hard drive. This will ensure that all your hard work in preparing your own Buffalo NAS data recovery does  not “vaporize” as a result of an accident or unforeseen event.

Special Buffalo Data Recovery Precautions:

Before you start your own Buffalo NAS Data Recovery – Consider this:

Any hard drive images you prepare must use write protection on the source drives. That means if you slave your RAID hard drives to your  computer, without using any hardware write protection hardware, you are destroying your data even before you start. Also know the beginning part of the failed RAID drives has information that is needed to successfully perform your Buffalo RAID or NAS Data Recovery.

* If you are not comfortable with physically repairing failed RAID  hard drives, then you should not attempt your own Buffalo RAID data Recovery.

If you are not able to get all of your RAID hard drives imaged, then your Buffalo RAID data recovery will not be successful and your files will not work or be repairable.

 We welcome your feedback and posts. If you have any interesting data recovery topics to discuss, please let us know.

read / write heads on platter

Since this is the most serious type of  RAID server failure or computer failure, we will discuss this first. Understanding your RAID failure or computer failure early on is important because trying to reboot your failed RAID server or failed computer will only make your situation worse. The rebooting can result in permanent data loss if the hard drives get scored or scratched by the read/write heads when you attempt to perform your RAID Server or computer reboot.

Depending on your server configuration, when this type of hard drive failure occurs, you may or may not be able to boot up your failed RAID Server. With regard to most computers, your computer will mostly likely not boot up or POST.

The most serious type of RAID server failure or Computer Failures is a “head crash”. This occurs when the "read/write  heads" inside your hard drive physically touch the hard drive platters. The platters, an internal hard drive storage surface, is where your data is being stored and read from. Depending on the severity of the hard drive failure, you may hear a clicking hard drive sound, or a grinding noise coming from your failed hard drive.

If this occurs, do not reboot your RAID server or computer, or try to access your failed hard drive/s. Doing so will reduce the possibility of recovering data and increase the chances that your data will get permanently destroyed. The following links may also help you better understand about how to handle your computer failure.

http://www.restoremydata.com/data-recovery-help.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/data-recovery-information.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/server-recovery-information.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/raid-recovery-help.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/exchange-recovery-support.php

Other reasons why your RAID server or computer failed to boot:

1. Your RAID server when offline.
2. Your RAID server or hard drive got hit by an electrical surge or sag.
3. Your computer’s hard drive got hit by an electrical surge or sag.
4. A virus attacked your operating system.
5. The power supply to your RAID server or computer is faulty.
6. Your motherboard and or hard drive controller is malfunctioning.
7. A critical computer hardware component has failed.
8. Your memory (RAM) has failed and your computer or server shows a memory dump and blue screens (BSoD).
9. The Raid server or computer’s power supply is dead or not working properly.
10. An application loaded is not compatible with your operating system.
11. A hard drive cable got loose so the hard drive can not being accessed.
12. A user accidentally or intentionally damaged your operating system.
13. You rebooted your server or computer and left a non bootable key or media device in your server or computer.
14. Your computer or server registry has been corrupted.
15. A buffer overflow resulted because a program bug, using badly written software, overwrote a portion of your program code.

What can you do when your RAID server fails or your computer will not boot?

When your RAID server fails or your computer will not boot, you may follow some of the steps shown below.

But FIRST: Protect your DATA & Don’t PANIC.

Please note, since each RAID server failure or computer failure is unique, your situation may require an alternative strategy.

1. Turn your RAID server or computer off, if it is safe to do so.
2. If you do not have a plan of attack, now is the time to make one.
3. Take a few minutes and figure out how important is your data.
4. If you have an IT staff or computer consultant, you may consider asking them for help.
5. If your staff is not experienced in data recovery or hard drive failure, then contact RMD and we can offer you some viable solutions.

On a final note…

Whatever you do, please make sure you do not compromise your data or try solutions that you are not familiar with. Doing so could make the difference between a successful RAID data recovery and a successful computer data recovery.

Often, there are no do overs if things don't work out as you expected them to.

So plan your steps carefully.

RAID Server Failure:

A RAID server failure can take place for many reasons. Most RAID server failures are typically attributed to a logical RAID server failure.  However, a physical RAID server failure can also cause a logical RAID server failure or a failure of a NAS or SAN storage device.

Most of the RAID data recoveries we have seen are attributed to a logical RAID server failure.  The best solution to avoid needing a RAID data recovery or server data recovery service is to have an excellent hardware and software maintenance plan in place.

A RAID server failure can be caused for many reasons.  We have listed some RAID server failures below and how they may occur.  Our findings are based on communication with potential clients requesting information on RAID data recovery services and questions about how to address their RAID failure.

