Disaster recovery plans found good - Not Really

Data Recovery Services & Software

If you are searching for a company to either recover your data or sell you some software so that you can retrieve it yourself, our list below is a great place to start.

• ABC Computer Data Recovery, Inc. Specializes in business and personal desktops and laptops, and the recovery of hard drives, CDs and diskettes.
• Accurate Data Recovery Toronto company specializes in offering data recovery services for all kinds of rigid disk, diskette, tape and optical storage media.
• Acodisc Performs recovery and repair on optical storage media such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W, three-inch Mini CD-R, CompactFlash, Smart Media and Sony Memory Sticks.
• ACR Data Recover, Inc. is a full-scale Data Recovery Center and has been offering software and service to corporations and individuals worldwide for nearly a decade.
• ActionFront Data Recovery Labs, Inc. Works on recovering data files and lost information from downed or inaccessible storage devices and network servers.
• ADR Data Recovery Recovers deleted files and data from failed hard drives and crashed computer systems, whether the loss is from a failed hard drive, failed or corrupt software, virus, hacker or other attack.
• ADRC offers office recovery We can rescue your precious files from all sorts of office formats.
• Advanced Computing Solutions, Inc. Hard drive data recovery service, specializing in Laptop, PC, and Server drives. We offer competitive rates, quick turnaround, and excellent customer service.
• Advanced Data Solutions Handles all kinds of media failures as well as computer forensic investigation.
• Aver Drivetronics In the hard drive business since 1979, Aver Drivetronics specializes in repairing damaged data caused by hardware failure, virus contamination, and the dreaded user error. Their engineers rebuild defective hard drive's and hard disk's File Allocation Table, repair hard disk's damaged boot sector, repair hard drive's damaged partition table and offer post data recovery customer support.
• Bermid Technologies Bermid Technologies specializes in rapid data recovery services. They routinely recover data that was thought to be lost forever. Their staff can retain data from almost any platform.
• BitMart.net Specializes in data recovery and utility software comprising Restorer2000, which is a powerful and cost effective undelete and data recovery software program.
• CBL Data Recovery Technologies Offices in the United Kingdom and around the world offering data recovery products and services.
• Cimaware Software Cimaware Software offers Ms Office data recovery software. Free downloads available.
• Click4PC ltd Professional data recovery company based in the UK. Their service includes a free evaluation, No Data No Fee Policy, and a similar day courier service available on request.
• Common Computers Data Recovery Serving customers in North America, they recover data from hard drives, zip disks, CDs and digital media that use Windows 2003, 2000, XP, NT, ME, 98, 95, 3.1, Dos and Linux. Their fees are unlike other companies, in that they charge a low per-hour rate.
• CTE Computer Data Recovery Works on restoring your crashed hard drive, corrupted files or dead disk. They process mainly operating systems and drives comprising IDE, SCSI, and SCSI Wide hard drives, 3.5" floppy disks and zip cartridges.
• DataBank Offers services for salvaging and extracting lost data from corrupted drives and other storage media.
• Data Clinic Canada Inc. Data recovery services for all platforms, operating systems and media types. Located in Ottawa, Canada.
• Data Clinic Ltd Data Clinic offer an UK wide data recovery service from failed hard disks and other computer based media.
• Data Detect This Australian-based firm offers hard drive recovery, laptop data recovery and email recovery services, helping you get your data back.
• Data InSight Ottawa, Ontario Canada company offering a range of services with customers in Canada, USA, and South America.
• Data Recovery AID Industry leaders for data recovery and file repair from hard drive, RAID arrays, Exchange server, CD/DVD, compact flash, floppy/zip disks and virus data recovery.
• Data Recovery and Reconstruction Works with all kinds of damaged drives and corrupted files.
• Data Recovery Centre UK Offers recovery services and features standard listed prices.
• Data Recovery Clinic Recovery solutions, emergency repair, and restoration services of data storage arrays, drives and media.
• Data Recovery Direct Data Recovery Direct is a UK based company specialized in recovering data from diverse media kinds comprising desktop, server and laptop/notebook hard disk drives, damaged mail server files, CDs, DVD's, DOS, Apple Mac OS, Linux and other operating systems.
• Data Recovery Inc. Deals with recovery issues ranging from a minor data loss (files missing) to a full blown systems disaster (all systems down).
• Data Recovery India Data Recovery India is a full service data recovery company based in New Delhi, India, offering low cost, professional data recovery and damaged file recovery services.
• Data Recovery Link Their recovery engineers work on virtually all operating systems and applications.
• Data Recovery Net Offers hard drive data recovery services whilst specializing in recovering datafrom hard disk drives, server drives, RAID, SAN's, NAS's, and more.
• Data Recovery People This division of Adaptive Research & Design Co. specializes in restoring data from all kinds of magnetic media.
