From: renuka warriar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [AI] 'I want my data back' It trends
To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in
Date: Thursday, 25 September, 2008, 7:43 AM
Date:25/09/2008 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/seta/2008/09/25/stories/2008092551411400.htm
Sci Tech
IT TRENDS
'I want my data back' It trends
- Photo: Special Arrangement
Recovery measures: Working on a damaged hard disk in
Stellar's Class 100 Clean Room in Gurgaon.
Just over a year ago, the devastating cyclone
'Gonu' struck the coast of Oman, bringing torrential
waters into its capital, Muscat, and flooding many computer
installations. For weeks after that episode, it was
round-the-clock work, in a quiet corner of Gurgaon's
Sector 33, where engineers grappled with the challenge
of recovering precious corporate data from dozens of water
damaged hard disk drives, that had been shipped from Oman,
to the 'Class 10 0' ultra clean lab
rooms of Stellar Information Systems, one of the best known
names in the understated, global business of data safety and
recovery (
www.stellarinfo.com).
The last edition of this column (The Hindu, September 11,
2008) reviewed the broad data recovery challenges for the
enterprise sector. This edition completes
the picture with a look at how this is actually done.
As enterprise storage needs crash through the terabyte
ceiling into petabytes, data recovery has emerged as a key
corporate concern (a petabyte is 1024
terabytes. A terabyte is 1024 gigabytes.
A gigabyte is 1024 megabytes. And a megabyte is just over a
million bytes of information).
But since so much of the data that needs to be recovered is
priceless - and highly sensitive - those who specialize in
this line of service, prefer to maintain
a low profile: business grows as word-of-mouth enhances
their reputation for discreet and confidential recovery
services.
Rare privilege
It was therefore a rare privilege to visit Stellar's
facility and walk (suitably clothed) through India's
largest (and the second-largest in Asia, after
Korea) Clean Room, rated Class 100 - that means, a room
designed to never allow more than 100 particles of 0.5
microns or larger, per cubic foot of air.
Such an ultra clean environment is necessary, before one
can even begin trying to recover data from damaged disks
because it involves completely dis-assembling
the hard drive and exposing the magnetic recording surface:
even a speck of dust can destroy a stored sector of files.
Stellar is able to accept an extremely wide range of hard
disk brands and types, many going back decades, because it
maintains a large library of such original
disks.
In most cases, where data recovery through purely software
methods has not been possible, the failed component is among
the many electromechanical components
in the drive and not the recording surface (if it were the
latter, data recovery would be well nigh impossible).
Engineers replace the damaged parts in the drive offered
for recovery, with parts from Stellar's reference units,
and then try to run the unit.
Skilled, time consuming
If that works, the data is dumped on another computer and a
copy furnished to the customer on another medium like a DVD.
Such physical repair and recovery is a skilled and time
consuming process, attempted only if software methods
don't work: Stellar's network extends across
137 countries and dozens of centres where customers send
their damaged drives.
They can also attempt software recovery on their own using
some of the tools offered by Stellar for desktop and laptop
recovery; file repair; encrypted
media or password recovery. Sending the physical drive to
Gurgaon is the last resort.
Once received, it is determined if recovery is possible -
and if the answer is 'yes' the process is usually
completed within a few days: every job is 'top
priority' for its originator: the records of a
bank's savings accounts; the password directory of a
large enterprise; a data base of engineering drawings
created after months of work.
"It's all a matter of trust," says
Stellar's Chief Executive, Sunil Chandna, "since we
entered the data recovery business 15 years ago, we have
over a lakh
customers."
Terabyte a reality
What about the rest of us, with our home and small office
PCs? Our data is growing too, and one terabyte in the home
is now a reality.
In recent weeks, Stellar has launched a few consumer
products, 'Phoenix Photo Recovery', to get back
precious photos in almost all formats, inadvertently
erased from digital camera or phone media; 'Black
Cat', is a combined anti-virus and data recovery tool
for formatted drives, deleted partitions and malfunctioning
software.
The obverse of data recovery is data removal: sanitising a
drive completely of all one's files and data before
disposing it or giving it to another user.
Stellar's 'Disk Wipe' solution helps in the
permanent removal of data from a hard disk.
When you delete a file on your PC, even when you empty the
recycle bin, the information is not completely erased,
merely shifted to a different, inaccessible
part of the hard disk. This is both good news and bad news,
depending on your point of view - and software tools can
usually reverse the process. But today's
data recovery technology as practised by companies like
Stellar, goes far beyond this... into the very innards of
the storage medium, trying to administer
a digital 'kiss of life' to data that is almost
dead.
ANAND PARTHASARATHY
Thanks to all for making the convention successful; thanks
also to Blind Person's Association for the whole hearted
support.
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