How to Keep your RAID Server, NAS or SAN storage device Safe:

• Backup… Backup… Backup.
• Replace older hard drives every 2 to three years or as needed.
• Keep your server virus software up to date.
• Test your UPS battery and device.
• Perform routine server maintenance.
• Check your Server Operating system log.
• Check your backup logs.

Logical RAID Server Failure causes:

• You Re-initialized RAID array when there is still a RAID hard drive failure.
• A virus attack damaged the RAID striping.
• The RAID partition was formatted.
• A RAID partition is missing or went offline.
• RAID configuration lost or got corrupted.
• A RAID Software corruption occurred.
• You upgraded your server operating system.
• Server registry corrupted.
• Someone accidentally deleted server operating system files.
• A bad command was executed or written to your Linux server.

Hardware RAID Server Failures / Physical RAID Server Failures:

• The RAID controller card is failing.
• The server motherboard or other key component failed.
• Although rare, more than one hard drive failed at the same time.
• A loose controller cable.
• A hard drive failed and then a second drive failed.
• There was a hardware change to your server causing a RAID hardware incompatibility.
• A RAID server was physically damaged by water.

Server Power Issues  + Other RAID Server Failures :

• An unstable electrical anomaly damaged the RAID Server, NAS or SAN device.
• Your UPS battery is bad and your server had a power issue.

Flash Memory Recovery

 

 Flash Memory Recovery:

 Flash memory is a storage media where your data is stored on a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.

The primary applications for flash memory are: memory cards, USB flash drives, iPhones, iPods, pda’s, solid state hard drives along with all types of associated electronic devices. 

 We have had many people asking us about flash drive recoveries, so we thought it would be a good idea to discuss it in a way that most people can relate to when their flash media fails.  

 Firstly, a flash drive does not depend on any moving parts as does a hard drive.

 People typically assume their flash media will always work. They expect their digital photos and files to always be available when they store their data on their flash media or solid state drive. BUT… that is not always the case. Here are some of the issues you can run into when you are using flash media or any solid state media device.

 The main storage controller chip (processor) gets damaged and the media is no longer accessible by any computer or hardware device.

 The memory chip that physically holds your files, data and pictures no longer works. You find your data is not accessible when connecting your flash media to a computer, camera, phone, etc.

SD Card Failures – CF Card Failures – Thumb Drive Failures:

Some flash media failures occur when static electricity damages the PCB of the storage media. Other failures could be a result of cracking the flash media accidentally. We have seen USB drives fail because the ends have been broken off when the user accidentally hit the flash media device while the USB portion was still connected to a host computer. Surprisingly, even SD cards, CF ( Compact Flash) XD or other flash media became damaged or the casing was cracked when they were inserted into a camera, or jammed when the user inserted the media in a kiosk card reader in an attempt to print their digital photos from their SD, CF, XD or other digital device.

One key factor most users seem to forget…. a user believes they can repeatedly use their flash media over and over again for prolonged times and their data will always be accessible. The reality is, the flash media is not permanent. It will fail as it has a limited number of reads/writes. Flash memory is built with this in mind, however, the problem of unlimited read/writes have not yet been achieved and we doubt it can ever become a reality.

 Don’t Run Defragmenter:

It's never a good idea to run scan disk or defragmenter on a flash drive.  Defragmenting reduces the life time of the flash media because this process means the flash media will implement many reads/writes to the solid state media. As stated earlier, we know flash media has a limited number of read/write cycles before the media is classified “non functional”. What that means to you is…you data can never be recovered. The amount of read/writes is a function of the type of media you are using to store your data and on the ability for technology to improve over time.

 Flash Media Failures – Genuine Flash Media.

 Unfortunately, we have seen flash media cards that were damaged and not genuine.

 Some flash media failures have occurred because the fake flash media was manufactured with inferior internal chips or quality. In the past, we have seen SD flash media cards that have failed and looked as if they were manufactured by San Disk, but in fact they were not. 

Know your source and vendor.  Ask yourself, when you are buying or comparing flash media prices…why is the flash media price from one source so much cheaper than everyone else? Other hints… Look and see if the logo and colors on your flash media device match the “genuine” flash media products.  Make note where the flash media is being shipping from. It is true, sometimes, it is hard to differentiate the “quality products” from the fake copies. 

If you know your buying a “fake” then you need to ask yourself another very importnatn question…  When I go on vacation or taking special event pictures, do I want my memory card to work without any issues, or do I want to save a little money on getting a "cheap" flash memory card and take my chances.

 Recognizing Flash Media Failures: 

There can be bad media on the flash device and the product will report a 0 GB size or the flash media will hang up a computer when you plug it in.

Rebooting to resolve the problem typically will not help. The computer will lock up and prevent you from connecting to your files and data.