• Data Recovery Services With labs in Houston and Dallas, they have engineers dedicated to retrieving data loss due to any system problem.
• Data Recovery South Specializes in data recovery for RAID systems, tape and hard drives throughout the southern U.S. Free evaluation and, if they can't find your data, they don't charge you.
• Data Recovery 911 offers loss retrieval services to government agencies, businesses and the general public.
• DigitalMedix Offers data recovery and computer forensic services to individuals, corporations and government agencies. They execute recoveries in-house, onsite, and even remotely if the client requests it. They work on all operating systems and all media from digital cameras to RAID Arrays.
• Disklabs Data recovery, RAID data recovery and computer forensics services offered by UK based company with offices in UK, NL, NZ, and USA. ISO9001 quality control, manufacturer accredited.
• Disktek Helps recover lost information from any type of system crash or other data loss problem.
• Disk Doctors Lab, Inc. Specializes in working with corrupted data or data loss on hard drives and other media.
• DIY DataRecovery Data recovery programs, comprising a freeware tool, as well as information on data recovery and protection.
• Doctor Disk A pioneer in the Australian data recovery industry and has been offering professional data recovery services since the mid 1980’s. They have expertise regarding storage units, formats and damage scenarios. In all recovery operations they strive to achieve optimal results by taking minimal risks.
• Drive Labs Labs in New Jersey and New York work to repair hard drives of any make.
• Drive Savers Their recovery advisors and engineers retrieve customers' info from crashed and corrupted drives as well as other storage media.
• eMag Solutions Based in the UK and US, eMag offers tape, optical and hard drive data recovery services for all kinds of media and operating systems.
• eProvided eProvided is a Digital Image Recovery and Data Recovery Company that uses advanced recovery methods to recover data from damaged, reformatted, erased, devices that required repairs, chip replacements or anything else in order to recover data
• Excalibur Data Recovery Excalibur's Boston based data recovery technicians have specialized since 1994 in recovering lost data from RAID Arrays, SNAP Servers, desktop and laptop hard drives, DLT and 4mm DAT tape, DVD, CD, JAZ cartridges, Zip disks and floppy disks.
• ExcelApple Specializes in repair and recovery services for damaged or corrupted Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.
• Fields Data Recovery USA Data Recovery solutions worldwide since 1992. Free evaluation on all media comprising hard drives, RAID systems and all optical media.
• Final Data Makes very good data recovery and undelete software available for immediate download through Amazon.com or OfficeMax.com through Digital River. Pre-installing one of their programs is a low cost alternative to using a recovery service and allows mainly people to recover files themselves.
• Flashback Data Firm offers both logistical and clean room recoveries.
• Greenergy Greenergy offers data recovery services in Singapore, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, HongKong, Indonesia and Thailand. Recover damaged, corrupted or failed data storage media, hard disks crash, floppy, tapes and zip cartridges.
• HDDRecovery Australia Australia wide data recovery specialists, consultancy and education services.
• Independent Technology Service Specializes in recovering data and selling disk drives to the corporate world as well as many government organizations, small computer stores and service companies. In addition, they repair mainly hard, floppy and tape drives comprising IBM PS/2 and Mac drives, 8" floppy disk drives and many related models of obsolete peripheral equipment.
• Innovative Technology Concepts Company offers exchange server recovery, disaster support, remote evaluation of your database corruption and information store files.
• IntelliRecovery Global data recovery company who can recovery data from viruses, user error, equipment failures, data corruption, drive crashes and other situations.
• InterData Recovery Services InterData specializes in RAID/Server Recoveries, Mac/PC Recoveries, Laptops and mainly media kinds and operating systems. Located in Margarita.
• Iomega Data Recovery The well-known media storage manufacturer also offers data recovery services. They can recover data from hard disk drives, servers, tape backups, removable media and more.
• JS Data Systems Singapore-based data recovery service.
• Kenedacom Data recovery specialists in St-Laurent, Quebec, Canada.
• Lazarus Data Recovery San Francisco company offers recovery services across almost every platform, operating system, or media type. They also offer on-site service.
• LC Tech Manufactures undelete and recovery software and offers training classes in its Florida training facility.
• Linwei Data Recovery Services Linwei (Taiwan) offers international PC/MAC/RAID/Server hard disk drive repair and data recovery services.
• LostPassword.com A terrific resource for password recovery software and support. They offer immediate downloads of specific software designed to help you recover passwords from all kinds of software comprising Access, Excel, Word, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quicken.