The USB connectors from the USB flash drive was damaged because the user  inserted the thumb drive upside down or on an angle and it was inserted quickly and with force..

If you try using your flash media on another computer, and it still does not work, don’t do anything else. At that time you already verified the flash media was bad and nothing was wrong with your computer.

The flash media file system can be infected by a virus or media where the file system is stored has corrupted leaving the flash media card inaccessible.

For more information and hints on Flash media Failures, note the links below:

http://www.restoremydata.com/digital-picture-recovery.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/digital-sd-recovery-help.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/digital-photo-recovery-tips.php

Your comments and posts are always welcome.

 Exchange Email Data Recovery:

Exchange Email Recovery:

 Our findings indicate that most Exchange Email Servers fail because:

•  An improper shutdown occurred due to faulty UPS or human error.
•  A Virus attacked the exchange Email server.
•  A partition table got corrupted (Logical Hard Drive Failure).
•  A Physical hard drive failure occurred.
•  The Jet engine failed and was found when the Exchange Email Server generated an error message.
•  The RAID controller card has failed.
•  A critical file size was reported as a wrong size. 
• A hard drive went offline because when it developed bad sectors in a critical area.
•  The Exchange Email Server database file was deleted or restored with a previously corrupted backup.
•  Your Exchange Email software was upgraded to a newer version and your EDB, or STM files got corrupted during the Exchange Email Software upgrade. 
• A Boot failure prevented the Exchange Email Server from posting.

Before you attempt your own Exchange Email Data Recovery.  Always protect your Exchange Server EDB or STM files before you do anything.  For more information call or email RMD. Check our Exchange Email error page and our About Us page for more details.

http://www.restoremydata.com/exchange-recovery-errors.php

http://www.restoremydata.com/resources/about/

http://www.restoremydata.com/contact-us.php

More on Exchange Email Recovery coming Soon.

Not sure what to do…THEN DON'T DO ANYTHING Yet!

We have had many calls with regard to the East Coast Flooding that RMD thought we should share our knowledge on what TO DO and what NOT TO DO if your hard drive gets wet, soaked or dirty after a hurricane or major flood.

What Happens When Hard Drives Get Flooded or Wet?

Here are the major challenges that a user will experience when a hard drive is damaged by water, dirt or any foreign matter.

Firstly, a main issue is that water has many dissolved salts present in it: Salts dissolved in water will vary from state to state, and also by locality. For example, water form New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Virginia or any other state will vary in salt composition. The location where your hard drive got wet or flooeded dictates what type of salts will crystallize on your hard drive when your wet hard drive is left to dry. This means the data recovery process on hard drives will vary based on the type of salts found on your flooded or wet hard drive.

Salt Deposits on Hard Drives after Flooding:

Depending on your location, as the water evaporates from your flooded hard drive, the dissolved salts begin to concentrate and leave crystalline deposits or films on the surfaces of the wet hard drive platters, motor, hard drive heads and the head assembly. If you turn the wet hard drive on after the hard drives has been left to dry, then the salts will make contact with the heads/magnets and most likely scratch or damage the platters permanently, thus making your hard drive non recoverable.

If dirt or any foreign matter is mixed with the water and contaminates your hard drive, and you proceed to dry your hard drive and turn your hard drive on, then you are essentially left with no alternatives. You data will NOT be recoverable.

Salts on a Hard Drives Printed Circuit Board – (PCB).

Distilled or deionized water are not good electrical conductors. Many dissolved salts in water tend to be good to moderate electrical conductors. Salt water (Na Cl – Sodium Chloride) is an excellent electrical conductor. Therefore, we must always remember that when your hard drive gets wet from a flood it can potentially short out your hard drives' PCB. This means a once simple wet PCB can essentially result in a damaged hard drive heads.

Cleaning Flooded Hard Drives:

Once this process is completed, RMD evaluates the condition of the hard drive surface and the internal hard drive components with a high powered microscope to determine if the wet contaminated hard drive needs additional cleaning or if it is ready to be repaired, powered on to run diagnostics and prepare to initiate the data recovery imaging process.

Our advice is as follows:

If your hard drive got wet or flooded, then you should leave it wet. Place your wet hard drive in a sealed baggie or plastic bag and send it to RMD in water ASAP. The reason for this is the hard drive will not dry out, therefore the salts can not crystallize out and deposit onto the hard drive platters or the other internal hard drive components. RMD can then apply their propriety hard drive data recovery process to remove crystallized salts and foreign matter from the hard drive heads, magnets, motor and platters.

Not sure what to do…THEN DON'T DO ANYTHING!

Call RMD FIRST, we will at least make sure you don't risk or further damage your wet or flooded hard drive.

RMD can be reached @ 1-877-888-9990.

Coming Soon. Your comments are welcome. Post one.