• LuciData LLC LuciData has designed overall solutions which address data recovery, electronic discovery, employee monitoring, and data forensic investigative needs. LuciData’s team represents a blend of technology and legal expertise. A combination you required to meet the challenges of complex electronic discovery.
• MediaRECOVER MediaRECOVER offers data, file, image, and digital photo recovery software and services for hard drives and removable media (smart media, compact flash, secure digital, etc).
• Midwest Data Recovery Their primary focus is data recovery of lost data in a variety of systems and devices throughout the upper Midwest states. They also deliver business continuity and disaster recovery planning and training services to large and medium enterprise through its consulting division.
• MJM Data Recovery Works on extracting data from crashed hard disks, servers, desktops, laptops and other computer based media and from all versions of Windows™, DOS and Macintosh (MacOS) operating systems, throughout the UK and Europe.
• Office Recovery Offers a wide array of recovery products, software and suites of software that are easily and instantly downloadable through a division of Digital River. They allow worldwide ordering.
• Ondata International Data recovery from any operating system and support — Hard disks, damaged or corrupted files, lost or deleted data, zip units and data storage devices.
• Ontrack Data Company specializes in data recovery and utility software and services that help you protect, manage, recover and discover your valuable data. They offer well-known PC utility software programs and services to help prevent critical data loss through a broad line of problem-solving, file-management and productivity utilities. Each software product is designed with a user-friendly interface for quick and easy use and navigation. For simple and convenient do-it-yourself solutions, Ontrack offers a comprehensive variety of software ranging from fully integrated PC maintenance solutions to do-it-yourself data recovery and file repair software and Internet security and hard drive erasing products.
• PAYAM Based in Sydney, Australia, they offer data recovery of hard disks for PCs and notebooks as well as floppy disks. They specialize in IBM and Fujitsu.
• Prosoft Engineering Offers emergency recovery software for both PCs and Macs.
• Recover My Files Data Recovery Software This data recovery software will recover deleted files from hard drive, digital camera card or other storage media. Supports more that 50 different file kinds comprising email, documents, graphics, database files, archives and more.
• RecoverMyPhotos.com Service offers recovery of information from a variety of media comprising mainly cards, disks and other memory units.
• Renew Data Supplies the legal community with services comprising consulting, retrieving and restoring data, analyzing forensic results and expert witness testimony.
• ReWave Hard Drive Recovery ReWave is a worldwide data recovery company that specializes in desktop, laptop and RAID data recovery for any platform or operating system.
• Secure Data Technology Company recovers digital pictures, photographs and data from Smart Media Cards, Compact Flash Cards, cameras and other solid state devices.
• Stellar Information Systems Ltd Makes award winning hard drive data recovery software and utilities or try the demos free. Stellar offers a full solution of file recovery software and lost data restoration programs for Windows (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP), Apple Macintosh, Novell, Linux, Unix operating system and FAT, NTFS,NTFS5,HFS, HFS+, NWFS, EXT2 and EXT3 file systems.
• Technetics Consulting full IT Support and Solution Provider located in Melbourne, Australia.
• Total Recall Offers both in-lab data recovery as well as advanced remote data recovery and computer forensic work to companies and individuals around the world. They have a tremendous record of successful recoveries.
• Tunstall and Tunstall Located in Ottawa, one of Canada's premier technology centers, Tunstall and Tunstall Inc. has provided data recovery services throughout Canada and the U.S. for over a decade.
• Ultratec Limited Company offers an extensive technical knowledge in manufacturer-specific hardware, which enables them to recovery data from mainly any situation.
• Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd. Has nearly 10 years experience performing successful data recoveries. Unistal has served customers across the globe and has developed a wide range of data recovery products and services, offering desktop, laptop, server, email, database and tape recoveries for all media kinds and operating systems - anywhere, anytime. They are headquartered in New Delhi with 100 service labs strategically located across India, Middle East and Europe.
• Vantage Tech New Hampshire company recovers and extracts user inaccessible data from all kinds of disk, tape, and optical computer storage media.
• Vogon International Data Recovery Based in the UK, Germany and the USA, Vogon rescues data from all kinds of disks, tape media, storage device, file, database or email system or operating system. They also have a big forensic and investigative department. WOFTBO Data recovery service for hard disk drives and diverse media on all Windows operating systems.
• 1-888-Recovery.com They work on all of the major drive and storage media manufacturers, and specialize in hard drives, floppy disks, optical media, zip disks, and network attached storage systems.

Disaster recovery plans found lacking

A new report published today says the traditional methods of tape backup and restore for corporate disaster recovery (DR) are obsolete and inadequate.

In the report, entitled "Survival of the Fittest: Disaster Recovery Design for the Data Centre," analyst firm Burton Group said advances in business continuity technologies, heavier reliance on IT systems to meet competitive and e-commerce needs and regulatory legislation are forcing enterprises to reformulate their DR solutions.

Richard Jones, report author, vice president and director of the Burton Group data centre strategies service said natural and manmade disasters have been key in demonstrating the affect of inadequate data centre DR policy.

"A number of events, comprising [hurricane] Katrina, indicate how costly a disruption to business continuity can be for an organization," he said.

The report said, given the rising globalization of business markets, reliance on real-time processes, shrinking IT budgets, explosive data growth and new regulatory requirements, DR plans should be higher than ever on the data centre management agenda. But it points out that, on average, over one third of corporations have not tested their DR plans this year.

One challenge is the fact that, whilst tape capacities have been doubling every two years, hard disk drive (HDD) technology capacities have been rising tenfold every five years.

"Growth of HDD storage coupled with the corresponding consumption of that added storage by expanding digital content has created the backup administrators worst nightmare: backups that do not full in time," writes Jones.

He said disk-to-disk backup and restore solutions, comprising virtual tape libraries, have grown in popularity within the past few years as a method of solving the tape problem.

The report also points out that DR requirements are starting to feature more and more in compliance regulations. It says corporate DR plans are top served by following the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17799 standard for information security published almost two years ago, whilst seeking ISO 27001 certification of that standard for e-commerce and business-to-business (B2B) systems should be a prerequisite for establishing adequate DR business requirements.

Internet technology advances, coupled with the explosion of co-location and hosting centres, also offer additional advantages to businesses seeking to improve DR and business continuity. "But co-location of business services is not for every company, nor for every system within the data centre," added Jones.

Data Protection And Hard Disk Recovery Go Hand In Hand

When it comes to hard disk recovery, the top method is to insure that you will never require it. Besides making frequent backups, the following measures will keep your system running smoothly.

• Antivirus Protection New viruses are invented every day, and system security is a concern for every business. Malicious software can damage your system to the point where it will not even boot up. The latest versions of Windows are the favorite targets of malicious programs such as spyware and viruses, and it is helpful to use 2 or more antivirus/anti-spyware programs to prevent destruction or theft of your data.
• Spyware Scanner The clues that spyware is on a computer comprise a barrage of pop-up ads, a hijacked browser,a sudden or even repeated change of your computer's Internet home page, the appearance of a new toolbar or new screen icons, malfunctioning keys, random error messages, and mainly of all, sluggish computer performance. Any sytem with access to the internet is prone to this problem, but there is software to block spyware installation. In addition, build sure all employees using the office network do not download from unknown sites, and set your internet browser security at "Medium" or higher. Install individual firewalls to prevent uninvited users from accessing your network. A firewall blocks unauthorized access to your computer and will alert you if spyware already on your computer is sending information out. Purchase an anti-spyware program from a vendor you know and trust. Set it to read on a regular basis, at least weekly and if possible each time you run your computer. Delete any programs the anti-spyware program detects on your computer.
• Computer Maintenance The top way to avoid having to use file recovery software is to be sure that no corrupt data is stored on your computer. Companies like Norton sell disk optimization programs keep your network running at top speed, correct problem files and maximize the available space on your hard disk. Run disk optimization and anti-virus programs at least once a week.
• Hard Disk Recovery There are disk recovery applications specifically geared to recovering files of a certain format, like graphics files as opposed to word document files, and there are general-purpose programs to hunt for any type of misplaced file regardless of the format. There is no program on the market that can guarantee recovery of every lost file, but you are able to increase your chances for recovery by selecting the appropriate program for the file you are trying to save.
Do-it-yourself programs are a lot less expensive than hiring a data retrieval company that specializes in information recovery, and to save money you should at least attempt to utilize of this type of program before calling a professional.
In addition to recovering deleted files, there exists information recovery programs that can restore files after you have formatted the drive, after a power failure, natural disaster, or even files damaged by a computer virus.
• RAID RAID is short for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, a category of disk drives that employ 2 or even several drives in combination to improve data storage fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are frequently installed on servers but can also run on individual computers. Because of the duplication of data, it is possible to recover files from one or another disk when the required arises.
As you might expect, RAID disk repair is quite a complicated process. However it is one of the mainly foolproof methods of data storage because the RAID architecture strategically distributes information randomly across the array. However, this sort of architecture demands the services of a recovery professional.